WASHINGTON, DC (BBN) — The music industry was in decline even before the pandemic started due to manipulation from streaming companies.

Moreover, since the start of the pandemic, the music industry has seen a further decline as public gatherings have been closed and touring, one of the primary ways through which music artists earned money is banned in most of the countries.

[Akon talking to Tagglefish founder and Capitol Intelligence IT partner Kawani Belk at National Press Club on August 7, 2014]

However, there seems to be a savior for the music industry in sight, NFTs. Within a few weeks, small artists who have been especially hit hard by the pandemic all flocked behind NFTs as a way to monetize their content. They have become a thing now that is saving art and disrupting the traditional music and art scene. What is an NFT?

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Tokens, which essentially means that it is unique and not interchangeable with anything else. For example, a dollar bill is a fungible thing, you can exchange it for another dollar bill and have essentially the same thing that you had before, nothing’s changed.

However, non-fungible tokens are different, for example, the painting masterpiece Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci is non-fungible, you cannot trade it for another Mona Lisa, there’s only one in the world. This idea of non-fungible things is now disrupting the digital landscape with NFTs, which essentially work on the same principle but digitally and backed by blockchain technology.

NFTs are made up of two things, first a piece of art, which can be a painting, a book, an essay, or any form of digital or physical art. The second is a digital token, usually based on the Ethereum blockchain, that represents the art.

So the ownership of the artwork is marked by the token, anyone who holds the token is the owner of the artwork, which as a whole is an NFT. The ownership is transferable and verifiable on the blockchain, and being on the blockchain it is ensured that it cannot be replicated.

NFTs are powered by smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain which makes them easily programmable and exchangeable. Artists can easily create an NFT and sell it to prospective buyers.

The artists can earn royalties over the resale of their artwork as well. Many NFT resales have seen more than 10% of the resale price going as royalties to the artists every time.

NFTs also has a huge upside, a Beeple painting title crossroads, sold for almost 60,000 dollars last year, and was sold for more than $6.6 million a year later. Other NFTs have also seen a huge upside in their value over the years.

Major Players in the NFT space: Non-Fungible Tokens are increasing in popularity, it has been estimated that the industry grew by more than 300% in 2020, with a trading volume of more than 250 million dollars.

Just last week Beeple, a digital artist, sold an NFT worth 69 million dollars through the world’s biggest and oldest auction house, Christie’s.

With this increasing popularity much digital art or NFT trading platforms have popped up these are the few major players in the space: Opensea is one of the largest marketplaces for buying and selling NFTs, the site has more than 4 million items for sale in over 200 categories.

It has more than four thousand active traders on the platform every day, with a 24-hour trading volume of around 4 million dollars.

NBA topshot is the biggest NFT marketplace, however, the NFTs sold on the website are only related to basketball memorabilia. It has more than 86 thousand traders trading around 7.88 million dollars worth of NFTs daily. Although it is the biggest marketplace, however, it is confined to basketball memorabilia only.

Mintable is another up-and-coming platform in the NFT space, with around 100,000 visitors every month and over a thousand listings on the platform.

Mintable allows artists to create their NFT easily without any hassle and sell it on the platform. Trends in the NFT world: Since late 2020 the NFT market has blown up, more than a quarter of a billion-dollar worth of NFTs have been sold.

Grimes, a famous EDM artist, sold an NFT bundle of her work for more than $6 million. Steve Aoki sold more than $4 million worth of NFT, while 3 LAU another artist sold 11.6 million worth of NFTs last month.

[Sean “Diddy” Combs interviewed by US House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) at Financial Services Brainchild during Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. September 22, 2017]

Moreover, many artists are also releasing their new records as NFT, Kings of Leon became the first one to do so last week, while other artists are also getting in on the bandwagon.

It is expected that the NFTs will increase considerably in value over the next few years and are surely going to generate a massive return for the buyers. Small artists getting in on the trend: The trend has been really strong with smaller artists who have been monetizing their art using NFT.

Many up-and-coming musical artists have started selling their music as NFTs. A young rapper named Syce Wavy from Virginia is selling his 11-song Album titled 703 as an NFT on Mintable.

The album is about Syce’s experiences growing up in Woodbridge, Virginia. Hip Hop Fans should go and check out his NFT listed on Mintable. Artists like Syce stand to gain the most from these NFTs, as they have been hit hard by the pandemic and the exploitation by streaming services. As it stands, NFTs are going to change the music business for good.

By Kawani Belk and edited by PK Semler in Washington, DC.  For more information, email pks@capitolintelgroup.com

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