“I don’t have much in my wallet” I said, I felt inadequate, a poser even. My wallet had probably three NFTs, some ETH and not much else. “But you will” answered my crypto-mentor and friend Xcelencia. When I started my foray into web3 I hadn’t uncovered what was the true north of my journey in this new world.
When I joined the music industry, my goal was to figure out an exit from rampant piracy. At my core I felt that there was something I could do to save the value of music, and musicians’ livelihoods. Like many, I thought streaming might be the answer, sadly I was wrong. I still believe technology will get us to the other side. It could just be a sunk cost bias, on my part, after a career dedicated to the idea that music is worth something.
On that note I’d like to share a few models as to how an artist can create multiple collectible products out of one song, while keeping with the scarcity that is necessary to sustain meaningful relationships with collectors.
Premium Music (1/1)
https://beta.catalog.works/esty/holy-ghost-
This one is easy, much like the golden egg we’ve already come to know. This Premium 1/1 version of the song (or mixtape/album) can unique, harbor one or many perks to make its purchase meaningful for a collector of rare pieces.
Perks that could be offered as once-in-a-lifetime experiences are: production access/credit, lifetime tickets to see artist perform, a private live performance commitment.
The premium 1/1 could also just be a “musician’s version” of a track, much like Taylor Swift’s 10 min version of “All Too Well”
Editions
Probably the most popular of the collectible options out there and much like traditional radio edits, these are just your standard limited run collectibles, or record pressings. Here are two ways of building scarcity, sometimes both can be used simultaneously: editions & time.
It is important to stick to this limited one time run, and to ensure proper metadata is linked to this particular collectible. So that if any derivative works are created in the future, it is important that the original track is referred back to. This only furthers the story of it and increases it’s value.
Videos
I’m actually bunching many different formats in here. A music video collectible is anything that would traditionally be uploaded to something like a Youtube Channel. They could be sold as either editions or 1/1s. As far as content goes, these collectibles could be:
Music Videos
Karaoke Lyric Videos
Visualizer Videos
Behind The Scenes Looks
Acoustic Video Performances
Milestones
If the artist is also releasing the music through traditional means, why not celebrate milestones reached with their collectors? Xcelencia actually has already done this, by dropping a celebratory mint of the 1st Million streams of the track “Tabú.”
What is great about these types of collectibles, is that there is a potential to automate the generation of these and further the relationship with collectors. Celebrating both traditional milestones and web3 milestones: millions of streams/views, sell outs of mints, secondary sale records.
https://opensea.io/collection/tabumillion
Lyrics
https://twitter.com/steph_guerrero/status/1585781219798659072?s=20&t=qiYpl8tJXPl1y76DvxK9SQ
An often underrated part of a track, still they are the strongest connection between fans and music. They turn into tattoos, wedding vows, status posts or even captions to memories that are significant to them. This is why I think they could be such a large source of collectibles.
In a perfect world an artist could place the entirety of their lyrics on an interface that lets fans select their favorite part. Here they could set limits, either only one edition could minted per phrase, or a limited number of editions. What happens after the lyrics are selected is up to the artist, either the fan can link it to a background image of their choice or the artist could select a background image. Then fans could hold their favorite lyrics on their wallet with that little segment of their song.
Stems
The best example of this is probably what Arpeggi Labs is building. Where an musician can actually sell the stems of their track. The only caveat here are the conditions as to what bundle of rights is being sold along with the stems, as generally these are given to people that want to produce remixes. It is important that this is communicated clearly when establishing the parameters of the collectible.
There you have it, one song can be the source of many different connection points with your fans. Creating collectibles for each experience will enrich the relationship an artist can have with fans. It is important to make this disclaimer: while a lot of these are tied to copyright source, artists must be clear if there are any rights included in the purchase of the collectible, as it could get messy if these extend beyond personal use.
