More artists than ever are getting a slice of music’s recorded revenue pie. The problem is those are some awfully small slices. While many are rightfully focused on the redistribution of this pie, we believe it needs to get larger. Much larger. Value must be brought back to music.

There are 3 major limitations with music’s current infrastructure:

1. Platform algorithms are built with the goal of negative-action-avoidance. They don’t want you closing the app. Skips are avoided at all costs.
2. Platforms detach song from artist. You rarely interact with the artist in their world.
3. A single pricing-tier. If you stream 500 hours of music this month, or only 1, you’ll pay the same amount: $9.99.

These limitations have contributed to music feeling disposable. It has detached value from music. The goal of streaming platforms is not for you to fall in love with the artist, it’s for you to not fall of the app.

Last year, one of my artists sold the streaming rights to a portion of their catalog for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It was a mistake.

Here’s why.

The Science Behind Dopr

Why do you like the music that you like? This is the question we set out to answer in our music neuroscience research. The results show that Familiar Surprise plays a big role.

We have spent years investigating what it is about music that leads to a pleasurable dopamine response in the brain. A major effect that we have found that contributes to the formation of music preference is what we call Familiar Surprise. This effect is robust, and importantly, it can be quantitatively measured and modeled.

Making sense of music’s web3 future

A new economic paradigm in music is here.

Music NFTs connect artists and collectors directly. Artists gain capital and community. Collectors earn financial rewards, showoff their fandom, and unlock unique experiences and collectibles.

But, collecting isn’t easy. How do you discover or value music NFTs? What platform is worth signing up for? Who offers the experience I want? Where are my favorite artists releasing NFTs?

Vérité - “He’s Not You” via Royal

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In music’s Web3 future, everyone can be an investor, backing their favorite artists and projects. This shift towards an open and democratized support system between creator and collector has the potential to change the economic structure of the music industry and the artist-fan relationship — for the better. Much better, if things unfold properly.

With each passing day, more artists are coming up with creative ways to offer non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Since June 2020, there have been 1.68M music NFTs sold, generating just under $100M in primary sale revenue (Water & Music, Jan 2022). It would take ~23.7 Billion streams to generate that same revenue for artists.