99 cents does not do justice to the hours of songwriting and vocal practice artists invest in their craft. While the streaming era has increased the availability of music to people around the globe, artists are getting paid a tiny fraction of the revenue generated from their music catalogues. Tech companies like Spotify and Apple have made music practically free so that artists have to rely on merchandise sales, features, and tours to make a decent living. Two factors responsible for the underpayment of artists are the centralised industrial system and capitalist interest. Many independent artists believe that the Metaverse can be the remedy to both problems by offering a decentralised system where artists have control over the price tag on their music and create more opportunities for artists to make digital sales of virtual goods that require little production costs.
How the metaverse is influencing pop culture
The Metaverse or Web 3.0 is a meshwork of 3D virtual worlds. It further fulfils the promise of the internet – which is to connect the human race. It allows the “existence” of unlimited structures and experiences that are not possible in the actual world. Also, people can assume different body forms, even other animal structures, in the Metaverse. In summary, the Metaverse brings human freedom to another level. Recently, the music industry has been flaunting two main elements of the Metaverse, namely NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
The NFT niche has been growing in popularity over the past six months. Chances are you have come across social media accounts with dope
apes as their profile picture on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. While most of the copycat versions have no Blockchain value, the original bored ape non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are popular among celebrities. The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs were bought by artists such as Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Paris Hilton. Eminem bought Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT for $450,000 on the 30th of December, 2021. The major selling point of the Bored Ape NFT is that the owners have full commercialisation rights to the ape art, meaning they can use it in any entertainment project, be it music, movies. television, or novel. In addition, the users have access to Yacht Club and a digital graffiti board called “THE BATHROOM”.
Apart from investing in virtual art projects, musicians can release their music as NFTs. One artist who has successfully put out an NFT project is Tory Lanez. On releasing the NFT album, When it’s dark, Lanez announced that he sold over 1 million copies, meaning he went platinum in 24 hours. The NFT was sold for a dollar per copy. One beautiful thing about releasing a project as an NFT is that core fans can get multiple copies of the project, making it easier for artists to reach certain milestones. Why would anyone buy a thousand copies of the same album? Well, the idea sounds ridiculous, but the logic behind such a move is pretty solid. People who buy multiple copies get it so they can resell it for a higher value. For instance, only one million copies of the album, “when it’s dark album”, was produced and sold on the day of release. To listen to the project, you need to buy it from a current NFT holder. These new owners can make profits off their virtual assets. It’s an opportunity for fans to make money while supporting their favourite artists (a feature that the current DSPs like Deezer, Spotify and Apple do not offer). For every NFT resold, the artist gets a share, making a very lucrative idea.
While other artists have been supportive of the metaverse idea, one artist who does not seem impressed by the idea of virtual assets is none other than Kanye West. According to an Instagram post on the official Kanye West page, the Donda crooner said, “Stop asking me to do NFT’s. I’m not finna co-sign. For now, I’m not on that wave. I make music and products in the real world.”
The Early Adopters
Given the negative attitude of established companies to cryptocurrency, one would expect traditional labels to toss away the idea of the Metaverse. Well, to our surprise, they are the early adopters rather than the laggards. Like two sides of the same coin, what seems to the indie artists as a route to freedom is viewed by the big labels as a means of expanding their influence and of course, making more dough. It must be noted that the metaverse can be a centralised tyranny or a decentralised haven of freedom. However, Blockchain Metaverse is decentralised.
Warner Music Group, the parent label of Atlantic records, Warner records, Elektra Music Group, and Parlophone, has partnered with Sandbox to create the first music-themed in the Sandbox decentralised Metaverse.
The giant label aims to create virtual musical experiences and concerts in the Metaverse. Also, the label announced that they will be selling virtual LANDS close to their WMG property.
Snoop Dogg recently purchased his former label, Death Row Records, making him a certified label owner. Like WMG, Snoop Dogg announced his intention to convert Death Row into an NFT record label. According to Snoop, “We (Death Row Records) will be putting out artists through the metaverse. Just like we broke the industry when we was (sic) the first independent (label) to be major. I want to be the first major (label) in the metaverse.”
The race to be the first label to “break into” the Metaverse is on. And we hope the move benefits the artists as much as it enriches the labels.
Since Mark Zuckerberg dropped a bombshell by announcing his venture into the metaverse and his company’s name change from Facebook to Meta, the metaverse has stirred a debate online. People who antagonised the Metaverse are worried about safety and the rifting effect of a 3D immersive technology, especially when pioneered by Facebook, a company that has a bad history with data security on its platform. On the other hand, the early adopters (in this case, labels and artists) are concerned about the financial opportunities and endless possibilities the Metaverse presents. Although the concept is not new, Zuckerberg has helped bring it to the limelight.
