NFTs Could Revolutionize The Future Of The Music Industry – Here’s How To Do It
The NFT market has been growing with several companies applying for trademarks to enter the NFT area. The latest business giant to file a trademark application is Sony Music Entertainment.
The trademark application was archived with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on August 30. Furthermore, the application mentions a series of products that it intends to authenticate using NFTs under the Columbia Records logo.
Albums, videos and much more
The application covers a wide range of aspects such as music marketing, artist promotion and audio/video recording. It also includes artwork related to live musical performances that are authenticated by NFTs.
This may be the first NFT project directly linked to Sony Music, but the music has been other similar projects as well. In August 2021, Sony Music backed NFT marketplace MakersPlace and raised $30 million from investors, such as Pantera Capital and Coinbase.
In March 2022, Sony Music partnered with Solana-based NFT marketplace Snowcrash and fellow music company Universal Music Group. The result of this partnership was release of an NFT compilation with Bob Dylan and Miles Davis.
Web3 and the music industry
Earlier this year, Universal Music Group gave a subtle hint of its Web3 ambitions when it bought Bored Ape #5537 for $360,817.
The monkey was acquired to lead a digital band called Kingship which was founded by Universal’s 10:22P.M label. The label added that the digital band will produce music and deliver virtual performances in the metaverse.
Furthermore, popular hip-hop artists and BAYC holders Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2022. Interestingly, this performance featured the artists performing as their NFT alter egos in the metaverse.
The event also featured other virtual performances. The fact that MTV introduced an entirely new award category, the best metaverse performance, shows the influence Web3 has on the music industry.
Earlier this week, Web3 music marketplace Yellowheart announced the first NFT music streaming player. Yellowheart also released the first ever NFT album in collaboration with Kings of Leon. The music market has also worked with popular artists including ZHU and Maroon 5.
Reviving art through NFTs
Another use case that the industry has come up with is grants to classical artists. Living Opera is a Web3 group that harnesses the power of blockchain to provide revenue and short-term liquidity to artists by issuing NFTs related to the genre.
Given the waning interest in opera, Living Opera COO Christos Makridis hopes to draw attention to the art using NFTs. All this, while connecting philanthropists with artists.
