The NFT is that concept that a year ago not too many people knew about, but that has had such an exponential growth that today we can find NFT music.
If you don’t know what we’re talking about or how to get your music a little closer to the NFT universe, stay close. Today we tell you the key points you need to know about music and NFTs.
What is an NFT?
Before we get into it, you may need to know what exactly an NFT is.
An NFT is a cryptographic virtual element, also known as a non-fungible token —non-fungible means that they are not interchangeable, since they are unique and there is no other token that is identical—.
An NFT is a cryptographic virtual element
NFT examples
This virtual element that uses blockchain technology as a base can be represented in any form, which has made it easy to apply to any industry such as art, film, video games and, the one we are interested in: music.
So, if you were wondering if NFT can be used for music, the answer is yes. You only need to learn how to do it.
Before continuing, if you are interested in knowing a little more about the trends that are currently predominating, we invite you to read this post in which we tell you about the most relevant trends in the music industry in 2022.
What does NFT stand for in music?
Now that you know what an NFT is, it will be easier to understand how this new technology has adapted to the digital music industry.
The inclusion of NFTs in the music scene has been seen as a new source of income for musicians and artists who sell their music on digital platforms on the Internet. This way, music professionals can sell their digital projects through cryptocurrencies, in a limited way —since, if you remember, no two NFTs can be the same—.
Many of the people who have started to include NFTs within their strategies have created exclusive merchandising or limited edition albums and songs.
For example, DJ 3LAU is using NFTs as a new way to sell his music to fans who ask for exclusivity. Thus, in 2021 he sold his album in this format, as well as a production he made together with the DJ Steve Aoki.
NFTs have become a new source of profits for musicians and artists
In addition to additional income, NFTs give artists the ability to verify that they own the copyrights to their songs, facilitating a new way to fight piracy and content theft within this industry.
What’s more, you may have thought about it, and yes: you can sell copyrights through NFT. The example of this is the American rapper Nas, who sold part of the rights to two of his songs through method.
What does this mean? Well, those people who purchased these NFTs are entitled to a percentage of the royalties produced by these songs.
You can sell a percentage of the ownership of your creations by NFT
To give you a clear idea of the role that NFTs have taken in the music spectrum and the ways to apply it: Coachella sold its tickets for this year’s festival in this format, which, in addition, would be valid whenever there was a festival, adding other advantages and experiences for those users who purchased them.
NFT ticket for Coachella music festival
The best thing to do before selling part of your royalties with NFT is to understand how royalties work. That’s why we invite you to read our how royalties work guide so you don’t miss a thing.
How does music NFT work?
Now that you know a little more about NFTs, let’s explain the steps to follow to create your own.
1. Choose an idea
Do you want to sell an exclusive song? A percentage of the ownership of an album? Before creating an NFT, you must be clear about what you want to sell in this format.
We’ve already given you some examples, but remember to let your imagination run wild, be original and stand out. The more you are noticed, the more likely it is that someone will want to buy it.
Here is a video from NFT Music Info where you can find 50 ideas to create NFT music.
2. Create a cryptocurrency wallet
In order to stock both your NFTs and the cryptocurrencies you will get from sales, you need a crypto wallet or virtual wallet.
There are many companies that offer this service, so we recommend that you do some research on the Internet and read comments from other users before choosing your virtual wallet.
3. Cryptocurrencies
Once you have your cryptocurrency wallet, you will need to purchase a certain amount of virtual coins to pay transaction fees to the creators of NFT.
Although there are services with quite high fees, you can also find places where you can mint your NFT in a way that is affordable and fair for you.
There are different fees depending on the service you use to create and host your NFT
We invite you to take a look at this guide from CoinDesk, in which they show you the different fees of some blockchains.
4. Choose a platform to sell your NFT music
The last step, but just as important, is that you choose a service to sell your NFT music on.
As mentioned above, there is a wide variety of sites with different functionalities and advantages, so you should study which one best suits you and your product.
Where to sell NFT music?
To get you started, here is a selection of platforms where you can sell your NFT music.
1. Royal
Remember DJ 3LAU, who was selling exclusive productions in NFT format? Well, he also thought it would be a good idea to create a space where artists could share their work in this virtual format.
On its website, Royal mentions that “artists and fans are co-owners of the music together. That is; both can choose what percentage of the content to receive from the sale of the different songs”. In addition, each artist can customize the different benefits they give their fans when purchasing their NFT music.
2. OneOf
This platform for selling NFT music is becoming quite popular because famous artists are starting to sell their music through it.
For example, this service is the one used by Whitney Houston to sell an NFT with a song she had written when she was 17 years old.
Promotional image of Whitney Houston’s unreleased song on NFT
3. Sound
Sound is a music streaming platform, with the difference that artists can release their songs as exclusive NFTs.
An outstanding advantage of Sound is that, in addition to obtaining the NFT of the song, these function as entry passes to the community of users created in Discord.
By joining this community, the NFT owner will be able to participate in exclusive events, chat and carry out collaborative projects with the different artists.
4. Audius
Audius is one of the most well-known platforms in the cryptocurrency world, to the point that some users call it the “spotify of blockchain”.
On Audius, artists can share their creations as NFT for free, as well as interact with their fans with greater ease.
Now that you know how to move your music to the new virtual plane of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, there’s nothing stopping you from making a profit with it!
