Shalini Nagarajan

The music industry has changed drastically in recent years, from how sound is recorded to how it’s distributed to fans, and how artists make money.



Big Tech names such as Spotify, Apple and Amazon have been at the forefront of the music streaming industry for a long time, attracting consumers by the millions. But musicians haven’t always had a smooth relationship with these platforms.&nbsp;



Taylor Swift famously yanked her music from Spotify in 2014, arguing that the platform undervalued her work and that of other writers and producers.



“I just don&#8217;t agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free,” she <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/blogs/music-news/exclusive--taylor-swift-on-being-pop-s-instantly-platinum-wonder----and-why-she-s-paddling-against-the-streams-085041907.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a> Yahoo.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I thought, ‘I will try this; I&#8217;ll see how it feels.’ It didn&#8217;t feel right to me.”



Swift was also at the center of controversy when Ticketmaster&#8217;s website prevented hundreds of thousands of fans from buying tickets to her upcoming tour, highlighting the problems of centralization in the ticketing industry and amplifying calls for decentralized alternatives.



Streaming platforms have also often been criticized for not offering enough financial support to independent and lesser-known artists, who have a tough time making a living from streaming royalties alone.



Many musicians have turned to Web3, offering fans new forms of engagement other than just listening to their music. True fans would rather own collectible music, so just as you would open Spotify to crank your favorite tunes, you can just as easily buy a music NFT and become something like an investor in the project.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/the-investors-guide-to-music-nfts">The Investor’s Guide to Music NFTs</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mastercard Music Pass</h2>



Under an <a href="https://artistaccelerator.mastercard.com/?cmp=2023.q2.glo.glo.cons.brand.purp.others.maa_newsroom.1.oweb.txt.others.music" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Artist Accelerator</a> program, Mastercard launched a free <a href="https://newsroom.mastercard.com/news/perspectives/2023/why-we-re-dropping-an-nft-to-help-emerging-musicians/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Music Pass NFT</a> that gives holders certain benefits including exclusive Web3 music tools, learning opportunities and experiences with artists. The payments giant is partnering with Polygon for users to join and mint their free music pass.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Audius adds NFT gating</h2>



Decentralized music community <a href="https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Audius-Introduces-NFT-Gating-to-Platform.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Audius</a> added NFT-gating to its platform recently. The feature allows artists to give only certain NFT collectors the option to access certain songs and mixes.



Users would have to link a third-party wallet like Metamask or Phantom to their Audius wallet to enable NFT-gating.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Winamp-inspired Web3 music app</h2>



<a href="https://www.alchemy.com/dapps/spinamp#:~:text=Artists%20are%20collaborating%20on%20novel,Get%20started%20now" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spinamp</a>, a music NFT aggregation platform, is an easy-to-use popular app that seems to have become the preferred way to check out music in Web3. With a clean user interface and retro visual style, the product supports Ethereum, Polygon and Solana to convert music NFTs into audible files. When a user clicks on “Collections,” Spinamp collates and displays all the music NFTs stored on your crypto wallet.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Sound Swap</h2>



Web3 music project Sound recently announced a DeFi-inspired feature allowing users to sell editions of their favorite songs and optimizes earnings for musicians.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The <a href="https://sound.mirror.xyz/sZSBTW1J4MS-6LQsVklaXaGceeC-kDIcUSDCHvTEqws" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">functionality</a> allows for one-click collection and sales of music NFT editions, allowing collectors to mint editions even after a primary sale is over. NFT drops conducted through Sound Swap begins with a 24-hour open edition release, and each edition is priced at 0.005 ETH. Musicians get to earn 95% of the proceeds at this primary phase. The project rewards collections for being early.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Tuning In NFTs</h2>



Web3 collective <a href="https://www.tuninginnfts.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tuning In NFTs</a>, launched in January, hopes to support upcoming and independent artists. It aims to be a community-centric platform, prioritizing how independent artists are discovered and supported.



“I was interacting with these artists and realized how much they were laboring,” founder Samantha Stein said.&nbsp;



&#8220;Their focus is creating music, yet they are forced to concentrate on sales and marketing. I felt like I could do something to help artists, so I founded a community that acts as a venue for artists to exhibit their work and establish a direct connection with music fans.&#8221;



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5 Music NFT Use Cases You May Have Missed

LimeWire, the once-popular file sharing app now rebooted as an NFT marketplace, wants to recreate the early 2000s — when pirated music was at its most popular — but with a crypto twist.



The platform, resurrected by Austria-based entrepreneurs Paul and Julian Zehetmayr in mid-2022, has launched a simulation game that allows players to download nostalgic music considered popular two decades ago.



LimeWire’s game mimics its former life as a Windows XP program, complete with “rolling greens” aesthetic.&nbsp;



In order to participate, players will be required to enter their email addresses, which will be used to track scores and send information on potential prize collections after the game.



Players can search for music and films from the 2000s and will be allowed to &#8216;download&#8217; as many as they can in order to collect points. But download a file with a &#8216;virus&#8217; in it, and the game will end. Decrypt first reported the news.



The game will only be available until May 15. The top 1,000 players scoring the highest will be rewarded with LimeWire’s upcoming ERC-20 token, LWMR, which can eventually be used to purchase NFTs.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="2880" height="1636" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-52046" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=2880 2880w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=2048 2048w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=459 459w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=386 386w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Screen-Shot-2023-04-13-at-14.01.59.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Look familiar?</figcaption></figure>



LimeWire&#8217;s token <a href="https://lmwr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">public sale</a> is scheduled for next month, having already been backed by the likes of GSR, Arrington Capital and Kraken Ventures, per its website.



Examples of suspicious downloads include file types that end in “.exe,” overly large files, or corrupt file names. In its heyday, LimeWire was well-liked for helping users download music and movies free of cost, but ultimately, it was synonymous with computer viruses.



Remember, the download doesn’t actually fetch a player the real file — it’s just a game.



The LimeWire platform was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/can-limewire-brand-juice-adoption-of-new-nft-based-music-marketplace" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revived</a> after the Zehetmayrs bought the brand’s intellectual property in 2021, with the intention of rebranding it into a music-focused NFT marketplace.



Unlike NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea or Rarible, LimeWire acknowledges that some customers would still like to purchase NFTs with fiat currencies.



“To be clear, we are big fans of decentralization,” co-CEO Julian Zehetmayr previously told Blockworks. “At the same time, we believe the market just isn’t ready yet for fully decentralized platforms to be appealing and usable for the mainstream.”&nbsp;



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LimeWire Will Pay You Crypto For ‘Downloading’ Pirated ‘Music’

Media giant Warner Music Group plans to lay off 4% of its global workforce, meaning 270 employees would lose their jobs, but positions related to Web3 could be retained.



CEO Robert Kyncl told employees it would reallocate resources towards “new tech initiatives,” and that the company will reduce discretionary spending, according to a memo seen by Variety.&nbsp;



The group is the third-largest label in the global music industry and represents some of the world’s best-known clients including Beyonce, Jay-Z, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay. Kyncl didn’t specify which divisions would be cutting jobs, but he said the move did not indicate a “blanket cost-cutting exercise.”



“Every decision has been made thoughtfully by our operators around the world, who considered the specific needs, skills, and priorities of each label, division, and territory, in order to set us up for long-term success,” he <a href="https://variety.com/2023/music/news/warner-music-to-lay-off-270-staffers-hard-choices-evolve-1235567703/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>. Blockworks has reached out for comment.&nbsp;



Kyncl added that “new business models are constantly emerging,” creating a path for innovative opportunities. Warner Music would “likely” keep employees working in the group’s Web3 and AI initiatives, Decrypt reported.



Warner Music&#8217;s UK arm separately announced a string of <a href="https://www.wmg.com/news/warner-music-uk-announces-series-of-strategic-changes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">strategic changes</a> on Wednesday. Among those updates, the brand said that London-based executive Sebastian Simone will “continue his innovative work in Web3 and the metaverse” as Vice President of Community.



Under Simone’s leadership, Warner Music announced the launch of a Web3 record label called “Probably A Label” in collaboration with TV chef Jeremy Fall in October. The label sold out a collection of 5,555 NFT access passes at launch in seven minutes, according to <a href="https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2022/10/12/warner-records-imprint-probably-a-label-web3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Digital Music News</a>.



Among other Web3 collaborations, Warner Music <a href="https://twitter.com/Blockworks_/status/1575509586496323585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">partnered</a> with NFT marketplace OpenSea in September to expand engagement with artist fan communities. The company also <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/music-nfts-beat-the-bear" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banded together</a> with Polygon and digital collectible marketplace LGND Music to connect with fans for curated experiences.



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Warner Music Web3 Moves Could Still Be in Play Despite Layoffs

Ben Strack

The longest-running independent music streaming service is making a Web3 push.



Napster is doing so through the acquisition of an NFT marketplace, the company said on Wednesday — the first in a planned series of acquisitions to speed up its ambitions in the sector.&nbsp;



The streaming service has finalized a deal to buy Mint Songs, a platform that helps music artists build Web3 communities, mint songs and offer exclusive art to fans. Exact terms were not disclosed.



Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos told Blockworks the natural next step for the company was to include collectibles that fans can purchase or get as rewards for engaging with artists.



“Given Mint Songs has already built and operated one of the leading collectible marketplaces, the acquisition will allow us to get this new feature rolled out to our base quickly so that we can offer our global artist and label partners an easy way to mint and present collectibles to their fans and earn a new revenue stream,” Vlassopulos said.



Mint Songs co-founder Garrett Hughes will join Napster as an advisor. Nate Pham, a former head of product for Mint Songs, is set to lead the acquiring company’s Web3 product initiatives.&nbsp;



Founded in 1999, Napster now offers more than 100 million tracks to subscribers.



“As we looked for a partner that could take what we’ve built over the last two years and give artists a true marketplace for their assets where millions of fans are already active, it became abundantly clear that Jon and Napster have the vision to finally take Web3 music to the mainstream,” Hughes said in a statement Wednesday.&nbsp;



The acquisition comes after blockchain company Algorand and crypto investment firm Hivemind <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6929792306673815553/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bought Napster</a> last year “to once again revolutionize the music industry by bringing blockchain and Web3 to artists and fans,” according to a LinkedIn post at the time.



Hivemind was also involved in competing music service LimeWire’s $10 million <a href="https://blog.limewire.com/limewire-raises-over-10-million-in-private-token-sale-led-by-kraken-ventures-arrington-capital-and-gsr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">private token sale</a> just before that, led by Kraken Ventures, Arrington Capital and GSR. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/can-limewire-brand-juice-adoption-of-new-nft-based-music-marketplace">LimeWire said</a> at the time it would soon launch a digital collectibles marketplace.



Napster outlined plans to apply Web3 technology to its existing business in June, saying that a new entity — Napster Innovation Foundation — would issue Napster tokens using the Algorand blockchain protocol.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/latest-in-crypto-hiring-napster-names-ceo-to-lead-web3-journey">Napster then hired Vlassopulos</a>, the former global head of music at gaming platform Roblox, as its chief executive last September.&nbsp;



Vlassopulos told Blockworks Napster is not done with buying, referring to the surge of recent innovation across Web3 and the metaverse sectors, as well as digital music and artificial intelligence initiatives.&nbsp;



“Napster feels it can be a great partner to bring many of these new features and business models to the mainstream under an iconic brand,” Vlassopulos said. “We will continue to expand our Web3 and community features both organically and through acquisition or partnerships with best-of-breed tech partners.”



As for the Napster token, a spokesperson said the company is planning to launch it this year, but declined to comment further.



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Napster Begins Planned Acquisition Spree Amid Shift to Web3

Sebastian Sinclair

K-pop girl group TripleS has launched its latest album using a non-fungible token (NFT) governance process — leveraging the Polygon blockchain —- to curate select parts of its creative decisions from expectant fans.



Fans had a say in determining the title track for the group’s eight-track album &#8220;ASSEMBLE&#8221; via a voting event known as a “Gravity,” according to a <a href="https://chainwire.org/2023/02/14/girl-group-triples-makes-a-k-pop-splash-with-fan-curated-album/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> on Tuesday. 



During the event, which takes place on the group’s official “Cosmo: the Origin” app, fans were able to vote using COMO, a type of currency obtained through exclusive NFT photo cards known as “<a href="https://triples.fandom.com/wiki/Objekt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">objeckts</a>.” 



Those are then stored on Polygon Labs, Hashed and Near Protocol-backed Ramper, a Web3 non-custodial wallet that doesn’t require downloads, browser extensions or seed phrases.



Fans receive one COMO for every objekt they obtain. COMO, in turn, provides users governance voting rights for future activities of the group, including picking the names of songs that end up first on the list of future albums.



From Dec. 1-8, 2022, fans used the Cosmo app to vote between two songs each day in a tournament format. Song “Beam” emerged as the winner in the final round, making it the lead track of &#8220;Assemble&#8221;. Throughout the voting period, roughly 57,340 COMO governance tokens were cast, the statement reads.



Unlike DAOs whose voting takes place on-chain, COMO are collected and cast privately off-chain via the app which are later recorded at the end of the voting period.



In addition to picking which tracks make the cut, fans also get to participate in each season’s sub-unit of the group known as a “Dimension” — typically every three months.&nbsp;



A Dimension sees 24 members of the group rotating on an album-by-album basis to form a group within a group, usually comprising five to 10 members.



If a particular group manages to sell over 100,000 albums, its lineup and unit name are preserved, allowing select members from the pool of 24 to make a comeback. Otherwise, the group is disbanded and the process starts again.



Jeong Byeong-gi, CEO of Web3 project and promotor of TripleS, Modhaus, said during an interview with <a href="https://www.coindeskkorea.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=78441" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CoinDesk Korea</a> last year NFTs were not the focal point.



“Rather than NFT-centered governance, we are trying to focus on creating a service that any fan can participate in,” he said. “If you do that, I think the value will be naturally given.”



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K-pop Girl Group TripleS Dances to Tune Fans Vote Via NFT-inspired Governance

Royalties of singer Rihanna’s smash hit song “Bitch better have my money” are being sold as non-fungible tokens, and the collection sold out within minutes of the announcement.



The song’s producer Jamil “Deputy” Pierre collaborated with European crypto startup AnotherBlock to sell a fraction of his own streaming rights to the song via 300 NFTs.&nbsp;



Each of the NFTs were being sold at $210, giving each collector ownership of 0.0033% of the streaming royalties to the song. <a href="https://etherscan.io/token/0xCB8399D84e17fD5B4e955C716647c7BB2C35Ab63" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Etherscan data</a> shows transfers made of the token.



As all NFTs were sold rapidly, AnotherBlock was able to snap up $63,000 in revenue immediately. Holders will receive their first royalty payouts on Feb. 16, the company <a href="https://twitter.com/anotherblock_io/status/1623732262071160832" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> on Thursday.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">sold out in a few minutes on the allowlist sale our community is absolutely amazing without you guys this would never have been possible ▪️ our upcoming pipeline of music drops is absolutely amazing rest assured ▪️ the 16th of feb our first holders will receive the first payout <a href="https://t.co/pCPSOopvsV">pic.twitter.com/pCPSOopvsV</a>&mdash; anotherblock ◼️ (@anotherblock_io) <a href="https://twitter.com/anotherblock_io/status/1623732262071160832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Andreas Bigert, head of community and growth at AnotherBlock, <a href="https://twitter.com/bigert/status/1623726295245807620" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> he owns a piece of the streaming rights to the Rihanna song and will receive royalties when it is streamed “for life.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Bitch better have my money” is set to become the startup’s biggest NFT drop, barely six months after its <a href="https://www.mynewsdesk.com/anotherblock/pressreleases/r3hab-and-laidback-luke-genesis-drop-out-today-on-music-royalty-nft-marketplace-anotherblock-3198484">first</a> in August, according to a press release. The value of AnotherBlock’s music rights catalog has jumped by some 16% since its first launch.



The song has streamed over 673 million times on Spotify, and collectors can expect to pocket returns of between 6.1% and 6.8% in the first year, according to <a href="https://anotherblock.io/rihanna-bitch-better-have-my-money" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">figures</a> seen on AnotherBlock’s website.&nbsp;



The drop came ahead of Rihanna’s performance at the Super Bowl half-time show this Sunday. She <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64545100" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a> told a press conference she hasn’t been on stage for seven years.



NFTs are becoming extremely popular in the music business, as royalties are one of the best use cases of digital collectibles. Several artists now working on their own NFT collections. <a href="https://decrypt.co/100168/chainsmokers-new-album-nft">The Chainsmokers</a> and <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/diplo-nft-drop-will-give-away-20-of-royalties-to-his-new-song">Diplo</a> are among musicians that have tokenized their music.



Other platforms selling song rights as NFTs that are gaining in popularity include <a href="https://www.one37pm.com/nft/royal-music-nfts" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal</a>,<a href="http://sound.xyz" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Sound.xyz</a> and <a href="https://beta.catalog.works/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Catalog</a>.



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Rihanna NFTs Enable Holders To Earn When This Song Plays

Michael Bodley

Web3 used to think it could take on Spotify.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Scores of up-and-coming streaming services not so long ago genuinely believed their motley assortment of (often brilliant) degens had what it would take to unseat the legacy streaming giant, as well as its competitors: Apple Music, Tidal &amp; Co.&nbsp;



Such bold aspirations ought to be applauded, but they were never fit to last, really.&nbsp;



Now, scratch a record, drop a beat and check today’s top music NFT charts, err projects and startups.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Early days of a revolution</h3>



They’re finding <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/music-nfts-are-helping-independent-creators-monetize-and-build-a-fanbase">niches and real world use cases</a>, funneling down the big business of music into a few key areas that actually move the needle for consumers. They’re after emerging artists and their would-be fans — they would be fans, that is, if they could actually find the tunes.&nbsp;



See, here’s the problem with our Spotify addiction. Here’s the problem when you can cough up ten bucks a month and effortlessly access just about every song ever recorded. Here’s the problem when you — the record label — pay unknown artists a pittance. And here’s the problem when you — the streaming service — pay even Taylor Swift fractions of a cent every time “Shake It Off,” well, shakes it off.&nbsp;



Call it what you will, fellow fans. Inundation of choice. Decision-making paralysis. Music ADD. You know the feeling(s).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



It’s tricky to speak for the likes of artists, emerging Web3 music platforms and traditional record labels (with NFT dealings) driving what is the <a href="https://www.okayplayer.com/music/7-predictions-for-the-music-industry-in-2023.html">early days of revolutionizing</a> a stubborn, sometimes stuck industry. It’s along the same lines of the advent, and ensuing mass adoption, of streaming services — which broke the mold of the music every bit as much as Steve Jobs introducing the iPod and the Walkman hitting the streets for the first time.&nbsp;



No small number of the most innovative startups — the vanguard of what they hope will go down as a seismic shift in how we listen and to whom we tune in to — are embracing a model that isn’t exactly Web3-or-bust (the same way it’s Bitcoin-or bust-for maxis, and the same way it’s crypto-or-bust for the crowd that can’t stand Wall Street lifting one finger when it comes to digital assets.)&nbsp;&nbsp;



One idea is, rather, to take the smarter elements of what we’ll call Web2 music, refine them further for crypto’s plugged-in masses and weave in a number of savvy blockchain-based applications to collectively power a genuinely new thing.



There’s also the reverse approach: start with a Web3 base, then incorporate traditional artistic elements that have historically worked well (or at least worked OK) for both artists and fans, plus the growing number of counterparties that have increasingly crept between them.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">‘Listen to earn’ on up n’ up</h3>



Here’s one example of one of those promising ideas. SAN, an emerging “listen-to-earn” NFT platform with a hardware twist. Its founders are betting they can tackle one of those <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/music-nfts-beat-the-bear">long-standing music industry dilemmas</a>: how to discover the artists you’ve never heard of — and compensate those yet-to-make-it-big vocalists accordingly and appropriately.&nbsp;



SAN also aims to incentivize its users and includes mechanisms to protect their privacy, an overture to growing concerns centered around Web3 safety. That hardware twist? High-end headphones crafted by David Leung, formerly a key engineering executive behind the original incarnation of Beats by Dre.&nbsp;



Leung has pioneered shipping models to interested audiophiles and is preparing to ramp things up this year. For the hardware, it’s the “little tech things” that are important, he said: ergonomics, for one, down to the “seal in the ear.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



But the headphones, bass-bumping as they may be, are still just “one single piece in our roadmap,” Leung told Blockworks.&nbsp;



There’s a longer-term play, one that hinges upon aggressively going out and grabbing a significant slice of the burgeoning sector. Leung, who knows the likes of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, drew a snappy parallel for SAN’s road ahead.&nbsp;



Remember Pokémon Go? The app that took over the streets of Manhattan and most any big city you’d care to name, seemingly out of nowhere, going on a decade or so ago?&nbsp;



SAN needs to “constantly update and build in more value over time” for both its headphones and its NFT-streaming platform as a whole, per Leung. One key way to do that — and one SAN is working on refining — is to get to the point where “you walk down the street, and you find sounds and find songs where you can only listen to the newest track in a certain area. Like Pokémon Go, no?”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Put another way: “Take real-life music experiences and integrate them into what is typically a solo experience,” Leung said.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What Web3 Makes Possible</h3>



“A lot of people think that music NFTs are gonna’ topple the big, bad giants of the music industry. And the reality is that that’s going to take quite some time. As opposed to trying to take down … the labels in the traditional industry, the way that music NFTs are going to shape the industry is in the form of a Trojan horse.”



Well said, Gino The Ghost — a pseudonym for a fellow who lives in Hollywood and has dabbled in a little bit of everything, music-wise. He’s written for the Chainsmokers, produced for a number of big-name musicians, and has delved heavily into the music NFT world.&nbsp;



It’s all ultimately about what Web3 allows for, he said&nbsp; — and whether the labels may as well be lobsters in a pot in front of a digital assets-driven steamroller, as well as how much of music now is like “fast fashion,” how there’s “a lot of it,” how it’s “here, then it’s gone.’



“You know, it’s built in shitty warehouses, and the fabric sucks, and that’s polluting everything, right?” Gino said. “And, so, that trickles down from the very top to the very bottom. So, the fan experience is shit, too, because they’re not actually connecting with the music or the artists.”&nbsp;



None of this is intended as an indictment or generalization of today’s artists, by the way. In some ways, there’s more truly needle-moving musicians dishing out unique sounds than ever. In others, those same innovators have been suppressed by record label culture and real struggles when it comes to figuring out how to scale Spotify’s charts, crack the Top 40 or even just cultivate a following.



Speaking of Spotify, the streaming giant has <a href="https://hypebeast.com/2022/5/spotify-tests-new-feature-artists-display-sell-nfts">reportedly</a> explored its own NFTs, which would allow artists to display and sell digital collectibles to support their work.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">OMG to Music DAOs&nbsp;</h3>



If you’re looking for a real-life and related use case, look no further than omgkirby, one of the earlier — and, now, one of the more successful — melody-oriented DAOs. The decentralized collective, headed by an anonymous music industry veteran, pumps out synthy twists of popular tracks.



It’s been a big business, supporting a slew of nascent artists and their fans. That’s true in a number of Web3 ways, including spinning up <a href="https://nft.coinbase.com/nft/ethereum/0x480711809d2c4622fe3f7ef09ee6a7fe6b8649f1/4136">a series</a> of digital collectibles that have led to a newly sustainable business model. And omgkirby has struck a number of digital asset partnerships, including listing NFTs on OpenSea.&nbsp;



The musician behind the venture said they started the entity after realizing that “music is still an industry that’s run by a lot of archaic and old systems that are kind of clunky,” adding that the sector is set up that way “kind of by design.”



Still, there are Web3 problems aplenty. There are scams and bad actors, rug pulls and general malfeasance.&nbsp;



Those have started to fade in a big way, though, over the last year or so. Even if, as omgkirby said, “We’re still a while away from mass adoption.”&nbsp;



To get there — where and when industry titans either incorporate NFTs into their day-to-day dealings, or else lose their edge — the “fluff in the space,” per omgkirby, is going to require momentum to keep building around use cases that are both (relatively) easy to grasp and easy enough to execute.&nbsp;&nbsp;



A few of the more compelling such cases now include artists recouping royalty payouts on their NFTs; giving fans behind the scenes access to shows and meet and greets; fan-purchased digital collectibles that grant ownership rights (in part or in full) to a song or album’s intellectual property.&nbsp;



The latter is a key component of omgkirby’s platform.&nbsp;



“The idea of creating original music, with the song and dance and machine and algorithm, and fans and holders can own their own song of mine, that they fully own — and can do anything and everything they want to do with it — creates a much deeper connection to any of my fans than I could possibly imagine,” omgkirby said. “In my opinion, it’s probably the deepest connection you could create.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Matt Colon, who has repped artists including Steve Aoki and has more than a decade under his belt when it comes to managing talent, first got into digital assets in 2017 or 2018. That’s when a co-worker at what is now the talent agency YM&amp;U Group got Colon, the firm’s global president of music, into the basics: buying and selling bitcoin.&nbsp;



Colon picked up on the potential for NFTs in music earlier than most. He read the writing on the wall as some of the earliest (and, in hindsight, most notable) instances — including tapping digital collectibles for ownership of physical cassettes and records — started gathering steam. And money.&nbsp;



All of which added up to an unexpected curve ball.



“The labels were playing catch up, trying to understand how they missed this and trying to figure out what their [intellectual property] rights were,” Colon said. “And they had no rights.”



Don’t fight them. Join them. That’s exactly what Colon did, kick-starting a metaverse that used NFTs as a means of “digital authentication of membership in a community network,” a “membership club” meets “frequent flier miles,” situation.&nbsp;



He and his company had tried to do a Web2 version of that membership club that “didn’t work out.” Web3 iterations of Web2 blueprints have a bit of a branding problem. Colon is now engaged in talks with “one of the biggest bands in the world,” which he declined to disclose. That band asked their fans if they wanted NFTs that could have given them a number of perks.&nbsp;



Eighty percent of those fans said no when asked if they wanted NFTs. When the same question was phrased as “digital collectibles,” 70% said yes.



The evolution that even got us to the point where the masses would seriously consider NFTs has been brewing for a while. As Linus Chung, vice president of product at Origin Protocol, put it, “you’re always thinking about how to onboard the masses.”



Chung has worked on multiple NFT music initiatives, and many of them have gone through a number of versions and incremental upgrades before becoming a defined product and finding product market fit. To start, they weren’t even all NFT projects, which Chung rolled out in early 2021 via an app that auctioned off a “digital representation” of a top album by 3LAU, who is now a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2021/03/03/3lau-nft-nonfungible-tokens-justin-blau/?sh=3ff673504643">major player in the sector</a>.&nbsp;



“The original vision, actually, was like a gig economy, like a decentralized Uber or AirBNB,” Chung said. “And we recognized that we were building it really, really early, but when NFTs came out, we really looked at that as a key to really accelerate our vision, right?”&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="3LAU on How NFTs Will Disrupt the Entire Music Industry" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/52Hu0ihA3II?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



SAN’s vision is an interesting one.&nbsp;



Here’s how it works: Users mint an <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nft">NFT</a> to gain access to the platform — SAN Sound — allowing authenticated listeners to tune in, without having to further reveal their identity. After the NFTs are minted, users can either trade the digital collectibles or “soulbind” them, essentially permanently binding the NFT to a wallet, which then functions as a SAN login.&nbsp;



The initial batch of NFTs dropped earlier this quarter, and SAN’s next steps are to get its music platform up and running and roll out physical, wireless headphones, which come with Web3 integrations. One of the Web3-enabled functions: a chip to recognize your wallet to facilitate certain real-world functions and related plug-and-play social features.&nbsp;



SAN has already shipped out models. The general idea is to let fans accrue SAN governance tokens and voting power by listening to artists, which they can then use to promote their favorite musicians on the platform.



The project’s <a href="https://medium.com/@sansound/new-san-sound-whitepaper-ee6102ce151f">whitepaper</a> calls for rewards, earned by artists and their followers, that make use of zero knowledge proofs in a bid to preserve privacy. There’s also a plan in place for fans to earn access to events with artists, as well as integrations with blockchain-based games.&nbsp;



“So, now [emerging artists] have a new revenue model, right?” said James “Flu” Griffin, a former executive with the Harmony blockchain and SAN’s head of partnerships. “They now have a way to reward their super fans, right? That’s what we’re trying to do.”



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">An attempt to solve legacy streaming’s problems</h3>



The startup is designed as a rebuttal of sorts to the legacy streaming industry, where artists earn fractions of a cent per play of their songs on the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. It can be especially tricky for new kids on the rock’ n roll block to win over, and hang onto, loyal listeners. And that sentiment doesn’t take into account an even thornier problem: Getting paid.&nbsp;



And, for the customer, traditional streaming services necessitate entrusting a company with personal data, which is where SAN’s zero knowledge proofs come in.&nbsp;



Also key for SAN is inking deals with promising musicians, including labels that represent emerging artists, according to Devin Marty, SAN’s head of strategy. Marty also previously worked for Harmony.&nbsp;



“We say, ‘Hey, let’s develop a relationship with your 1,600 independent musicians that you have under your roof to say, ‘Hey, can we continue to expand that number?’” Marty said. “Or, can we take some of these lesser-known artists and pump them through [our platform] to get some more data on them to see if the democratizing taste-making service that we’re offering is what people are looking for.”&nbsp;



Artists in SAN’s pipeline include AYO SK3TCH, Flosstradamus, Madzilla and Megan Vice. The growing team’s resumes include stints at BSMNT Labs, Monster and Rainmaker Games.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Finding what works for the artists</h3>



Michael Eckstein, the founder of AllCertified — a startup focused on authorizing digital signatures that have utilities for artists — echoed the sentiment when it comes to tamping down frauds and bad actors. Eckstein has been working with a bunch of indie artists who write their own music and are not represented by a label, such as street musicians — buskers.&nbsp;



The utility for those up-and-coming artists, in Eckstein’s estimation, is intellectual property rights — specifically, an alternative method to generate proceeds for them.&nbsp;



The problem with the traditional route, as he (and Charles Dickens) put it, is that the industry as a whole is split between “the best of times and the worst of times.”&nbsp;



AllCertified works, in sum, by onboarding artists and authenticating “the fixing of their digital signature.” A number of “the more creatives ones,” he said, have been doing an additional layer of tokenization (the NFT version of TradFi’s securitization), which has created an in for “backstage meet or greets&#8221; or a “front of the front row seat at a concert.”



One up-and-coming artist, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfoo6DH6laY">Valentina Cy</a>, told Blockworks she’s carved out a living via Web3, another instance of forgoing the traditional label route, which presented too many pitfalls.



“From very early on, you learn that this is not a business where you can be self-sustained, and you have to have this massive team and work your ass off,” she said. “Even when you do that, you’re not probably going to be able to pay rent, unless you’re selling billions of records.”



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NFTs Are a ‘Trojan Horse’ Coming at Record Labels

Ornella Hernandez

<div id="highlights-block_6319d73558517" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Metaverse trademark registrations through 8 months of 2022 have eclipsed all of 2021</li>
 <li>ENS is the top ETH collection with the most volume on OpenSea within the past seven days</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



This week Blockworks looked at <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/venture-capital-bullish-on-building-gamefi-in-a-bear-market/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the state of the nascent GameFi market</a> and how venture capital is keen on pouring money into it during a bear market.



Additionally, a new Solana NFT collection, y00ts, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/latest-solana-nft-collection-gives-ethereum-nfts-a-run-for-their-money/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has already generated</a> over $7 million worth of secondary sales since Monday despite minting delays.



Blockworks recaps other notable stories that caught the eyes of the Web3 Watch.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Metaverse trademarks are booming</h3>



4,150 trademarks relating to Web3 and the metaverse have been filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) so far in 2022. This is slightly more than twice as many as the total metaverse trademark registrations in all of last year — 1866.



Three major brands have put in their own filings in the past week alone, including carmaker Ford, <a href="https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&amp;state=4804:24nzyj.5.1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">with 19 trademark applications</a> for virtual cars, trucks, vans and clothing, as well as an NFT marketplace.



Sony Music filed trademarks for its Columbia Records logo to be used in association with NFT-backed media including art &amp; music NFTs, music and podcast production as well as artist management and music distribution services.&nbsp;



Luxury goods retailer Hermes also <a href="https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&amp;state=4804:24nzyj.6.7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">filed trademarks</a> for its name to be linked to NFTs, an NFT marketplace, virtual clothing and footwear, fashion shows and cryptocurrencies. It also mentions plans to create game software featuring avatars, alongside plans for user authentication services for e-commerce transactions.



Metaverse and NFT-focused applications are growing all over the world. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) claims to have registered 205 applications using the term “metaverse” in 2022.



The number of NFT-specific applications was 1,277 in 2021, but as of September 2022 there have been 1,157 applications.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">For hoops fans who fancy NFTs</h3>



The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/nba-nbpa-sorare-fantasy-game-release" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">teamed up</a> with French startup Sorare to launch a free-to-play fantasy basketball game this Fall.



Sorare is mostly popular in Europe for its NFT-based fantasy soccer game. After partnering with the Major League Baseball (MLB) association in July, it has now turned to basketball fans as it expands within the US.



This partnership makes Sorare the official NFT fantasy partner of the NBA and gives it the rights to use official NBA league and team logos across its products.



The fantasy game will be released in time for the 2022-23 season and plans to enable fans to buy and sell digital NFT cards representing their favorite players and teams, while putting together a line-up that can earn them points based on the real-life performance of NBA players.



The NBA is no stranger to NFTs and already counts on the Dapper Labs-run NBA Top Shot&nbsp; NFT marketplace where sports fans can buy, sell and trade video clips from basketball games.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">GameStop links up with FTX</h3>



GameStop partnered with FTX, making the video game retailer FTX’s preferred retail partner in the US.



The partnership intends to “introduce more GameStop customers to the crypto exchange’s community and its marketplaces for digital assets,” a press release stated.&nbsp;



While additional details including the financial terms have not been disclosed, one known perk is that GameStop stores will begin selling FTX gift cards.



GameStop recently launched its own NFT marketplace and its own crypto wallet. When the company submitted its Q2 2022 earnings report on Wednesday, however, it noted that any recent financial success may not stem from these new products.



“Revenues earned from our digital asset wallet and NFT marketplace were not material to the condensed consolidated financial statements for the three and six months ended July 30, 2022,” its quarterly SEC filing <a href="https://gamestop.gcs-web.com/static-files/3a9d968d-b9f5-415a-877f-895d5ac83ed3">stated</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Additionally, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ftx-bringing-crypto-swaps-to-reddit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FTX also recently partnered with Reddit and Arbitrum</a> to allow users to pay gas fees on Reddit’s “Community Points” tokens using fiat currency.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">New blockchain game alert&nbsp;</h3>



The top Solana marketplace Magic Eden <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/solana-marketplace-magic-eden-to-offer-ethereum-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recently expanded to the Ethereum blockchain</a>. One of its first ETH NFT mints on the Magic Eden Launchpad includes a collaboration with Web3 game studio Azra Games.



Azra, which recently closed a $15 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), announced plans to launch a collection of profile picture (PFP) NFTs called “The Hopeful,” as part of its upcoming “Legions &amp; Legends” game.&nbsp;



This game is an ETH-powered collectible and combat role-playing game (RPG) set in a sci-fi fantasy universe. The company is led by Mark Otero, former General Manager of EA Capital Games, whose credits include Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes.



Magic Eden recently shifted its focus to gaming by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/web3-watch-gamestop-opens-nft-marketplace-magic-eden-fund-focuses-on-web3-gaming/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">launching a new venture capital fund</a>, dubbed Magic Ventures, that focuses on investments in Web3 games from third parties as well as its own. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Vitalik polls crypto Twitter </h3>



Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1566763265291681793?s=20&amp;t=tUl1e0BorDII4mHyLfgsCg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeting</a> out a slew of polls lately — from personal random questions, like which crypto personality he respects the most, to what a fair price for a 5-letter .eth domain name is. 



In response to the latter, 91,130 participants chimed in and around 50% of the crypto community thinks that the fair price for a 5-letter .eth domain name for 100 years is less than $100. The same goes for .eth domain for 10 years.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">What is a fair price that someone should have to pay to register and unconditionally guarantee ownership of a 5-letter .eth domain for 100 years?&mdash; vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) <a href="https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1566421042872164355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



At the same time, Buterin has called for Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain taxation, suggesting a 3% yearly fee on ENS domain names for the highest bidder.



For example, an investor with $500,000 as the highest bid on their domain should pay a $15,000 taxation annually to maintain ownership. According to him, this would demotivate people from hoarding domains they aren’t using.



ENS has been trading at the top of the secondary sales charts on OpenSea, as the ETH collection with the most volume within the past seven days.



It <a href="https://twitter.com/ensdomains/status/1565374366791057409?s=20&amp;t=QtnSDYyIgx2haUUm3qqE1Q" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">registered</a> 301,000 new .eth domains in August and touts a total of 2.17 million names so far.



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Web3 Watch: GameStop Partners with FTX and Sorare Creates NBA Fantasy Game

Macauley Peterson

<div id="highlights-block_6228dc830aaa1" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>LimeWire, launched in 2000, was a popular peer-to-peer file-sharing service until it was sued out of existence by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2010</li>
 <li>The NFT marketplace will be an artist&#8217;s alternative to Spotify, which pays out notoriously small royalties</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Any music fan born before, say, 1990, probably remembers LimeWire, which grew to prominence in the days of the free MP3-swapping services Napster and BitTorrent.



But music labels considered the service an enabler of wholesale intellectual property theft and sued. After a four-year court battle <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/40191948/Injunction-Lw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">that ended</a> with a “permanent injunction” in New York, the company pulled the peer-to-peer plug on 50 million monthly users.



Now, a pair of Austrian entrepreneurs — brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr —&nbsp; are bringing back LimeWire with a crypto twist. The Zehetmayrs purchased LimeWire’s intellectual property in 2021 for an undisclosed sum, hoping to juice the launch of a new music-focused NFT marketplace.&nbsp;



The project — which is otherwise entirely unrelated to its namesake — is slated to launch in May and allows fans and music collectors to trade music-related assets using NFTs (non-fungible tokens).



The platform differs from major players in the NFT marketplace business today, such as OpenSea and Rarible, in that it is custodial, allowing customers to purchase NFTs with fiat currencies, according to Julian Zehetmayr, LimeWire&#8217;s co-CEO.&nbsp;



“To be clear, we are big fans of decentralization,” <meta charset="utf-8">Zehetmayr told Blockworks. “At the same time, we believe the market just isn&#8217;t ready yet for fully decentralized platforms to be appealing and usable for the mainstream.”



NFTs will be minted on a blockchain — the company declined to specify which until it’s announced later this month — and can be withdrawn to noncustodial wallets.



“We are actually combining the best of both worlds, allowing users to trade decentralized collectibles on an easy-to-use, custodial platform offering fiat payments, easy signup without a wallet, and a very simple and clean user experience,” <meta charset="utf-8">Zehetmayr said.



The plan is to share 90% of primary sales revenue with artists, while LimeWire will take a 10% cut. The platform commission on secondary sales will be lower and earn artists royalty payouts.



There will also be a token, LMWR, issued in the fourth quarter that will allow users to cut down on commission fees, participate in a rewards program and engage in voting and moderation of initiatives.



When LimeWire was shut down in 2010, a US District Court judge <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/oct/27/limewire-shut-down" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">called</a> its service “a massive piracy machine.” (Incidentally, Napster suffered a similar fate in 2002, while BitTorrent survived as a decentralized network, eventually acquired by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/decentralized-blockchain-tron-creates-300m-fund-to-invest-in-gamefi-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Justin Sun</a> in 2018 as part of an effort to boost the Tron ecosystem.)



“Web2” successors, such as Spotify, cut record companies in on the action, but pay artists a small fraction of sales revenues. NFT-based music services are designed to establish the provenance of media assets while equitably distributing revenues, including royalties, to creators.



This story was updated on March 9, 2022 at 1:13 p.m. ET



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Update: March 14, 2022 10:30 a.m. ET:



Limewire <a href="https://twitter.com/limewire/status/1503357103666302983?s=20&amp;t=be5ygf2PEuRcGJGHOrQcfw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> the NFTs will be minted on the <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/?s=algorand" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Algorand</a> blockchain.



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Can LimeWire Brand Juice Adoption of New NFT-based Music Marketplace?

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_6201f17d77026" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Gala Games confirmed Monday it will allocate $5 billion to further its NFT ambitions in the coming year, split between gaming, music, movies and theme park NFTs</li>
 <li>The Gala Games token, GALA, has a fully diluted valuation of $16.73 billion with about 15% of its supply currently circulating</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Blockchain gaming studio Gala Games confirmed Monday it will allocate $5 billion within the next year to expand its NFT offerings.



The startup will begin pouring capital into music, movies and theme park NFTs (non-fungible tokens), a source told Blockworks on Monday. The figure was later confirmed by Gala Games&#8217; President of Blockchain Jason Brink.



Out of the $5 billion allocated to Gala Games&#8217; NFT expansion, $2 billion is expected to go to gaming. A further $1 billion will be allocated for the studio&#8217;s music ambitions, as well as $1 billion for movies. Gala theme park NFTs will pick up the remaining $1 billion.



NFTs are unique crypto assets providing proof of authenticity and ownership. They are tradable on marketplaces including OpenSea and LooksRare. The marketplace value for NFTs hit a staggering $41 billion by the end of 2021.



When asked about the developments, Brink said:



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">&#8220;Those were some of the numbers shared with the Gala Gold community, and we certainly look forward to helping that unfold with the community in the future.&#8221;</blockquote>



Brink declined to comment further on the future plans, saying his studio needed to save &#8220;some stuff for the Gala Gold community.&#8221;



Blockworks&#8217; anonymous source also said rapper Snoop Dogg may release an &#8220;NFT album&#8221; on the platform shortly before the album is released elsewhere as part of the effort.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">When you have an awesome photo opportunity with <a href="https://twitter.com/SnoopDogg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SnoopDogg</a> but the newscast in the background just doesn&#39;t want to behave. <a href="https://t.co/6lpjnaDweH">pic.twitter.com/6lpjnaDweH</a>&mdash; Jason Brink aka BitBender (@BitBenderBrink) <a href="https://twitter.com/BitBenderBrink/status/1490847722487705600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Snoop, who is no stranger to crypto, reportedly began collecting NFTs last year under the pseudonym Cozomo de&#8217; Medici. The artist also posted a <a href="https://twitter.com/SnoopDogg/status/1358141965930426368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1358141965930426368%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.coindesk.com%2Fmarkets%2F2021%2F02%2F07%2Fdogecoin-smokes-its-all-time-high-after-snoop-dogg-becomes-snoop-doge%2F" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweet</a> in February 2021 featuring the head of a Shibu Inu superimposed on his body from his album R&amp;G (Rhythm &amp; Gangsta): The Masterpiece.



&#8220;As for Snoop, keep watching and make sure to pick up his album when it comes out, whether it&#8217;s as an NFT or otherwise,&#8221; said Brink.



Gala Games recently launched a $100 million <a href="https://www.gameinformer.com/2021/12/13/gala-games-announces-100-million-blockchain-fund-alongside-new-play-to-earn-games-from" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blockchain gaming fund</a> with crypto investment firm C2 Ventures focusing on investment in game developers and projects building atop the blockchain.



The platform&#8217;s token, GALA, currently carries a market capitalization of $2.52 billion, and a fully diluted valuation of $16.73 billion, trading at a price of $0.33 per token, <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/gala" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to CoinGecko</a>, down about 60% from its all-time high set on Nov. 26, 2021.



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Gala Games to Plow $5B Into NFT Expansion Efforts

<div id="highlights-block_61b88b9da0361" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>The music industry generates roughly $42 billion in revenue and less than 12% of that goes to artists</li>
 <li>Daniel Allan, an artist who previously made hundreds of dollars per month from Spotify, is now making thousands after minting NFTs of his music</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



World-renowned music producer Justin Blau sold his <a href="https://nft.3lau.com/#/auction" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first tokenized album</a>, Ultraviolet, as a collection of NFTs for $11.7 million in February. A month later, Kings of Leon made north of $2 million through <a href="https://www.billboard.com/pro/kings-of-leon-nft-sale-2-million-sales-crew-nation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NFT sales</a> of their album, When You See Yourself.&nbsp;



Along with a booming and speculative non-fungible token market for visual art, fashion and even <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/why-investors-are-paying-millions-for-virtual-land-in-the-metaverse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">virtual real estate</a> this year, the demand for tokenized music is notching never-before-seen highs as well.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“There&#8217;s never been a way for [musicians] to mint their own work or provide value directly to the fans while simultaneously being able to pull value directly from their fans [until NFTs],” Austin Virts, head of crypto marketing at Audius, told Blockworks.</blockquote>



Historically, the music industry generates roughly $42 billion in annual revenue and less than 12% goes to artists, according to <a href="https://thedefiant.io/building-the-investable-layer-of-music-by-3lau/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a report</a> from Audius. Additional <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/top-1-percent-streaming-1055005/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data shows</a> that around 90% of streams on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music are from the top 1% of artists. Therefore, most artists get paid fractions of pennies per stream.



Seeking to disrupt this system that has often failed artists, <a href="https://audius.co/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Audius</a> launched a peer-to-peer NFT music streaming service that allows users to upload their own music and monetize through tokens instead of royalties.



Audius allows creators and consumers to both upload and listen to content for free and without a third party. “We provide a UI and a UX, and then everything else on the back end is fully decentralized,” Virts said.&nbsp;



“There hasn’t really been anywhere [until] now for individuals who are not signed to a major record label to develop and grow an audience. Audius [is] utilizing blockchain technology to provide the platform for the 90% of artists who are being pushed around and not catered to by massive record labels.”



Currently, monetization for artists on Audius primarily comes from “trending tracks” on the platform via their token AUDIO. However, Virts said that a major focus moving forward for the platform is finding ways to increase monetization strategies.



“We&#8217;re not here to [just] make these artists millions of dollars,” he said.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“If you&#8217;ve never monetized your music before, and you upload to Audius and make $5,000 to $10,000 in one month, that can be life changing for a lot of people.”</blockquote>



Other startups such as OneOf are challenging the way musicians have historically interacted with their fans as well, co-founder and COO Josh James told Blockworks. The Quincy Jones-backed marketplace allows users to buy NFTs from certain musicians that gives them access to a “vault” where the artist can communicate with the NFT holders. OneOf has sold NFTs for big names such as rapper Pitbull, Doja Cat and Alesso.



“Artists are excited about a new way to connect with their fans, [one that] doesn&#8217;t involve a buffer or a middleman,” James said.



Additionally, the Grammy Awards <a href="https://www.grammy.com/recording-academy/news/music-nft-platform-oneof-announce-exclusive-grammys-awards-nfts-2022-64th-quincy-jones" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> in November that next year’s show would be commemorated via a collection of NFTs in a partnership with OneOf, signalling further adoption of the digital assets in the multi-billion dollar industry.



Although it is unclear whether music NFTs will ever achieve mainstream status, it’s hard to deny that digital collectibles have changed the lives of many whom the traditional music industry has failed.&nbsp;



Independent artist Daniel Allan, who previously only made hundreds of dollars per month from Spotify despite racking up millions of streams, is now making thousands from minting NFTs of his electronic pop songs, <a href="https://time.com/6124814/music-industry-nft/">TIME</a> previously reported.



“I felt that a lot of my career was making a certain type of music that I had to make — and at times I didn’t really connect with,” Allan said to <a href="https://time.com/6124814/music-industry-nft/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TIME</a>. “From an artistic standpoint, I just feel like NFTs and Web3 in general can create a much brighter space for art.”



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Here’s How NFTs Could Disrupt a Heavily Centralized Music Industry

<div id="highlights-block_619bf3696722e" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Royal previously announced a seed round of $16 million in August</li>
 <li>Other participants in the financing round include Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, Nas and The Chainsmokers</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Royal, a non-fungible token (NFT) music platform, raised $55 million in Series A funding, the startup announced on Monday.&nbsp;



Royal is a marketplace for music NFTs, allowing users to purchase shares of songs then earn royalties on the music they’ve invested in.&nbsp;



The platform will use funds “to invest in the growth of its ecosystem,” according to a press release. Royal did immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for further clarification on how the capital will be used.



&#8220;The value of music ownership is vastly misrepresented and undervalued today, but it won’t be for too much longer, as more musicians embrace the web3 ecosystem,” co-founder and popular electronic dance music artist Justin Blau said in a <a href="https://3lau.medium.com/building-the-future-of-music-ownership-on-chain-54f29cebe66" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recent blog post</a>.&nbsp;



The round, which was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), attracted traditional investors such Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm and Crush Music. Other participants include celebrities such as Nas, The Chainsmokers, Disclosure, Logic, Stefflon Don, Kygo and Joyner Lucas. 



“Music is one of the most exciting unlocks for NFTs,” Kathryn Haun, a general partner at a16z, said in a statement.&nbsp;



Blau, commonly referred to as DJ 3LAU, gave away digital assets worth 50% of streaming ownership in his most recent single last month. The song, “Worst Case,” reached an implied value north of $6 million in two weeks on Royal’s marketplace.



However, as NFT startups like Royal begin dabbling with more complex intellectual property and ownership splits, speculation emerges around how regulators will react in the uncharted legal waters. Blau told <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/26/founders-fund-backs-royal-a-music-marketplace-planning-to-sell-song-rights-as-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TechCrunch</a> that Royal’s team is working with legal counsel to ensure that it is compliant with securities laws.



“A true fan might want to own something way earlier than a speculator would even get wind of it,” Blau <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/26/founders-fund-backs-royal-a-music-marketplace-planning-to-sell-song-rights-as-nfts/">said</a>. “Democratizing access to asset classes is a huge part of crypto’s future.”



Royal previously <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/26/founders-fund-backs-royal-a-music-marketplace-planning-to-sell-song-rights-as-nfts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> a seed round of $16 million in August.



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