Independent musicians and artists are increasingly relying on the internet to reach their audiences and earn money. Investing in independent music is a great way to support artists, learn about industry trends and emerging technologies, and potentially make a return on your investment. This article will discuss why it is beneficial to invest in independent music and provide tips on how to go about it, if you are an audiophile, like me.
The biggest reason to invest in independent music is the potential to help budding artists and small businesses in the music industry build a strong foundation that will grow and develop over time. By investing in their tech and music, you are giving them the financial support they need to create and promote their work. Additionally, investing in independent music can be a great way to learn more about the industry, as the artist and their team will likely share their experiences, advice, and insights with you. Furthermore, investing in independent music can also be financially rewarding; while supporting an upcoming artist, you could potentially earn a return on your investment
The most obvious way is to buy the artist’s CD. Here is an example from Bandcamp.
You can stream Emma’s music here, and also buy her CD if you want own it and support her career.
I imagine she will make more revenue than streaming on Spotify for example, or selling CD’s on Amazon, since so much of the revenue in those cases go to the platforms. In the case of Bandcamp, the prices are quite reasonable, and I believe a larger share goes to the artist.
The next way is to start learning, using and optionally investing in Web3 music projects. Here is a good article from Medium which explains what is happening in this space in a lot more detail. For the rest of this article I will be giving some examples of how I have been using Web3 for supporting and investing in Web3 musicians and new music.
I am currently supporting 2 artists on this platform who I really enjoy listening to, and I am sure there will me more in the future. I can stream their music on Mousai, and discuss them with other fans, in the social section of the site which integrates with the Deso feed. I can “tip” them with diamonds (micro-payments), and also buy their creator coins, which I expect to go up in value, as more people find out about them, and discover their music thru social media, on a global stage.
You can also participate in live interviews on Vibehut, and discuss their music with them and other community members. Here is the next interview that Elizabeth Tubbs will be doing with Iris Camaa. Vibehut is a Zoomlike application which allows you to have video meetups and ad hoc meetings, with small groups. And it integrates with the rest of the Deso ecosystem.
There is a great social platform on Deso (ex Diamondapp) where we can share images, audio and talk about music. There is also a good NFT marketplace called NFTz, but the music NFT’s are in the early stages. I expect them to become much more popular. You can also invest in the Deso platform if you think that its going gain adoption, and increase in value. There is a “Youtube like” platform called Videso, and I think that it has a lot of potential for artists to make music videos of their songs.
Performing to a live global audience is expensive, unless you are a big name artist. There is another Deso app called Openfund.com which musicians can use to fund a tour, or a video, or a new album for example. (a crowdsourcing dapp on Deso) There is a market for buying and selling project investments, and It also has a social feed which connects to Deso.
There are lots of other very useful dapps in the Deso ecosystem, and they are just starting to mature. For now, almost everything is free, and gas fees are extremely low. For, example, $10 could last you months (not including investments) if you decide to indulge, which is completely optional. There are lots of other dapps on Deso for other purposes which I will get into in another blog post.
This is a really nice music community dapp which integrates with the Lens social platform, which in turn resides on Polygon. The Lens connection provides social interaction for the music which includes music streaming, and aggregates the most popular music NFT markets, and Dao communities. All of the artists are new and independent. Oohlala will highlight new releases by artists, and there is a lot of music to explore. They also have a mobile app for listening on the go. Here are the platforms that they aggregate:
Sound.xyz (including Sound protocol)
Catalog
MintSongs (v2)
Nifty Gateway
Zora
NOIZD
MintSongs Factory (v1)
Lens (Lenster, Lenstube)
DEAFBEEF
EulerBeats
SoundMint
Song A Day (& SongADAO)
Songcamp (+ Elektra, Chaos)
hedsDAO
Nifty Music
Custom smart contracts (Manifold)
I think that this service is just getting started, and I see a lot of potential to grow and expand. Maybe one day they will challenge Spotify and Amazon or at least provide an alternative which is owned and run by a community. The development group behind them is called Spiderville, and they are funded by $1 million of venture capital at this point. I imagine that they will eventually start crowdfunding to pay for development, and promotion, if they are successful.
Investing in independent music can be an exciting and rewarding way to support independent artists while potentially earning a return on your investment. There are a variety of ways to invest, ranging from buying physical albums or digital downloads to investing in streaming platforms or creator tokens. By getting involved in the independent music industry, you can gain access to new tools and technologies, learn about industry trends, and help small businesses and budding artists reach their goals. I believe that this market has a lot of potential for disruption.
I have created a collection of famous musical artists using AI tools. (See my previous blog posts for more details)
Lastly, here is a list of my social media accounts, where you can subscribe to my blog if you are interested in some of these topics, comment, or reach me:
Embedded NFT
Fred Blauer
