We may have seen NFT in the form of digital visual arts which are being sold at an exorbitant price. Some people joined the market out of curiosity, and some suspected it as a phenomenal buzzword, however, we cannot deny the expansion and exponential growth of the new technology and its applications to several industries, especially here I want to talk about an industry that is still at the embryo stage to the application but full of potential, which is music.
Music is always our fundamental and indispensable kind of entertainment consumption that affects all aspects of life from identity expression, productivity, expenditure, and even outlook on life. In the US, it contributes $170 billion to the GDP every year and provides 2.5 million jobs in all music activities like live concerts, streaming, marketing, movie soundtracks, and so on. In terms of cultural and social impacts, music is a means for humans to express their emotions and feelings and to understand and communicate across the world without language barriers.
Alongside the rise of Internet 2.0 in the past ten years, streaming platforms like Itunes and Spotify are successful in the industry, becoming a modern lifestyle and substituting the traditional methods to listen to music like buying CDs and Vinyl. However, regardless of how open the industry is nowadays, gatekeepers are still a big problem for musicians to freely thrive with their full creativity.
Understanding the problem and being up to date with the latest technology, companies like Yellow Hearts found a way to address these issues and possibly bring extra benefits to the original artsists when blockchain can work really well with protecting artists’ copyrights.
Ideally, instead of being limited and dependent on agencies and companies, the artists have all the creative freedom to produce and release any art form that they aspire to do. Economically speaking, they can also sell music directly to the buyers, a.k.a their fans, and eliminate the middlemen from their music. The problem of the music industry is that the profit firstly goes all to the agencies’ pocket and the artists get paid by the companies on a monthly basis or depending on the company’s policy, nonetheless, most of the time the artists are in a disadvantaged situation.
“Whenever you decide to invest in an NFT, normally you end up gaining value from it, both symbolic or cultural value, but also monetary value,” says McCulloch. “The fact that music is picking up on this is great because for many decades, there have been horrible stories of artists getting exploited. Fans are, in this instance, turned into shareholders, they own a stake in their favorite artists, and they stand to gain value from it. It really turns the narrative of consumerism on its head.”
References:
Neontools. (2022, August 23). 4 reasons why music and nfts go well together – neontools – community. Neontools. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://community.neontools.io/music-nfts/
New report: How music powers the American economy. RIAA. (2021, February 9). Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.riaa.com/new-report-how-music-powers-the-american-economy
NFT Art and music: Blockchain Music Use Cases. Gemini. (2021, December 23). Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://www.gemini.com/cryptopedia/nft-crypto-blockchain-music-industry#section-the-nft-marketplace-still-young-but-growing
Smith-Muller, T. (2022, April 22). Music nfts: What you need to know as a musician and fan. Berklee Online Take Note. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://online.berklee.edu/takenote/music-nfts-what-you-need-to-know-as-a-musician-and-fan/
Why collecting music nfts beats collecting physical vinyl records. Mirror. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://mirror.xyz/spinz808.eth/oOVqEocgG7TACoOG8SPP1HohrWHL9laCyIm5-iq2-6A
This gives an interesting twist on the NFTs we know now, thank you for sharing! I am very curious how the dynamic between musicians and listeners will change if fans are stakeholders and purchase directly from musicians.