While NFT technology is still in its infancy, many artists are beginning to explore the Web3 space as it offers its creators both financial and creative freedom. We’re seeing individual artists, as well as collaborative projects, like Songcamp, build digital communities and ecosystems to help drive their NFT music collections.
NFTs Driving the New “Creators Economy”
It’s brutally hard for most musicians to make money in the streaming era. Artists get paid fractions of pennies per stream, with many struggling to find sizable audiences at all. Data from 2019 and 2020 shows that 90% of streams go to the top 1% of artists—which is why many artists are pushing away from the traditional record label system, and are now pursuing NFT technology as a means to market their music. Crypto optimists go as far as saying that NFTs are driving the new “creators economy.”
On the other hand, anyone new to Web3 will tell you that there’s a steep learning curve to understand how it all works. To really thrive in this space, you not only have to be tech-savvy, but you have to be continuously creating content and building your digital community which requires a lot of time and effort.
One such community, which has had a lot of recent success with their NFT music collections is called Songcamp. And one of the members of their band has reached out to Blockster to share the story about their music NFT project called Chaos.
Check out the interview to learn more about the people, which are pioneering the music NFT space powered by blockchain technology.
Interview with Songcamp’s Headless Band, Chaos
Tell us about the Chaos music NFT collection?
I am part of a music NFT project called “Chaos” – a creation of Songcamp, a web3 laboratory and virtual artists’ community. Chaos was an 8-week songwriting camp/web3 hackathon that brought 80 creatives together from all over the world to form a “headless band,” writing 45 songs and producing an NFT collection of 21,000 unique editions.
What’s the significance of your art and this particular collection?
We’re not aware of another NFT project out there that has utilized a “headless band” to create an NFT – this online makers’ community included 45+ musicians, 9 visual artists, 6 engineers, 5 podcast producers, 3 economists, 2 lore writers and 7 operatives.
Also, all participants were able to opt in to receive 0.3 ETH as a base UBI after the first two weeks of the project, and relative ownership assigned to each participant based on their contributions using a project token and custom split smart contracts for this NFT collection.
Where are you from?
Speaking on behalf of Chaos, our team is from all over the world, including US, Canada, Europe, South Asia, and Australia.
Where are you selling your NFTs?
http://chaos.build And how much do they cost? 1 pack of 4 music NFTs=0.2 ETH.
Have you always been an artist? Share details.
As detailed above, this was an 8-week experiment to create a “headless band,” created by Songcamp. All participants applied and were vetted to be a part of Chaos.
Was it hard figuring out how to use blockchain technology? Any advice for beginners? What’s a good source for beginners.
We had economists, developers, artists and operatives involved in Chaos who are very familiar with web3/NFT/blockchain.
Have you had success marketing your NFT collection? Share details.
Both @Songcamp_ and @headless_chaos on Twitter provided consistent social media coverage, as well as members of the “headless band” promoting on their own social media accounts. We received a lot of interest and media interviews, including NFT Now, Mint podcast, The Forefront Podcast, interdependence podcast, and Billboard. On our release day we were one of the top 3 selling NFTs.
Why should someone buy your music NFTs?
Again, we’re not aware of another NFT project out there like ours, in which 80 artists worked as a cohesive unit of one to create an NFT collection, and to equitably split NFT revenues and support all participants involved in the project with a base UBI.
What NFT or art communities do you follow?
@zoratopia, @club_______bpm, @water_and_music, @catalogworks, @soundxyz_, @songadaymann, @floppyDigital
Where are you exhibiting your art during NYC NFT Week?
Members of Chaos participated in several live shows and events during NFT NYC, performing tracks from our NFT collection and promoting the NFT packs: 6/20 Music NFT Movement at Bowery Electric, 6/22 wavWORLD Web3 Music Showcase at The DL, 6/23 Anti-Inflation Mixtape cc0 Web3 fashion and panel event at Meatpacking District.
After our NFT collection release on June 3rd, several participants of Chaos participated in a collaboration with @DigitaLAX_ and @emmajane1313 to create a “CC0 Anti-Inflation Mixtape.”
We created 16 music tracks that were matched with digital and physical fashion cloaks for an NFT collection sold on Rarible. This exclusive CC0 music and Digital Fashion NFT Drop coincided with an IRL NFTNYC event on June 23rd, which also featured a panel discussion with Chaos participants and @web3brett (BlockchainBrett).
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