Music and Cryptocurrency – What Good Has Decentralization and Blockchain Brought To The Music Industry

Charlotte Smith

Music and cryptocurrency

The role of technology in music has always been to bring creativity to a larger audience, and humanity has constantly come up with solutions that improve this process. However, current technological advancements also have downsides, including illegal downloading and playback of music, music piracy, and the dominance of streamers and record labels that own the rights to the music.

Currently, it is the labels that take most of the artists’ income. This means that essentially the people who create the most value in this industry tend to get paid the least. Bringing blockchain and decentralization to the music industry could change that.

How blockchain solves the problems of creators

The crypto industry has given artists more control over their creativity, with blockchain preventing copyright issues and digital assets giving creators new tools to receive and control royalties. 

Find out ways to trade crypto with bitcoin 360 app

One such solution is the approach provided by music DJ and producer Justin “3LAU” Blau’s crypto startup Royal. It offers fans a new way to invest in and support their favorite bands, opening up a new source of funding for up-and-comers, popular artists, or even forgotten stars.

The company’s platform allows musicians to sell their work to fans in the form of collectible NFTs. The ideologue of the project, Justin Blau, interacts with non-fungible tokens for the first time: in 2018, the musician launched a music festival based on the blockchain. Event participants could then earn collectible assets by scanning QR codes.

Three years later, Blau auctioned off 33 NFTs to mark the third anniversary of his Ultraviolet album. In just one day, the NFT auction, which sold songs from the album, as well as previously unreleased music tracks, collected $11.6 million.

How other performers work with crypto assets

• In August of this year, Dutch DJ R3HAB announced plans to share streaming revenue with NFT single holders. To do this, he and his team will use Another block, a service that distributes royalties through the blockchain and offers tools for both creators and their fans. Another block stated that “the value of music rights is created by people who love and listen to music,” so it’s worth allowing them to receive some of that value.

• Norwegian producer and DJ Alan Walker released his NFT collection in July. The Alan Walker Origins collection will contain three music videos from his album Origins, and token holders will be able to receive a portion of the revenue from streaming music videos on YouTube.

• In May, The Chainsmokers released 5,000 NFTs, which gave fans several benefits, including discounts on the band’s new album, VIP access to tickets to their concerts, and free souvenirs.

• In February, Snoop Dogg released a new album, BODR, in partnership with blockchain gaming platform Gala Games. The company previously announced the launch of a new music division called Gala Music, which will have exclusive rights to three bonus tracks from the BODR album. The rapper also released some NFTs for the store.

• In 2017, the Icelandic singer Björk, in collaboration with AudioCoin, released the album Utopia: everyone who bought the new release received digital tokens that could be used to buy other music.

• Back in 2014, rapper 50 Cent decided to accept bitcoin payments for his album Animal Ambition. The idea turned out to be successful: in total, the rap artist earned almost $8 million equivalent.

Concerts for crypto: music events that introduced crypto payments with BTI.LIVE

• One of the largest music festivals, Primavera Sound, has enabled crypto payments at 75 of the festival’s shopping terminals, allowing visitors to pay with crypto-currency in bars, shops, and VIP areas.

Attendees of the Barcelona festival also received over 12,000 collectible NFTs from Binance.

• Ukrainian Atlas Weekend became the first music festival in the world for which tickets were sold in NFT format.

In 2021, the organizers of the event signed an agreement with Binance, under the terms of which tickets to the event were sold on the Binance NFT marketplace.

• Binance also became an official sponsor of The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn concert tour, which began in July this year.

In addition to supporting virtual blockchain tickets, fans of the artist received a collection of commemorative NFTs. The parties claim that this is the first global concert tour with the integration of Web3 technologies.

Decentralization has the potential to improve the music industry by facilitating interactions and establishing clear and transparent relationships between artists and rights holders, and between artists and their fans.

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Charlotte Smith

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