The advent of digital distribution of music in the late ’90s and early 2000s birthed a new era in the industry. This quickly evolved when Napster (formerly Listen.com) began its music streaming service alongside MP3.com and PeopleSound. Several streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, LiveOne, YouTube Music, and Tidal, also joined the train later. Music streaming is a convenient way of broadcasting music to enthusiasts as it only requires an internet connection to access millions of musical tracks/albums on a mobile device or personal computer. However, this evolution took another paradigm shift with the advent of blockchain technology that underpins NFTs. In this guide, we take a look at ‘All You Need to Know About the Sound.xyz NFT Marketplace.
What is a Music NFT?
A music NFT symbolizes a certificate of ownership for the owners/collectors of a musical track or album. Unlike traditional music, where copyrights belong to artists, music NFTs allow artists to extend such copyright to a few NFT collectors willing to own their masterpiece music in the decentralized space. To do that, a musical track will be minted on a blockchain network with multiple limited copies that will be listed on marketplaces. Music NFTs aim to connect music enthusiasts with their artists without involving a third party. Although a few marketplaces list music NFTs alongside other NFTs, Sound.xyz is one of the notable customized marketplaces for music NFTs.
What is Sound.xyz?
Sound.xyz is an NFT marketplace co-founded by David Greenstein, Vignesh Hirudayakanth, and Matt Masurka in December 2021. It is a marketplace tailored for music NFTs where artists can create their music NFTs and earn profits. The Ethereum network supports the marketplace, alongside the Optimism Layer 2 network, using the renowned IPFS to store music. The IPFS (InterPlanetry File System) is a hypermedia and a P2P protocol that can store and share data in a distributed file system. IPFS was adopted for this initiative due to its content-addressing fashion, uniquely identifying each file in a pool of others.
Sound.xyz allows users to seamlessly monitor music NFTs’ floor price and market trends, discover all musical releases from each artist, and find the latest songs on its platform. Aside from allowing collectors to listen to top-rated music, Sound.xyz is the beacon of hope for OGs and youngster musicians to make their mark through NFTs. The marketplace eliminates all intermediaries between existing and upcoming musical artists and their enthusiasts. The objective of Sound.xyz is to allow upcoming musical artists to earn income from their spectacular musical performances using NFTs. However, top musical OGs like Snoop Dogg have joined this train, making it a haven for all musicians (top-rated and upcoming) seeking to earn from their musical careers through NFTs.
How Sound’s Music NFTs Work
As explained earlier, the music NFTs on Sound are stored on the Ethereum network via IPFS. The NFT minting contract brands all music NFTs on Sound with the artist’s names, unlike some platforms with general branding for all NFTs created through them. Sound allows artists to create a limited series of their preferred music NFTs alongside a comment or side note. A new owner can edit and overwrite this comment once such NFTs have been sold. As a custom marketplace for music NFTs, Sound.xyz has exciting features that make the ecosystem a worthy haven for music NFTs. These features include:
Free Listing of Music NFTs
Unlike several marketplaces that charge 2.5% or more as listing fees, Sound launched as a free ecosystem that requires a 0% listing fee. This is free and different from lazy minting, where creators can mint and list NFTs for free and pay the listing fees when their NFTs are sold. Sound doesn’t charge any percentage before or after selling music NFTs as listing fees. This initiative was adopted to promote seamless NFT trading in its ecosystem. Furthermore, the marketplace has a 10% royalty cap on secondary sales.
NFT Aggregator
Aside from being the go-to marketplace for music NFTs, Sound also double as an NFT aggregating platform for music NFTs. Its marketplace aggregates music NFTs listed on OpenSea, X2Y2, and LooksRare marketplaces, offering users the best offer for their preferred music. As a new entrant into the marketplace sphere, this feature placed Sound at an advantage by integrating reputable and OG marketplaces into its platform.
Effective Bulk Trading
The sound marketplace is compatible with the bulk purchases of music NFTs, allowing users to buy multiple NFTs in a single transaction. This means that collectors will get all essential details before purchase; Sound is generally equipped to offer users of all levels vital information about all NFTs, including their floor prices. This initiative makes it user-friendly, flexible, and built for all collectors/investors (small, medium, and large). As of July 7, 2023, collectors will pay 0.0007 ETH per transaction; this also extends to bulk purchases, encouraging multiple NFT purchases in at any given time.
Ownership Comment
Since owning NFTs signifies ultimate ownership of the item, owning a music NFT created on Sound comes with an extra perk. Sound’s music NFTs allow collectors to edit and add their preferred comment to a timestamp on the track. This reflects ultimate ownership and reveals any thoughts about the song, track, artist, or album. However, that comment can also be replaced upon selling the music NFT to another collector.
The Golden Egg Fun
Music NFTs created on Sound have a “golden egg” hidden randomly on a chosen timestamp in the music track. The golden egg can only be discovered when leaving a comment on the timestamp where the golden egg is hidden. The golden egg function is to upgrade the NFT into a 1/1 edition alongside a special artwork selected by the artist.
Listening Before Purchasing
Unlike most marketplaces where users must purchase music NFTs before listening, Sound allows them to listen before collecting. This initiative effectively rules out a blind purchase where users don’t really like what they are purchasing. Sound wants its collectors to get value for their money, as such; collectors can listen to a song, love it, and collect it. With that, there’ll be no shady sales of music NFTs to collectors who don’t find them exciting.
Curator Rewards
Sound keeps rolling out several features on its platform to make trading music NFTs seamless and profitable for artists and collectors. Another exciting feature is the 5% curator reward for collectors. This initiative allows collectors to show off their music taste on Sound by creating playlists of their favorite songs and sharing them. Any collector who mints a music NFT via a referral link will earn the curator a 5% commission.
Limited Open Editions
The open editions feature widens artists fan or collector base, potentially making their music NFT go viral. This feature allows collectors to mint multiple editions of a single music NFT to their preference within a stipulated timeframe. This feature is defined by artists while creating their NFTs, and they can peg their open editions to 1, 3, or 5 days. This feature began with “5 STAR (Daniel Allan featuring Kevin George) on January 23, 2023.
Editing/Updating Music Following the Drop
Another exciting feature artists will enjoy on Sound is the editing tool that allows them to update their music NFTs. Aside from establishing ultimate creative control over their NFTs, this tool will enable artists to add more perks or utilities to their NFTs. As such, an artist can change the music NFT details, metadata, or rewards attached to it. All changes made to NFTs are reflected immediately after clicking on the update tab.
Can Someone Join Sound as an Upcoming Artiste and Create Music NFTs?
Sure!
Sound.xyz primarily aims to be the beacon of success for all unfamiliar and lesser-known musicians. Its platform offers budding musicians the support needed to achieve their musical goals as they navigate their careers. To onboard as an artiste, go to Sound’s official website, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click the “Join as an artist” tab.
To join as a collector, click the “Sign in” tab by the top-right corner of the homepage. Users can sign up with an email or Web3 wallet such as MetaMask, Coinbase wallet, WalletConnect, and, Rainbowc. The platform supports over 200 Web3 wallets and can be accessed via desktop computers and mobile devices (Android and iOS).
Top 3 Music NFTs on Sound Chart
V Buterin by Optimism Collective
V Buterin tops the chart with its 22k+ mints, and 130k+ collectors. This Sound was created by Optimism Co-founder (Ben Jones) and Sound Co-founder (Gigamesh) to celebrate the launch of Sound.xyz on the Optimism (OP) network. The 731,992 editions were released on June 12, 2023, and collected free, with collectors reselling them on the Sound market. The first collector of this Sound collected 5,655 editions, the second collected 4,708, and the third collected 2,958 editions. One lucky collector has won the golden egg.
Viral Sounds
1. V Buterin – @optimismFND – 731,922 mints
2. Naked & Sideways – @shilly – 5,234 mints
3. EXLLS – Dreaming About You – @millionrecords_ – 1,071 mints
4. Letter To My Degens Pt. 2 – @itsmaliknaim – 1,156 mints
5. DEMON – @ROHKI – 1,896 mints pic.twitter.com/8QybZWMJzb— sound.xyz (
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XYZ by Snoop Dogg
The XYZ, a 2m 9 seconds track by Snoop Dogg, has the highest ETH volume with 65.841 ETH. The 10,498 editions were released on February 3, 2023, and all editions have been collected and sold out at 0.0042 ETH, with 44.0916 ETH raised. The first collector collected 145 editions, and the second and third collected 100 editions each. The golden egg for these editions has also been won. Non-collectors can’t download all sold-out editions, but they can be listened to for free.
METAGIRL (Remix) By Sammy Arriaga Feat. Nessy The Rilla
The METAGIRL (Remix) is a 2 minutes and 19-second soundtrack to celebrate the first anniversary of the METAGIRL, released on February 25, 2022. The remix drop, which has 6,077 editions, was released on February 25, 2023, and sold at 0.0069 ETH (per NFT), raising a total of 37.5762 ETH. All editions have been sold out, and the golden egg has been won. According to the artist, the winner will win an MG Hoodie – MG Beanie or Flatbill – Digital Heart Stickers (Pack of 5) – Personalized, signed thank you card – 1 MG Digital Heart (Music NFT) from Sammy’s vault.
Sound is a novel marketplace that debuted in the NFT market in 2021; however, its novelty doesn’t hinder its progress in offering exclusive and exciting services to its users and music NFTs enthusiasts (particularly artists and collectors). Since its advent, Sound has been up and running, adding value to its platform via several features to make the user-friendly ecosystem top-notch. Some of these perpetual upgrades include purchasing NFTs with credit cards (MasterCard and Visa) alongside Google Pay, Apple Pay, and America Express. Sounds have an exciting future as the platform seeks all possible means to seamlessly bridge Web3 with the global world at its comfort.
