While the hype around nonfungible tokens (NFTs) has cooled down, innovative use cases for the digital assets continue to appear — particularly in the music industry, which has been fertile soil for use cases of emerging Web3 tools in recent years.
On April 5, the DJ, producer and eco-warrior Blond:ish announced a new NFT project, which once purchased unlocks physical copies of her latest album on vinyl record.
Cointelegraph reached out to Blond:ish for more details on the usage of NFTs as a gateway to unlocking physical items as a part of a new music release.
The vinyl itself is made from “naturally occurring bacteria” that mimic plastic and can decompose in any environment, including the ocean. Typically, vinyl records are pressed from the material polyvinyl chloride, also known as PVC, and release 12x the amount of greenhouse emissions.
NFTs have been used by artists as a component of album releases, and even as a new mode for music streaming. This latest vinyl drop is an example of the growing phygital trend in the NFT scene, in which digital assets have a physical component to them.
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In August 2022, the popular rock group Muse released an NFT album — a music industry landmark, as it became the first new chart-eligible album format to be added in seven years.
Many mainstream music artists — like Snoop Dogg, who is a long-time Web3 champion — have utilized NFTs in single releases or to promote additional content alongside their music.
There have even been conversations around a new genre of NFT-driven music coming onto the scene for artists who inextricably tie their releases to NFT projects.
Music industry behemoth Sony Music filed a trademark application for NFT-authenticated music back in September 2022, while Spotify tested a new Web3 wallet integration for token-enabled playlists in March 2023.
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