Ampled shuts down, Sound.xyz updates & Dream Never Die Founder Pass NFT

Welcome to Web3 Music, your weekly newsletter to the captivating world of music in the realm of Web3!

Here you can read about music news in web3, musicians spotlights & their latest music NFT drops, opportunities for musicians, upcoming music spaces on X, curated content & more!

Today we’re getting back into the action after the short vacation!

Btw, since last month I did interview special editions, I curated the news on my Twitter instead of the usual newsletter. You can read last month’s news here:

Let’s get started with today’s newsletter now, shall we?

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^News

Sound announces Protocol Rewards.

Sound introduces Protocol Rewards. Artists will now receive earnings from every mint, be it free or paid, with a fixed share of mint fees. Curator rewards are revamped, offering a 10x increase for music sharing, transitioning from percentage-based to a flat cut at the protocol level. Curators can now earn $1+ for every referred song, significantly enhancing their rewards. Importantly, artists remain unaffected, as both artist and curator rewards see an increase due to a reduction in Sound’s mint fee. This initiative signals a departure from conventional music platform models and aims to foster a community-driven ecosystem.

Source

Web3 label Dreams Never Die launches its Founder Pass NFT.

Startup Dreams Never Die, originally known as the music blog Hillydilly, gained fame for discovering Billie Eilish during her early days on SoundCloud. Over time, it transformed into a multifaceted entity encompassing a label, artist development company, and fan community, boasting a roster of 25 artists and a catalog of over 150 songs. While delving into web3 technologies since the previous year, the venture is now venturing into the NFT space by introducing the 'Founder Pass' NFT. With 1,000 passes available, they are priced at 0.03 ETH ($47) for the allowlist and 0.05 ETH ($78) for the general public. The initiative is inspired by successful projects like Friends With Benefits, Poolsuite, PROOF, and omgkirby, aiming to unite the community, assign value to it, and provide unique functionality.

Source

Ampled shuts down due to financial challenges.

The co-founders of Ampled express gratitude to supporters as the project announces its closure at the end of the year due to challenges like burnout and insufficient resources. Despite setbacks, the co-founders encourage maintaining optimism and faith in the potential success of cooperative platforms. Artists have been informed of the shutdown, and the co-founders plan to share lessons learned from Ampled's experience as a case study for collectively-owned web platforms. The co-founders express gratitude for the trust and commitment of supporters and artists, promising a more detailed post-mortem essay reflecting on their experiences and the broader co-op ecosystem.

Source

Important Things Happening in AI and Music

News curated by The Music Futurist

• AI Threats Emerge In Music Publishers’ Battle With Big Tech (The HollyWood Reporter)

• Andreessen Horowitz’s Thoughts on AI Shows What the Music Industry Will Be Up Against in 2024 (Music Business Worldwide)

• The Take: Is artificial intelligence the future of music? (The Take Podcast)

• Artificial Intelligence and the music industry in 2023 (Complete Music Update Article)

• The EU’s AI Act is a Vital Piece of Legislation for the Music Industry - But What Does It Actually Say? (Music Business Worldwide)

• 3 Music AI Breakthroughs to Expect in 2024 - 2024 could be the tipping point of Music AI (Towards Data Science Article)

• AI update: US transparency bill, NYT lawsuit, OpenAI and more (Music Ally Article)

• Exclusive: Gen AI music app Suno comes out of stealth (Axios Article)

• How AI-Driven Deal Making Is Democratizing Music (Forbes Article)

• There’s ‘no way’ AI will completely replace human musicians, says award-winning composer—here’s why (CNBC Article)

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EntertainM Opportunity for musicians & DJs

At EntertainM we are going to bring in HUGE UPDATES that will enable all musicians & DJs to monetize their metaverse performances. If you want to participate, you can find more info about it in the brochure below. If you have any questions about it, we can discuss via email / X.

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Albums vs Singles

_{From Music Marketing Monday Newsletter by Andrew Southworth} 

“The Case For Singles

There are many advantages to releasing singles.

• You’re able to release new music frequently (every 4-8 weeks)

• You always have something new to promote

• You can give each song the push it deserves

This means your listeners are receiving a constant stream of new material, and it’s a lot harder to forget about you. You always have something new happening so you always have something to talk about.

Since new releases happen more frequently, you’re able to iterate on the feedback you’re getting and the results you’re seeing much quicker. If you’re a newer artist you’ll be able to show your growth as you improve your music with every release.

Additionally on Spotify there are some distinct advantages to doing more singles…

• Spotify only allows you to pitch 1 song per release

• Spotify will only send 1 song per release to your fan’s Release Radar

The Case For Albums

Firstly I want to say that in this ‘albums’ scenario, i’m talking about either release an entire new album OR doing 2-3 singles and then releasing the entire album.

One huge advantage for albums is you’re able to construct a much deeper artistic vision. Songs will feel more cohesive and can play off of one another, since you’re able to spend the time forming this larger body of work.

Albums are exciting, if you love the artist, because you have a ton of new music to consume. As a result albums are more of a press-worthy event than singles. Making merch or touring around an album is normal, but people don’t as frequently make merch or tour for their singles.

Driving listeners to an album is likely to result in more streams per person, and fans that are able to get more invested right away because they have more new content to consume.

What I Recommend

Before I give you my recommendation, I want to point out that certain genres of music do differ. I listen to mostly metal, and prog metal is one of my favorites - this niche is still very much into albums. That doesn’t mean you have to conform, but you should consider the norms of your genre to some degree.

Let’s pretend you have 12 songs, here’s what I would do:

• Release 9 singles, at a pace of once every 4-8 weeks

• Release the 12 song album as the next release, and ride that for 8-12 weeks

In a perfect world if you started in January, you’d release singles every month up to September. Then, in October you’d release the album and nothing else for the rest of the year.

With this method you get to take advantage of most of the benefit for singles, while also being able to craft a larger artistic vision with several new songs. You could create the entire album first before releasing any songs if you want a more cohesive record, or you could make them one at a time.

With this release style you can give most of your songs individual marketing campaigns. When the full album comes out, you already know which songs performed best in your Facebook ad campaigns.

Don’t Copy Large Artists

Many artists assume that they should release an album right away, because their favorite artist only releases full albums or very few singles.

I just want to point out that often these large artists can do whatever they want and the release will still be successful. Taylor Swift could put out her next album on Vinyl exclusively and it would likely still crush multiple Billboard charts.

The strategies that work at certain stages of an artists career often don’t work at other stages.”

The Shape of Your Audience

_{From Where Music’s Going Newsletter by Rob Abelow.}

“Just because 20% of people are superfans doesn’t mean 20% of yours are.

Every audience has a different shape.

Here’s how to think about it:

• Size = Number of listeners & followers

• Shape = Balance of listeners to fans to superfans

And now, more than ever, you need close bonds with fans. There's simply too much noise — without depth, you're forgotten tomorrow.

You need to go deep, not just wide.

Going beyond 20% superfans

One of the last artists I managed does about 20 million streams per album. That's $80,000 in royalties - not much on its own.

But, they make 10x that touring the record.

Why?

They have an extremely high concentration of core fans.

They buy vinyl.
Merch.
Limited editions.

They buy concert tickets in numbers you wouldn't expect when seeing their 300,000 monthly listener count.

These fans are worth far more than passive listeners, and they're the key to building a sustainable career - particularly for artists going their own path.

This artist will earn over $1m touring the record in year 1 & almost every category will earn more than streaming:

1-Year-Earning Estimates
Touring: ~$1,000,000
Streaming: ~$80,000*
Sync Licensing: ~$50,000*
Albums: ~$150,000
Soft Merch: ~$200,000
TOTAL: ~$1,480,000
*numbers for newest album only / pub-side not included

Not bad for an artist 99% of you have never heard of.

This isn't a superstar artist by any means. But they are proof that when done right, there are avenues for sustainability outside the mainstream.

You do this by thinking about the shape of your audience, not just the size of it.

By going deep.
Not (just) wide.

The shape of your audience matters.

With hundreds of millions of songs, millions of artists, and attention so fractured, artists that best nurture core fandom will outlast — and outearn — the field.

Deep audiences win.

If yours is overwhelmingly listeners, it needs to be massive. If it's heavy on fans & core fans, more possibilities emerge.

The good news?

New technology & tools are making it easier for artists to surpass 20% superfans.

You can..

• Engage directly

• Tell your story

• Deeply understand your fans

• Create personalized experiences

• Capture data at shows & digital moments

• Integrate every fan interaction

• Reward & monetize fandom

• Build community

You can build your world — and be the center of it.

Of course, tools are only as good as the strategy & execution behind them.

My mandate is to map these out & show how to grow sustainably with the right mindset.”

Interesting Upcoming Music Spaces👀

^{Music NFT Drops}

My Top Picks This Week👇‍

Do you want to be in the Shooting Star section? 

Send me a Twitter (X) DM with your journey in web3 and a brief description of yourself for a chance to be featured!

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Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Ne$$y began writing raps at the age of 8 and started making music at 15. As a part of Poetic Gorilla Music, Ne$$y, along with the others in the collective, sought to provide opportunities for others to achieve their goals. Not just making hip hop songs, Ne$$y attributes one his influences to being raised in a faith-based family where he spent a lot of time at church and in the choir room learning different ways of singing and taking in the notes. He’s opened up for mainstream artists 6ix9ine, Chief Keef, DojaCat, Obie Trice, D12, Young Jeezy and more!

Now that he’s joined web3, Ne$$y has launched a vast catalog of singles as well as collections, both independently and as collaborations with other web3 musicians. Getting his start as creating “theme songs” for NFT projects has given him the ability to grow a community from the ground up. Nessy has been travelling to mutiple NFT conferences across the country performing, including headlining with Styles P at the Gramercy Theater for NFT NYC.

His most notable songs thus far include the “Metagirl Remix” w/ Sammy Arriaga, “The Bull Song”, as well as “Sleepless in Seattle”; the rarest song of his latest music NFT project, OP3N MINDS.

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