Stop underselling yourself by restricting your music to royalty-based platforms like Apple Music, Deezer, and Spotify. As an artist, you can earn thousands (if not millions) of dollars by selling easy-to-make digital NFTs like BTS of your music videos, tour pictures, 3D animations, images, and throwaway music that would never make it to the publisher anyways.
It’s all about Leverage
When was the last time Rihanna released a record? Can’t remember right? She dropped her last record, Anti, in 2016 (6 years ago). Yet, she was declared a billionaire in 2021 (approximately $1.7 billion).
Did she attain the “billi” status off her back catalog? Not at all!
In recent times, Riri has been everywhere (except the music studio) flaunting her baby bump. She realized making music would only enrich her label management instead of her. Hence, she banked on her leverage as a world-class artist to create Fenty. Yes, she became a billionaire by selling cosmetics and perfumes. She clearly understood the power of leverage.
Same thing with Kanye West, an artist that went through the loss of his mother, divorce, and almost filed for bankruptcy in one decade. However, he turned his life around by using his leverage to sell fashion products. He is currently worth $2 billion. Like Rihanna, Ye understood the immense power of leverage.
Fans who are dedicated to your music won’t mind paying money to get rare digital content like unreleased music or images in the form of non-fungible tokens. These people want to access rare items from their favorite artists and they don’t mind paying for them.
It’s the same logic that enables artists to pay for after-party tickets after the main show. Some of them want to brag about partying with you and not just watch you perform on a distant show.
View NFT platforms as a patron platform only that people purchase access with cryptocurrencies. On platforms like Opensea, artists sell digital fragments of their lifestyles.
What is Music NFT?
NFTs became so popular in 2021 that it was featured in Collins dictionary as the word of the year. For most people, the Bored Ape Avatar or crypto art monkey was their first contact with the NFT world. The cosign from artists like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Tory Lanez helped shine more light on the NFT community on Twitter, Discord, Reddit, and other highly interactive media.
So what the hell are music NFTs? To better grasp the concept of an NFT audio, you must understand what NFT entails. NFT is the acronym for non-fungible tokens. It is any digital asset be it a painting, music, videos, or in-game item that can be owned or traded. When you pay for an NFT, you don’t just pay for the art but also its ownership which is stored in the blockchain every time a transaction is completed from artist to fans or fans to fans.
Usually, NFT artists release limited copies of their records or singles. Then, the fans who purchased it initially can sell the NFT project for higher amounts. A good example is Tory Lanez’s NFT album titled “When it’s Dark”. The album was sold exclusively on E-NFT, a platform presented by Emmersive Entertainment.
The project sold for $1 per copy and one million copies were sold out in a minute. Tory is not alone in the NFT space as many artists like Shawn Mendes, Mike Shinoda, and Ja Rule amongst many others.
Music NFT is a certificate stored within the blockchain system that proves the ownership of a musical project. The rights that come with the acquisition of music NFTs are determined by the original owners (artists or labels).
While fans will be able to earn money alongside the artists when they sell their music NFT copies, they cannot license them out to advertisers or claim the master rights unless stated otherwise by the artist. It is necessary for fans to understand the limits of their ownership rights before music NFTs.
Things you need to make music NFTs
Minting your music NFT is quite easy, but without understanding the essentials, you may find yourself in a tough spot for days. Below are the things you need to mint music NFTs.
Crypto wallet
A crypto wallet is used to store cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Technically, you can’t buy an NFT art with fiat currencies like dollars or cold cash. Music NFTs are sold or purchased using cryptocurrencies. However, you can purchase crypto money; then, buy music NFTs with your cryptocurrency.
These wallets come in form of applications or browser extensions. Go for crypto wallets that are easy to use and compatible with most of the NFT marketplaces. The good thing about crypto wallets is that almost every crypto marketplace has its own wallet for instance Coinbase, Binance, Coinomi, Bitcoin Core, and BitPay. With basic knowledge of how crypto works, you are good to go.
Not all crypto wallets are compatible with the blockchain protocol NFTs are designed on. In addition, your chosen wallet must be compatible with the currency you intend to purchase your NFT. The general currencies for purchasing NFTs are Ethereum, Ether, and Bitcoin.
An address is given to every crypto wallet. Like your bank account number, your crypto wallet address is the information you provide a sender whenever you are making a transaction on the blockchain system.
Alongside the address, you will have to create a private key and seed phrase that should be kept private at all times. Hackers can steal your cryptocurrency or NFT if they have access to your private key or seed phrase.
A private key is synonymous with a password. It is a chain of numbers and letters that serves as a pass to your blockchain data and asset. You are advised to store your private key on physical media like paper or a hard drive but in case you lose your password, you can recover your account using a 12-word seed phrase.
Please note that you cannot recover your digital asset if you lose your private key and seed phrase.
NFT Marketplace
Let’s say you have converted your fiat currency into cryptocurrency and you want to start minting your music NFT. The next step is to choose an NFT platform that you trust. Established artists are constantly wooed by these platforms and oftentimes offered mouth-watering deals and promotion budgets.
As an upcoming artist, you have to create an account on the platform yourself and promote your music NFTs with your own money.
There are various NFT platforms out there. Popular examples of such platforms include Nifty Gateway, OpenSea, Axie Marketplace, Larva Labs, NBA Top Shot Marketplace, SuperRare, Raible, etc.
In the case of OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace for artists, you need a Metamask crypto wallet and ethereum cryptocurrency to start minting your music NFT. Creating an OpenSea and NFT collection is pretty easy. The process and requirements differ for every platform. It is recommended you compare and contrast different platforms before choosing one.
Gas fee for minting
In the same way you pay processing fees when making transactions at banks, the desired NFT platform will require you to pay the gas fee for minting operations.
Minting refers to the process of publishing one’s token on the blockchain system to make it sellable. Prior to the minting process, your digital asset is tokenized, meaning a random identifier is generated to avoid unauthorized access and confirm the ownership of the music NFT.
Gas fee funds the NFT platform and most importantly the miners of the crypto community. The price differs for every platform. OpenSea charges its NFT creators an initial gas fee of $70 -$300 for initiating an account and $10 – $30 to access your NFT. In addition, they will charge you 2.5 percent of the profit made per music NFT sale.
Final Thoughts
There are several ways you can make money through your music outside the royalty system. Whether you decide to sell a physical merch or digital NFT asset, the grass is greener on any side when you water it enough. Even the deserts of Saudi Arabia get fertile when watered.
