CC0 Music NFTs: 20 Things You Can Do With Your New SoundMint NFT

A CC0 license means you can do anything you want with your music NFT.

Anything.

When you buy a SoundMint NFT, such as the Kaien Cruz collection, you can modify it, remix it, turn it into a sample, rap over it, sell it, use it on YouTube, upload it to Spotify. Anything. It’s yours to use and commercialize however you want.

Why? Because we want to give you freedom to use the music from your NFT. Be as creative as you want! Without fear of copyright strikes or the dreaded DMCA takedowns.

Let’s take a closer look at all the different ways you can use it:

What’s a CC0 license?

CC0 (creative commons zero) means the artist gives up all copyright to the work. You don’t need to ask permission to use it or even credit the original artist. It is in the public domain. CC0 is the most permissive license possible.

Fun fact: All copyright runs out and enters the public domain (CC0) after a certain amount of time. Beethoven’s music and Shakespeare’s plays are CC0. Even the copyright for Mickey Mouse will expire in 2024.

We believe that CC0 is the most powerful and effective license for web3 and, where possible, we aim to make it a standard across most of our NFT releases.

What can you do with your CC0 music NFT?

Need some inspiration? We came up with 20 different things you can do with your new SoundMint NFT.

1. Remix it.
2. Sample it.
3. Sing / rap over it.
4. Upload to Spotify and release it as your own track.
5. Perform it live.
6. Use it in a YouTube video without getting striked.
7. Use it in an advert for your own fashion brand.
8. Turn the image into merchandise (like a t-shirt).
9. Use the music in a major TV or digital commercial.
10. Use it as background music for your Twitch streams.
11. Turn it into samples and release a sample pack.
12. Use it as intro music for your podcast.
13. Include it in your DJ sets.
14. Create dance content on TikTok or Snap without getting striked.
15. Put it in your Instagram reels or streams.
16. Use it in an audiobook.
17. Use it as a soundtrack to your movie or video project.
18. If you’re a music supervisor, use it in your TV series without a contract.
19. Or a video game.
20. Set it as background music for your metaverse land.

The possibilities are endless and you can be as creative as you want.

Show us yours!

By the way, if you make something cool with the music or visuals from your SoundMint NFT, please tag us on Twitter and we’ll share it with the community.

What can’t you do?

Despite all this freedom, there is just one restriction. Please do not attribute anything you create to the original artist. For example, you can’t record your own vocals on the track and credit Kaien Cruz alongside your name. That would violate Kaien Cruz’s trademark. Similarly, you can’t put the image on a t-shirt and claim that Kaien Cruz or somehoodlum endorse your product.

Creating a flywheel…

The question is: why would an artist give up so much control (and commercialization) of their work?

Answer: the power of fans.

When fans have the freedom to create their own content, it triggers a very powerful flywheel effect and feedback loop:

• Fans create endless streams of creative content
• This creates virality and visibility.
• Which makes the music and the collection more desirable.
• Which increases the artist’s profile and makes the collection more valuable.

We already know that fan-generated content is incredibly powerful. It’s why Tik Tok is now the main strategy for breaking new artists. It relies on user-generated content to make songs go viral.

With a CC0 license, artists can encourage even more user-generated content from their fans. Not just dance videos on Tik Tok, but remixes, samples, and creative content across YouTube, Twitch and every other form of media.

Some musicians in web3 are taking this to the extreme and making everything CC0, including their original tracks. Shoutout to NFT pioneer Oshi.

Calling all YouTubers and Twitch streamers: Use CC0 music to avoid copyright strikes

If you’re a YouTuber, Twitch streamer, Instagram DJ or anyone who creates content online, you no longer have to worry about copyright strikes thanks to CC0 music NFTs. And if you’ve tried to upload music to a web2 social media platform lately, you know this is a big deal.

For example, Felix Lengyel is one of the biggest Twitch streamers on the planet. Known as xQc, he has more than 10 million followers and over a billion total views. But in August last year he was banned from Twitch for the fifth time. The reason for his ban? Allegedly streaming music from Kanye West’s ‘Donda’ album.

On Instagram, DJs regularly get their livesteams turned off mid-set due to copyright strikes. And YouTubers live in fear of getting a copyright notice for accidentally including some background music from their favorite artists.

Music is heavily copyrighted and regulated thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA forces all streaming platforms to comply by tracking down copyright breaches and banning repeat offenders.

This is getting worse and worse for many creators. In 2020, Twitch said it received approximately 50 takedown requests per year… Now it gets 1,000 per week. Twitch has now been forced to ask creators to stop using record music:

“If you play recorded music on your stream, you need to stop doing that.”

So you can no longer use recorded music from your favorite artist. But you can use a SoundMint NFT. As we build our catalog, you’ll soon have an entire collection of copyright-free music to choose from.

The perfect license for SoundMint collections

CC0 is particularly powerful for SoundMint NFT collections because the artist still keeps all copyright to their original tracks. The CC0 license only applies to the generative NFT collection and doesn’t compromise the copyright of the artist’s main catalog.

For example, Kaien Cruz dropped 1,500 generative NFTs for their SoundMint collection. Each one has a CCC0 license. However, Kaien still owns the copyright to all their original tracks and can commercialize them through traditional methods (recording revenue, publishing revenue etc.). You can think of it like 1,500 individual remixes with CC0 licenses, and one original track with full copyright.

Quite a powerful combination.

Want to learn more about generative music NFTs? Read our previous article that breaks it all down.

Taking our inspiration from the NFT community

The CC0 movement is becoming a bigger theme across the NFT world with several popular CC0 projects like Nouns, Cryptoadz, mfers, Rektguy, Chainrunners, Loot and Bitmaps.

These projects are fully in the public domain which means anyone can use the artwork and characters in any way they want. The idea is that unlimited creativity will create a stronger and broader community.

The best example is probably Nouns. Every day, a new pixelated Noun character is auctioned off and holders get a CC0 license to do whatever they want with their Noun.

For example, one holder created a luxury sunglasses company using the iconic Nouns glasses. Another created an animated children’s TV show. And, famously, the Nouns appeared in the Budweiser Superbowl commercial. There was no licensing agreement necessary for this to happen.

Nouns also made an appearance in the Bored Ape Yacht Club metaverse video.

This type of publicity couldn’t happen to other NFT projects (like Doodles or Azuki) without paying a lot of money to license the IP. In other words, CC0 means it’s easy to integrate into bigger projects and trigger unexpected use-cases.

NFTs with permissive licenses often outperform others, too. Bored Ape Yacht Club is another great example. Although it’s not a full CC0 license, individual holders do have a very permissive license to use and commercialize their Bored Ape.

For example, Jimmy McNelis used his Bored Apes to create a metaverse ‘band’ and signed them to a Universal Music imprint called 10:22pm. Seth Green is creating a TV show using his Bored Apes (although they were recently hacked and stolen, so it’s TBD on that one!)

Again, none of this would be possible if BAYC had a restricted license and didn’t allow holders to commercialize their apes.

CC0 music: a new model for independent artists?

We know this is an experimental model, but web3 is all about creativity, open source systems and community. For some independent artists, it might be the perfect way to trigger a wave of user-generated content.

Most of all, we’re excited to see what you do with your SoundMint NFT. Get creative and send us your remixes, samples and anything else you create!