The music industry has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. We have seen the advent of the internet leave its mark on music, and most notably, 1999 spelled the coming of Napster. This then-revolutionary peer-to-peer online streaming service defined a whole generation and enabled musicians to share their creations with the world. Streaming has become the dominant format for music today, through Apple, Amazon, Tencent Music and the clear category winner — Spotify. The goal of distribution services and platforms like Spotify is to enable and empower artists to create more without worrying about anything besides honing their craft. …

California-based music streaming platform Audius released new functionality that allows artists and fans to embed nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on various blogs and social media platforms such as Twitter and Discord. The “embedded” functionality aims to improve fan engagement for musicians through NFT adoption and Web 3.0 integrations. To enable the feature, artists need to connect their Audius accounts with Phantom wallet, a crypto wallet centered around the Solana ecosystem. Aimed at increasing the discoverability of Solana NFTs, the company stated: “NFT holders can embed their collectibles from the two biggest blockchains on Twitter timelines, personal blogs, and websites. Thanks to …

On-chain music platform Royal has announced a Series A funding round led by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz. Royal allows fans to buy music rights via nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Its co-founders, entrepreneur JD Ross and DJ Justin Blau who go by the stage name 3LAU, announced on Nov. 23 they had closed a $55 million Series A funding, following a $16 million seed round in August. Prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, led the round. Kathryn Huan, General Partner at a16z tweeted about the firm’s investment in Royal’s possibility of transforming the music industry. 1/ Today we’re announcing …

Rapper Post Malone is the latest celebrity to move into nonfungible tokens (NFT) by promoting a major NFT project and a cryptocurrency firm. In his latest collaboration with The Weeknd, a music video for One Right Now, Malone purchased an NFT from Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), one of the world’s biggest NFT collections featuring 10,000 unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain. In the video, Malone buys the NFT via MoonPay, a fintech startup focused on providing cryptocurrency payments infrastructure. The firm reportedly plans to reach a valuation of $3.4 billion after conducting its first-ever venture capital round. …

There is potential for the use cases of nonfungible token (NFT) technology to expand far beyond the simple tracking of unique images with varying degrees of rareness and analysts project that one NFTs will touch every facet of our lives. Already, developers, artists and corporations are considering the tokenization of all assets and some have already experimented with NFT-based concert tickets and sports passes. One NFT project that has been gaining traction since September is Opulous (OPUL), a protocol focused on the tokenization of the music industry. The project claims to be angled toward empowering artists to the extent that …

Decentralized gaming guild Yield Guild Games (YGG) has partnered with, and invested in, eight new play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games. YGG lends out nonfungible token (NFT) gaming assets to Guild players so that they can earn rewards from a long list of P2E games without having to front the costs of purchasing the NFTs themselves. The guild boasts assets from widely popular games such as Axie Infinity and Splinterlands. In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Nov. 16, YGG revealed that it had backed eight games with “strong play-to-earn models” including Influence, CyBall, Thetan Arena, KOGs SLAM!, MOBOX, Aavegotchi, DeHorizon and …

A virtual band made up of four expensive cartoon apes from the Bored Apes Yacht Club NFT collection is hoping to become the next big hit in the music industry. The primate band called KINGSHIP will put out music, perform in the metaverse and release plenty of NFT collectibles. It takes inspiration from Gorillaz, Damon Albarn’s cartoon band. Major music label Universal is backing the unique act and KINGSHIP will join its stable of artists alongside Billie Eilish, Queen, Taylor Swift and Nirvana. gm! pic.twitter.com/Jqkvy9Bd2P — KINGSHIP (@therealkingship) November 11, 2021 The highly collectible 10,000 NFTs in the Bored Ape …

The Recording Academy and OneOf, a green NFT marketplace backed by legendary record producer Quincy Jones, announced an exclusive partnership centered around the next three years of Grammy Awards in an unsigned statement on the Grammy.com website. Details on specific NFT collections will be released in January, but will celebrate both the awards themselves and nominees / recipients. Some of the money from the sale of the assets will go towards funding the Recording Academy scholarship fund. OneOf, built on the Tezos blockchain, is specifically designed with musicians and listeners in mind. Recording Academy co-president Panos A Panay said: "As …

The nonfungible token (NFT) market is growing. According to a new report by analytics platform DappRadar, NFT trade volume soared past $10 billion during the third quarter of 2021, a sevenfold increase from the previous quarter’s figure. Although a significant slice of that action comes from runaway hits like NBA Top Shot, CryptoPunks and gaming platform Axie Infinity, NFT use cases are rapidly proliferating as creators recognize their potential. In the not-too-distant past, celebrities keen to profit from the burgeoning crypto scene had few options. Mostly, they were limited to shilling an initial coin offering (ICO) or investing their own …

Artist collaborations are an undeniable cornerstone of modern pop culture. The confluence of creative minds ultimately captured in a single artwork is something that has perpetually aroused audiences, critics and the creative community. Take “The Marilyn Diptych,” by American pop art pioneer Andy Warhol. The iconic art piece is based on a publicity photograph of Marilyn Monroe for the 1953 noir thriller Niagara. Regardless of the actress' undeniable appeal, the photo itself didn’t stand out until Warhol put a spin on it, turning it into one of the 20th century’s most admired masterpieces. But is that enough of an argument …

Earlier this summer, CNN and The New York Times each warned that the nonfungible token (NFT) bubble, fueled by buzz over eye-popping valuations for digital art and interest from collectors, might already be bursting. As the sixth employee at a social media startup called Wildfire — which was acquired by Google in 2012 — I’m all too familiar with skeptics and precautionary tales when it comes to new and emerging technologies. Based on my experiences across entertainment, licensing and blockchain technology, I contend that if the so-called NFT bubble is bursting, it could be a net positive for the future …

Blockchain is rapidly becoming the innovative force industry insiders have been promising for years. The number of projects and artists offering their works using it as a core technology may be shifting the current economic model under which most musicians operate. Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, allow independent artists to earn income and engage with their fan base without always relying on a label or streaming service like Spotify. In March, 3LAU, an electronic dance music producer, sold more than $11 million worth of tokens redeemable for real-world goods — including music — in addition to a $3 million token holder …