Riding the Wave of Web3 Music

Riding the Wave of Web3 Music: Aspen's Innovative Strategy and the Game-Changing Degen Dance Club NFT Release

Welcome to the first installment of our music blog series, where we delve into Aspen's music strategy and provide information and insights regarding exciting and innovative web3 music projects. In this blog, we'll discuss a few key dimensions of our music strategy in the context of an upcoming drop that is set to make waves in the web3 music industry.

On June 29, 2023, Degen Dance Club will unveil its first-of-its-kind music NFT collection. The original songs will drop on the Polygon network and include on-chain licenses for each song. Fans must accept the terms of the license before they can purchase and receive the music NFT in their wallet.

In addition, fans can mint a complimentary AI-generated remix of their chosen song. These remixes will grant them a master recording license, allowing them to commercialize the remix if desired. The remixes will also trade on the public Polygon network, and like the originals, fans must gas an accept terms transaction before the remixes are transferred.

If you're interested in web3 music, there are a couple of interesting things happening here!

IP Rights and Terms Acceptance

Each song within the Degen Dance collection is accompanied by specific intellectual property (IP) rights. To ensure the proper transfer of these rights, the recipient's wallet must accept Degen Dance's terms before they can take ownership. Whether they mint a new NFT or purchase from the secondary market, accepting the terms is a prerequisite.

Why is all this required?

Historically, offering IP-protected music on public blockchain networks has posed challenges due to legal uncertainties surrounding rights transfers. You buy the token but what about the rights to the associated media content file? As a consequence, musicians - and their lawyers - have been hesitant to bring established IP into the web3 space, fearing potential loss of legal rights compared to the web2 platforms they currently utilize. What was needed was a solution that ensures every NFT owner directly accepts the musician’s terms regardless of where they transact the NFT.

Introducing Aspen’s legal minting solution, a capability that integrates on-chain terms, the NFT, and the associated media content and then requires all receiving wallets to accept the terms before the NFT can be transferred between wallets.

By utilizing Aspen’s legalminting capability, musicians can ensure a proper legal relationship (known to the lawyers in the room as privity) with every wallet owner and thus enjoy the same level of legal assurance and certainty they receive when transacting on web2 platforms. Importantly, receiving wallets only need to gas a terms acceptance transaction one time per song. This means that once wallets have accepted the terms, they can transact multiple times across any venue without the need to accept the terms again.

Note: the transfer of master recording rights on the remixes, showcases how musicians will use AI and the potential for making money to incentivize their fans to collaborate - a topic we will cover in-depth in future blogs.

Public Blockchain Network Release

All songs within the EP will be tradable on Polygon's open, public blockchain network. This eliminates the need for web3 musicians to choose between a closed music NFT marketplace where rights transfer might be clear but the venue has limited liquidity or a public network with uncertainty regarding IP rights transfer but abundant liquidity.

By enabling songs with IP rights to be openly traded on any NFT marketplace supported by Polygon, musicians and their collectors now have the freedom of choice. Musicians can explore venues that offer marketing and sales support for their NFTs, while collectors have the flexibility to list and sell their NFTs on marketplaces with robust order books.

Direct-to-Consumer Enablement

The direct-to-consumer model, coupled with the ability to collect personally identifiable information (PII) such as email addresses, provides a transformative shift in the percentage of revenue musicians can receive per NFT sale and their ability to reduce ongoing marketing expenses.

By selling directly to their fans, Degen Dance Club can bypass intermediaries and traditional distribution channels, enabling them to capture a larger share of the revenue generated by their music. This direct connection fosters a closer relationship between the musician and their fans, creating opportunities for personalized interactions, exclusive content, and targeted marketing campaigns.

In summary, buckle up for a wild ride into the future of music where Aspen has you covered.  Today, we dove deep into Aspen's music strategy, showcasing the important innovations coming your way with the upcoming Degen Dance Club release. We believe we're on the cusp of something game-changing in the world of web3 music. Just like the seismic shifts from CDs to MP3s to streaming, the tokenization of music is about to revolutionize the industry. It's an exhilarating paradigm shift that holds boundless potential for musicians, collectors, and traders alike. So, get ready to ride the wave and discover the incredible possibilities of web3 music with Aspen.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next music strategy blog instalment. For more information, please contact us at sales@aspenft.io.