A NFT or a Non-Fungible Token is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, and videos. NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger that records transactions and provides information as to what was sold, by whom and how much was paid.
As opposed to Cryptocurrencies, which are fungible tokens, meaning each cryptocurrency is the same as any other, each NFT unit is unique and distinctly identifiable. An NFT is the digital version of a certificate of ownership or authenticity securely recorded on a blockchain ledger.
Thus, a music NFT is an NFT linked to a music file, a ticket concert, album cover art, or musical recordings. A music NFT can include, a single song, an album, a ticket to a concert, a video, anything music related.
The differences in type of music NFTs will depend on the exclusivity or not of the NFT, 1/1 NFT, open or limited edition NFT.
For musicians, one of the benefits of creating a music NFT is the opportunity to create continuous revenue opportunities over the lifetime of the NFT. Under US Copyright law whenever a composition or master is sold, streamed, downloaded, stored on a vinyl record, it implicates reproduction rights and royalty opportunities for musicians. As opposed to the old physical world of a MP3s, CDs, cassette tapes, and vinyl where musicians lost revenue on the resale market, music NFTs allows musicians to capture that resale revenue lost in the past.
For fans ownership of a music NFT creates an ownership interest in the underlying work as opposed to the old world where buying an album or a track on iTunes will only buy the right to listen to the song. The value created by a music NFT goes beyond to simple claiming ownership over the NFT but the right to resale that probably unique and original music NFT. One note though, unless specified, music NFTs does not give buyers rights to royalty or copyright ownership over the NFT, although there are platforms seeking to change that.
I have helped countless musicians to secure copyright protection for their works and negotiated agreements for the exploitation of said works.
I’d like to help you too by protecting your works and developing contracts and strategies to properly effectuate the sale of music NFTs and clearly stipulate how your copyrights are dealt with.
