The music industry is another sector that is being revolutionized by Web3. This new technology is focused on decentralization and spreading its effects to various sectors.
In the traditional music industry, artists face challenges such as low income, transparency, and little control over how their work is shared or sold. Up to 80% of streaming revenue is controlled by centralized Web2 platforms, with the remaining 20% going to labels and artist management. As a result, artists receive little to no compensation for their work.
Web3 music platforms are making an effort to solve these issues. Compared to their predecessors, many of the new Web3 music platforms are decentralized and give artists more autonomy.
These Web3 music services utilize blockchain technology to connect fans with their favourite artists. In addition to merely allowing listeners to access ever-expanding databases of music NFTs, they also provide a wide range of special incentives and benefits to both artists and consumers.
This article provides an in-depth review of some of the leading Web3 platforms currently available to musical artists and producers, outlining each platform’s key features and benefits.
From blockchain-enabled streaming services to decentralized distribution networks, this article covers the top Web3 platforms that could revolutionize how music is made, shared, and monetized.
The Best Web3 Platforms For Music Artists and Producers
The emergence of Web3 music platforms has revolutionized the music industry. In this new digital landscape, many opportunities are available for artists, producers, and other creatives to make their mark in the music industry.
From audio streaming services to video streaming platforms and music NFT marketplaces, there is no shortage of innovative and cutting-edge platforms to explore. The power of Web3 technology has allowed these platforms to significantly impact the industry, offering a unique and exciting opportunity to create, market, and share music with the world.
We’ve compiled a list of the most exciting Web3 music platforms currently dominating the charts, which includes:
- Audius
- Catalog
- Glass.xyz
- Emanate
- Royal
- Sound
Audius
Audius was founded in 2018 by Forrest Browning and Roneil Rumburg. It is a blockchain-based decentralized music streaming service. The goal of the project is to offer music creators and curators more control over their works. Audius enables creators to create blockchain-secured, immutable records for their work..
This music streaming platform sidesteps the middlemen in the traditional music industry by linking musicians with their audience directly. Artists own their music and have complete control over how it is monetized on the site. They can offer their songs for free distribution or charge fans a fee to access exclusive material. The number of times a song is played has no bearing on an artist’s earnings.
Audius, unlike other music streaming platforms, does not deduct a percentage of an artist’s sales earnings. 90% of sales can be paid to music curators in AUDIO, Audius’ native cryptocurrency. The remaining 10% goes to investors that support the Audius network.
Catalog
Catalog is a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace designed exclusively for the music industry. Its goal is to help artists reclaim ownership of their music by facilitating direct communication between artists and fans. It is one of the best marketplaces designed specifically for creating, discovering, using, and exchanging audio NFTs.
Catalog pays artists 100% of sales and a percentage of every resale without taking anything. Artists can set their prices without consulting publishers or paying expensive agent fees. Furthermore, artists are not required to relinquish their copyrights in the process.
Fans, on the other hand, are confident that the person they purchase the music from is a genuine artist, not someone who has stolen the music. This is because Catalog employs a unique verification process to eliminate copyright violations and piracy.
To determine the worth of their work, artists can set their creator fees as well as purchase prices. Fans can place bids using any ERC20, Ethereum-based cryptocurrency ($AUDIO or $USDC, for example) and add a “slice” to their offers.
Artists have the option to accept any bid at any time; they may prefer a lower offer from another artist or a group of fans over a crypto whale. This gives them the option to take into account a buyer’s reputational value in addition to their immediate advantages.
Glass.xyz
Glass.xyz is a decentralized video platform/protocol with transparent monetization. It’s a platform where musicians can list their music videos and other video assets for NFT sales. Creators can monetize their videos as NFTs on the video platform Glass.
To apply to be a creator on Glass, you’d need to join their Discord server and fill out the “create” form on the website’s homepage.
Videos of any length, including 4K and 5K resolution, can be uploaded to the Glass platform. Glass archives its videos on Arweave, so they cannot be removed once uploaded.
The initial fees charged by Arweave are modest, and the minting fee is determined by the blockchain on which the NFT is issued (Ethereum or Solana).
However, the length of the video is a factor in the pricing equation; the longer the video, the more expensive it will be to upload.
The NFT can be sold to creators as a single item or as a collection. If the one-of-one option is chosen, the creator can hold an auction for the NFT.
When the auction is over, 90% of the money earned on the ETH blockchain or 97.5% on the SOL blockchain is immediately transferred to the creator’s wallet. The remainder goes to the Glass Treasury, which funds the platform’s ongoing development and marketing.
Emanate
Emanate is a music streaming service that operates on the EOSIO blockchain. The platform allows customers to listen to music while paying artists in cryptocurrency for each stream, similar to established Web2 streaming services such as Spotify, iTunes, and Google Play.
Emanate allows artists to earn cryptocurrency in the form of the EMT token, which can be exchanged for USD or other fiat currencies.
Musicians can use Emanate to upload and publish their music without the involvement of record labels, distributors, or aggregators. However, listeners will have to pay a monthly fee to stream and download entire music tracks.
In contrast to other platforms that are more simply focused on the dissemination of new music to end users, the goal of Emanate is to build a collaborative network around a music streaming service that is used at all stages of the creation process.
Emanate’s infrastructure intends to build confidence in cross-collaborations between artists by leveraging smart contracts to assign intellectual property declarations and royalty splits while the composition process is still in progress.
The platform aims to foster greater collaboration among music producers during the composition process rather than simply providing a platform for musicians to post their work and earn money from streams. Musicians can upload their tracks to the platform either through Emanate Distro or manually.
Royal
Royal is a US-based platform that sells music rights as limited digital assets. It was established in 2021 and has its headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company was founded by JD Ross, a co-founder of Opendoor, and DJ and electronic music producer Justin “3LAU” Blau.
Royal enables musicians to compose music, convert it into non-fungible tokens (NFT), and sell it using limited digital asset (LDA) technology. This allows fans to invest in musicians and receive royalties from them. Royal also allows fans to utilize rewards and incentives selected by the musician whose song they own.
Royal pioneers a new concept in the music industry by allowing fans to invest in their favourite music and earn royalties when it is streamed. Essentially, artists share ownership of their music with their audience while maintaining greater control over it.
Fans who purchase a song or album through Royal receive a portion of the streaming royalty rights and access extra perks like concert tickets and merchandise, among other things.
Sound.xyz
Sound.xyz is a Web3 streaming service that allows customers to stream NFT music directly from the websites of their favourite musicians—additionally, Sound.XYZ features a built-in wallet, allowing users to keep all their NFTs in one place.
Sound allows musicians to release new music as a set of NFTs. The NFT is numbered differently for each edition so listeners can indicate their early support. Fans are encouraged to discover new music early because earlier versions are valued higher than later editions.
Sound NFTs allow access to the Sound community on Discord, where musicians and fans engage in weekly hangouts, team projects, and other activities.
Sound.xyz is a streaming service that also features minting and community listening. Artists can use limited-edition NFTs to start a listening party for new song releases on Sound. The artists receive 100% of the proceeds from the sale. The platform is invite-only and is still in beta.
In Conclusion
- Web3 is gaining traction in the music industry, and early adopters stand to benefit significantly.
- The Web3 music platforms outlined in this article are poised to overtake Web2 services such as Spotify or Apple Music in the near future. This is due to the fact that these platforms give artists complete control over their content while remaining decentralized.
- Web3 music platforms offer special incentives and benefits to consumers, music artists, and producers.
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