MUSIC has the ability to move us to tears, joy, and even to the point of calming our mind and spirit.
People usually claim that music is a universal language that serves to link not only musicians and their fans, but also communities built around common hobbies and interests such as artists, genres, and a number of others.
Now, What if fans could now contact their favourite artists directly?
The world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has gained in popularity recently, and the music industry is no exception. It is currently embracing the NFTs movement and expanding as an expression of digital culture.
Celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan, and Grimes have all gotten in on the act, minting their own non-fungible tokens.
Jason Vandal, also known as Vandal of DAORecords, a Canadian-born hip-hop musician, said he has always been a supporter of independent artists and the idea of artists retaining control over their works and gaining a fair deal when it comes to their involvement in the music industry.
“Towards the end of 2017, I began to become interested in crypto … the ecosystem, and just understanding about cryptocurrencies and what they meant.
“I was pretty excited when I came across this term ‘digital cats,’ and I had no idea what it meant. I simply laughed out loud and thought that was hilarious, and I thought to myself, who’s going to purchase a digitised cat?
“Then I found out what it was, and it blew my mind, and I thought this was going to be the next big thing,” he shared during a small session with fellow NFTs communities and artists in Kuching, organised by Haus Kuching recently.
He gave a brief introduction to NFT, the importance of music NFTs, a music NFT example, music NFT demo development, and a question and answer session to the attendees.
He went on to say that the crypto environment is greatly impacted by finance, which is digital money, and that the creative communities should get involved in the scene.
“From 2018 onwards, I was on a quest to bring in more people into the space and discover various tools for them to utilise and share with them in order to get them enthusiastic to learn about the world of crypto and blockchain, and eventually NFT,” he added.
Vandal learned about the decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) through a friend who attended a blockchain conference in Japan in 2019.
“It basically boils down to adopting decentralised technology to enable fair and transparent administration of communities, organisations, and corporations.
“I was quite excited about this since I had done a lot of work in the past, particularly with music communities. I believe we can apply similar decentralised governance tools to creative communities.
“This is because I discovered that the music industry has some of the most serious issues, particularly when it comes to groups, performers, and managers, all of which are related to money,” he said.
He then launched DAORecords, a project based on his vision to create a decentralised record label that would use blockchain technology to power it, primarily so that members and artists who had previously participated in the label would be able to continue to be a part of it.
Each music NFT released on DAORecords has its own design splash page, and Vandal had just also uploaded a new song called “Spacesuit Apocalypse” recently.
Further explaining the song, he wanted to write a song about his collectibles, which he did by describing them in the song.
In addition to NFT artwork, Vandal stated that it can also be in the form of tickets, virtual land, videos, films, or music, and that it is a new way to deliver content.
Vandal also admitted that the music industry is currently unstable, owing to the fact that artists are getting less on a per-stream basis, making it unprofitable for them to make a living from it.
“In other words, as music became more digitised over time, its value decreased.
“It’s a problem because the industry exploits artists and their music, which isn’t fair to the artists.”
And that is how DAORecords was founded — by creating and nurturing a new ecosystem, a new music industry that is fair to artists and transparent, removing many of the aforementioned difficulties.
After spending time in Malaysia and performing on stages in both Kuching and Kuala Lumpur, he noted that the Malaysian music industry is all too familiar with the middleman.
By applying the music NFT in the industry, artists can reclaim control over the many aspects of the music industry in which they participate, as well as eliminating the value-extracting intermediaries.
Another aspect of music NFT, according to Vandal, is community building. He admitted that he felt detached from his audience because he did not have a direct connection with fans.
“In the sense that they can’t really engage directly with their listeners, musicians don’t gain or benefit by having their music on streaming.
“Therefore, the music NFT is our way of allowing artists to form a community and have a direct interaction with their followers and fans.
“And I believe that this is what NFT enables us to accomplish… to have a stronger connection with our followers and supporters.”
Vandal also disclosed that he’s now working on bringing together the many components of the traditional music industry and the web3, which is the music NFT ecosystem, with input from artists, musicians, and technologists.
“What we’re doing with DAORecords is putting a percentage of the sales (songs) into the DAO, where artists may apply for funding for their projects.
“Perhaps they (artists) are looking for funding to create, record, mix, and master their work, as well as marketing and promotion.
“So these are the tools we’re developing,” he explained.
He went on to say that people, particularly those in the NFT community, are frequently caught up in a hype cycle of investing and selling to make a profit, which he believes is unsustainable.
“Investing in NFTs and gaining money from them is a completely different experience than admiring an NFT for its aesthetics.
“We want to create communities where people not only enjoy but also have the opportunity to use NFTS.
“So it’s all really experimental right now, and we’ve just been trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t, as well as receiving feedback from musicians and doing this sharing session and talking to people,” Vandal said.
