Monetizing Music through NFTs
Becoming an award winning music artist is no easy feat and creating a label seems impossible. But leave it to crypto to help creators monetize their music.
Generally, artists are limited to the revenue they earn from streams earn royalties from secondary sales. Music platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify only help musicians get noticed, they hardly make any revenue.
Artists can sell their music to others for listening (general consumption) or use it for commercial licensing (master edition) utilizing the platform mentioned later. Artist can sell their beats, vocals and so much more as a NFT.
Music NFTs are experimental, some launchpads offer streaming royalties, such as Royal. Listeners can purchase music NFTs from artists such as The Chainsmokers, and NAS and have partial IP ownership. Meaning, holders will earn money each time it is streamed on Apple Music or Spotify!
Music NFT Project vs. Singles/Albums
Some artists launch 1/1’s (singles) with unique artwork or albums. Some choose to launch projects and offer other utilities to their holders like tutoring sessions, meet and greets, live studio sessions, private concerts and more.
Projects tend to offer utility behind the music tracks such as meet and greet, tutor sessions, live studio sessions, private concerts, and much more.
Some launchpads require a new artist to not have any music on a blockchain and fill out a form before deciding to move forward with them. Some platforms are much better than others. Some platforms pay in different currencies and offer various utilities to the artists.
Turning Music into NFTs
- Go to a website with a crypto wallet
- Drag and drop your music files. Customize options such as the name of the collection or beats per minute.
- List NFT on marketplaces
Artists are able to create any amount of NFTs. They have the option of making thousands of tracks for pennies on the dollar with 10% royalties on secondary sales. Or can launch 1/1 master editions at an expensive price with 5% royalties. It is up to them.
Marketplaces
- OpenSea: Supports minting music on the Ethereum (Eth) and Polygon (Matic) networks. Musicians may launch an NFT project or singles here.
- BoomBox: Supports minting music on the Solana ecosystem.
- AirNFT: Supports payments in Binance (BNB), Fantom (FTM), and Matic
- NFT Show Room: Accepts only $Hive
- Royal: Supports credit/debit cards only! You must apply to launch music here
Final Thoughts
When creating music NFTs, choosing a launchpad is crucial, the first drop only happens once!
There is a couple of questions artist need to ask themselves before converting their files onto the blockchain.
- Do I want to create a music label?
- What chain do I want to launch with?
- Do I want to monetize my tracks and sell them as tracks? Or should I sell my vocals as NFTs, beats and NFTS or make a NFT project?
- Should I sell them as a master license so others can monetize my work? (Let owners use users beat in a commercial) Or give them general consumption authority? (listening rights only)
