Warner Music Group launches partnership with OpenSea

Warner Music Group — the mega-label conglomerate that counts Cardi B, Madonna, Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran among its countless signed artists — announced Thursday that it would partner with NFT marketplace OpenSea to accelerate artists’ expansion to Web3.

The collaboration will provide Warner Music artists with early access to new OpenSea products, improved visibility on the NFT market, and dedicated and featured sections of the OpenSea website for upcoming NFT projects. Artists will also receive specialized support from OpenSea team members to help both in expanding their Web3 fan bases, and in integrating existing fan communities into the NFT space.

“Our collaboration with OpenSea helps to facilitate these [fan] community by unlocking Web3 tools and resources to build opportunities for artists to establish deeper engagement, access and ownership,” Warners Chief Digital Office Oana Ruxandra said in a statement.

The first NFT collection to emerge from the partnership will come from Warner Records in collaboration with celebrity chef Jeremy Fall’s web3 startup, Probably Nothing.

Fall confirmed to Decrypt that the debut Warner Music/OpenSea collaboration will be a NFT Label Passes release for Probably A Label, the Web3 label he launched last month with Warner Records.

The NFT Label Pass will allow holders to license songs from a members-only music library, to create and own interests in community-generated, IP-backed virtual artiststo attend exclusive live events such as artist meetings and dinners with music executives, and to gain access to Probably A Label’s upcoming music releases.

Core to Probably A Label’s mission is to leverage Web3 technology to allow artists and their fans to reclaim music ownership rights. Fall believes that Warner Music – a titan in the traditional music industry – is proving to be a good partner in this endeavour.

“They’re the kind of big labels that are trying to get into the space the right way, and adapt to the current climate, what the culture looks like now,” Fall said Decrypt. “They’re for the artists and pushing the IP conversation forward.”

In addition to music-related benefits, the NFT Label Pass will also grant holders access to Studio A and Studio B, IP incubators that allow participants to pitch projects leveraging their ownership of select blue-chip NFTs such as Bored Apes and Cryptopunks—which the studio can choose to develop, finance, market and cosign.

“It’s great that people in the NFT space are getting IP ownership,” Fall said Decrypt. “But if you don’t know what to do with it, it’s pretty useless.”

Other major labels have been racing to expand their web3 presence and leverage Web3-related IP in recent months. In May, Universal Music Group signed an agreement to allow artists to release NFTs on music-centric NFT marketplace LimeWire. Earlier this month, Universal tapped Beyoncé’s music producers to manage Kingship, a virtual band based on Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT artwork.