We now live in a world where symphonies drive how we work, feel, and even relate to one another. For that matter, musical artists are trying to find the best way to reach out to their fans.
However, the undying need to serve people who are loyal to them comes at a heart-wrenching price; frequent issues regarding royalties and piracy. According to a recent report, the U.S. music economy counts over $10B of digital output loss to theft.
Many times, the artists get shortchanged for the hard work they put in composing music. Beneficiaries end up being other groups of people, such as music pirates. For musicians and other artists, the rise of Non-Fungible Tokens has been nothing but music to their ears.
Unique metadata and source codes mean that a piece of art is traceable to its legitimate owner, in this case, music. It is easier for the artist to trace how their music is used, with ownership rights ensuring they earn from them.
Several DeFi platforms have emerged, promising to overhaul the music industry using features that aid artists via NFTs. Musicians and producers have, in turn, been going the NFT way in droves. Read on to find out why and how the features improve musicians’ experiences.
Much like the crypto world’s branding as a disruptive technology, NFTs are promising to overhaul the music industry in a major way. They come with several positive services, which streamlines the whole process of marketing one’s music. They include;
One of the primary challenges of any music artist out there is publishing their music. Yet, it is perhaps an essential step to any artist after the song has been composed. The process is not so straightforward, with the technical aspects of performance royalties being foreign to many artists.
To solve this issue, DeFi platforms offer partnerships with royalty owners all over the world. By issuing musicians with NFTs for their songs, ownership of music can be traced to its creator. It guarantees the rights to royalties of new songs and albums to the NFT creators or owners, guaranteeing them earnings.
Through such platforms, a writer can sign up with a publisher or producer and kickstart their career. It saves them the hustle of scouring all over for good producers.
On offers are opportunities to publishers since they get to connect with artists. Newbie publishers can also get to learn how to create a publishing entity.
Musicians have increasingly grown interested in NFT platforms thanks to the important information, especially regarding royalties. In some music leaning NFT platforms, the data is even tailored to reflect region-specific performance royalties requirements. Specifics like the artist’s share of the royalties, the publisher’s share and how either can collect or access the shares.
Critical information about Record Producers is also made available on several of these platforms. For instance, artists can find the figure a specific record producer charges on average. The artist gets the information on making the payment, which may be as advances or royalties as determined by the producer’s experience, genre, the specific song or album etc. They also get to know just how involved the producer is in the production process.
Artists should be able to enjoy outstanding opportunities to make earnings on their music. Therefore, it is imperative that they find a platform that secures their earnings while minimizing bitter losses from music piracy.
For starters, an artist may sell some or, at times, all of their music’s royalties to the platform. That is a good income-earning option.
There are several payment options available, tailored to suit clients’ preferences. One could settle on a flat fee option, pay by the hour agreement or receive income as per the number of recordings done by the artist.
To enable the re-invention of the music industry, there are different types of NFT tokens and features on such platforms. Each token is tailored to perform a specific role, working in different ways. The said tokens are;
The Song-NFTs are music catalogue-backed tokens. They are the primary enablers of royalty earnings for all artists subscribed to the platform.
They utilize the non-fungibility role of NFTs to tie the ownership of the backed music piece to the platform via such ownership. The rights to earning performance royalties to the backed music are therefore restricted to the platform.
Utility tokens are the most numerous digital assets on all DeFi platforms that support Song-NFTs. They also double as a platform’s native token.
Such coins play the basic role of enabling all processes within the platform. Utility tokens are integrated into the blockchain’s protocol, providing access to all the services offered by the NFT platform.
There are several NFT marketplaces for various artistic works, including music, dance choreography, paintings and art. Nonetheless, choosing the right kind of platform can be a headache for most, so an artist needs to take a step back and tread wisely.
Band Royalty is a good example of an NFT marketplace where artists can actually save themselves from the terrors that are digital theft. Users will have direct access to music royalties, stake their Band NFTs and access other DeFi services on the marketplace. All the while, they still get to enjoy listening to their favourite music. Users will be able to make music NFTs get ownership rights on songs on both the Ethereum and Polygon/Matic blockchains.
It is gearing up for a public launch, which should happen very soon. Currently, developers are proceeding with the final testing for the beta launch.
The NFT world is rapidly expanding and evolving, with Game-NFTs and Song-NFTs being some of the outcomes. Song-NFTs are different from the average NFTs that have been fuelling the NFT craze. Most of their cousins are either backed by art pieces or, many times, nothing at all.
Song-NFTs, on the other hand, act as the digital representation of the music people listen to. Such platforms offer a host of beneficial services to artists and music producers alike. The promise of a better and fair tomorrow for musicians could soon be a reality.
Tanveer Zafar is a independent crypto journalist. He is passionate in covering topics about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Markets. He has five years of writing experience in these areas of interest. You can find his pieces featured on FXStreet, Benzinga, Investing and many more finance magazines. Tanveer has done his BS in Software Engineering at GC University. Previously, he has worked as a banker.