The music industry continues to find inventive ways to integrate decentralized technology into new releases to benefit both artists and their fans.
Electronic dance music (EDM) artist R3HAB and blockchain-based music community anotherblock released a single on Friday with the idea of “democratizing music rights.” The nonfungible token (NFT) included in the drop allows holders to earn royalties based on streaming popularity.
The single, “Weekend on a Tuesday,” debuted bundled with an exclusive NFT. Each of the 250 NFTs available entitles the holder to a 0.02% share in the streaming revenue. Anotherblock’s platform provides a value tracking tool so holders can estimate payouts and overall value.
Many artists have been using digital assets as a way to connect with their fan base through extra exclusives tied to the NFT. Typically, extras include artwork, additional music or behind-the-scenes material.
Anotherblock CEO Michel D. Traore told Cointelegraph that this way of implementing NFTs allows those who create value around songs to take part in receiving some of it back.
“Music rights’ value is created by people loving and listening to the music, and doing things with it. Why shouldn’t [they] be able to own rights if they create the value by listening to it. They should be able to get some of the upside as well.”
The idea behind this vision of spreading the value from primarily record labels and music catalogs to include more of the artists themselves and also the fans can be looked at as a “democratization” of the music industry.
“The middle ground of more and more people owning rights is what’s missing today, and I think lead to positive effects.”
While it’s easiest to introduce these ideas with larger artists like R3HAB and Steve Aoki, this only paves the way for up-and-coming artists to enter into the industry with these ideas prior to committing to a restrictive contract.
Related: Musician Grimes’ debut NFT auction generates $5.8M in 20 minutes
In an interview with Cointelegraph R3HAB…
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