Today, a few key players dominate the music industry. These key players include centralized platforms and major record labels. Because of this, new music artists make little to no income when pursuing their dreams. Now, I’m sure you’ve heard of platforms paying fractions of a cent per stream to artists.
Also, how about budding artists facing all sorts of exploitation from record labels? All these actions harm the industry by deterring new artists from entering the scene. It simply isn’t viable for them to create the music they love. However, some projects have come together to try and solve these problems. Now, let’s look at 3 Web3 music projects trying to grow the music space.
1. Audius
Audius is one of the most notable Web3 music projects in crypto. Built on the Solana network, Audius is a decentralized music sharing and streaming protocol. It aims to connect music artists to their listeners. Meanwhile, Audius removes the need for the middleman which includes record labels, agents, and so forth.
Simply put, budding artists need not sign up with a record label to distribute their works to a fanbase. They’re also able to better earn a sustainable income to pursue their passion. In fact, Audius promises that 90% of their revenue will go to artists. In comparison, centralized platforms provide 12% of their revenue to artists today.
Is Audius’ Token ($AUDIO) A Good Investment?
As a Web3 project, Audius has its own token ($AUDIO). Now, as a crypto investor, your first question would be – “What is this token used for?”. Well, $AUDIO has many uses within the Audius network.
$AUDIO Utility
Today, users of the Audius network can use $AUDIO for:-
- Voting on Audius’ governance. Users with staked $AUDIO have a say in proposals made which can affect the future of Audius.
- Staking with nodes on the Audius network. Users staking $AUDIO on nodes will earn a healthy 7% to 14% annual percentage rate (APR). Moreover, staking $AUDIO also secures the Audius network.
- Unlocking features related to your favorite artist. Fans holding $AUDIO can achieve higher “VIP” tiers for exclusive rewards from artists. This could include meet-ups, VIP seats during concerts, merchandise and so forth.
- Generating “Artist tokens” for fans. Artists can use the $AUDIO token too! By staking $AUDIO, artists can generate their very own tokens to sell to fans. With these artist tokens, fans can enjoy exclusive rewards from said artists.
As a crypto investor, you can now rest assured that $AUDIO is not a cash grab. But, good token utility does not equate to a good investment. It is just one piece of the puzzle. The next question you should ask is “Is anyone using Audius today?”. If the answer is no, this means there are less people getting involved with the $AUDIO token. As an investor, it is then wise to avoid investing in $AUDIO.
Audius’ Unique Users
To answer this question, let’s look at the above chart. Said chart shows the number of unique users on Audius from July 2020 to August 2022. Now, there was an initial surge of growth in 2020, but it seems to have plateaued from 2021 till today. This reduced interest in Audius could be due to a recent hack which they suffered in July this year.
Now, I would consider getting into $AUDIO only when Audius’ user base picks up. In turn, these users would represent buying pressure of the $AUDIO token. As a savvy crypto investor, your job is to get in before these users drive the price of $AUDIO up. Again, this is IF Audius manages to increase its user base.
2. The Great Wave
Another one of the Web3 music projects in crypto aiming to connect artists to their fanbase is The Great Wave (TGW). TGW is a crypto NFT project focused on music NFTs. The TGW team aims to build a new platform that connects artists, fans, developers, and investors.
Structured as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), TGW aims to grow the music scene with a 3-step approach:
- The DAO Approach – With a DAO, all parties reach an agreement together for music releases, business decisions, and so forth. Simply put, artists now have a larger say in the music they want to create.
- Economic Incentive – The TGW DAO allocates higher commissions to artists. With economic incentives, new artists are encouraged to create music.
- Community – Fans have access to special events for their favorite artists within the TGW ecosystem. Moreover, artists within TGW gain exposure to new audiences as well.
Moving forward, TGW has many events in its pipeline. Recently, they’re hosting their first concert in Singapore’s Esplanade Theatre. If you’re in Singapore, do consider checking them out! To get a ticket, you can just mint a gNFT per their tweet below.
Minting for The Great Wave’s first concert gNFT is now "LIVE" 🎫: https://t.co/YhaRwLwv5b pic.twitter.com/Oo8c1uhDge
— The Great Wave (@thegreatwaveio) August 17, 2022
Is TGW’s Token ($WAV) A Good Investment?
Similar to Audius, TGW also has its own token, $WAV. However, the TGW team has not built in much utility into the $WAV token yet. Currently, $WAV is only used for DAO voting, liquidity provisioning and staking.
Rightly, their focus now is towards onboarding artists and building up their community. As an investor and music lover, I would consider supporting the artists directly by getting their gNFTs instead. This entitles me to a concert with multiple artists, and also directly enrolls me into the TGW DAO.
3. Spinamp
Spinamp is a first-of-its-kind amongst Web3 music projects in crypto. Unlike Audius or TGW, Spinamp is a player which converts music NFTs into audible music. Currently, Spinamp connects to the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.
Apart from playing music NFTs, Spinamp has a bunch of other cool features too! These include:
- Creation of music and art on its platform.
- Copyright protection for music NFT artists.
- Music library with songs from over 500 Web3 music artists.
- Playlist creation function for curated music to your liking.
To learn more about Spinamp’s functions, you can refer to our previous guide here.
Is Spinamp A Good Investment?
Well, Spinamp does not have its own token. Hence, investing in Spinamp is out of reach for retail investors like us! However, we’re still welcome to enjoy the lovely tunes and features on their platform.
Conclusion
Despite its promises, the above projects still can’t take on today’s industry giants. Yet, we cannot ignore the huge problems in the music industry. For now, Web3 music projects like Audius, TGW and Spinamp make the first, steadfast steps toward a feasible solution.
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