We are in our early days yet for Content NFTs, from music to articles, podcasts, or videos, enabling ownership over digital content in the form of an NFT.

Brands and individual creators will retain ownership of their work and choose how to monetize it - whether that's through selling it outright, licensing it out, or even just giving it away for free. Yes, we love free NFTs.

Content NFTs have the potential to revolutionize the way creative content is produced, distributed, and enjoyed.

Content NFTs

NFTs essentially create a way for individuals to own the digital works they create, meaning they no longer have to surrender their rights to a corporation. The creator maintains ownership of their work and can license it out or even trade it on a marketplace.

Content NFTs work by creating a permanent record of a piece of digital content. This could be anything from a video or a piece of music to a piece of writing or even a tweet. Once the content is tokenized, it can be bought or sold as any other NFT, or give owners access to perks.

Content NFTs are not only creating a new way for creators to monetize their work. They are also creating new opportunities for collaboration and collective value creation.

Shared between content creators and their audiences, this collective value can be in the form of communities and networks, or it can be in the form of special benefits for those who own the content. An owner of a popular content NFT could gain access to exclusive events, collaborate with content creators or even receive advance access to new content.

Content as Lego blocks

Composability is the ability to compose complex systems from individual parts that work together as lego blocks. Each block is designed for compatibility with all other Lego blocks, allowing anyone to build an endless variety of structures limited only by their imaginations. As children, we enjoyed it, and now we combine it with technology.

In the same way DeFi made tokens composable, we now are able to make content composable. This means that anyone can sell, quote, remix, and remake it. Open source but on a social layer.

By making content composable, we make it easier for creators to build on existing content, create new content, and open up new ways of collaboration. Composable NFTs also let us create distributable, abundant digital items that can be used in different ways and contexts.

Builders can create new protocols and applications that focus on elevating the ways the content is interacted with. We like our NFTs, but we also want to interact with them on a different level in our wallets. For example, one platform could focus on creating new ways to interact with and consume content while another platform could focus on providing better search-ability. Farcaster app and discove, both built on the same protocol.

Giving people ownership over their digital assets enables them to internalize the results of the co-creation through the value that accrues to their content and contributions – and that in turn incentivizes them to participate in co-creation in the first place.

Something interesting would be seeing NFTs acting as a form of copyleft, meaning that all derivatives of the work must be licensed back to the original creator.

We can use content that can be built upon and reused in different ways. For example, an artist could create an NFT and allow others to build on top of it, creating an ever-evolving piece of digital art. Or, a game developer could create an NFT land and allow players to create their own experiences within it.

This will open a new world of dynamic NFTs based on how content is distributed and interacted with.

Impact of creative work

We started seeing this happen on NFT projects like Nouns. All of this can take place with the explicit permission of the original creator - giving NFT enthusiasts a literal license to create their own value layers whenever they want, wherever they are. Hello cc0.

We need an ‘open-source economy’ that helps everyone to collaborate and create sustainably and securely in a transparent way. Using web3 allows us to have data composability, track royalties, and control the publication of content. This would help facilitate rights management while ensuring that creators are compensated fairly. It also eliminates the need for complex copyright laws and could potentially reduce disputes.

Not being attached to a platform anymore, but using protocols where we can be amazed by the impact of creative work. The way it’s shared, used, and monetized. Post on one platform, collect from another one and decide what fees go to people that mirror your post on Lenster for example.

Composability is the ability to mix and match components like lego blocks. Components can be software or Content of any kind (audio, video, articles...)

Final thoughts

NFTs are the new composable trend, providing users with the ability to share, remix, and resell digital content without sacrificing the original copyright, authenticity, or value.

We are starting to see the first experiments, when NFTs will proceed beyond just selling pieces of artwork, video, music, etc. They will be a new web layer, focused on developing co-creation models, a new foundation for a better business model in the creative industry.

Content Legos allow culture and creativity to collide, enabling a new social layer of innovation.