Music NFTs: Buy music, make money, enjoy exclusive rights

EDM artiste Grimes released WarNymphy Collection Vol 1 as her first NFT asset and within 20 minutes, she made over $5 million. Welcome to the world of music NFTs or non-fungible tokens that are a win-win for artistes and fans alike.

Sunanda Sharma, the first Punjabi singer to invest in NFT, considers it a revolutionary technology that has the potential to create a powerful impact on the Indian music industry.She launched her new song 9-9 Mashukan as her debut NFT and received a great response. The album had 2370 NFT and was released in two phases. The first phase was sold out in less than two days. (Numbers by FanTiger.com) "It has been a game-changer for me. It helped me create a unique and valuable digital asset for my fans to collect, cherish, and earn royalties," shares Sunanda.

So, what's making NFTs popular?
Digital Ownership
From allowing fans to buy partial ownership of a song, to an opportunity to interact with the artistes, NFTs provide a unique and verifiable digital ownership. "As a fan, this is one way to own a piece of their music. You have access to limited edition merchandise, royalty income and this has created a new market for music memorabilia and has made NFTs highly sought after," shares Prashan Agarwal, founder & CEO, of FanTiger.com.
Doing away with intermediaries
Today, the most common platform to release music is either Spotify or Apple Music. Unfortunately, even if a newly released song is played thousands of times, there is no corresponding rise in revenue. NFTs allow musicians to sell their music directly to fans, bypassing intermediaries like record labels and distributors.
"This allows artists to retain more control over the distribution of their music and create limited-edition digital items, such as special editions of albums or merchandise, to increase fan engagement," shares Prashan.
Increased revenue
NFTs provide a new revenue stream for artistes. “It allows them additional ways to monetise their work in a new and innovative way, while also providing fans with a deeper connection to the music they love. Overall, NFTs are helping to drive innovation and growth in the music industry," says Prashan.
Fan engagement
Rahul Devang, a digital marketing professional and NFT investor, explains that investing in music NFT works positively for both investors/fans and musicians. "In the case of NFTs, you are a fan and a stakeholder and stand to gain monetary value from it. So, the more people purchase, the benefit goes to artistes and the fans," says Rahul.
He further adds, "Unreleased music, meet and greet, access to exclusive community are things that money cannot buy, these perks are only for NFT holders. The artistes take extra effort for their NFT holders to increase fan engagement," explains Rahul.
A boon for musicians!

NFT brings attention to an individual artiste: Ritviz
After Grimes made millions, artistes like Shawn Mendes, Mike Shinoda, Kings of Leon, and Jacques Greene, hopped onto the NFT bandwagon. Closer home, in 2021, Tamil singer-composer Kaber Vasuki's song, Vasanam, was sold as NFT for 50 Ethereum, a cryptocurrency valued at Rs 1.5 crore then. The same year, popular Indian independent artistes Nucleya and Ritviz announced the launch of their collaborative album called Baraat. The duo was the first one to auction the digital token. (According to WazirX, an NFT marketplace where the duo actioned their album, Ritviz and Nucleya NFT generated revenue of Ras 5.5 lakhs through the sale of their 10 NFT drops and were completely sold out.)
"I was hesitant to dive into the world of music NFTs, but when I finally did it, I created a truly one-of-a-kind digital asset that my fans are loving." - Indian Musician Pravin Mani.
Talking about the long-term revenue benefit of NFTs, videos, Ritviz shares, " The NFT world is exciting and artistes can make royalties for the rest of their life from it. It also brings a lot of attention to the individual artistes and their work. Even if someone resells their NFT, there is a royalty percentage going to the owner. We did a bunch of NFTs and we would be diving more into it in the future."
What are Music NFTs?
Music NFTs can feature one song, album or music video. It is a unique and tokenised version of their work that can be directly sold to fans and investors.
What to keep in mind before buying music NFTs
1. The reputation of the artiste
2. The community supporting the NFT
3. The uniqueness and rarity of the NFT
4. Perks, and privileges being provided to the NFT holder
Latest artistes with music NFTs
Sunanda Sharma: Punjabi female singer
Karan Sehmbi: The voice behind the superhit song, Main Khichu Teri Photo
Akhil Sachdeva: The voice behind superhits like Humsafar from Badrinath ki Dulhaniya
Khesari Lal Yadav: Bhojpuri superstar
Divine: Rap artiste