The future of music and NFTs

Pro Songwriting Masterclass | Larry Dvoskin (Al Jardine of The Beach Boys, Bad Company, David Bowie ...)

So  what is an NFT?  And I’m gonna obviously read to you what you can read for yourself. An NFT is a digital asset that represents real world objects like art, music in-game items and videos bought and sold online frequently cryptocurrency.  And they’re generally encoded  with the same underlying software as many cryptos, which means they’re, they’re digitally coded so that you are get the thing you buy, or the thing that’s, if somebody buys a copy  of a piece of music from you that you’ve put with a little drawing or with an album cover, like they’re getting that actual thing.

It’s, it’s, it’s cocooned in a digital code.  So NFTs are generally one of a kind, or at least one of a very limited run and have unique identifying codes. Essentially, NFT creates digital scarcity.  And NFT allows the buyer to own the original item. Not only that, it contains built-in authentication, which serves as proof of ownership.

Collectors value those digital bragging rights almost more than the item itself.  So this is a big thing ’cause people say, you know,  there’s a lot of talk about it, it’s all bologna, it’s a tulip craze, it’s a gold rush, it’s gonna crash. Everybody’s gonna lose their shirt.  And, you know, that may be true. I mean, things go up and down. You know, when, when the internet started, people said, ah, that’ll never work.

You know, a guy named Mark Randolph, is the co-founder of a company called Netflix. And when he decided to start  having movies sent through the mail as DVDs, even his wife said, that’ll never work. So meanwhile, Netflix now  has a budget for productions that, that, that equal in total all of the other major, television and movie studios in America at least. So,  you know, the things that you say will never work today are the things that are the new norm for tomorrow.

Essentially, NFTs are like physical collectors, items only digital. So instead of getting an actual oil painting to hang on the wall, the buyer gets a digital file. Instead,  they also get exclusive ownership, right? That’s right. NFTs can have only one owner at a time. The NFTs unique data make it easier to verify their ownership, and transfer tokens between owners. The owner or creator can also store specific information inside them.

For instance, artists can sign their artwork by including their signature in the NFTs metadata.  So  what we mean by all of this is that it’s a  new technology,  and the technology for music has been constantly evolving from the 78  to the 33 vinyl, to the 45, to the  the eight track, to the cassette, to the DAT tape, to the  cd, to the, you know, you know, download MP three and now streaming.

And now this idea of, of NFTs is something that,  what’s really cool about it is that you can  not actually, you know, most people say, how do I get a publisher? I need a publisher. Well, all a publisher is doing is like a bank. They’re giving you a secured loan, hopefully  even doing that  and lending you some money so that you can live and write songs,  and then they take all that money back and own part of your song.

So  what NFTs can potentially do, and there are more and more music sites coming up that we’re gonna discuss in a minute,  is that you can start making money from your music and developing a fan base without  all of this infrastructure around you, without needing a publisher, sending your music out, without needing a soundtrack supervisor, even a label.

I mean, there are people who are making a lot of money from this, and obviously there are the big stars who have a name and there’s hype about it,  but it’s at the very, very earliest moment. So you are early having this conversation today with me,  and, we’re gonna answer questions by the way. We’ll have lots of time for questions, so not to worry about that. what are NFTs used for  Blockchain technology and NFTs afford musicians, songwriters, artists, and content creators a unique opportunity to monetize their wares.

 For example, music creators no longer have to rely on record companies, publishers, or syncs to make money.  Instead, the musician can sell it directly to their fans in general public as an NFT, which also let them keep more of the profits.  In addition, musicians can program in royalties, so they receive a percentage of sales whenever their music is sold to a new owner.

 So you can actually get, royalties if somebody, let’s say, buys a little clip of your song, and then there’s a little piece of artwork that was on the albon the CD cover or something. When that is resold, you’re also just like,  like with music, there are royalties attached and, you’ll, you know, you can potentially start making money from something you did 10 years ago.

 So that is a really  amazing benefit that that happens. And, and this is, this is coming out of a report that was done in February and  in the NFT and Digital Crypto world, like from February to September is like a lifetime, believe it or not.  So this is, these numbers are even outdated because it’s really grown since then.  Around February, March 150 music artists earned $55.7 million in two months.

 And Lincoln Park, at the start of February, it’s, Mike  Shenoda raised $30,000 via an NFT auction.  And, in either January or February Grimes, the, the singer auctioned off almost $6 million worth of digital artwork  on a, a website called Nifty Gateway. And we’re gonna get into which websites are which and which are for art, which are for music.

 And then a guy named Blau or Justin Blau, who is a friend of mine. And the electronic music DJ did what is actually at the top of the food chain right now for music. He did an, an NFT auction of his albwhich he didn’t sell the publishing, he just sold digital copies. Lots of them  for, it was actually $11.7 million  that he raised in 24 or 48 hours in an online auction.

 And so, that’s a lot of money  to sell something that you’re actually not even selling the rights to and, and, you can live for the rest of your life on that. in, in the, in March, Steve Aoki, sold an NFT Art Collection for 4.2 million.  The Kings of Leon  generated $2 million for the sale of a new album as an NFT via the blockchain platform, yellow Heart.

you know, it goes on and on and, certainly Sean Mendez, post Malone, dead Mouse the Weekend, all of these people are doing  what’s called NFT drops and, and a drop is just like, you know, how you hear of a record release, like next Friday is the new ed shearing release. A drop is the same thing. It just, it goes live.  So there are different websites. And again, this is really shifting and I’m, I’m just giving you something that’s literally a few months old, but the number one website for NFTs is called Nifty Gateway.

It’s primarily digital art, but there’s also music on it. The second one that is actually much bigger now is called Open C. And, and when you look for this, it’s not just open c.com, it’s open c.io. Like, I like  Indian o like oxygen.  And, and you know, what you wanna do with some of these things is, is go exploring.

And that’s actually gonna be the homework assignment we’re gonna do later, is you’re gonna go explore and see,  you know, what’s on super rare what’s on makerspace. We’re gonna get into all of these things and, and,  and you’ll get to see, what this is. But this is, this is like, like we are,  This is what’s called in Silicon Valley, the bleeding edge. You know, I, I have, I produce artists still.

I’m, I’m in the middle of a whole bunch of productions and everybody’s thinking about how do I get on the Spotify playlist? How do I get into Syns? You know, can I get a manager, da da da, or if I’m playing live, how do I get an agent and tour? So all of that stuff is really important and great and part of a musician’s life,  but it’s noisy and crowded. It’s a crowded field there, you know,  60,000 songs a day get uploaded to Spotify.

It could be really depressing thinking that somehow your song’s gonna pop out. But in this world that we’re talking about, this NFT world, you are putting up things and joining conversations on social media, places like Clubhouse or Discord, and you’re, you’re becoming part of a very  energized, motivated community that cares less about like, oh, I’m buying so and so’s music. And more about like, I’m a pioneer, you know, I am helping to create the future.

I am, what’s called the bleeding edge of where technology is going.  

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