NFTs in Music - Why I'm not convinced (yet)
Spotify: Today, do music streaming apps know I've bought an NFT song / album so it plays only via my Spotify or Apple music account? How do I show off my NFT playlist or that one off exclusive NFT song remix (well, ok... NFT 0008 off of a 1000 mint) that I paid a bomb for.
Rarity proof when it matters...how?
NFT Music Concert Tickets: How practical is it to authenticate NFT tickets displayed as a screenshot / dApp at a crowded concert gate? This is as much an open question as it is food-for-thought.
via twitter, a user @Mousselect pointed me to this solution that may be worth investigating.
Label Copyright Infringement: Selling 'beats' and 'loops' as NFTs are cool, but what happens when the artist who minted them, then sells the album or song to a record label? What happens to the rights of the NFT loop buyer to use it in a remix/tune...
Summary: Corporates, Artists and Media organizations looking at the Metaverse, should see to it that these issues are ironed out before having them buy-in. Don't let men-in-Armani-suits sell a pitch deck that isn't finalized, yet filled with jargon du jour; (immutable ledger, block-chain, on-chain, DAO...etc.)
We aren't even talking about the [very real] blockchain inter-compatibility issues that arise. How would a music NFT bought on the Ethereum Blockchain play out when a user enters a "metaverse" running on the Algorand chain or the Solana chain and vice-versa. Would it be a seamless streaming experience for the user (avatar) as seamless as it is today when we bluetooth our music from headphones to car audio system?
Music NFTs before they are sold by studios and artistes should be addressing these questions. This would be the right way to methodically build Metaverses devoid of crypto-parasites, and speculators currently plaguing Web3.
...but wait... there could be a solution to some of these issues. I could think of at least the first one
Community Wallets: For Enhanced NFT experiences
Tally Ho! is a new "community owned and operated Web3 wallet" and since NFTs are all about building a sense of community while also allowing members of such communities to express their uniqueness, what if such a wallet had a feature and as food-for-thought, could for instance...
**Unlock a higher fidelity version as an NFT song? - **This would encourage artistes to release NFTs of their songs offering perhaps a superior sampled version of the tune. We all know that music streaming services probably aren't streaming at optimal quality, as this 2019 article explains.
What if...a wallet such as Tally Ho! were to intercept a Spotify users playlist using, the Spotify API, and if it detects a song on the user's playlist for which the user also has an NFT version -- the wallet could seamlessly stream the owned (higher quality) or even a unique re-mix that the artiste released only as an NFT? If I were a music artiste releasing an NFT this would be my strict mandate.
Let's go further: The NFT could be recorded in a multichannel audio format - such as .mkv, where a single Music NFT could contain:
- Instrumental version.
- Acapella.
- Minus 1 (karaoke)
This way, at a party, the NFT owner's playlist could go from Karaoke, to amateur DJ. All because they invested in a music NFT. (You have to give the NFT owner value in owning that music NFT which is otherwise available for free to all on Spotify or Apple music...)
Of course, this would require a streaming player being part of the "wallet". But that's where community driven projects such as the Tally Ho! wallet can shine. Letting developers write enhancement 'plugins'.
This blog essay was written in response to a Blogging competition for the launch of the Tally Ho! wallet. I couldn't just write a blog rehashing the virtues of the wallet (said to a Meta-Mask beating wallet). As a personal creative challenge to drive original thought, I brainstormed the above product ideas, aware they're worth a couple 100k internally to a product dept. at music streaming platforms looking at Web3.0-fying their platforms.
Spotify, or Tidal or Apple...others... if you are planning on integrating NFT audio using any of these ideas, please send fiat currency, my way.