NFTs may revolutionize the future of music industry- Here’s how

The NFT market has been a growing one with several companies filing for trademarks to enter the NFT space. The latest business giant to file a trademark application is Sony Music Entertainment.

The trademark application was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on 30 August. Furthermore, the application mentions a suite of products that it intends to authenticate using NFTs under the Columbia Records logo.

Albums, videos, and much more

The application covers a wide range of aspects, such as the promotion of music, advertising for artists, and audio/video recordings. It also includes artwork related to live musical performances that are authenticated by NFTs.

This may be the first NFT project directly tied to Sony Music, but the music behemoth has been other similar projects as well. In August 2021, Sony Music backed NFT marketplace MakersPlace and raised $30 million from investors, such as Pantera Capital and Coinbase.

In March 2022, Sony Music partnered with Solana-based NFT marketplace Snowcrash and fellow music label Universal Music Group. The result of this partnership was the release of an NFT collection featuring Bob Dylan and Miles Davis.

Web3 and the music industry

Earlier this year, Universal Music Group dropped a subtle hint about its Web3 ambitions when it purchased Bored Ape #5537 for $360,817.

The ape was acquired to lead a digital band called Kingship which was founded by Universal’s 10:22P.M label. The label added that the digital band will produce music and deliver virtual performances in the metaverse.

Furthermore, popular hip-hop artists and BAYC holders Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2022. Interestingly this performance featured the artists performing as their NFT alter egos in the metaverse. 

The event featured other virtual performances as well. The fact that MTV introduced a whole new award category, the best metaverse performance, shows the influence of Web3 on the music industry.

Earlier this week, the Web3 music marketplace Yellowheart announced the first NFT music streaming player. Yellowheart also released the first ever NFT album in collaboration with Kings of Leon. The music marketplace has also worked with popular artists including  ZHU and Maroon 5.

Reviving art through NFTs

Another use case that the industry has come up with is- grants for classical artists. Living Opera is a Web3 group that leverages the power of blockchain to provide revenue and short-term liquidity to artists by issuing NFTs related to the genre.

Given the declining interest in opera, Living Opera COO Christos Makridis hopes to draw attention to the art using NFTs. All this, while connecting philanthropists to artists.