Crypto has always flirted with shifting how musicians can support their work (starting with Ujo Music) and the next wave of innovation in this vertical appears to be starting.  Evolving the music industry is becoming a bigger issue as we witness the continued decay of the traditional music industry and the evolution of how artists engage with both their craft and audience.

Music distribution, funding, and consumption is changing. Media outlets that once thrived on the independent music scene are now being absorbed by broader lifestyle publications; evidenced by Pitchfork's assimilation into GQ and countless others folding. Streaming platforms like SoundCloud, once seen as more “artist-friendly” distributors, now find themselves on the sales block, an uncertain future. In related news, Universal Music Group recently removed its catalog from TikTok after the massive music company failed to reach a licensing agreement with the platform. The conventional record deal continues to be a double-edged sword, offering financial support at the cost of long-term financial equity and certain aspects of creative control.  The historically extractive nature of the music industry and its now increased  volatility has implications for artists, both independent and signed, who rely on these platforms for exposure.

Crypto is attempting to correct this imbalance.  Early experiments with music NFTs, hope to  offer a more equitable share of profits to all contributors of a song (see Songcamp’s Headless Band experiments and this Soulection release) while trying to reframe the artist-listener experience. Still, while these ventures often benefit artists and certain collector subsets, they (so far) fail to resonate with the broader music-listening public.

The next wave of Web3 music will likely empower musicians to redefine success on their own terms; backed by NFTs or not. Daniel Allen's journey, specifically with his and Lyra’s song 'I Just Need,' exemplifies this potential. The “ordinance point” of the song was its August 2023 mint on Sound, with 250 early supporters collecting the record. Today, the song has nearly 9m streams on Spotify alone; a massive success. A few months prior to this song’s release, Daniel Allen’s $1M dollar seed round represented a significant departure from traditional industry funding mechanisms, enabling him to innovate without the constraints of a traditional record label affiliation. The creation of Daniel Allan Entertainment, a corporate entity designed to attract outside investment, is a testament to the viability of treating music projects like startups. This approach not only empowers artists but also offers investors a stake in a potentially diverse and lucrative portfolio.

In many ways, Allen’s journey may signal the start of the next wave of creator controlled media.  Allen remains in charge of his career and his creative output and, as regulations around crypto clarify over the upcoming years, may be able to use NFTs, tokens, and other assets to cohere a growing community of fans, supporters (like we’re seeing with Medallion and adjacently in the restaurant industry with Blackbird).  We’re seeing the music NFT ecosystem begin to reset and crypto giving creators control will likely continue to change the media landscape.

The question remains: why aren't more artists taking this route? The answer might lie in the industry's reluctance to relinquish control over lucrative masters, but as awareness grows, so too does the appetite for change. The notion of artist seed rounds represents an under-explored paradigm shift, suggesting a future where artists wield unprecedented control over their careers. This transition is underscored by the potential symbiosis between music and the digital zeitgeist of memecoins, with the viral nature and communal ethos of tokens amplifying the intrinsic value of music as a shared cultural idea. While Daniel Allen's artist seed round mirrored traditional startup fundraising, encompassing his entire career, future artist funding might pivot towards more song-specific or modular focus, akin to liquid token launches.