How Non-Fungible Tokens Changed the Music Industry

NFTs or non-fungible tokens have the ability to change the game for independent artists by proving a new way to earn an income and this kind of change has been long overdue. There are several aspects of non-fungible tokens that make them highly appealing for musicians. One of the most important aspects, if not the most important is the price of NFTs.

Artists have the opportunity to make a lot of money thanks to non-fungible tokens. Superstar artists, like King of Leon as well as Steve Aoki, sold NFTs for millions of dollars. Other lesser-known artists such as Vérité and Zack Fox made tens of thousands of U.S. dollars selling NFTs. One artist had only 27,000 followers on Instagram when he sold an NFT for $865,000.

These numbers are fantastic, especially when you compare them with the payout of streaming services. Streaming platforms provided one of the major revenue sources for musicians in the digital age. Unfortunately, the payout rates of these platforms, are still not very high. One of the most popular streaming platforms Spotify pays out on average around $0.03 to $0.05 per person. That equates to around $3,000 to $5,000 for 1 million streams, nonetheless, 1 million is a huge number for an independent artist.

Last year, only 13,400 artists generated more than $50,000 of yearly revenue on Spotify. After taking into account, all the data mentioned above, it becomes clear why NFTs gained popularity among artists.

Non-fungible tokens and new opportunities

Non-fungible tokens also offer other benefits to musicians. For instance, the other value of NFTs is their “unlockables” feature. Artists can include additional perks within the contract of an NFT. Perks can range from a one-on-one video call with a fan to shoutouts or physical products, or even giving away partial ownership of a song. Artists can create a non-fungible token and give away 30% ownership of a song.

In India, more than 15 million people hold around $6.6 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Local artists in India started making the jump to the non-fungible token metaverse by selling 2D and 3D art pieces. In May, a South Indian musician sold an NFT of a demo of his for $200,000. The high value and unique rewards system that non-fungible tokens offer a revolutionary opportunity for musicians.