gm music fans,
Every Friday we bring you a roundup of the biggest news and developments in Web3 music. This week, we’re exploring what the future of music NFTs might look like as the conversation moves to Layer 2s. Let’s dive in!
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. The future of music NFTs?
We’re in a strange place right now.
The vast majority of music NFTs have trended down to $7-$10 per edition, making transactions on Ethereum mainet hard to justify. Paying more in transaction fees than the NFT itself is hardly a sustainable future!
We still believe that 1/1s and highly valuable limited editions will still have a future on Ethereum mainet. Collectors (including us) value the provenance, security and longevity of ETH and are willing to pay for it — especially for culturally significant work.
However, to scale beyond crypto natives and reach a bigger audience of music fans, we’ll need low-cost entry points, too. The vast majority of music NFTs in the future will probably live on layer 2s such as Optimism and Polygon, where transactions are cheaper and faster (albeit with various tradeoffs).
In today’s edition, we’ll round up the state of the Web3 music space and how the major music platforms are adapting to an L2 future.
Wait, what’s an L2? A layer 2 blockchain can be considered like a “fast lane” built on top of Ethereum. In the simplest terms, L2s bundle up transactions and execute them all at once before later settling on Ethereum. Different L2s use different technical solutions and optimise for different tradeoffs, but by batching transactions, we can make it cheaper and faster to interact with the blockchain.
Sound.xyz teases L2 integration
Leading music platform Sound.xyz is working on L2 tech, but we don’t have any further details yet (other than a few cryptic tweets pointing to Optimism).
Zora launched its own chain
Zora is taking a different route — creating its own chain rather than adopting existing L2s like Optimism or Polygon.
It’s a bold decision as they’ll miss out on the network effects and liquidity of existing L2s. However, Zora’s brand and mind-share among creators is strong enough to stand alone in our opinion.
Decent launches ‘The Box’
To prepare for a multichain L2 future, the team at Decent just launched ‘The Box.’ It’s a one-click checkout for NFTs… on any chain… in any token.
In practice it means you can buy an NFT without switching network or bridging funds. The Box will do all the switching behind the scenes, potentially leading to a huge improvement in UX.
Lens, Royal and Serenade on Polygon
Lens is the “social layer of Web3” and increasingly a hub for the music community. The entire Lens architecture is built on Polygon, as is the music layer on top of it. Other music platforms like 3LAU’s Royal and the UK’s Serenade also use Polygon.
2. Deadmau5 record label drops 1,000 collectibles
Mau5trap has partnered with Pixelynx to launch a series of 1,000 NFTs called Mau5trap DNA. Each of the “digital capsules” will unlock a series of exclusive tracks, videos and stems from three of Mau5trap’s leading artists. The series will drop on June 17th.
3. Music culture on Bitcoin?
Country artist Sammy Arriaga has inscribed the lyrics from his track Pixelated onto the Bitcoin blockchain using Ordinals. I’d love to hear about any other music activity with Ordinals. Hit me up if you’ve seen anything cool.
Every week we bring you the latest developments from Lens Protocol — the Web3 social layer where a thriving music community is growing.
Here’s something I discovered on Lens this week that I LOVE for creators and Twitter Spaces hosts. Here’s how it works:
Take a podcast or Twitter Spaces
Feed it into Zealous.one
It generates a transcript using AI.
Find a great quote and turn it into a short-form video.
Here’s what it looks like when it’s finished:
4. Spinamp raises $1.2 million
Music nft playlist tool Spinamp raised $1.2 million from Coop Records, Palm Tree Crypto and others. Spinamp aggregates music nfts from a dozen different platforms and custom contracts so you can listen to all music in Web3 from one place. [Spinamp is a sponsor of Ziggy Ziggy Music].
5. Onchain instruments are back!
We’re a big fan of Mycelium Fidelity which has built a series of musical instruments fully onchain. So far, they’ve dropped a drum machine and sequencers. Now they’re planning a new collection called ‘Ooze’ on June 13.
6. Annika Rose video game goes live
We previously introduced you to the innovative “music video game” from Annika Rose. The game is now available to all with 2,500 mints of the NFTicket granting access to the “Listening Room'“ part of the game.
7. Builders keep building
Catalog ships a new music player.
Bonfire ships 9 new features.
Glass reveals community grant winners.
Thanks for reading!
We believe a new generation of independent music will be born out of Web3 culture. Discover the best music here first. Follow us on Twitter where we share the best music every day.
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.
Yo Ziggy Ziggy Music team,
Thank you for sharing your weekly roundup of the biggest news and developments in Web3 music. It's always insightful to see what's happening in the industry, and your newsletter keeps me informed. I appreciate the effort you put into curating the best music in Web3 through your Spinamp playlists.
Thank you again for the valuable information and keep up the great work!