For a long time, the entire NFT market has experienced low trading volume due to high Gas Fees. The music NFT market is no exception. Currently, the release price for music NFTs has reached 0.005 ETH, while the Gas Fees are much higher than that. Taking the music NFT platform Sound as an example, the platform has introduced several updates. The most significant update is allowing artists to choose between unlimited sales or limited edition sales.
Commodity or collectible?
These two selling models determine the attributes of music NFTs, whether they are treated as collectibles or commodities. Sound platform provides more options, but it seems that artists in the market tend to prefer the new approach of unlimited sales. The unlimited sales model is similar to continuously producible commodities, where you can buy the desired music NFT from the artist at a relatively fixed price anytime. On the other hand, limited edition sales means that once you miss out, you won't be able to buy it unless you purchase it from the secondary market at the seller's price.
Sound Swap
Sound Swap is the latest model for unlimited sales. It consists of two stages. In the first stage, after setting the price of 0.005 ETH, artists can sell their music NFTs for an unlimited time within a day. Once the time is up, the blockchain randomly generates a "golden egg" with a different cover but the same song. In the second stage, the smart contract continues to produce music NFTs. You can see the increasing numbers of the music NFTs on the contract. However, as you buy more, the price gradually increases in a step-like manner. The money you pay goes into the liquidity pool of the music NFT, with 7.5% going to the artist, 2.5% to the platform, and the remaining 90% staying in the pool. You can also choose to sell during the second stage. When you sell the music NFT, you receive the selling price determined by the liquidity pool. Once sold, the music NFT is destroyed.
High Gas Fees
All of this is interesting, but due to high Gas Fees, such secondary interactions are not as frequent. "Web3 Hamburg Music" is a Chinese podcast that releases Podcast NFTs in each episode. However, due to the high Gas Fees, the release has been delayed. Therefore, we have migrated to the Ethereum Layer 2 solution—Optimism.
Using L2 to solve the high Gas Fees issue
For my podcast, I have chosen the Optimism chain for release through the Decent platform. This has saved 20 times the amount of ETH in Gas Fees, which is only 5% of the Gas Fee on the Ethereum chain. Since it's difficult to sell my Podcast NFTs, even if they are sold out, it might be hard to break even considering the high Gas Fees. Apart from the zeroth episode, each subsequent episode is limited to 50 NFTs, priced at 0.0099 ETH, and the profits are split equally between me and the guest.
However, the reality is as follows:
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Issue 0: 5 sold, 25 remaining.
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Issue 1: 4 sold, 56 remaining.
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Issue 2: 0 sold, 50 remaining.
Web3 Burger Music
"Web3 Burger Music" focuses on discussing how AI technology and blockchain technology have changed the music industry. Additionally, there are "special episodes" as subplots.
Product or production relation?
Productivity and production relations are two fundamental concepts in Marxist economics that together form the mode of production. The emergence of AI technology and blockchain technology has changed traditional productivity and production relations.
AI technology can serve as a new productive force primarily because
it can improve production efficiency, enhance product quality, and reduce production costs, thereby changing traditional production methods.
Blockchain technology can serve as a new production relation primarily because it can change traditional centralized production relations and provide a decentralized mode of production organization.
"Web3 Burger Music" defines the production objective as music. The host, Hamburg, discusses with musicians and music enthusiasts from around the world how AI technology and blockchain technology have impacted the music industry.
Issue 3: Blockchain and AI Technology Subvert the Music Industry?—A Conversation with Cantonese Rap Artist SAGA
SAGA is a Cantonese rap artist from Foshan, Guangdong, who is also interested in Web3 and AI technology. Music can exist in the form of NFTs with the help of blockchain technology, and AI can assist musicians in creating more music.
You can mint and listen to it on Decent.
Decent
You can also search for "Web3 Hamburg Music" on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Xiaoyuzhou to listen for free.
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Xiaoyuzhou
Issue 4: How Will Independent Underground Musicians Make Money in the Future?—A Conversation with Web3 Musician Fifi Rong
Quirky, profound, and genuine, FiFi Rong, a British-Chinese singer, songwriter, and producer, brings pure emotional intimacy and candid vulnerability in her unique musical vision, cleverly infused with elements of her Chinese traditional music. Through her songs, she combines alternative pop, alternative R&B, electronic music, trip-hop, IDM, soundscapes, and UK bass music with her distinctive voice, making her one of the elites in avant-garde pop artists.
In this episode, Hamburg and Fifi Rong observe how the music industry has been changed from the perspective of Web3 and AI. Additionally, they discuss whether independent underground musicians should focus on and learn new technologies to find new opportunities outside the saturated Web2 music market.