Web3 is creating a new genre of NFT-powered music

by · September 14, 2022

Music-related use cases for Web3 technologies are piling up as the industry ramps up adoption. From the democratization of royalties for song rights and blockchain licensing to legacy companies like Sony Entertainment filing patents for non-workable token-authenticated music.

While electronic dance music and pop seem to get the most attention when it comes to NFT music, they even make a difference in more traditional areas like opera.

But just like any new and innovative tool, there are creators who live off the hype. This is often seen with “shitcoins” and pump-and-dump NFT projects, both of which have little or no value or long-term utility.

As music NFTs become more popular, the hype follows. Hundreds of music NFT projects are popping up on Twitter, creating what can be seen as almost a sub-genre of NFT music.

All the hype raises the question: What comes first, the music or the desire to create a music NFT?

Cointelegraph spoke with creators in the music NFT industry to answer this chicken and egg question and understand this new genre.

Related: Experts explain how music NFTs will improve the connection between creators and fans

Adrien Stern, CEO and founder of Reveel, a web3 revenue sharing platform for musicians, said that right now NFTs are actually breaking genres rather than creating them.

“Music NFTs are an anti-genre. We see much more diversity and creative freedom in NFTs – as if artists are finally free to create for the sake of creating and not to fit the algorithms.”

Before the NFTs, the next wave of internet musicians was creating music for virality in short video clips. “There is no doubt that artists have been liberated creatively by NFTs. They no longer need to write music that works on a 30-second TikTok video, says Stern.

An example can be seen with NFT musician Sammy Arriaga, who leveraged his internet community on TikTok and Twitter to sell out over 4,000 music NFTs.

Another NFT musician and blockchain music label creator, Thomas ‘Pip’ Pipolo, told Cointelegraph that his artistic passion for music comes before anything else.

“The drive to create music and then use NFTs as an artistic tool to have an actual product to sell to fans and investors is what motivates me.”

But when it comes to music being hyped up for NFT creation, Pipolo says that good music is good music, and bad music is bad music, whether in Web2 or Web3:

“What I think is important to take away from selling ‘bad’ or ‘lower quality’ music is that artists sell more than their music.”

The importance lies in the technology that allows artists to use available tools like Twitter artists to sell their personalities and stories, while giving fans more credibility as owners and participants rather than mere followers. Pipolo says this: “Irons the playing field for those with the ability but the lack of connections.”

Web3 label founder Jeremy Fall supported this statement, saying that it is certainly not about hype. Even more, the idea is:

“Using technology to be able to create an additional experience around music that people couldn’t get before.”

Fall says musicians have always had a need to incorporate many types of art into their creations – i.e. images, performance, audio, video – and these new Web3 tools allow this.

When it comes to hype, in many of the scenarios surrounding music, the consensus is that it is both deserved and natural. Musicians and Web3 music creators like Pipolo, Fall and Stern all see NFT music as a result of the true power of decentralized technology.