NFTs.
‘Over-hyped’ doesn’t even come close to describing the current landscape. Most likely, you’ve heard about one of these…
That is “Ape #1”. A one of a kind and part of a series of minted cartoon apes. And by minted, I mean tagged and ID’d to a creator or owner and put on the blockchain with the rest of the crypto. This new ‘novelty’ of owning a digital piece of art is akin to the traditional model of owning any other piece of original. ‘real life’ art. You can go to the mall and buy a print of Monet, but if you want the original… it’s going to cost you.
NFTs are similar in the way that, all it took for me to posses and display that multi-million dollar piece of art… was a right click and save on my mouse. Now, I don’t own it. I can’t sell it or trade it (although fakes are already competing for the space). And nobody is impressed by my copy of this art.
But that hasn’t stopped a mad dash into the market, which some speculate, is greatly pumping up the worth of these NFTs well beyond their true value.
This has all seemed to rise in the wave of crypto finding more mainstream adoption while fueling the birth of the metaverse and Web3.0, which is an ever-evolving idea of what the next generation of the internet will look like and how it will function. Block-chain technology being the core mechanic upon which this all works.
The problem I have with the NFT scene in general… is that it’s producing crap, disposable art and slapping a price tag on it. Although, if you dig more into the scene, there are legitimate artists starting to populate the space. And once you start to understand how creators continually are cut in on a piece of the money EVERY time their piece sells (part of the wonders of block-chain technology), it’s easy to see how this is a much better model for legitimate artists to profit from their work, as opposed to big money moving art around as financial investments. But the current scene, is all hype… with the emphasis being placed on the wild upswings in prices these silly cartoons have been demanding, and getting, on the open market.
When one starts to view NFTs from an in-world or in-game ‘asset’ point of view, they start to make more sense. The easiest example would be any kind of clothing, or weapon, or possession given out in a video game. The popular battle-royal shooter Fortnite makes ridiculous amounts of money just selling in-game items, that technically, the makers of Fortnite still own… not the player who actually ‘bought’ them.
NFTs are changing all that. The whole environment of the metaverse is being created around the idea that the player has some kind of investment into these worlds. Their NFTs, whatever form they may take, will generally have some sort of use past just a flex to show off wealth. And as a bonus, they come equipped with a market value that can soar if the game is popular enough.
And this is where things start to get exciting past the point of just financial investments.
Enter the concept of Audio NFTs.
In the same way you can ‘mint’ an image, or in-game digital asset… you can mint an audio file. After all, it’s just another ‘digital file’ that can be produced as an original, one of a kind, or even limited run asset.
Now, don’t go out looking for audio NFTs just quite yet… a lot of this is still rolling out. But there is a company named Glozal that is out in front and leading the space in this new technology.
The company is definitely fresh out the gate, having formed in 2021, so the player is not actually released yet. Again, the technology of how this is going to be adapted both as an audio format and its role in the metaverse… and what that all means for the music industry… is very much in flux right now.
But much like OpenSea and other marketplaces that are setting themselves up as the ‘curators’ of this modern museum that is the metaverse, Glozal and PlayOne NFT player are developing what the future of the music industry is going to look like.
“Web3 is all about a community driven way of doing things – it’s up to us to help artists, musicians, creators and entertainers make this transition into Web3 effectively. Our goal is to bring back the power to creators and their supporters, while also teaching them and helping them build their own NFT fueled communities within the PlayOne™ ecosystem,” says Volen Tsolov, COO of Glozal.
If you are on Modern Fix, then chances are, music is a big part of your life. You also then realize, the music industry has been in the toilet since MP3s. When record labels came down on Napster with their big ol’ lawyer hammers, it shattered the most brilliant model into a million pieces, that even iTunes could never quite figure out how to put back together in a way that helped both the artist and the industry. Because, let’s face it, historically… the industry cares about the industry. The artists, the true creators, are often the last in line to profit from their work.
NFTs, if embraced and utilized correctly, should be able to introduce a whole new level of music technology to the masses, while simultaneously creating a system in which artists AND the fans who support them will have a way to ‘invest’ in their passions while retaining true ownership.
