It’s not long since the concept of NFT entered our lives. In this short period of time, it has developed rapidly with the dynamic structure of technology and shown its presence in various sectors. One of the sectors most affected by NFTs is undoubtedly the music industry. In February 2021, DJ and producer 3LAU sold some of his works online for a record $12 million as NFT. After this record sale, the eyes of the music industry also turned to NFTs. So why have NFTs taken hold in the music industry and what are their effects on the course of this industry?

NFTs, as they are known and as we mentioned earlier in our previous articles, refer to individual unique tokens on any blockchain. This definition itself recalls works of art that are distinguished by their characteristics of “uniqueness” and “originality”. Unlike other crypto assets, NFTs go beyond the copy function of the conventional digital environment, and even if copied, they are distinguished by the fact that the original asset is “certified” in the digital environment that is unique to its owner. For this reason, they are used in particular by artists to record their works on digital media. Thus, artists can record the originality of their works in the digital environment. Therefore, when registering property, NFTs act as a sort of official land registry. NFTs also include the features of security, openness and registration of records in the official land registry on the blockchain where they were created.

The development of the music industry with NFTs was an expected development due to the structure of NFTs. Nowadays, in today’s digital world, artists can save their works as NFTs on the blockchain, and these NFTs can be transferred to the same blockchain. The way musicians circulate their works in this way presents an important difference compared to their circulation in the physical world: NFTs provide a direct bridge between musicians and listeners on this ground. This means that middlemen such as production companies and streaming platforms (such as Spotify, iTunes) that stand between the musician and the listener and also receive the big slice of the pie are removed from the contact between the musician and the listener.

NFTs also have other benefits for musicians. While NFTs are created on the blockchain, they are encoded with smart contracts. Although smart contracts cannot contain full provisions like conventional contracts, some functionality can be added to smart contracts. For example, it is possible for the musician to tokenize his work by converting it into NFT and connecting it to a smart contract, and adding a provision to this contract that encodes the payment of a certain percentage of the sale price to the musician as a commission for each sale of the token. Thus, once the musician has created and sold his work as NFT, he does not have to stand out at this level, he gets to be included in each distribution process. Additionally, in exchange for purchasing the musician’s work as an NFT through smart contracts, various other privileges may be granted to the owner of the relevant NFT, such as the ability to access each concert of that musician as as a VIP guest. Thus, musicians have a different digital distribution network to deliver their works to their listeners through NFTs.

As we have seen, the use of NFTs in the music industry helps musicians maintain their connection with their works at every stage and thus continue their journey of seeking rights on their own. The fact that musicians can carry out these procedures related to their own works is an advantage, especially since it allows small and still little-known artists to develop without any intermediary institution.

With the development and growth of the metaverse, the world is rapidly moving towards a multiverse in which the internet, games, and other virtual universes are collectively brought together. The fact that the originality of original works that have no physical presence in the metaverse can only be recorded through NFTs in existing technology has also increased the value of NFTs. Thus, it became possible for musicians to exhibit their works in the metaverse. It is also possible that the functionality added to the immutable tokens mentioned above by smart contracts will be implemented in the metaverse universe. Musicians can hold concerts in both the physical universe and the Metaverse at the same time, and certain perks can be provided to tickets purchased as NFTs via smart contracts, as mentioned above.

As we have seen, musicians can go beyond the boundaries of the physical world and exhibit their works in other universes, by converting their works and the elements related to their works into NFT, and make their voices heard in physical environments and digital to a much wider audience. . The development of the ever-growing metaverse whose boundaries are still unclear, and the impact of this development on the music world has already begun to excite artists.