Music NFTs.

The once glorified term turned into the subject of discussion on Twitter.

Having just celebrated our one year anniversary - Coop Records is in a stronger place than ever. We're coming up on our 100th artist and nearing in on 325 songs.

But it looks a lot different than it did when it started. Or when platforms like Sound first launched. What's important to remember is the target is always moving and game is always evolving. Our job as a label is to meet the market where it is headed - not where it once was.

We're proud to bring on big names like San Holo, Surf Mesa and Evan Giia this week alongside Coop Recs returning artists jigitz, Chopsoe, helloworld and tesh. Compliment that with our first releases from Sadye and Lucid Druz and we had a jam packed week.

But that doesn't tell the full picture. Optimism announced the results of its RetroPGF round - granting nearly 300k OP to Sound, 500k OP to Layer3 and nearly 200k to Boost. In aggregate - that's 1M OP (or ~$2m) to our partners of Coop Records.

https://retrofunding.optimism.io

Retro Funding

Applications are now open for Round 4: Onchain Builders

Impact in this round was measured by the protocols that deployed the underlying contracts. While we didn't qualify as Coop Recs (we believe in using open source shared infra) - I do believe a large amount of that impact was generated by Coop Records releases and Coop Records artists.

How you might ask? Look no further than the playbook Adam Levy is rolling out in his new program Blueprint.

If you tie it all back to the start of this topic - I still stand by the fact that Music NFTs as they were originally known are seeing less demand than ever. However - the silver lining is that new models (specifically open editions and token incentives) are shining as strong as ever. Look no further than the results of Optimisim's RetroPGF - literally measuring impact to determine who receives the largest allocation.

Why is this relevant? Because our next chapter is doubling down on these pieces. If you're interested in being a beta tester of our new product - shoot us a DM on Warpcast.

We're excited to shine a more direct spotlight on our catalog and show the true power of composability in onchain music.

It might not sound glamorous on the surface - but if one thing is clear, all the pieces are starting to connect and 2025 is shaping up to be our best year yet.