With many struggles an artist gets a preferred audience. As per the data from 2020 to 2021, 1% of the artists and 90% of streams go to the top. Only a few hundred bucks a month is received by Daniel Allan, a moderately successful artist whose songs got millions of views, which forced him to take on jobs like mastering other artists and mixing music to pay for his bills.
Allan’s strategy
Artist and musician Allan has achieved both financial and creative freedom by turning to a different model. He sells digital copies of his electronic pop songs as NFTs(non-fungible tokens)for thousands of dollars each. Making money from live music has been stopped due to being mainly at home for the pandemic.
Without surrendering the rights to his work, Allan also sells songs individually on the NFT music platform Catalog. He built a devoted community fan base by interacting with the NFT enthusiasts, which helped him gather50 ETH ($140,000 on the day of trading) to crowd-fund his upcoming album in a one-day campaign. Many musicians have made Allen their role model and follow his path. The transformative force of NFTs challenges the traditional music industry.
Replacing Record labels
Early buyers of music NFTs are crypto enthusiasts; speculative assets and ideological stands are included in their purchases. Brett Shear, an NFT collector, quoted, “I’m happy spending money on artists that I believe in their vision—and in addition to that, I do believe that music NFTs are going to be significantly more valuable in the future.”NFTs are being viewed as a viable alternative to the current system of major music labels by the musician.“Before, your fanbase couldn’t be in the label meetings with you. But now we all are the label together. It’s like being in the auction house window versus going and campaigning for what you believe in.” said Bleek Maul.
Streaming Giants
Some artists are gaining high from some heavy-pocketed fans. Chicago rapper IbnInglor, the Chicago rapper, raised $92,000 by selling shares of his upcoming albums royalty and various opportunities for fans. Now musicians are rooting for hardcore fanbase or true fans who will emotionally and financially contribute to their success. Allan has devised a quote saying, “100 true fans are better than having many casual ones,”.so he devotes 6-8hours a day to his fans without any fail.
An Infancy Technology
NFT music space has high entry barriers, but it is a boon to an extrovert, tech-savvy artist who enjoys maximum online time and is ready to bring their work to its audience. But mainstream saturation will be reached by NFT music; this new trend has transformed many lives of artists while for many of them, the previous system was failing. “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 connect with. From an artistic standpoint, I just feel like NFTs and Web 3, in general, can create a much brighter space for art.”Allan said.
Many musicians are making it big by including music NFT in their records .This not only helps them continue their passion but also helps them earn a good amount of money which was a dream for many in previous times. NFT challenges the traditional music industry, but it provides fuel to some artists dreaming of making it big for them.