The Web3 Music Industry (2024)
In this article, we’ll go over all of the major players in the web3 music industry.
The marketplaces, platforms and tools mentioned all come together to bring the traditional pieces of the music industry into web3, and look to expand on their capabilities as technology advances and ownership of intellectual property becomes more important.
We will cover web3 platforms across various categories, such as:
WEB3 MUSIC
What is Web3 Music?
Web3 music refers to music that is available to listen to, purchase and collect as an NFT (digital asset) on a blockchain.
It can be music that was released on the blockchain as a music NFT before being released on traditional streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple music. Additionally, web3 music could be music released on major DSP’s to start, but then minted onto the blockchain afterwards.
Furthermore, web3 music can be music that had been created or generated directly on chain.
The Industry
The web3 music industry is made up of the creators, platforms and companies participating and building within the space.
Here is a current look at the Web3 music industry and what it has to offer so far.
Distribute your music on the blockchain by way of NFTs and release unique one-of-one’s (1/1’s) or Editions. There are many web3 music platforms and marketplaces where you can distribute your music, such as:
ZORA
Zora is a web3 platform where artists and creators can buy and sell NFTs. It allows you to mint pictures, sound or video, and offers a secure, reliable and censorship-resistant environment.
This marketplace protocol has also been used by many other companies, including Catalog, Glass Protocol, and Mirror.
DECENT
Decent.xyz boasts itself as the all-in-one web3 release builder.
Release music on it’s platform, create mint pages, utilize their unique contracts, and see built-in analytics.
Decent is definitely doing things to create its own community of fans, collectors, and artists in web3, while building out the tools they actually need.
Check out an example of a release on Decent below, and collect a free limited-edition.
FOUNDATION
Foundation is a popular NFT marketplace for music and art in general. It runs on the Ethereum blockchain and emphasizes it’s curation.
Artists previously had to be invited to join the platform by members of the community, but now anyone can mint their own NFTs for collectors to purchase.
SOUND
Sound is a mainstream NFT platform for music that caters to top Web3 artists.
Artists can host listening parties on Sound, where fans and collectors can support them by purchasing NFTs. These Sound NFTs give the holders ownership of a special moment and the ability to leave a public comment to show their early support.
To host their own NFT drop, artists need to apply and be approved by the Sound platform first.
CATALOG
Catalog records are one-of-one (1/1) NFTs that stay on the internet forever, and offer artists and fans a new way to own and enjoy music.
Artists get 100% of their sales and earn a fee or creator share every time their records are resold. Catalog records exist even if the Catalog platform goes away, allowing artists to keep the value of their music.
Artists can add their records to Catalog's open library, accept offers, set a price, or list it for auction.
MANIFOLD
Manifold is a web3 platform that lets artists create their own NFTs and smart contracts on the blockchain. Artists keep ownership of their digital assets and have proof of ownership on the chain.
With Manifold, artists can create NFTs for their music that they fully own and are not tied to or marked by any specific platform. This is important because some platforms can and have faded away and shut down, if they own the smart contract in which your NFT was minted, it’ll be gone with them.
Manifold provides various tools for creators to create mint pages, gate content, and you’re still able to list your NFT for sale or auction on secondary marketplaces like OpenSea and Zora.
EXTRA MENTIONS:
OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, Rarible
Collect a limited collection of 88 utility-enabled digital assets.
Find new songs and stream web3 music with these platforms.
AUDIUS
Audius is a fully decentralized music platform that empowers content creators. It's similar to Soundcloud in the web3 world, allowing artists, producers, and DJs to upload high-quality music and grow their audience for free.
Audius is the go-to platform for artists who want to stream and share their music with the world.
OOHLALA
Discover Oohlala, the innovative web3 music player and aggregator with a mission to transform the music industry. Oohlala aims to create a more sustainable and enjoyable environment for both artists and fans by improving the music NFTs experience and streamlining the onboarding process for new users.
As of today, artists can submit to have their music NFT collections added to the platform. Listeners can use Oohlala as an NFT player, to discover new talent, or to evaluate new digital assets. The platforms is sleek and allows you to sort by chains, marketplaces, collections, and more.
Share, watch, and collect music video NFTs with video streaming platforms.
GLASS PROTOCOL
Glass is a video platform where you have complete control over your content. Minted on the Ethereum blockchain, every video is a unique NFT or digital property that you own. You decide when and how to monetize it.
Currently, the Glass community decides which videos are allowed on the platform, and when you sell your videos to fans, you get paid directly and they get to own a piece of their love for your work.
Platforms for producers and artists to generate and create music in web3.
ARPEGGI LABS
Arpeggi Labs is a digital audio workstation (DAW) powered by web3. Artists and producers are able to upload sounds for others to use in their own songs. Their in-browser DAW allows you to simply create music and even mint it as an NFT.
Split royalties and fees on the blockchain.
ANOTHERBLOCK
Anotherblock democratizes music investing by allowing anyone to own a fraction of master streaming rights to songs produced by rightsholders, such as artists, producers, and writers.
The blockchain-based platform fractionalizes these master streaming rights (given by rightsholders) and issues them as NFTs, enabling collectors to receive regular payments every six months based on the streaming revenue.
ROYAL.IO
Royal is a music investment platform that lets anyone earn royalties with artists.
Artists choose what percentage of the songs music royalties they’d like to share, and you invest in the song or album on by purchasing the NFT which represents your streaming rights.
Now, you can get paid when the artists does, or if you’re an artist yourself, split streaming royalties with the fans who support you the most.
OX SPLITS
0xSplits is a free, open-source protocol for splitting cryptocurrency income on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows you to receive payments and share with others without any fees or middlemen.
0xSplits is fully on-chain, with all actions open to everyone. There are no trusted third parties and the contracts cannot be upgraded, ensuring the protocol will always operate as it does today.
These companies are taking care of web3 ticketing. Use NFTs as tickets for in-person events, like live shows and concerts.
GET PROTOCOL
GET Protocol is a trusted digital ticketing solution provider, used by thousands of events. Their solution makes event management, ticket issuance, and validation at the venue seamless and hassle-free.
Creators can sell NFT tickets to fans or members who can then use them as event tickets to access live-events.
TOKENPROOF
Tokenproof offers secure NFT ownership verification solutions, allowing users to prove NFT ownership without having to bring or connect their wallet.
Token-gate your content, use as access to events, or anything else you can think of that you’ll require someone to prove they own a specific token or NFT before they can gain access.
License music for use in motion-pictures.
DEQUENCY
Dequency is a decentralized platform that connects creators in the web3 space through Sync. It's the first blockchain-based solution for syncing licensing, making it easy for music and visual creators to collaborate on NFTs, metaverse projects, and on-chain games.
Manage and engage with your audience using these web3 applications and platforms.
AFTERPARTY
Afterparty is a user-friendly application for creators and artists to connect with their fans and deliver unique experiences. Where talent can showcase their work and give fans the opportunity to be a part of their success through web3 without making it too complicated.
TELLIE
Tellie is a great platform for creators to showcase their work and build a community. It offers easy-to-use design tools and customizable landing pages, to match your brand.
Tellie is for musicians, artists, filmmakers, event promoters, NFT communities and more.
BONFIRE
Bonfire is another web3 platform that was built to help artists, creators and brands build community by creating unique digital spaces to engage them. With no code required, Bonfire allows you to share exclusive content, curate experiences, and provides you with tools to engage a community from across web2 and web3.
VAULT
Built on Solana, Vault is known to be a music platform for super fans. Vault is a platform that helps artists turn their music and box sets into limited-edition collectibles for their biggest fans.
With Vault, artists get to keep over 80% of the revenue on sales, while fans receive a unique digital collectible that they can buy, own, and trade. This means that artists can monetize their creativity in new and exciting ways while connecting with their most dedicated fans in a meaningful and rewarding way.
SHOWTIME
Showtime uses the Polygon blockchain to provide cost efficient NFT minting. Showtime offers two types of drops for creators to use and offer their fans free NFTs - Drops and Music Drops.
Drops is a way for creators to offer their fans, followers, and collectors a way to collect their NFTs for free. Music Drops, works as a pre-save campaign, where fans would be rewarded with a free NFT for pre-saving an artists new song.
These are collectives and labels investing and working within the web3 space.
VENICE MUSIC
Venice Music offers services, education, and already has a strong community of independent creatives. Venice music caters to producers, music artists, labels & managers by providing them with essential services every artist needs such as distribution, sync., streaming analytics and more.
This company typically operates in the traditional music industry, but recently, it’s ventured into web3 and hasn’t missed a beat.
COOP RECORDS
Founded by the top collector on Sound.xyz, CoopaTroopa, has recently started Coop Records. This is a $10M early-stage fund for investing in the future of next generation music.
Coop Records plans to identify the top upcoming artists in web3, and fund them by purchasing their NFTs, more specifically, their genesis NFTs which would be similar to owning their rookie card. They would benefit in owning blue chip NFTs from top artists in the space with a long-term mind set, but also support those artists by being early supporters.
HUME
Hume is a web3 music label. A product of the metaverse, Hume intends to produce and support the next wave of ‘Metastars’, which they describe as a metaverse-native or virtual music artist who exists in both the metaverse and the physical world.
Check out their first artist, Angelbaby, a metaverse artist who’s also performed at events such as SXSW and Art Basel.
Get funding your next music NFT release with the help of web3 music grants.
MUSICFUND
MusicFund is a community built on web3 technology that empowers music enthusiasts to support up-and-coming artists and help them advance their careers.
AUDIO GRANTS
Audio Grants is a grant program through the web3 platform, Audius. This program is not officially associated with Audius, but rather, run by it’s community.
The Audio Grants program opens it’s applications throughout the years where music artists can apply for grants to put towards their music career. Artists whose grants are approved will be paid out in $AUDIO tokens.
Although still early, these web3 music platforms and companies are leading the way in their respective categories within the web3 music industry.
Some projects will fade out, and new one’s will enter the industry. I’ll try my best to keep this list accurate and updated to keep you in the loop for what the web3 music industry has available, so bookmark this page if you’ll be interested in what’s to come with the web3 music industry.
Thanks for reading!
Which platforms & services do you think are most important for the Web3 music industry?