gm music fans,
One thing I’ve noticed is that big music brands are still dipping their toes in the Web3 space, despite a massive fall off in volume and public interest.
In the last few weeks we’ve covered campaigns by Beats by Dre, Warner Music, Harry Styles and Colors. And this week, we’ve got news from Roc Nation and Beatport.
Pockets of the legacy music industry obviously still see value in this technology and the smartest leaders are laying foundations during the bear market. The best part is that none of these campaigns are cash-grabs. Many are not even NFT sales — they’re thoughtful methods of building blockchain and NFT tech into real life products and events.
It has me feeling optimistic, even if direct NFT sales are still down in the dumps.
As always, thanks for reading and let’s dive into the biggest stories, biggest drops and essential stats this week.
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Headlines 🗞️
1. Roc-Nation dips into blockchain tech
Jay-Z’s legendary record label Roc-Nation has launched a run of Puma sneakers, loaded with music and digital content. The Puma kicks come with an LGT tag under the tongue which can be scanned to unlock mixtapes, playlists and behind-the-scenes Roc Nation content.
It uses the Avalanche blockchain to verify authenticity and track provenance, using technology powered by a platform called Legitimate.
2. Beatport launches Web3 platform
Beatport has been teasing its Web3 product Beatport.io for a few months but it looks like … something … is now coming. The platform released more information this week, explaining it would be “a sandbox for your favorite artists and labels to experiment with new technology … and your opportunity to collect and own unique pieces of art.” The first drop will be “NACHTS” — a project by photographer and bouncer Mischa Fanghaenel.
3. Deadmau5 project teases new launch
Pixelynx — co-founded by Deadmau5 — has started teasing its new Genesis Kor AI companion. The company says it’s a personal music producer that will unlock features on its AI Korus platform.
4. Lens Protocol fixes this?
Regular readers will know we’ve been bullish on Lens Protocol as a new social layer for Web3. Artist and producer RAC summed up why it matters this week after Elon Musk hijacked the ‘@X’ handle from its owner with no payment or warning.
Unironically crypto really does fix this. Specifically, Web3 social layers fix this. It would be impossible for corporations to steal a Lens handle or ENS domain because the owner has complete control of it through their crypto wallet. It’s a reminder that no-one truly owns their social profiles in Web2. It can be taken from you even if you’ve spent years building a community or audience.
Biggest drops of the week 🎧
Daniel Allan - Duality
One of the biggest-selling artists in the independent Web3 scene, Daniel Allan is back with an 8-track dance project, Duality. The project pass is available now, using the innovative ERC6551 standard. ERC6551 means the pass will act like an NFT album holding individual track as NFTs.
Heybela - Sessions_003
Latin artist Heybela has released a string of tracks in collaboration with different producers. The latest is a beautifully-shot video from Medellin, Colombia. It’s available on Zora.
Sound of Fractures Token
British dance producer Sound of Fractures has launched the Sound of Fractures token in a bid to raise funds for a big project later this summer.
Songcamp Sessions
Songcamp is a collective of artists and songwriters best known for incubating the HEADLESS CHAOS project which raised 484 ETH early last year. Songcamp is now back with “Sessions Volume 1” — a string of releases from their community songwriting camps.
Artist strategy 🧩
Are limited editions coming back?
Since January the Web3 music scene has been dominated by open editions, free mints and unlimited formats such as the new Sound Swap on Sound.xyz. We’ve seen artists optimize for maximum mints and community growth as it got tougher to sell high-priced limited editions. Grimes’ free open edition mint on Zora was a prime example, running up 78,000 mints.
However, we’ve seen the return of limited editions this month. For example, Iman Europe dropped a limited edition of 100 for her latest project Moneymorphosis at the comparatively high price point of 0.05 ETH. It sold out over the course of a few days, suggesting there’s still demand for thoughtful limited drops.
We also switched to 100 limited editions for each of our Ziggy Ziggy Live sessions with the idea that these moments in time should have some degree of scarcity if they are to be considered valuable to collectors in the future. Daniel Allan, Rhoki, Sound of Fractures and TK have also found success with limited editions recently.
Takeaway? Digital scarcity is one of the truly unique use-cases of blockchain. While it’s not right for every drop, artists should still consider limited editions as part of their rollouts as a way to make a project feel exclusive.
Stats 🧮
If it feels like music NFT sales are slow right now, we are not alone. The 1/1 art market is back at the lows of November 2020 — before most of the world had even heard about NFTs.
This chart from art collector Batsoupyum sums up the feeling across all NFT markets right now. The best advice is to survive and keep making small progress wherever you can.
Music charts of the week
Sound.xyz is still the best proxy for the overall music market, and it does look like volume is picking up after hitting a low in May.
The average price of a music NFT is also trending slightly higher after concerns about the devaluation of music mints.
Thanks for reading!
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Ziggy Ziggy Music Season 2 is supported by Spinamp and Lens Protocol.
Disclaimers: We may own NFTs mentioned in this article, have previous or current contracts with companies mentioned and may earn referral income from links to music NFTs. This newsletter is purely informational and should not be considered financial advice. Nothing in this content should be considered a recommendation to buy a particular NFT, only an expression of our opinion.