How the Metaverse and NFTs Could Change the Music Industry

On October 28, 2021, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced they are officially changing the company name to Meta, to follow their interest in developing a new system around the “metaverse”. More specifically, Meta will become the parent company of the established brands under Facebook (like Instagram) and Facebook itself. The focus on this project has been speculated to have been a response to the negative feedback about Facebook over the last year or two; election fraud, data leaks, unregulated advertisements, broken systems, and mental health for young teens, just to name a few.

While this may sound negative, the new Metaverse direction will open up new avenues for both the company and creators. Facebook was a new experience that connected 50 million people by October 2007, and today the social media platform operates with over 2.9 billion users. In between these two monumental numbers holds the advancements of the platform. Events, messenger, marketplace, live videos, games, groups, ads, and more were added to make the Facebook experience better for curators, users, and even businesses.

Whether or not you believe Meta will be integral to the upcoming advancements to the music industry, keep in mind that Facebook played a huge part in developing and influencing the social tools we use to promote and showcase music today. If Meta is able to accomplish what they are planning to do, musicians once again will have an opportunity to build upon a new and emerging platform. From NFT transactions, virtual meetings, and adjustable worlds, the Metaverse may also adjust how we consume social media content. Below we will cover some of these emerging technologies that may become native to Meta.

NFTs and the Opportunity of Fan Funding

A musician or band with a small following may have difficulty creating and selling merchandise, which is why this next section is reserved mainly for groups with large followings. A NFT or “non-fungible token” is a unique digital item, or rather a string of code that cannot be replicated or duplicated. They're stored on the blockchain, which allows people to prove who used to, and currently owns a NFT. For creators, this is a massive opportunity to allow both the creator and the fan to benefit with investments. For example, the organization Opulous is bringing “Decentralized Finance to the music industry, changing how artists access the funding they need and providing a launchpad for the first music copyright-backed NFTs.” This in turn, will allow musicians to sell S-NFTs (different from regular NFTs in that it continues to collect royalties after it is sold) and continue to accrue royalties between sales and trades between different fans.

Aside from selling the music copyright as an NFT, musicians can also sell custom digital items (referred to as tokens) that resemble a key to access exclusive content or perks. For example, a band could sell an NFT collection with a 1000 different versions of a drawing (trading at a low value at start) or sell a smaller number of NFTs in the form of 50 meet and greet NFTs, or in some cases, 1 copy of album artwork, or the copyright to a song. You’ve probably heard that Grimes sold NFTs of her recordings for about $6 million, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda raised $30,000 via an NFT auction, and PelleK sold a NFT music album, which sold out at pre-sale in less than two hours for $160,000. Ozuna made $456,000 in 15 minutes, Kings Of Leon generated $2 million, and even Tory Lanez made more than $400,000 in NFT auctions. This new way of funding will ultimately affect how fans interact and support artists, for the better as it seems.

Live Concerts in a Virtual Space

Back at the start of the pandemic, thousands of shows, festivals, and in person events were cancelled to prevent the spread of Covid-19. In a matter of months, events like Digital Mirage put out the first wave of online music festivals that actually made a positive impact for musicians. This festival brought 50+ artists all over the world together in an online format, viewable from almost every device connected to YouTube. In turn, thousands of people attended over a 3 day period, and donated thousands of dollars to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund. We also launched our very own online music festival called Virtual Vibe, showcasing musical acts across the United States.

Expanding the concept. Porter Robinson launched Secret Sky, which featured a 3D virtual reality room that made the experience even better. Each attendee would travel (as they would at a real festival) to the festival ground, and watch the show from anywhere in the digital room. Despite every attendee having beams of light as their sprites, the ability to control your position made the disconnect less obtrusive. In-game concerts have become more popular within the last year. Take Fortnite, which hosts concerts in this format frequently, has brought in acts like Marshmello, Travis Scott, and Lil Nas X to perform in the digital space. Interestingly, these shows have attracted between 10 to 33 million people.

Another online concert platform, Sessions Live, has taken a different approach to assisting artists with providing fans with an online concert experience. Just like other streaming platforms, Sessions utilizes Streamlabs OBS to push live streaming to content platforms like YouTube Live, Twitch, and now Sessions Live. While this tool was used heavily during the pandemic, future integrations of this technology will make it into the Metaverse. If Meta adds this feature to their Metaverse, musicians may be able to provide comparable experiences like Fortnite and Secret Sky.

The Metaverse in the World

As we get closer to the launch of Meta, content creators, companies, artists, animators, traders and advertisers are arming themselves for the new age of web surfing. There is too much to talk about, but that’s where songwriters come in. If you enjoy “disturbing the peace” this is your opportunity to get your song out there about an idea that has not yet come into fruition or publicly announced.

While Meta might be launching the most immersive application to encompass all apps, new ones will be developed for the platform. Will large concert venues and festivals become obsolete after more mismanaged events make it into the news for cancelling (festivals during the pandemic) or disregarding the health and safety of the attendees altogether (Live Nation presents Astroworld)? Companies like Live Nation Entertainment or Live Nation Worldwide may become a huge influence on the general public for this change, as they have had over 200 reported deaths and 750 injuries connected to their events since 2006. Live streaming may become the new normal for large event productions as seen in Fortnite and Secret Sky.

Ticketing may also see a change, as more systems are being built upon the blockchain to support crypto and NFT transactions, and finally, businesses may also adopt crypto during this migration from web 2.0 to web 3.0.

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