Normally in the music industry it is more or less impossible for ordinary investors to buy music rights. For instance, Web3 startups saw an opportunity to tokenize music assets, giving fans access to music rights in a whole new way.
This, of course, gained a lot of interest during the Crypto boom a few years ago.
For example, Royal launched an NFT-based music platform that allowed fans to buy and sell tokenized song ownership. The marketplace sells tokens that represent a percentage of the music’s streaming rights, plus extras. That way, fans earn royalties along with the artist and get paid when they do.
Royal went on to raise a total of $71 million, including from a16z Crypto.
In theory, the anger for these types of platforms could have cooled down since those heady days of the crypto boom.
But it is clear that blockchain is like a zombie that refuses to lie down. Why? Because until now no one has come up with a better way to prove that you own something.
That’s good news for web3 music company AnotherBlock, based in Sweden.
Founded by Michel D. Traore, Sebastian Ljungberg and Filip Strömsten in 2022, the blockchain-based music marketplace has now raised a €4 million funding round led by UK-based Stride.VC. Swedish House Mafia artist Axwell also took part.
Prior to this round, the startup had raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round from VC J12 and some angel investors.
Like Royal, AnotherBlock’s music rights marketplace uses NFTs and tokens to generate royalties associated with ownership. Artists receive a transaction payment/trading royalty every time the NFT is traded.
This is all very well, but it’s clearly getting genuine interest from the music industry.
For example, Jamil “Deputy” Pierre, a co-producer of Rihanna’s “B–ch Better Have My Money,” reportedly took in $63,000 after selling his personal royalties for the song as an NFT through AnotherBlock. This was due to Rihanna’s performance at the Super Bowl LVII halftime show with the song going viral.
Under the NFT ownership agreement with AnotherBlock, secondary sales are also allowed and the rights owner must pay NFT holders their percentage of streaming royalties earned no less than twice a year.
Gabbi Cahane, partner at Stride.VC said in a statement: “This proposal could represent a seismic shift for an industry that has traditionally been extremely protective of IP ownership.”
Other artists from AnotherBlock include The Weeknd, Martin Garrix, Alan Walker, Offset and R3HAB.
“I’ve been following AnotherBlock from the start and it’s clear that their work aligns with their vision. Enabling more flexibility in entitlements is the future of the industry. It creates a whole new freedom for creators to share the financial incentives with fans, which is the most important thing we have,” added SHM’s Axwell in a statement.