Download the Project Summary PDF here.
Research Authored by:
Web3 technologies have demonstrated potential for musicians to reach new audiences and benefit from new revenue streams.
To date the uptake and exploitation of Web3 technologies among Australian musicians has been limited. This project produced 10 music NFTs with 9 Australian artists to examine the barriers to adoption of Web3 for Australian music communities. Insights were gained through in-depth interviews with participants and via assisting them to bring their NFTs to market. The project was funded by the APRA AMCOS Digital Futures Initiative and administered by the Australia Council for the Arts.
Based on the experience of participating artists, Web3’s potential remains largely unexplored by Australian musicians and Music NFTs seem unlikely to attract widespread adoption or displace incumbent music ventures in the near future. For many Australian musicians, Web3 presents challenges and risks not associated with existing markets for musical goods without offering compelling evidence of prospective new audiences or financial gains.
This is due to:
Significant and complex technical barriers to entry, including for artists familiar with blockchain technologies;
Limited visibility and cultural hesitancy for Australian artists engaging in Web3;
The audience for Web3 offerings are discrete, highly concentrated and difficult to reach through traditional channels; and
Limited access for Australian artists to prominent international marketplaces.
The promises of Web3’s decentralised and global marketplace bely the ongoing reality for Australian music as geographically and culturally removed from markets in North America and Europe. Notions of disrupting the current music industries were absent in our interview data; the NFT was mostly envisioned as a new release format, indicating more interest in absorbing the technology into existing industries than in circumventing them.
We recommend future funded research in collaboration with Web3 music platforms to further investigate the operation and commercial potential of this space. We also suggest that arts-funding targeting mentor-based Web3 music projects and knowledge transfer may also prove helpful in lowering the barriers to entry for individual artists.
The following music NFTs were either created by the research team - in collaboration with the musicians - or created by the musicians on behalf of the project:
https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0xb27c8e00350ce2baa4e9b6b45b94164170732971/16
https://opensea.io/assets/ethereum/0x2a3e2a9721bbac2e576cb77a81c46a7467845072/1