Lydian Nadhaswaram, Sneha Khanwalkar, Ritviz, Santanu Hazarika, Nucleya, and even the veteran singer Bappi Lahiri, are just a few of many Indian musicians leveraging the concept of NFTs to digitize their content more effectively. If this makes you wonder why NFTs have become such hype in the Indian Music Industry, then you are at the right place.
Non Fungible tokens, a concept that has existed in minds for a long time but brought to life by leveraging Blockchain technology, has been the talk of the world lately. It is a concept that leverages uniqueness and scarcity to make digital commodities collectible, authentic, and valuable.
NFT by digital artist Beeple sold for a record-breaking $69.3 million earlier this year and paved the way for a new digital wave. Anjos received $708,000 for a collection of NFTs relating to his latest album, YOU, around the same period, which was more than his combined ad revenue.
Other significant names include 3LAU selling music NFTs for $11.6 million, $5.8 million by Grimes, a Canadian singer, renowned DJ Steve Aoki making $4.2 million, and Post Malone auctioning off an NFT to play beer bongs against him.
But in the midst of these headlines, the NFT space has evolved much more. In lieu of recent events, NFTs have become more useful as real-life use cases are being synergized with NFTs. This has added further to the value and growth of NFTs, paving the way for greater mainstream adoption.
Considering the potential of this statement, the unprecedented implementation of NFTs in the Indian music industry becomes a suitable example.
Trending headlines in the music industry
One of the most trending headlines made in the recent past was about the NFT of a Tamil singer-composer, Kaber Vasuki, bought by Metakovan for a whopping 50 ethers value which converted to a rough figure of 1.5 crores INR at the time of sale. This made Vasuki one of the top-selling Indian-musician artists and surprisingly, the first one too. The sale took place on OpenSea which is one of the favorite marketplaces for NFTs.
However, this sale was at a time when the NFT wave was just entering the Indian ecosystem. Now, there are more domestic NFT platforms available in India and more artists who are exploring this space actively.
The developing model for new challenges
NFTs are doing the same thing for musicians as they do for artists: developing a new model of patronage at a time when obtaining music royalties is difficult and live touring is still a thing of the past owing to the epidemic.
Grimes, Deadmau5, Mike Shinoda, Kings of Leon, and RAC, among others, are just a few names in the international NFT space. Musicians are frequently “forced to accept things that may not be in your best interest,” as Vasuki puts it.
The infrastructure or more appropriately, the underlying Blockchain technology, makes it a life-changing opportunity for the artists and empowers them by creating a decentralized, trustless network. A network where the artists do not have to pay large amounts to agents and then worry about the hidden activities.
After hearing about Vasuki’s sale, Sambit Chatterjee, a drummer, tabla musician, and percussionist from Kolkata, was convinced of the potency of NFTs. He and his “What Escapes Me” bandmates opted to sell their original demo of ‘Section 66 Pt. 5’, a sarod-infused metal track.
It’s presently sold on WazirX, an Indian NFT marketplace, and cryptocurrency trading platform, for 2121 WRX ($2,307.65) in their proprietary currency. “These are more collectibles for those who want to keep uncommon things to themselves,” says Chatterjee, who also has a recurring royalty set on it meaning that every time the NFT is sold, he gets a portion of it.
This way, when the artist gains more exposure and the value of his music increases, he will still be able to get value from his work, even if it was sold a long time ago. This is just a glimpse of how NFTs revolutionize the digital asset space.
Introduction of new platforms
The Indian market is witnessing a radical shift in the digital ecosystem. Many new platforms have emerged that aim to decentralize the digital asset space in India. These platforms are focusing on the concept of marketplaces where multiple NFTs are listed.
Users can come to the marketplace and buy or trade these NFTs. At the same time, artists or content creators can come to the platforms and list their NFTs or even create a new NFT with their original assets through a process called minting.
Fantico is one such platform that makes NFTs more accessible for the people as well as celebrities such as musicians. It allows the creation of digital tokens that can represent unique media files. These tokens can then be traced through Blockchain technology and their authenticity is always verifiable.
Kohra is another example of the NFT space in India. Kohra, like many other musicians throughout the world, is experimenting with many platforms. Kaliyuga 2025, an audio-visual clip of 31 seconds by Kohra is selling for 3,240 USD.
Sunburn, an electronic dance music festival, recently announced a partnership with an Indian NFT marketplace to produce a series of NFTs centered on music and art (starting July 23). They claim that 49 percent of their social media followers are interested in NFTs.
Wrap up: A change that is transforming the music industry
While the potential opportunity brought by NFTs can not be stressed enough, there is still a major barrier to their adoption. This is the lack of accessibility. People can not buy what they do not know is up for sale and not everyone is tech-savvy to search for an International NFT marketplace and learn how it operates.
This is where Indian NFT marketplaces have made a difference. Platforms like Fantico are making it easier for people to trade NFTs and for celebrities to create such NFTs. Especially for the musicians, tracking their sales and keeping an authentic record of their content has never been easier.
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