NFTs were a lockdown boon, but are they music’s future?

 

NFTs were a lockdown boon, but are they music’s future?

After the pandemic halted live events, the global concert industry lost more than $30 billion in 2020, depriving many musicians of their primary source of income. Acts from Kings of Leon and Grimes to Eminem have released NFTs as a way of staying connected with fans, boosting revenue, and fundraising on behalf of struggling venues. Now that concerts are returning — concert-biz goliath Live Nation has already booked twice as many shows for 2022 as it did in 2019 — what role will NFTs play?

  • NFTs could revolutionize concert tickets. Smart contracts could prevent scalping, allow acts to get a cut of secondary market sales, and prevent ticket fraud — transforming the multibillion dollar resale market.
  • Every NFT is a unique crypto token that works like a certificate of authenticity. Bands can use them to sell VIP concert experiences, limited-edition merch, special versions of albums, and almost anything else a fan might want.
  • DJs and EDM acts like Deadmau5 and RAC helped pioneer the use of NFTs in music. Because they’re built with smart contracts, they can enable features like automatic royalty payments each time an artwork is resold. As RAC explained, his NFT could get “traded into oblivion for the rest of my life and I’ll keep getting 10 percent.”
  • Some musicians remain skeptical, citing financial incentives that favor wealthier artists or don’t align with artistic principles.
  • Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino thinks NFTs could “add souvenir moments” to events. The Ticketmaster parent company also reported it’s exploring blockchain security features for tickets.

Why it matters… NFTs have attracted the attention of top artists, even though they remain a tiny part of the music industry. But while Live Nation’s Rapino claims that the concert business has already “unlocked” many of the key experiences that NFTs promise (like VIP ticket packages), it’s clearly much too early to say how disruptive NFTs will end up being for the live music industry — or how empowering they might be for musicians.