Graphic by Logan Craig
There’s a new sector in NFTs emerging. One that poses the biggest potential for mainstream adoption yet.
Music NFTs are collectible audio files.
They give fans the opportunity to collect the songs they love, now with digital scarcity thanks to web3.
Collecting music is not new, but collecting music online is.
In the same way that we collect vinyl, burn CDs or make playlists, Music NFTs offer a new medium to curate your taste with exposure to the underlying creative work and its creator. In the traditional world, music collectibles represent north of a $5B market. In the digital world, the sky's the limit.
In this article, we’ll explore the rising trend in Music NFTs, and take a closer look at this new model for the next generation of independent artists.
Music NFTs are a new monetization model for artists.
At its core, Music NFTs are simply digital collectibles. They carry no inherent ownership rights and merely exist as an asset that can be bought and sold by a collector.
In a world largely dominated by streaming and touring, Music NFTs offer artists leverage by building a community of superfans eager to collect scarce digital representations of the work.
There are platforms like Royal exploring Music NFTs with royalty rights, but for this article, we’ll strictly focus on Music NFTs as collectibles.
Collectibles offer the most direct and simple monetization mechanism given the lack of regulatory hurdles incurred when the artists own 100% of their rights.
For those unfamiliar, traditional streaming platforms like Spotify pay ~$3,700 per million streams.
In contrast, Music NFTs are selling for thousands of dollars - posing a strong argument that building community in web3 is more advantageous than playing the numbers game on Spotify.
While Music NFT sales can be largely dependent on the macro state of crypto, the benefits of a dedicated collector base of superfans holds true in any market condition. It is the direct monetization model to tap into an artist’s 100 true fans.