The NFT company Serenade raised $ 4.2 million. What is it going to use it for?

Trailblazers is an MBW interview series that focuses on music entrepreneurs making waves in their local markets, which has the potential to become tomorrow’s global business. This time we talk to Max Shand, the founder and CEO of Rising Music NFT Marketplace, Serenade. Trailblazers are supported by Believe.

There are a growing number of superstar investors in music startups these days.

From The Weeknd to Puff Daddy, Snoop Dogg and more, superstars are pouring their money into new platforms they believe in every week.

But Hollywood stars are also involved in this action.

Take, for example, Hugh Jackman, who recently joined a $ 4.2 million funding round for the music NFT platform Serenade.

Serenade is run and founded by tech founder (and Jackman’s other Aussie), Max Shand, who says he aims to build his company into the world’s leading “genre-diagnostic NFT music marketplace”.

Serenade runs on a layer 2 Ethereum blockchain called Polygon, which, the company claims, enables it to create NFTs at an “environmentally friendly” level (ie with much less energy used than a typical NFT design).

With offices in the UK and Sydney, Serenade has so far worked with artists including The Kooks, Ladyhawke, Super Furry Animals and others, while Shand (pictured) himself was recently named in Forbes’ 30 under the 30 list in Asia.

Here, as part of MBW’s Trailblazers series, Sydney-based Shand explains why he believes the future is bright for music NFTs – and why he believes his company will be at the center of the revolution …

Serenade recently raised AUD 6 million ($ 4.2 million) from supporters such as Hugh Jackman, plus executives from Warner Music Group and elsewhere. why was it the right time to raise now?

This $ 6 million goes straight into our technology to ensure that we can continue to improve our user experience for fans, and work across several amazing creative projects with artists.

In addition, we are investing in our team to increase our marketing, product and partnership resources between the UK, Australia and soon the US.

What is the ultimate ambition of the company?

Our ultimate mission is to bring artists closer to their biggest fans, and by doing so generate new revenue streams and imaginative creative results.

There have been a few statistics recently about the fall in demand / value of certain types of NFTs. For example, BLOOMBERG reports that monthly global sales of nFTs (of all types) are currently falling below USD 1 billion for the first time since last summer. Meanwhile, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, has seen sales volume fall by 75% since May. Is all this worrying for you, or is it just a natural correction of the market?

Where NFTs are purchased as investments, they are vulnerable to the same value cycles as traditional investment instruments.

That said, where NFTs are purchased as collectibles to mark the passion for and support of an artist or creator, the value remains constant – as owners do not collect NFTs to earn quickly.

Paint us a picture: what will the music industry look like for artists and fans in ten years?

In 10 years, there will be a greater recognition of the role of direct-to-fan revenues in the overall artist revenue mix – and to support this, there will be all sorts of fantastic tools.

Streaming will remain at the heart of an artist’s offering from a passive audience engagement and discovery perspective. However, goods – both traditional and through innovative ways to make money on an artist’s brand and fanbase (which has no rights) – will dominate the revenue mix.

What are the pros and cons (if any) of launching your company out of Oz?

Australian founders maintain a constant fire in the stomach to prove themselves on the international stage given we are so far away. We have the advantage of looking to key markets and choosing them based on their strategic value.

But hey, I’m kidding to say that Australia makes it easy to set up a two-sided music marketplace! Our early mornings are our only times to reach the United States, and our late nights are the best hours to chat in the UK, leaving daytime for Australia.

Australia is sometimes considered a fantastic test area for new innovations, but in the music industry the impulse will be to gain access to larger foreign markets earlier than your ability to battle test a new product.

Tell us something that would surprise people in the industry about your business and its business.

Despite our ambitions to be a genre-critical music NFT marketplace, our personal love of all things indie continues to pull us back to work with [independent and independent label-signed] artists.

While this has the potential to steer us off course, building a platform around fan engagement and new ways of earning superfans has led to this dedicated understanding of and empathy with indie sensitivities being a beacon and the company’s accelerator.

You are a growing entrepreneur. In retrospect, given your history so far, what advice would you give to anyone thinking of taking the plunge to start their own business?

Only embark on the ridiculous adventure of starting your own business if you are motivated by passion and a genuine enthusiasm to solve a particular problem. If these are your motivations, there will be no setbacks big enough to really disarm you, and every day will be a constant pleasure.

“If a new venture has the ability to catapult you into wonderful relationships and conversations, nothing should stop you.”

Even better, if you suspect that you will love the people you want to work with and have the opportunity to meet, then go for gold: ultimately, life is about the people you spend it with, and if a new venture has the opportunity to catapult you enter into wonderful relationships and conversations, then nothing should stop you.

The question we all ask: What thing would you change with the modern music industry and why?

Controversial opinion from a guy who dates a corporate lawyer and has only lived with corporate lawyers: if I could change one thing about the modern music industry, it would be to force a mandatory rights education on business leaders to ensure that legal fees are only covered when they need it.

The music industry’s professionals and companies do not generate enough money as it is now, and treating as much as they do to lawyers in unnecessary situations is a constant pain in my spine.Music business all over the world