The Power of Music NFTs Using RMRK

Funding, collaboration, and more

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For many, NFTs seemed to rise into public consciousness as JPEG images that could be traded at outrageous prices. For this reason, there’s been a common misunderstanding about what exactly NFTs are and the extent of their utility.

To correct this misunderstanding, you must realize that an NFT is simply a unique digital object. This object can contain any type of data. Meaning that an NFT can, in theory, be anything at all, so long as it can be represented digitally. The true uniqueness of an NFT is that its ownership rights can be verified and enforced permissionlessly by using the code of the blockchain.

Here is a short list of what can be turned into an NFT to expand your imagination:

• Art (the current paradigm)
• Code
• Company shares
• Physical objects–real estate, trees, animals, etc. However, enforcing ownership rights of tokenized physical objects requires going beyond the blockchain and into the realm of law and governments.

One type of digital object that is poised to benefit from NFT technology is music, and thankfully, some visionaries have already made the leap and started tinkering with the possibilities. With the recent launch of Singular 2.0, there’s never been a better time to be at the forefront of NFT innovation using music NFTs. However, a lack of awareness and understanding of the true capabilities of NFTs, particularly RMRK Modular NFTs, has presented a barrier for many musicians when it comes to creating music NFTs.

Thus, the purpose of this post is to illuminate some possibilities and ignite your imagination to create amazing experiences for your collectors.

Music NFTs x RMRK — the possibilities

There are three fundamental use-cases for Music NFTs:

1. As a funding mechanism
2. As a collaborative mechanism
3. As a delivery mechanism

I’ll take them one after the other.

1. As a funding mechanism

Similar to how the RMRK team used the Kanaria collection to raise funds for the RMRK project, independent artists and music collectives can use NFT collections to raise funds for their careers. This is different from selling your albums as NFTs. The main difference exists in treating the collection as a fundraising mechanism and not just a sale. Fundraising to create music can mean selling any type of items or perks that your fans would like to get in return for supporting your music financially. If you think of the collection as a fundraising mechanism, you realize a few things:

1. The collection does not need to be a solely music collection. As in, you could raise funding for your music by launching a PFP collection (avatars similar to CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Kanaria) that also features your music as nested or multi-resource NFTs.
2. The NFTs will need to provide value to true fans, which encourages them to collect it now or in the future. This gives NFT speculators an incentive to collect the NFTs in hopes of selling them at a higher price when the artist is bigger. A fundraising NFT that gives a % of streaming revenue would be valuable even to a non-fan. Some other ideas include: exclusive access to unreleased songs and demos, private virtual (or physical) show, access to future shows or a 90% discount on tickets. There are many more ideas for benefits/utility that will increase the value proposition of the NFT.

2. As a collaborative mechanism

Singular 2.0 and mNFTs enable a robust and fun collaboration mechanism that has never been possible before.

Music Label DAO

Imagine a record label DAO made of music talent and enthusiasts, split into groups based on which creative process they’re part of (sampler, drummer, songwriter, artist, mix engineer, graphic designer, etc). Sample producers would create samples (melodies), drum producers would add drums, songwriters would make a demo, artists would record, and so on until the song was finished. A decentralized NFT single can be created by letting the DAO vote on which addition to the single is fire or trash. Based on total votes, the most fire additions will make the song. In this way, a decentralized NFT album can be made one song at a time. This has the benefit of having royalties baked into the core protocol.

This process can be followed by a community of random artists who don’t know each other personally. It doesn’t have to be a label.

(This idea was originally submitted to the RMRK Idea Contest by Peter.Mahne95).

The core thing to note is that, if using mNFT composability to create a song, the song does not need to live on the blockchain alone. This new single (whether created by a Label or a group of music peers), can then be released on the traditional distribution platform. The NFT would serve as the ‘soft-contract’ for each contributor. All revenue from streaming can be deposited in a multi sig wallet that all contributors have access to. Thus, mNFTs can be used for creating music and for delivering it.

Cross-media, cross-collection collaboration

Music artists can collaborate with visual artists who own composable collections to create a theme/soundtrack for their PFP collection. This music will be airdropped to all the collection’s holders as a multi-resource gift. Taking this further, a music artist can make a music collection that can only be claimed by holders of certain PFP collections, creating some form of artificial scarcity. Naturally, this would be frowned upon, but if supported by a great story, few would mind.

On this point, I believe that there are a lot more ideas. Music artists should speak with visual artists and see what they can come up with. For this to acquire greater context, let’s consider the last but most important category.

3. As a delivery mechanism

mNFTs are a new way to deliver music to fans and listeners around the world, with the added benefit of removing the middleman. There are two main ways mNFTs as a delivery mechanism can be implemented.

Copying the old system

This was expertly done by the Chaos Collective music album. In this implementation, the music artist tries to replicate the delivery experience of traditional music marketplaces and streaming platforms. An album is one NFT with all the tracks added as multi-resources, giving the listener as close an experience to what he would get on Spotify, Bandcamp, et. al.

Embracing the brave new world

In this implementation, the music artist pushes the boundaries of the experience of listening to a music compilation to unknown edges. With the RMRK NFT protocol legos, music delivery can be turned into a whole new experience. Why limit the music experience to only listening to music? Why can’t there be some storytelling involved? How about some gaming mechanics?

For example, an artist could release a multimedia album of music, videos, artworks, and PDFs, using a core story to sync them all together. Each NFT is a song with the following multi-resources:

1. The meaning and inspiration behind the song in a video or PDF or both.
2. A visual representation of the song (music video, lyric video, random video that captures the feeling of the song, and more).
3. PDF of the lyrics and song credits

Now imagine another music collection with the following mechanics. The parent NFT is a PFP character released by the artist prior to the album release. When the album drops, the songs are airdropped to the NFT holders. Each song is a multi resource NFT with both a picture and an audio. Much like how Kanaria items get equipped to Kanarias, the image resource of the mNFT can be equipped to the PFP character, altering its look. Thus, each mNFT can be equipped to the character. Fans can then show their favorite songs by the choice of which mNFTs they equip on to their character.

Conclusion

With RMRK, the possibilities for music NFTs are limitless, constrained only by the imagination of the music creators. Unleash your imagination on the world and build unique multimedia experiences that enhance the strength and engagement of your art. Music speaks to the soul, and with RMRK, we can be more creative with our soulbound communication.

To learn more about RMRK, visit:

• RMRK Website
• RMRK Subsocial blog
• Singular (the world’s most advanced NFT marketplace)

About RMRK

RMRK is a next-generation NFT protocol that equips NFTs with superpowers, making it possible for NFTs to own other NFTs, change based on conditions, have multiple outputs depending on context, accept emojis, and more.

With these legos, RMRK enables the creation of the most advanced NFT projects the world has ever seen, while remaining compatible with archaic standards like ERC721 and ERC1155. You can explore this right now on Kanaria, RMRK’s flagship Modular NFT project; join the revolution in Skybreach, a truly decentralized metaverse; or trade advanced NFTs on Singular, the advanced NFT marketplace.

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