Armin van Buuren, 3LAU, Styles P – Billboard

NFTs had a wild 2022. January began with euphoric highs and a record $4.8 billion traded on OpenSea. In contrast, December ended the year with a hangover – volumes down 95% with just $283 million in sales for the month.

Still, the crypto winter has not deterred musicians from embracing Web3. December saw a surge in music NFT activity thanks to legacy artists Armin van Buuren and Styles P, as well as high-profile drops from crypto-native musicians like 3LAU and Daniel Allan. The first “billion club” NFT was released, unlocking streaming royalties in a track with more than a billion Spotify plays. Meanwhile, the independent scene continued to flourish with a seventh consecutive month of rising volume on Sound.xyz – the largest platform for independent musicians.

Across the 10 biggest music NFT projects tracked down Billboard in December, sales volume increased by 28% in ETH (751 ETH) and 23% in dollars (949,781 USD) from November. Based on analysis of sales data from 19 different NFT platforms, independent releases combined with secondary sales volume on OpenSea, here are the top 10 best-selling music NFTs and compilations in December 2022.

1/ Styles P – “The Farmacy Phantoms”
Monthly trading volume: 205 ETH ($249,280 at month-end conversion rate)
Primary sales: 170 ETH
Secondary sales: 35 ETH
Delivery date: 28 Nov

The Farmacy Fantoms is a music NFT project by rapper Styles P. The collection of 6,666 animated ghost characters comes with different visual traits and one of ten different tracks. In the future, holders will also have access to events and discounts on Styles P brand products.

See the collection at OpenSea.

2/ Armin van Buuren – “Armin’s All-Access (AAA)”
Monthly trading volume: $210,120
Primary sale: $189,448
Secondary sales: 17 ETH ($20,672)
Drop date: December 13

Superstar DJ Armin van Buuren launched an all-access pass in December, giving NFT holders access to a Web3 fan club community. NFT unlocks an exclusive section of the DJ’s Discord server, as well as access to unreleased tracks, studio live streams and exclusive events. Each NFT comes with music by the Dutch producer and 10 variations of digital artwork by Rik Oostenbroek. The duo sold 952 passes in December, at $199 each.

See the collection at OpenSea.

3/ Reo Cragun x Daniel Allan – “Criteria EP”
Monthly trading volume: 138.67 ETH ($168,622)
Primary sale: 94,247 ETH
Secondary sales: 44,324 ETH
Drop date: December 15

Two of the biggest names in the independent music NFT scene teamed up to end the year with a bang. Criteria is an 8-track EP that combines electronic production from Allan and hip-hop vocals from Cragun – who previously collaborated on Flume’s “Quits” EP. In December, the duo released 2,500 NFTs with a unique rarity structure. The rarest track, ‘Criteria’, has only 25 editions, making it significantly more valuable than the most common track, ‘Supercharged’ with 1000 editions. “Supercharged” has a floor price of 0.056 ETH ($68) on secondary markets, while the rare “Criteria” has a floor price of 3 ETH ($3,648).

Criteria was the biggest drop ever on music NFT platform Sound.xyz, and despite the broader bear market in crypto, the drop sold out in about an hour. The collection was strongly supported by the leading NFT’s music collectors, or “whales,” – many buying more than 100 each.

See the collection at OpenSea.

4/ Violetta Zironi – “Moonshot” / “Gypsy Heart”
Monthly trading volume: 59 ETH ($71,744)
Primary sale: 40 ETH
Secondary sales: 19 ETH
Drop date: April 2022

Establishing herself as one of the most consistent independent artists in the space, Violetta Zironi has appeared in this top 10 for four of the past seven months. Her debut “Moonshot” collection – featuring artwork from her father, Disney animator Giuseppe Zironi – continues to generate strong sales on OpenSea with 19.24 ETH traded in December.

Her new collection Gypsy Heart is now being rolled out to existing fans and holders through an early access pass. Zironi sold 500 mint passes in December (out of a total of 5000), generating 40 ETH. The project will be published to the public in January.

See the collection at OpenSea.

5/ 3LAU – “Too Late for Love”
Monthly trading volume: $58,839 (48.3 ETH)
Primary sale: $58,839
Secondary sales: NOW
Drop date: December 14

Electronic producer and DJ 3LAU set records back in 2021 with NFT sales of $11.6 million. Since then, he launched the Web3 music platform Royal, allowing fans to own a percentage of streaming royalties in tracks by The Chainsmokers, Diplo and others.

In December, 3LAU released his first single of the year, and his first NFT release since 2021, “Too Late for Love”. Released via its Royal platform, the producer sold 330 gold tokens, each representing 0.1165% of the track’s streaming royalties, and three diamond tokens, each providing 3.8488% of the streaming royalties as well as backstage access to 3LAU events for life.

6/ Offset and Metro Boomin – “Rick Flare Drip”
Monthly trading volume: 42 ETH ($51,072)
Primary sale: 39 ETH
Secondary sales: 3 ETH
Drop date: December 1st

The first ever NFT from Spotify’s “Billions Club”. “Rick Flare Drip” has more than 1 billion streams on Spotify, and now fans can own a small portion of future streaming revenue. Royalties were unlocked through a partnership with Bijan Amir – one of the producers on the track. “This is my first attempt at Web3 and crypto,” said Amir. “I wanted to do something meaningful when I did it. I love the idea of ​​fans getting a piece of my rights, rather than me selling a piece of my masters to an investor.” The NFTs were sold via Anotherblock, a Web3 platform that sells streaming royalties in some of the world’s biggest tracks.

See the collection at OpenSea.

7/ KINGDOM – “Key card”
Monthly trading volume: 25 ETH ($30,400)
Primary sale (in December): NOW
Secondary sales: 25 ETH
Drop date: May 2022

The Bored Ape supergroup secured its seventh consecutive month in this top 10 thanks to consistent sales on secondary markets such as OpenSea. In December, the group began teasing video footage from the studio where producers Hit-Boy and James Fauntleroy are currently working on the band’s music.

See the collection at OpenSea.

8/ Rae Isla – “Rocks”
Monthly trading volume: 23 ETH ($24,320)
Primary sale (in December): 20 ETH
Secondary sales: 3 ETH
Drop date: 28 Nov

Independent singer-songwriter Rae Isla was featured in November after selling the first 600 NFTs from her ‘Rocks’ project – a collection of 1,000 NFTs comprising four tracks, each with different rarities and artwork released through Nifty Music – a music NFT accelerator. Isla returned to the top ten in December after selling the remaining 400 and capturing another 3 ETH in secondary sales on OpenSea.

See the collection at OpenSea.

9/ WVRPS by Warpsound
Monthly trading volume: 20 ETH ($24,320)
Primary sale (in December): NOW
Secondary sales: 20 ETH
Drop date: January 2022

WVRPSound is the largest music NFT project ever in terms of trading volume. Since its launch last January, the collection of AI-generated music and animated characters has earned more than 6,000 ETH in volume (about $7.3 million). In December, the project gave away an album of AI music to holders, sparking a new wave of trading activity.

WVRPSound also announced a tool for artists to create multitrack NFT albums. Now an entire album can be marked as an NFT with interactive buttons to skip tracks. It sounds simple, but this has not been done before on a large scale. Until now, the only other example was an early experiment by an indie band called Talk Time. WRVPSound made the technology open source for anyone to use.

See the collection at OpenSea.

10/ Sammy Arriaga – “Pixelated”
Monthly trading volume: 17 ETH ($20,672)
Primary sale (in December): NOW
Secondary sales: 17 ETH
Drop date: June 2022

Bringing country to crypto, Sammy Arriaga is a singer-songwriter who launched an NFT project called “Pixelated” back in June. Based around 12 different versions of one song, Pixelated is a collection of 4,000 NFTs, each with a unique pixelated profile picture that Arriaga’s fans use across their social media accounts. The Pixelated project has had steady volume on secondary markets such as OpenSea since its launch, but volume picked up in November and December.

See the collection at OpenSea.

Methodology: The chart was compiled using data from primary music NFT sales across 19 different NFT platforms, independent releases and combined with secondary volume data from OpenSea. Data was captured between December 1 – December 31, 2022. Crypto to US dollar conversion rates were calculated on December 31.

Mediation: The author owns music NFTs from Reo Cragun and Daniel Allan, but the above list is based on sales data only.