Piano NFTs sell for $1.35 million ... in a bear market
+ Coachella live audio NFTs and 9 stories in Web3 music this week
gm music fans,
Welcome to Ziggy Ziggy Music Season 2! Don’t forget you can still get your free music NFT here to celebrate the end of Season 1 (it’s a gas-free claim 💫).
This week continues to be a battle against insane gas fees on Ethereum but that didn’t stop some huge art sales and a historic first for NFTs: live audio from Coachella minted on the blockchain.
Let’s get into the 10 biggest stories in onchain music this week.
Discover some of the best music in Web3 through our Spinamp playlists, where we curate songs from various NFT platforms into one place.
Ziggy Ziggy Daily - Our favourite music in Web3 updated every day.
Ziggy Ziggy Breakouts - Artists at the cutting edge with potential to break into something bigger.
Ziggy Ziggy Beats - Our favourite underground dance and electronic music.
1. Piano artwork sells for $1.35 million … in a bear market 🎹
Digital artist Alpha Centurai Kid just sold $1.35 million worth of artwork at auction around the concept of 48 pianos. It’s an impressive sale considering art, music and nft sales broadly are at two-year lows.
One of the pieces is accompanied by a music composition by Ryan Elder which will be minted as an NFT and sent to the collector.
2. Live Coachella performance minted onchain (first time) 🎤
Rapper Heno is the first artist to mint live audio from a Coachella set onchain. He performed at the festival this year then made the audio available to collect on Lens (via the protocol’s native music platform Riff). Collect it here.
3. World’s biggest dance festival registers NFT trademarks 📝
Ultra Festival — which this year played host to Marshmello, Martin Garrix, and an elite roster of electronic artists — has filed a trademark for the “Ultraverse” featuring several Web3 activations. The trademark includes references to NFT marketplaces, virtual experiences and digital currencies.
4. Get first access to Sound.xyz mobile app 📱
Leading music NFT platform Sound.xyz just launched a test version of its mobile app. You can get early access by subscribing to their Mirror newsletter and claiming a free NFT.
Every week we’ll bring you music stories and artist tools from Lens Protocol — the social layer of Web3, where a vibrant music scene is growing.
This week Lens introduced credit card payments on its native music app Riff so you can easily collect music (such as Heno’s live audio from Coachella) without crypto.
The mobile app for the Lens ecosystem, Orb, also launched a native music player so you can listen and collect right in your social feed. Watch it in action here.
5. NFTs that shapeshift based on your onchain activity 🔮
RAC is Grammy winning producer and onchain music pioneer since 2017. Last week he dropped an NFT Orb that dynamically changes based on your onchain activity. It uses artificial intelligence to generate the unique visuals.
6. Daniel Allan launches “Family Affair” collective 🤝
Following his recent $1 million artist fundraise, Daniel Allan has launched Family Affair — a new brand to support and elevate other musicians. The first artist to drop an NFT under the Family Affair umbrella is Demotapes with a series of blissed-out, mellow electronic tracks.
7. Grimes AI crossover hits #3 on Sound.xyz charts 📈
Virtual artist Angelbaby dropped a track featuring AI vocals from Grimes. The song quickly went to #3 in the all-time charts on Sound.xyz with 5,600 mints (7.05 ETH).
8. Artist behind Grammys NFT hits 1 million mints 🏆
Andrea Oshea is the digital artist behind Coinbase’s recent “Base” NFT which just crossed 1 million mints — thought to be the biggest collection across any chain. Oshea has previously created artwork for the Grammys NFT and is deeply rooted in the music world. The crossover between music and visual art NFTs is an overlooked potential in our opinion.
9. Live music NFT event 🎙️
Nothing brings people together like live music. This week in LA played host to Sound Lounge in partnership with LNRZ — an event featuring breakout artists Mija, Bloody White, TK, Madalen Duke and Tarot.
10. Builders keep building 🚢
Sound.xyz launches mobile app beta, mint with credit card and top curators scoreboard.
Glass Protocol (music video NFTs) returns to Ethereum with first drop from Rhoki.
Decent teases … something.
Catalog extends curator cycles so curators can onboard new artists at their own pace.
Thanks for reading!
If you found this useful, please share it with your friends. And let me know on Twitter if I missed anything this week.
Ziggy Ziggy Music Season 2 is supported by Spinamp and Lens Protocol.
Disclaimers: Ziggy Ziggy Music may own NFTs mentioned in this article, have previous or current contracts with projects and may earn referral income from links to music NFTs.