🎵 Metaproof Music

Hey friends, this is Sophia from 🎵 Metaproof Music, the weekly newsletter where we keep you informed on how the metaverse and web3 are changing the music industry. 

Stay informed via our Twitter and Subscribe here to get your metaverse music news every Tuesday.

💌 A quick thanks to our friends…

Our friends at Player Zero are changing the music game by being a record label for the metaverse of Animated Virtual Artists (AVAs) that create hit songs like “Deeper” by Amari. Check them out today!

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📲 By the numbers

Musical NFTs are all the rage these days in the music world. Here are some famous musicians and their monetary gains from the scene (Source): 

• Snoop Dogg has several NFT music projects under his belt, putting 25,000 albums on sale in the form of NFTs for $5,000. The NFTs called Stash Box contain his new album B.O.D.R. with 3 bonus tracks for fans.

• In Italy, Marco Castoldi, aka Morgan, obtained $21,000 for the song “Premessa della premessa” as it was put up for sale on OpenSea. 

• Kings of Leon’s tokenized album and related NFTs generated sales of at least $1.45M in the first 5 days.

📫 News & trends

📹 New YouTube CEO is bullish on web3 tech like NFTs and the metaverse 

YouTube’s new CEO Neal Mohan, who has ascended into the role after former CEO Susan Wojcicki stepped down, was the platform’s Chief Product Officer for over seven years. If Mohan’s long tenure shaping YouTube’s offerings were any indication, he’s a fan of web3, NFTs, and emerging tech, where last year he revealed in a blog post that YouTube was eyeing web3 integration by becoming more immersive via leveraging the metaverse of tapping into NFTs. 

Wojcicki herself commended Mohan for having a pivotal role in launching YouTube TV and YouTube Music. As one of the most popular websites in the world, YouTube’s popularity and reach cannot be understated; it ranked only behind Google when it came to use, with 74.8 billion visits on average per month from September to November 2022. 

📽️ NFT artist pplpleasr directs the new Linkin Park music video 

It’s icons working with icons in the case of American rock band Linkin Park releasing a brand-new animated music video for its never-before-released song “Lost.” The music video is directed by none other than co-founders of web3 video platform Shibuya, Emily “pplpleasr” Yang and Maciej Kuciara. Released on February 10 as part of the 20th-anniversary celebration of band’s 2003 album Meteora, the song features the lead vocals of the late band frontman Chester Bennington. 

In a tweet, pplpleasr said: “It was all a dream. Thank you so so much to @mikeshinoda @linkinpark for giving me the opportunity to direct LOST with @maciejkuciara.” 

The NFT artist dubbed “Lost” as a tribute to memories of Linkin Park music videos, the early days of YouTube videos, retro anime, and Meteora - a “trip through time and nostalgia” as juxtaposed with new art styles and technology.

💰 Napster acquires web3 music startup Mint Songs

Long-running indie music streaming platform Napster has acquired web3 music startup Mint Songs, known to run an NFT marketplace that assists musicians in building web3 communities, minting songs, and offering their fans exclusive art for owning and trading. Napster also hired Mint Songs’ Nate Pham to lead its web3 product initiative. 

It can be recalled that former Roblox executive Jon Vlassopulos joined Napster as CEO at the end of 2022, wasting no time announcing the company’s plans to acquire entities in the web3 and broader digital music startup world. Mint Songs previously raised $4.3M from investors and developed top web3 artists such asGramatik, Mark de Clive-Lowe, and Black Dave to offer exclusive NFT items. 

🤝 Lickd, Kobalt, and Empire unveil Decentraland partnership: ‘The growing popularity of the metaverse is inevitable’

UGC music licensing platform Lickd is bringing the catalogs of Kobalt and Empire to the metaverse as part of its Decentraland tie-up - a partnership with three-year-old Decentraland platform recently unveiled as a milestone pact. The London-based Lickd, itself backed by metaverse and web3-savvy Warner Music, has created the music player Chorus, through which Decentraland users can access “thousands of hours of music” from Kobalt and Empire. 

What to expect? Geared with background and “featured” tracks, Chorus is accessible “across all venues and public spaces” within the Las Vegas City district of the metaverse world, providing hundreds of genre and mood-specific playlists. 

🎤 VR concerts and events: What AmazeVR plans for 2023

Virtual reality concerts are fast becoming a lucrative industry, and AmazeVR is leading the charge with its hyper-real, high-definition live-action recordings of musicians. The company has secured more than $40M in investment and has entered into a joint venture with South Korean talent agency SM Entertainment. Its proprietary technology, recently driving a VR concert tour with rapper Mega Thee Stallion, allows musicians to perform live and be captured in 360 degrees with high-definition cameras. 

The company plans to focus on expanding its production tools this year, which will allow for faster production of VR concerts in the future. It is uncertain which artists might follow Megan Thee Stallion and Aespa in using VR concerts as part of their marketing strategy, yet what AmazeVR has already done may serve as a catalyst for more musicians to embrace this new medium and create more immersive experience for fans.

❌ OpenSea halts trading on Rihanna music NFTs

In the previous week, OpenSea had decided to halt secondary sales of the NFT collection for Rihanna’s song “Bitch Better Have My Money.” Here’s the lowdown:

• The NFT collection quickly sold out and generated $63,000 in revenue. Yet only two days later, web3 music platform AnotherBlock CEO Michel “bigmich” Traore reported that users could no longer trade the NFTs on OpenSea, with the project’s description “flagged” and the project delisted without warning or reason. 

• AnotherBlock split 0.99% of the total royalties to the song across 300 Ethereum NFTs. Jamil “Deputy” Pierre, one of the song’s producers in 2015 brought a percentage of his royalties to the blockchain. 

• It’s unclear to what extent Rihanna herself is aware of the collection’s existence.

⚙️ How edge devices and infrastructure will shape the metaverse experience

Edge data centers and devices are set to play a crucial role in enabling the metaverse to offer immersive experiences to audiences. Yet edge computing is still in its infancy, according to Charles Tolman, CTO of music metaverse platform Pixelynx. A major challenge facing companies looking to harness edge technology for metaverse applications is the lack of a one unified global solution to leverage, as well as many differences in the level of development and availability in different regions globally. 

The prospects are largely rosy, though: Edge technologies can be used to advance the web3 vision of putting data ownership into the hands of the users, where creators can explore more and better ways to self-publish, more opportunities to connect with their audience, amass greater earnings, and attain full transparency into how revenue is generated and royalties are paid.

🏃‍♂️ Quick hits

• Snoop Dogg is bringing Death Row Records’ catalog back to streaming platforms, following the catalog’s removal from the streaming service when he became the owner in 2022. As a bid to ensure artists would get paid their just dues, Death Row Records took over the metaverse in the meantime and raked in $40M.

• Colombian superstar J Balvin is jumping back into the digital world for his concert in the metaverse. The "Mi Gente" singer will perform 17 of his hits as part of the J Balvin Futurum: A VR Concert Experience Presented by Meta and iHeart - the first time a Latino's doing a concert in the metaverse, a 180-degree concert experience created specifically for VR.

• Film composer and musical prodigy Elliot Leung’s journey from Hong Kong to Hollywood now involves the metaverse, as he lent his genius to the world’s first Metaverse Symphony co-commissioned by the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Asia Society. 

• Dakar, Senegal’s capital city, hosted the first edition of the African Music Revolution Tour this year, combining talented African artists, iconic venues in different countries, and state-of-the-art technology to treat fans to musical performances in real-life or virtually/digitally across multiple platforms, including the metaverse.

• As the next in the series of metaverse and web3 developer Sensorium’s Parties featuring this metaverse's trailblazing AI artists, Volcano will be introducing a new lineup of AI-driven DJs - AX421, JAI:N, and Yonaka - all joining resident artists Natisa Sitar, Kàra Màr, and Ninalis.

💸 Finance buzz

• Web3 company OneOf appointed Stephen Cooper, former CEO of Warner Music Group and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), as its newest board member. Cooper held the top spot at Warner from August 2011 until January 2023, leading the record label’s global expansion and digital transformation, including partnering with web3 protocol POAP Inc. last April to make NFTs available to fans. (Source)

• UK-based web3 gaming and entertainment startup Nefta announced raising $5M in a seed round led by venture firm Play Ventures' Future Fund, supported by Picus Capital together with SevenX Ventures, Sfermion, MZ, and Polygon Ventures. Nefta is exploring other vertical applications, including a new web3 advertising network where music companies have expressed interest. (Source)

🗣️ Quote of the week

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All content on this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not aim to serve as or replace expert investment advice.

If you are a startup building in the metaverse / web3 ecosystem and are raising capital, please reach out to Sfermion. Sfermion is an investment firm focused on accelerating the emergence of the metaverse.

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