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            <title><![CDATA[Nas Royalty NFT | ULTRA BLACK]]></title>
            <link>https://paragraph.com/@payusnomind/nas-royalty-nft-ultra-black</link>
            <guid>cBUgd5nYp6gqgwcKFW5b</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 18 Jan 2022 18:58:54 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Nas “ULTRA BLACK” NFT grants you a percentage of royalties from streams earned on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music generated by the release. It’s hosted on a platform called Royal. The date of the drop is Jan. 10th with a total collection size of 760. Let’s get to the breakdown. 3 Tiers Gold - For $50 you can purchase 0.0143% of ULTRA BLACK Supply: 500 Price: $50 0.0143% of royalties PerksAccess to Hip Hop 50 Discord Access to Sweet Chicken Secret Menu Platinum Supply: 250Price: $250 0....]]></description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<br><p>Nas “ULTRA BLACK” NFT grants you a percentage of royalties from streams earned on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music generated by the release. It’s hosted on a platform called <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://royal.io/editions/Nas-UltraBlack">Royal</a>. The date of the drop is Jan. 10th with a total collection size of 760. Let’s get to the breakdown.  </p><p>3 Tiers </p><ul><li><p>Gold - For $50 you can purchase 0.0143% of ULTRA BLACK </p><ul><li><p>Supply: 500 </p></li><li><p>Price: $50 </p></li><li><p>0.0143% of royalties </p></li><li><p>Perks</p><ul><li><p>Access to Hip Hop 50 Discord </p></li><li><p>Access to Sweet Chicken Secret Menu</p></li></ul></li></ul><br></li><li><p>Platinum </p><ul><li><p>Supply: 250</p></li><li><p>Price: $250 </p></li><li><p>0.0857% of royalties </p></li><li><p>Perks</p><ul><li><p>Exclusive Merch</p></li></ul></li></ul><br></li><li><p>Diamond - </p><ul><li><p>Supply: 10</p></li><li><p>Price: $5,000</p></li><li><p>2.14% of royalties</p></li><li><p>Perks</p><ul><li><p>2 VIP Concert Tickets </p></li><li><p>Exclusive Signed Vinyl </p></li><li><p>Video Conversation with Hit-Boy</p></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><br><p>In total, Nas stands to make $137.5K from the sale of 50% of the streaming revenue for ULTRABLACK.</p><p>Well, the first thing I think inquiring minds would want to know is how much they could possibly earn from the royalties. That’s pretty much the pitch as the description states “Royal tokens give you partial ownership in a song&apos;s streaming royalties.” So how much does a buyer stand to make from Nas’ streaming royalties? To answer that question we need a few things. One, we need to know the number of streams the track generates across all platforms. Two, we need to know the per-stream royalty rate of each platform. Being that most streaming platforms don’t disclose their streaming numbers we’re going to focus on the 4 that do and make an educated guess on the 5th. The royalty rates are based on the royalty reports I have access to from clients I work with. This isn’t perfect math, the point is to provide an idea of what possible returns there could be. </p><br><p>Top 5 streaming platforms where we can see the numbers </p><ul><li><p>Soundcloud - 3.7M | $11.1K </p></li><li><p>Pandora - 624K | $1.2K </p></li><li><p>Spotify - 8M | $24K </p></li><li><p>Deezer - 7.2K | $14 </p></li><li><p>Apple Music - 2.5M | $17,500</p></li></ul><br><p>The song has been out for 17 months and has earned $53,814 which if we divide by 17 gives us $37,986 Annually from a total of 14,831,200. </p><p><strong>ULTRABLACK Annual streaming revenue: $37,986</strong> </p><p>What does this mean for the return on investment? </p><ul><li><p>Gold | $50 </p><ul><li><p>$5 Annually - 10 Years to break even</p></li></ul><br></li><li><p>Platinum | $250 </p><ul><li><p>$32 Annually - 8 Years to break even</p></li></ul><br></li><li><p>Diamond | $5,000</p><ul><li><p>$812 - 6 Years to break even</p></li></ul></li></ul><br><p>After you break even, everything you earn from that point on is profit and you’ll get these royalties for the rest of your life so it’s worth taking a long view approach. Let’s take a look at how things could break down over a 30-year period. </p><ul><li><p>Gold | $5  x 30 = $150</p></li><li><p>Platinum | $32 x 30 = $960</p></li><li><p>Diamond | $812 x 30 = $24,360</p></li></ul><br><h3 id="h-buyer-benefits" class="text-2xl font-header !mt-6 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Buyer Benefits</h3><ul><li><p><strong>The NFT itself is a collectible.</strong> People spend thousands of dollars to buy the Jerseys of NBA players, Baseball cards, and Trophies. Those things don’t come with any royalties, it’s just something that means something to the fans of those athletes. I find this no different. There are people that value owning a piece of a Nas record as a fan outside of any royalties. To that group of buyers, the royalties are almost negligible. What the royalties do, is authenticate the fact that the NFT truly represents an ownership stake and isn’t just symbolic. </p></li><li><p><strong>Flippable Asset</strong> - Because the NFT is a collectible it can be resold in secondary markets so the buyer has an asset that can be flipped for additional profit. This is pretty much THE reason to buy. </p></li><li><p>Perks are also flippable assets. VIP concert tickets can be flipped, autographed vinyl records can be flipped. Right now, there’s an autographed copy of Dangerously In Love selling on eBay for $575.</p></li><li><p>It’s Nas’ first drop so there’s a historical significance that adds to the secondary market resale value. </p></li><li><p>Royalties, if this is the reason you’re buying, good luck. First, it’s like one of those old-school investors telling you to invest in Bonds that will make you $30K in 30 years. Second, read numbers 3 and 4 below.</p></li></ul><br><h3 id="h-questions" class="text-2xl font-header !mt-6 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Questions</h3><ol><li><p><strong>Royalties</strong> - Buyers will have the ability to resell their NFT in secondary markets on platforms like Opensea. Will buyers be required to pay a royalty to Nas when they resell the NFT? Other NFTs sold on Royal have come with a 5% creator royalty so I don’t see why that would be any different in this instance. It could be less, it could be more. Currently, the “legal” link that’s supposed to provide more details takes you to a dead page. Maybe they fix this by the date of the drop. </p></li><li><p><strong>Redeemable Perks</strong> - How does anyone know whether the perks have been redeemed? Do they plan to extend the perks to every new buyer? </p></li><li><p><strong>Collection and Distribution</strong> - How are royalties to be collected? Will they be collecting from Nas’ label Mass Appeal or from the streaming platforms directly? This is an important question if you’re buying for the royalties. Labels have never been thrilled about paying people and are notorious for finding ways to avoid doing so. How much can buyers depend on Mass Appeal to be honest and transparent about what a release generates? </p></li><li><p><strong>Will buyers receive royalty reports?</strong> Stream counts for most streaming platforms are private so buyers have no clue what the release actually generates in streaming revenue overall unless they’re getting royalty reports from the streaming platforms themselves. How many streams does ULTRABLACK generate on Amazon Unlimited or from China-based Tencent stores? Only Mass Appeal knows that and there’s no way to prove wrong whatever they say the numbers are. </p></li><li><p><strong>What happens if Royal folds?</strong> The entire process of monetization, collection, and distribution isn’t being carried out by a Smart Contract. The royalties are coming in by traditional means. You have Spotify and the like paying out royalties to labels that pay Royal which pays you. If there is no Royal, you may lose your royalties.</p></li></ol><br><h3 id="h-artist-benefits" class="text-2xl font-header !mt-6 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Artist Benefits</h3><ol><li><p><strong>Advance of 3.6 years of royalties.</strong> Is this really a benefit? I don’t know Nas’ financial situation but something tells me he’s not holding his breath for the life-changing windfall of $135,000. After 3 years he’s taking an L and losing money. In 30 years, he would have sacrificed $1,139,580 for $135,000. Considering the track doesn’t get some type of Ghost Town DJs - My Boo viral video rebirth that pumps the numbers higher along the way. </p></li><li><p><strong>Secondary Market royalty</strong> - This would be the gold. There are only 760 NFTs available which means everyone else that wants it has to compete in auctions and outbid each other to get one. Auctions and fan demand for the NFT as a collectible can drive the value far beyond the return from the royalties. With a creator royalty attached to the NFT, Nas could earn a percentage of every resale of the NFT in perpetuity.</p></li></ol><br><h3 id="h-does-it-make-sense" class="text-2xl font-header !mt-6 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Does it make sense?</h3><p>Selling royalties as NFTs only makes sense for the royalty percentage from secondary sales or if the royalties sell for an amount comparable to what an artist would earn in the next decade at least. With the royalties being the headliner, that’s what’s going to be the point of focus. Yes, fans will value the NFT as a collectible but even they will look at the royalties as a point of establishing value. It’s going to be interesting to see if the emphasis on royalties drags down the value of the NFT. I’ll be watching the sales for the $5,000 tier and resale market to gauge perception.</p><h3 id="h-sources" class="text-2xl font-header !mt-6 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Sources</h3><p>Apple Music and the streams and revenue of other platforms is guesstimated based on client streaming data. </p><p>Top 5 streaming platforms where we can see the numbers and average per stream rate </p><ul><li><p>Soundcloud - 0.003</p></li><li><p>Pandora - 0.002 </p></li><li><p>Spotify - 0.003</p></li><li><p>Deezer - 0.002</p></li><li><p>Apple Music - 0.007</p></li></ul><p>Source of streaming stats - Chartmetric</p>]]></content:encoded>
            <author>payusnomind@newsletter.paragraph.com (payusnomind.eth)</author>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Rally SOCIAL TOKEN ANALYSIS]]></title>
            <link>https://paragraph.com/@payusnomind/rally-social-token-analysis</link>
            <guid>yJXVkif42e7Ko7xbpxRM</guid>
            <pubDate>Tue, 18 Jan 2022 05:57:13 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Monetization 🤑The most appealing aspect of Rally is monetization. As a creator, you can immediately profit from your social token. The Rally platform has its own Cryptocurrency called $RLY and all Social Tokens created on Rally can be exchanged for their native currency which can then be exchanged for Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies. At the time this piece was written, one $RLY was worth $0.59 USD.When you create a Social Token on Rally you’re given 50,000 “Genesis” coins to start. These ...]]></description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2 id="h-monetization" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0"><strong>Monetization</strong> 🤑</h2><p>The most appealing aspect of Rally is monetization. As a creator, you can immediately profit from your social token. The Rally platform has its own Cryptocurrency called <strong>$RLY</strong> and all Social Tokens created on Rally can be exchanged for their native currency which can then be exchanged for Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies. At the time this piece was written, one $RLY was worth $0.59 USD.</p><figure float="none" data-type="figure" class="img-center" style="max-width: null;"><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/46b6bee8159b83dfcc7b84dd769788e5481842962b48b0f6721ac39f18a92b5f.jpg" alt="" blurdataurl="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=" nextheight="600" nextwidth="800" class="image-node embed"><figcaption HTMLAttributes="[object Object]" class="hide-figcaption"></figcaption></figure><p>When you create a Social Token on Rally you’re given 50,000 “<strong>Genesis</strong>” coins to start. These coins can be given away to supporters, traded for $RLY, or kept and held by you - which is probably the best idea and I’ll explain why.</p><p>Rally has a two-pronged monetization structure. One - $RLY Rewards - is based on Market Share which is your percentage of the Market. For example, if there are 1,000 cars sold and 500 of those cars are KIAs, KIA has 50% of the market. With Rally, instead of cars being sold, it’s the percentage increase in the amount of $RLY backing your coin at the present time vs. in the past. If your coin went up from $100 to $200, you had a 100% increase and would get more $RLY Rewards than a creator that went from $100 to $120. It’s a complex system but, generally, the greatest gainers receive the most $RLY.</p><p>$RLY is distributed to communities weekly. Emphasis on the term “Communities” because the $RLY paid out doesn’t all go to the creator. It’s actually split between your entire community of Token holders based on Market share as well, where whoever holds the most coins, gets the greatest percentage of the $RLY distributed to the community. This is why it’s important to hold on to those 50,000 Genesis coins you get.</p><p>Imagine, I’m a Club owner and I hire a few promoters to get people in my club. Each promoter earns a percentage of revenue determined by the percentage of the crowd that’s in attendance because of them. If 20% of the people were brought there by one of the promoters, that promoter gets 20% of the revenue. Now imagine that promoter had sub-promoters he paid based on the percentage of the crowd they brought him.</p><p>The club pays out $1,000 to all Promoters. Promoter #1 gets 20% which equals $200. Promoter #1 then has to split that $200 between himself and the two sub-promoters. Let’s assume they all brought an equal amount of people out to the club. That would mean they’d each earn $66.</p><ul><li><p>Rally is the Club Owner that hires the Promoters.</p></li><li><p>You are the Main Promoter.</p></li><li><p>The Sub-Promoters are the Token Holders.</p></li><li><p>Your Social Tokens are the tickets sold.</p></li><li><p>$RLY is the Ticket Sale revenue.</p></li></ul><p>The other side of Rally’s monetization is your coin’s value, which is determined by supply and demand. The more people buy your coin, the more its value increases. In order to make money on Rally, you have to sell your coin so there needs to be an incentive for people to buy or hold it. You can provide access as a form of incentive where fans get to join exclusive live chats as Token Holders or sell products for your coin. In other words, there has to be a party that people will pay for entrance to the club to attend.</p><h2 id="h-whats-it-to-you" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0"><strong>What’s It To You?</strong></h2><p>The goal - when it comes to monetization - is to earn $RLY. You sell your products and services in exchange for your coin. The more people buy your coin, the more $RLY your coin is worth. With $RLY being a Cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for actual legal tender, the more $RLY, the more money. Both you and your community of holders can exchange your coin for $RLY and then dollars at any time.</p><h2 id="h-things-to-note" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0"><strong>Things to note</strong></h2><p><strong>Initial Value</strong> - In case you’re wondering how a coin gets its price at birth, the value of your coin is 1% of the price of $RLY. At this time, your coin would be worth $0.005 at launch.</p><p><strong>Holders vs. Customers</strong> - Forcing people to pay in your currency for your products or services makes them customers. They’re effectively buying your coin to give to you. So if I’m selling Consultations for $PUNM, you’d buy $PUNM, pay me, get the Consultation and lose your $PUNM. This means you don’t get a percentage of the $RLY distributed to the community. If I give Consultations to anyone that holds 1000 $PUNM, then anyone that has 1000 $PUNM doesn’t have to pay for anything. They don’t give me any of their $PUNM. The amount they Hold is the access ticket. Holders get a percentage of $RLY distributed to the community. As a Social Token creator, you need to provide your community with both a reason to Hold and a reason to spend.</p><p><strong>If I Only Had a Coin 😢</strong> - Remember how in the Wizard of Oz the Straw Man wanted a brain but instead, he got a Diploma, the Lion wanted courage but instead, he got a medal, and the Tin Man wanted a heart but instead he got…a heart-shaped clock? A coin on Rally is somewhat symbolic. You don’t have a Token in the sense of something like Bitcoin that exists on its own. Your coin effectively doesn’t exist outside of the Rally platform. It can’t be put on exchanges or stored in external wallets and can only be traded for $RLY.</p><p><strong>Distribution</strong> - The only way to send someone your coin is to have them create an account on the Rally platform and send you their username. If you wanted to do something like an Airdrop where you distribute 100 of your coins to 50 members at once, you’d have to get each of their usernames and do that manually. It’s not as easy as sending a link, which it should be.</p><p><strong>Are they invested?</strong> - The infrastructure of Rally is set for speculation - basically gambling. Anyone can come in and place a bet on you by buying your Social Token. The people that end up holding the largest supply of your tokens could be people that have no interest in your community. Their ties are to the value of the coin and not you and the objective of your community.</p><p><strong>Restrictions 🔐</strong> - Rally has something called <strong>Flow Controls</strong> which aims to prevent people from buying your coin for the purpose of speculation/gambling. Each user that holds a certain amount of coins will have a limit on the number of coins they can send and exchange for $RLY. If your coin were to have a huge jump in price, holders couldn’t just dump their entire supply and cash out. At the same time, this feature forces holders to maintain a level of support for creators they may have strong reasons to no longer support. Let’s say you were a holder of R-Kelly Social Tokens on Rally prior to the sex scandals. You couldn’t just dump your entire supply and end your support of the singer. Even as a token creator, I don’t think it’s good to force anyone to be in your community that doesn’t want to be there.</p><h2 id="h-wrap-up" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Wrap Up</h2><p>Some things about Rally seem contradictory. If I’m incentivized to hold for $RLY Rewards, why would I give it back to you by using it to buy your products? If I’m buying your coin to give to you for your products, I’m not invested in the community and all the friction in the purchase funnel is doing is making my life more difficult. If all I want to do is support you, why wouldn’t I just Cash app or Paypal you a donation? It’s a hell of a lot easier.</p><p>Rally’s system seems a bit half-way crook - as The Infamous Mobb Deep would say. They’re courting speculators, but then restricting their ability to fully profit off of their speculation. When it comes to community, I’m not being rewarded for being a community member if I have to buy the coin.</p><p>Rally caps your supply of Social Tokens at 21 Million which is good. Limited supply drives up the value of the coin if demand exceeds it. The issue is, the value of your token is tied to the amount of $RLY backing it and they cap that amount at 210 Million $RLY. The current price of $0.59 would mean a total cap of $123,900,000. Let’s say you have a million backers, that’s a cap of about $123 per backer. You’re also subject to the price swings of $RLY so if $RLY implodes and becomes worth less than a Vietnamese Dong, the value of your coin implodes as well.</p><p>Alternative platforms like Patreon, even Social media, and Youtube lock creators to one centralized platform. Rally says it will “enable every creator to build a business model that will transcend any specific big-tech platform.” but what is Rally? I mean, it might not yet be that big but it is a tech platform, and creators are tied to it. Their coin only exists within their infrastructure. NFTs are specific to their infrastructure. The value of a Rally social token is tied to the value of Rally. Sounds like a dog on a leash with an open kennel.</p><p>All my pessimism aside, I like Rally. Creators, speculators, and genuine supporters can really benefit from the platform. Maybe not forever, but at least for a time. We’re not talking about an insignificant amount of money either. The fact that a small creator can get the lion’s share of $RLY rewards by having the highest percentage of growth rather than the largest audience is revolutionary. Most platforms reward the users with the largest follower numbers and screws over everyone else. It’s something that can work particularly well for creators that don’t really have products to sell like Twitch Gamers. They have fans/viewers that may resent paying for something like a meet and greet in a straight-up cash transaction which might be a tough pill to swallow. Under the cloak of a social token with possible profit on the back end, it could go down as easy as water.</p><p>I’m not sure I entirely understand Rally still so the information here might change if I discover I got something wrong. Also, this is all new and these platforms are still working to figure things out so it could be a different platform by the end of the week. Stay posted good people. Peace!</p>]]></content:encoded>
            <author>payusnomind@newsletter.paragraph.com (payusnomind.eth)</author>
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            <title><![CDATA[Sound.xyz Review - The Future of Music Monetization? 🤔]]></title>
            <link>https://paragraph.com/@payusnomind/sound-xyz-review-the-future-of-music-monetization</link>
            <guid>QVoj9j5YnyR4PpaaBcZP</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 24 Dec 2021 23:03:31 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Wouldn’t it be great to earn $10,000 in one day from the sale of your music? Sound.xyz has been helping artists make it happen. One new artist, every day. At this time, they’ve released songs for about 8 or 9 artists with a limited supply of 25 NFTs respectively. Each with a price tag of about $400 in Ethereum, all sellouts earning each artist roughly $10,000 - The value of ETH at time of writing. Their mission is to help more artists make a living off of their music and change the relationsh...]]></description>
            <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Wouldn’t it be great to earn $10,000 in one day from the sale of your music? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://www.sound.xyz/">Sound.xyz </a>has been helping artists make it happen. One new artist, every day. At this time, they’ve released songs for about 8 or 9 artists with a limited supply of 25 NFTs respectively. Each with a price tag of about $400 in Ethereum, all sellouts earning each artist roughly $10,000 - The value of ETH at time of writing. Their mission is to help more artists make a living off of their music and change the relationship between artist and fan.</p><p>When I first came across Sound.xyz I struggled to identify what it really is, and I’m still somewhat struggling with the concept of what it is. Seemingly, it’s an artist launchpad offering infrastructure and a system for onboarding artists into the NFT space. Looking at their interface, you don’t see artist profile pages with catalogs of music. There is no playlisting feature or audio widgets for sharing tunes. It’s like shopping at Walmart, or more accurately, Barneys or Neiman Marcus. There’s pretty much just the shopping experience. You look, you buy, you leave. What else does Sound.xyz have to offer?</p><h2 id="h-features" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Features</h2><p><strong>Uniquely numbered</strong> - Each NFT in the drop is numbered 1-25 where the lower numbers carry greater value than the higher numbers.</p><p><strong>Thoughts💭</strong> - Conceptually, this gives the buyer not just a piece of art, but a flippable asset. Fans may value having a lower number and be willing to pay high prices for one. Plus, the lower numbers will hold greater weight when it comes to things like historical significants. This is more in line with my vision of NFTs replicating the accomplishments of the Beatles White Album. Additionally, the limited supply forces a secondary market where anyone else that wants a copy has to purchase from a current owner that can charge whatever they choose. Artists receive a percentage of every resale.</p><p><strong>Buyer comments</strong> - Similar to Soundcloud, Sound.xyz allows users to post timestamped comments on tracks. What’s different is that the feature is reserved for buyers and comments are removed once a buyer sells.</p><p><strong>Thoughts💭</strong> - Something about this feature feels off. Fans of fewer means aren’t just shut out of collecting, they’re also shut out of expression within a community of other fans.</p><p>Another thing is advertising! What if someone pays $400 for the song to post a comment to promote something the artist is against? If the comment stands until the buyer sells and those are the terms, things can get real funky. A politician could buy a track of a particular artist to place a campaign ad as a comment. Sound.xyz doesn’t mention much about how its feature works so I don’t know if artists have the ability to remove comments.</p><p><strong>Discord Community</strong> - Access pass to the Sound community</p><p><strong>Thoughts💭</strong> - iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon do not provide artists with access to the people consuming or buying their music. To an artist on these platforms, this feature is amazing. Having the ability to maintain constant contact with super fans is next level. At the same time, if we’re comparing it to selling directly on your website or Bandcamp where you get actual contact information like emails and phone numbers, it pales in comparison.</p><p>One central Discord blasting out notifications could get real noisy the more artists are added to the server. Sound.xyz is also in control so it’s not so different from having a fanbase on Twitter or Instagram where those platforms get to dictate everything. The good thing here is that artists aren’t restricted to using Sound.xyz’s Discord. Any artist can set up their own Discord and gate access to owners of their NFTs using a platform like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://app.mintgate.io/">Mintgate</a>.</p><p><strong>Golden Egg</strong> - A secret NFT hid in a randomly selected Time Stamp of the track. Whoever comments at that exact time unlocks a custom NFT chosen by the artist which will upgrade their item to a 1/1.</p><p>Thoughts💭 - I like this feature. I’ll just say this about it, number one of a collection is a 1/1 because there’s only one number one. I might be nitpicking but, you’re not upgrading to a 1/1, you’re just getting an additional NFT. Sound.xyz doesn’t mention that the original NFT will be burned/destroyed when you get “upgraded” so I’m assuming you’ll have two. As an artist, should you view this as a two-for-one sale?</p><h2 id="h-structure" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Structure</h2><p>Artists may not know how to set up and manage a Discord community or create an NFT. More importantly, I’d say the larger problem is the clientele. Most artists don’t have access to buyers so when they attempt to step into the world of NFTs they fail. Artists watching other artists fail makes them apprehensive about getting involved. Everyone is protective of their public image and doesn’t want to be embarrassed by promoting an NFT drop that doesn’t sell anything. The number one question I’m asked as a marketer about Youtube and Spotify is “Is there a way to get the numbers up before the project goes public?” Because the numbers are public. I don’t get asked that question for iTunes or Apple Music because the numbers are private. If an artist fails on those platforms, it’s just a personal thing only they know about. NFT sales data is public.</p><p>Sound.xyz offers a community of buyers that provides something of a safety net. Releases are promoted across their social media properties and in their Discord. The issue is music platforms with the ability to expose artists to new audiences typically focus on artists that can bring <strong>them</strong> an audience instead. Is Sound.xyz any different? Let’s explore…</p><p><strong>Artist Roster</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Daniel Allan</strong></p><p>100,209 monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>Josh Pan</strong></p><p>862,417 monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>Allan Kingdom</strong></p><p>42,413 monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>Abjo</strong></p><p>14,305 monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>Oshi</strong></p><p>132,878 monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>Grady</strong></p><p>962,374 monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>Marian Hill</strong></p><p>1+ million monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>IBN INGLOR - NFT artist</strong></p><p>70 monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li><li><p><strong>MATTHEW CHAIM</strong></p><p>121K+ monthly listeners on Spotify</p></li></ul><p>Looking at the roster of artists Sound.xyz has chosen for drops, How different is it from the current industry structure when it’s engaging in the same elitism of restricting access to top performers and a well-connected few? What’s the point of Sound.xyz for artists with the means to easily do what they do themselves?</p><p>I’m not going to disregard the possibility that they could be leveraging artists with followings for their audiences. It’s similar to streaming platforms, where you have people that want to hear the hits. Once you attract an audience using the hits, then you have an audience to expose unknown artists. The questions are, if and when do we get to that part and to what extent?</p><h2 id="h-whats-missing" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">What’s Missing?</h2><p>As a consumer, there’s no unlockable content so you don’t get a download of the music. It exists in the cloud and without the ability to download, one can argue that you just bought a receipt that says you bought a song and not an actual song. How are you supposed to access your track when you’re offline?</p><h2 id="h-what-the-tweet" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">What the Tweet?</h2><p>Let’s analyze what the people behind the company have to say about their platform.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://twitter.com/alive_eth/status/1471132626656321537?s=20">https://twitter.com/alive_eth/status/1471132626656321537?s=20</a></p><p>I’ve been critical of Spotify’s monetization structure but I’d say this is a mischaracterization and a bit misleading. First, Spotify has mechanisms that help more artists get discovered, like their playlists Discover Weekly and Release Radar. Those two playlists alone can take an artist from less than a hundred listeners to thousands overnight. The reality of the situation is, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. If listeners aren’t moved by the music enough to become fans, the artists will struggle to earn anything other than the per-stream revenue.</p><p>Let’s also make the distinction between artists that feel they should be paid more for their streams on Spotify and artists struggling to make a living off of their music. We have artists that make a good living because of the fans they earn through Spotify’s system. They do live performances, virtual performances, sell merchandise, etc. For those artists, it’s about being paid what they feel their music is worth, not so much about making a living. Artists struggling to make a living are a whole other bag. We can look at those struggling on Spotify who also struggle to sell anything on a platform like Bandcamp as evidence. The monetization issues are due to either a lack of knowing what or how to sell or not having anyone that cares to buy.</p><p>I feel like Sound.xyz could showcase their value without attempting to paint Spotify as a Boogieman.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://twitter.com/alive_eth/status/1471132628011163649?s=20">https://twitter.com/alive_eth/status/1471132628011163649?s=20</a></p><p>How is Sound.xyz a remedy when Spotify releases 60,000 songs a day, and they’re doing 1 song per day? Why highlight how many songs go unheard as if their system does any better? Is comparing Sound.xyz to Spotify even accurate? I’d like to see them compare themselves to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://bandcamp.com">Bandcamp</a> which I feel is more accurate.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://twitter.com/alive_eth/status/1471132629508538368?s=20">https://twitter.com/alive_eth/status/1471132629508538368?s=20</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://mirror.xyz/davidgreenstein.eth/3_TAJe4y8iJsO0JoVbXYw3BM2kM3042b1s6BQf-vWRo">https://mirror.xyz/davidgreenstein.eth/3_TAJe4y8iJsO0JoVbXYw3BM2kM3042b1s6BQf-vWRo</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://mirror.xyz/davidgreenstein.eth/3_TAJe4y8iJsO0JoVbXYw3BM2kM3042b1s6BQf-vWRo">https://mirror.xyz/davidgreenstein.eth/3_TAJe4y8iJsO0JoVbXYw3BM2kM3042b1s6BQf-vWRo</a></p><p>In order to join Sound.xyz, artists must apply and be approved. How is a platform artists must apply and be approved to use, not a middleman? It’s like submitting music to a blogger, radio station programmer, or A&amp;R. A person - or group of people - gets to decide whether an artist’s work is good enough to be permitted to be exposed to an audience. Sound.xyz is a middleman and a gatekeeper. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. What it comes down to is, what kind of middleman is it?</p><h2 id="h-wrap-up" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Wrap Up</h2><p>Sound.xyz has dropped about 8 songs from 8 artists with a maximum supply of 25 copies of each song and releases one song from a new artist each day. So far, each release has sold out but it appears to be a small community of buyers - which reflects the NFT market in general. It’s questionable whether there are enough buyers to sustain anything like the 60,000 releases Spotify pumps out each day.</p><p>How wide is the sea of music fans able and willing to pay upwards of $400 for a song? Additionally, is it ethical? Fan is short for fanatic, people are fanatical and have obsessive relationships with their favorite artists. This reminds me of the debate around Jordan’s where people would criticize the price of the sneakers as a result of poor kids killing each other over them because they couldn’t afford to buy them. People idolized Jordan and wanted to connect with him in any way they could. He was emulated and revered. The “Is it the shoes” commercial theorized his sneakers as being the source of his powers which gave the impression that owning a pair of Js was a way to “Be like Mike”</p><div data-type="youtube" videoId="Abr_LU822rQ">
      <div class="youtube-player" data-id="Abr_LU822rQ" style="background-image: url('https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Abr_LU822rQ/hqdefault.jpg'); background-size: cover; background-position: center">
        <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abr_LU822rQ">
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      </div></div><p>The language used to incentivize buying establishes a financial hierarchy around fandom. “Show off the sound NFTs you’ve collected and prove you were a fan from way back in the day” - What about the fans that give you thousands of dollars in free advertising by shouting your praises on social media, are they not a “day one” simply because they can only afford a 99¢ download and not a $400 NFT? The language can undervalue some fans and drive other fans to spend what they can’t afford in order to prove their loyalty. There’s a reason the NBA is careful not to frame people that pay for floor seats as “bigger fans” than those in the nose bleeds. The fans in the nose bleeds cheer the loudest.</p><h2 id="h-turn-off" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Turn Off?</h2><p>It’s nice to just think about the potential profit but there’s always a duality to things. Coming off a Pandemic with so many financially struggling, seeing your favorite artist put their work behind a $400 paywall could drive a lot of resentment. Reddit and Discord recently announced plans to integrate NFTs and the backlash was so swift and severe they ended up backtracking and deleting their Tweet announcements.</p><h2 id="h-wen-token" class="text-3xl font-header !mt-8 !mb-4 first:!mt-0 first:!mb-0">Wen token?</h2><p>Considering buyers fans within this type of system could be heavily flawed. People’s intentions may not be to support the artist or art in general. They may not care about either. Crypto platforms often Tokenize and create a coin that finds its way to exchanges. The platform will airdrop tokens to their users based on the level of activity and length of time they’ve been a user. ENS, a crypto domain name server, recently airdropped tokens to their users which turned out to be worth tens of thousands of dollars for some, even more for others.</p><p>A lot of early adopters are really just investors waiting for a payday. “Wen Token” is Crypto terminology for asking when the platform plans to tokenize. The practice of jockeying for token allotments is very common in the space. You can take this Tweet as an example.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://twitter.com/41F23D0/status/1471972012142776321?s=20">https://twitter.com/41F23D0/status/1471972012142776321?s=20</a></p><p>Nothing like organizing an event for everyone that holds your music NFT only to not have anyone show up because they’re investors and not fans.</p><p>At the end of the day, I think what Sound.xyz is doing is a good thing. Sure, I have questions and concerns about it but we’re in the baby stages of this whole movement so there’s a lot of room for growth. What they’ve built looks great and works. I’ll be watching their future drops to see if the types of artists diversify and how the platform develops. You can learn more about it here: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://www.sound.xyz/">https://www.sound.xyz/</a></p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow ugc" class="dont-break-out" href="https://rarible.com/token/0xB66a603f4cFe17e3D27B87a8BfCaD319856518B8:5110701982912852085913889487752898669181036421765464778527954140434477875201?tab=owners">https://rarible.com/token/0xB66a603f4cFe17e3D27B87a8BfCaD319856518B8:5110701982912852085913889487752898669181036421765464778527954140434477875201?tab=owners</a></p>]]></content:encoded>
            <author>payusnomind@newsletter.paragraph.com (payusnomind.eth)</author>
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