🌍 Web3 x Music Landscape for Dummies
Unless you have been hiding under the rock for the last few years, you should probably have heard of NFTs and the record-breaking sales that became historical milestones for the industry. Music NFTs are being shilled by many crypto KOLs as the next buzzword, and as a music lover, you would probably like to start your foray into the web3 music sphere, but still remain quite uncertain where to begin with.
Here, we would like to provide a go-to guide and a curated landscape of the Web3 x Music industry for dummies. (We also left the links to the projects mentioned in the image at the end of this article!) Hope this helps all the lost souls out there. 🙏😉
💪 Roll Up Your Sleeves and Pick Up Your Tools!
Wallets = Web3 ID + fund management + profile
Before digging into DApps, we would like to recommend that you create and set up your crypto wallets. In the web3 world, your wallet address acts as your ID and bank account. And you will need a wallet to sign for the transactions and interactions you make with the DApps, so if you don’t have one yet, please start with Metamask. It is the most popular wallet for Ethereum-based applications, and by adding custom networks, you will be also able to navigate through other chains, including Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, and Fantom. Solana and Flow are also popular and leading players in the NFT space, so please get Phantom and Blocto as well.
I would like to mention Keplr too, a wallet for Cosmos chain with great UI/UX. While having been quite underperforming in the global NFT craze, the Cosmos ecosystem is growing and evolving at a rapid pace, establishing itself as one of the major players in the crypto industry. Stargaze, a Cosmos-based NFT launchpad that has been launched recently, is drawing much attention from the Cosmos users that have been psyched up for its forthcoming growth. Cosmos has already got off to an auspicious start this year and is expected to achieve substantial growth in the NFT sector, so keep your eyes on it!
Now that you have equipped yourself with the loaded wallets (yes, please add funds to them, if you would like to explore the industry to the bottom 😉), let’s dive into the world of NFTs and its recent march towards the music industry…
🏬 General NFT Marketplaces that Have Embraced Music NFTs
While not particularly specialized for the music NFTs, these marketplaces cater to various crypto users, from those who just wander around for a temperature check to those who eagerly covet the digital collectibles.
OpenSea has been so far the most dominating player in the NFT space. However, several other venues including Rarible, SuperRare, LooksRare, and Nifty Gateway have been also arising to be its competitor. Don’t miss the native marketplace of Zora as well, the protocol that allows the developers and artists to build a platform on it through its modular architecture and many other features that are particularly customized for NFT marketplaces.
Starly has also dropped the David Bowie NFT collection in collaboration with Melos Studio, and BlockParty has recently announced its partnership with Warner Music Group (WMG).
If you are a newcomer to the crypto industry and would like to first try dipping your toes into the world of music NFTs, the marketplaces that are mentioned above would be the best places to start your journey.
💽NFT Marketplaces That Are Specialized in Music
However, for the music fans who are eager to delve into the niche market, the general NFT marketplaces cannot provide the best user experience and features that are particularly tailored to their needs. They often do not allow the buyers to filter artworks by music when browsing the marketplaces and their leaderboards, and have no streaming or playlist features.
Catalog, a music NFT marketplace built on the Zora protocol, is one of the pioneers of this new movement. Artists can reach out to the team and submit their works to be uploaded on the platform. Their single tracks or albums can be traded via Catalog, and Catalog supports various types of selling/purchase options — ‘Open Offers’, ‘Buy It Now’, ‘Reserve Auction’, and ‘Split Auction’.
There are other budding projects that are built on other blockchains, like OneOf (Tezos), Mint Songs (Polygon), RCRDSHP (Flow), FanFare (Flow), Melos Studio (Binance Smart Chain), and Pianity (Arweave). Serenade has also been designated as an official partner of the Brit Awards 2022. They are all taking different approaches in bundles and provide different user experiences and benefits, so please surf around to be involved in a multitude of experiences. There is no one-size-fits-all option in the world of blockchain!
🤖 Computational Creativity in NFT Space: Generative Art Collections
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, generative art or algorithmic art refers to any artworks that are created by random combinations of elements, layers, or stems, using algorithms.
Perhaps the most exciting quality of generative art is its randomness: even though computer programs will perform within a framework devised by an artist, the outputs cannot be fully predetermined, and the elements will be arranged into unexpected aesthetical beauty. Generative arts are indeed adding new dimensions to the meaning of ‘creativity’ and enabling artists to do experiments with the range of possibilities empowered by software. (Just to give you a feel of what generative art actually is, here are some examples: Art Blocks is an NFT platform that hosts and curates various visual generative art projects, and BAYC and MAYC, the highlights of the current NFT hype, are both generative PFP art collections.)
When it comes to the Web3 x Music realm, I would say, it’s in a more experimental phase, but with greater potential. The two leading projects are EulerBeats and SoundMint; their music works are created by random mixes of their audio assets (usually called ‘stems’), each of which is respectively paired to a single visual art component. It means that different combinations of stems can eventually result in different visual artworks, which can work as customized album covers.
Some of the other players that are pushing the frontiers of programmable creativity include Beat Foundry, 0xDeafBeef, Audioglyphs, omgkirby, Nowhere Gallery, and Async Art. Each project grants different degrees of freedom and rights to its owners, so please visit each website and community to experience what they have to offer.
😉 Got Special Needs Other Than Just Trading?
Of course, trading represents only a tiny fraction of what we really can do in the crypto industry. The projects listed below were built to suit your specific needs (usually in a more decentralized way), from creating and minting your songs to communicating with your fans and operating nodes for music streaming.
Arpeggi Studio. A digital, on-chain studio (or a music workstation) for composing and minting your songs directly to a chain. You can apply to the whitelist of its Version 2 Private Beta, or try the genesis studio first: https://beta.arpeggi.io/genesis-studio
Sound.XYZ. Wanna join a sound party by buying a newly released song from a curated artist? At Sound.XYZ, artists can launch a sound party with their newly released songs by dropping them as limited editions of NFTs. Fans can support their artists by buying the songs at a higher value than they did in the traditional music market, leaving public comments on the songs at a timestamp of their choice, and chatting with the artists and other fans. For every sound party, there is one winner to receive a hidden Golden Egg, and the winner’s NFT is then upgraded to a unique 1/1 chosen by the artist.
Songcamp. Songcamp first started as an effort to collectively fund, create, and distribute music, but their experiments are now heading further. Recently, they have launched a project called Elektra to build an interactive web3 game that has music at its core, and also have held a songwriting camp + web3 hackathon project called Chaos.
DAOs. DAOs are decentralized communities that are usually, not necessarily, managed and governed via tokens. Of course, there already have been a lot of emerging communities around this nexus of art and technologies: Water & Music(industry research), AMPLED (Co-Op for Musicians), NoiseDAO, BeetsDAO (NFT collectors), Good Karma DAO, DoomsdayX, GenreDAO, Dreams Never Die, StemsDAO (music labels/agencies), Phlote (curators community & building search engine), RefractionDAO (IRL events + collective ownership of art spaces), and ModaDAO (building web3 music infra).
Royal is taking a bit different approach. Instead of trading 1 of 1 single editions, users can actually buy the proportional shares of their royalties (i.e. revenue earned from the online music streaming platforms) by purchasing NFTs on Royal. Artists can also offer additional fan experiences and privileges to the owners (called ‘Token Extras’), from exclusive content and special merchandise to backstage access. Decent also creates NFTs collateralized by musicians’ royalties, and with Opulous artists can put shares in their royalties on offer as S-NFTs (music security NFTs).
Gala Music. It seems like Gala Games is trying to pave a new path for their P2E gameverse by launching Gala Music. While still in its early stage, Gala Music has recently dropped songs in collaboration with several artists including Snoop Dogg, BT, and October London, and sold its first “music nodes”. By purchasing and operating the nodes, users can host and stream music NFTs, whether they are their own or brought by other users. Both the node operators and NFT owners will be distributed rewards. There are two types of nodes, Fan Nodes and Player Nodes, and to learn more about the detailed benefits of operating nodes and how to operate them, please visit this page.
Rally and Coinvise are platforms for building and managing token-gated fan communities or being engaged with them. As an artist, if you would like to launch your own social tokens, set vesting schedules, distribute airdrops and rewards, and offer token-gated benefits to your fans, these platforms will be the right tool. Rally also can be a gateway for fans financially support their artists and gain exclusive access to what their artists offer.
Get Protocol. While not particularly limited to music, Get Protocol allows you to issue tickets as NFTs, and manage and track its ownership efficiently via its dashboard interface. FWB Gatekeeper, Centaurify, GUTS Tickets, and YellowHeart are all providing innovative web3 solutions for the ticketing experience.
🎧 Streaming Platforms. We would like to admit that Ooh La La (💃,🕺) is not going to be the only music streaming platform in the web3 era. FYI, here’s a look at some of the projects to be aware of:
Audius, Emanate, Resonate, Rhythm, Beatify — These are platforms that have emerged to tackle the exploitatory payout and distribution model of the traditional music streaming services. While the songs that are uploaded on these platforms are not particularly NFTs, they aim to provide decentralized, community-driven music sharing protocols via their own governance structures and operating mechanisms.
Ooh La La(💃,🕺), Future Tape, Sudo, PlayOne, spinamp, BPM.gg — While still in early (or pre-launch) phases, these platforms aim to provide a streaming service for music NFTs. They all have different features and aggregated NFTs from different music platforms, so please check their roadmaps to see what they will offer in the future. And yes, Ooh La La also belongs to this tag, but our roadmap embraces something beyond a streaming platform; please stay tuned for what our devs bring in the future!
Don’t be afraid to jump on the bandwagon. With Ooh La La, you will be given opportunities to navigate through the world of music NFTs and experience its growth rate in a clean, easy-to-use single interface. We would like to be the gateway for your journey into the world of web3 and participate in the revolution it enabled for the musicians and their fans. We are currently recruiting a small group of users for testing the early version of Ooh La La, so please contact us at gm@oohlala.xyz or DM us on Twitter. Your support and insights are invaluable to us. 🌻
🔗 Links
NFT Marketplaces: OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare, LooksRare, Nifty Gateway, Zora, Starly, BlockParty
Specialized in Music: Catalog, OneOf, Mint Songs, RCRDSHP, Nina, Melos Studio, FanFare, Pianity, Serenade, Soundchain, Myx, Noizd, ROCKI, Melodity, OurSong
Generative Music/Art: EulerBeats, SoundMint, Beat Foundry, 0xDeafBeef, Audioglyphs, omgkirby, Nowhere Gallery, Async Art
Music Workstation: Arpeggi Studio
Sound Party: Sound.XYZ
Project Lab : Songcamp, HiFi Labs, sone
DAOs: Water & Music, AMPLED, NoiseDAO, BeetsDAO, Good Karma DAO, DoomsdayX, GenreDAO, Dreams Never Die, StemsDAO, Phlote, RefractionDAO, ModaDAO
Royalties : Royal, Decent, Opulous
Nodes & Gameverse: Gala Music
Social Tokens: Rally, Coinvise
Ticketing : Get Protocol, FWB Gatekeeper, Centaurify, GUTS Tickets, YellowHeart
🎧 Streaming: Audius, Emanate, Resonate, Rhythm, Beatify / Music NFT Players: Ooh La La (💃,🕺), Future Tape, Sudo, PlayOne, spinamp / Discord Bot: BPM.gg
Videos: Glass Protocol
Data Network: musicOS
Database: dopr, Soundpickr
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Discord — https://discord.gg/PhfPN6YBHF
Email — gm@oohlala.xyz
