The music industry has been slow to adopt non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Still, in recent months, there has been a surge of interest in using these unique digital assets to represent ownership of music and other creative works.

Recent drops by Daniell Allen and TK the Legend sold out in minutes, with TK's Eternal Garden drop selling 700 editions and Daniel selling 2500 editions. Both artists' successful 2022 resulted in a feature in Billboard Magazine, and a Twitter thread by Music Ben, who has been chronicling the rise of the Web3 Music market step by step.

2022 Sees Massive Growth in Web3's Music

2022 has been a massive growing-up period for Web 3's music landscape. While the larger crypto markets have been stymied by weakness driven by high inflation and a land war in Europe, music projects in the space have continued to build and prove their worth as a new facet of the music industry. 

One of the main benefits of NFTs for the music industry is that they allow artists to sell their music directly to listeners without the need for intermediaries such as record labels or streaming services. This can help artists retain a larger share of the profits from their music sales and give them more control over the distribution and promotion of their work.

Traditional Industry Enters, and Music Rights Dominate

Several high-profile NFT drops have launched in the past year, with fractionalized-royalty companies AnotherBlock and Royal leading the way, Warner Music entering with Probably a Label, and independent musicians such as TK and Daniel finding a path towards sustainability in the space. 

In addition to selling music and music rights directly to fans and avoiding platform fees in Web2, NFTs are also being used to represent other aspects of the music industry, such as concert tickets and merchandise. 

2023 and Beyond

The use of NFTs in the music industry will likely continue to grow in 2023 as more artists and listeners become familiar with the technology and its potential benefits while decentralized music platforms hit their stride. With a promise of new tech to help artists retain a larger share of the profits from their music sales, the space has nowhere to go but up. We'll see more of TK and Daniel, but it's anyone's guess who the next rising stars will be. 

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