Industries worldwide are evolving, entering a new era of digital metamorphosis, brought on by the latest iteration of the internet — Web3. Including, the music industry.

From grand operas and travelling shows to sound recording, band culture, and digital streaming — the music industry’s come a long way.

In the 1990s, the rise of the internet changed the way we create and consume music. It altered how musicians get paid and compensated for their work. Now, once more, an industry disruptor, Web3, is influencing the future of music as we know it.

What does this mean for musicians and artists?

“I think the music industry is such an obvious use case for Web3 systems. I think it would really help artists and creators.” — William Rech

The music industry then and now

Today, the music industry’s global worth is over $25 billion. Despite its profitability, the industry has a questionable history when it comes to paying artists.

For example, traditional record labels keep up to 80% of earnings. Similar royalty woes have been documented across streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. In 2018, the late singer-songwriter, David Crosby shared his frustrations with poor compensation in this tweet.

While much has changed over the last 30 years, especially with technological advancements, outdated systems like these seem to remain. But why?

Historically, for music to go from its source to the ears of consumers, it involved multiple third parties and various production, distribution, promotion, and licensing processes.

Today, progressive technology and media-making apps have significantly lowered the barriers to entry. Anyone with a laptop and a software license can make and record music.

Great! Sort of. Remember those outdated systems we mentioned? While technology has widely democratised media-making, those antiquated systems have simply morphed with the times.

Here’s why that’s a problem.

Issues with copyright and ownership

Licensing mishaps and copyright issues are common among traditional recording labels and big music companies — often impacting the artists under them.

Here are some examples.

The Verve

You may be familiar with The Verve’s hit song “Bitter Sweet Symphony”.

The English rock band faced a royalty dispute in 1997, after sampling from the symphonic version of Rolling Stone’s “The Last Time”.

After a series of unfortunate events involving their late manager Allen Klein, The Verve lost all of their royalty rights and essentially millions of dollars for their song. It took 22 years before they finally regained their royalties.

Prince

In 1993, in response to a dispute with his record label Warner Bros., famous singer-songwriter Prince changed his name to a symbol.

In a statement, he said “Warner Bros took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.”

It was only in 2000 after he’d signed with a new record label Arista Records, that he reverted back to his original name.

Enter Web3

Could Web3 hold solutions to some of the challenges artists face in the traditional music-making sphere? Yes! Blockchain technology has the potential to reshape the entire music industry.

Web3 technology offers musicians more control over their work, a direct connection to their fans, and better royalty processes.

Ledger technology can simplify the process of tracking, collecting, and distributing song royalties. Without the complexity of paper trails, there’s more transparency and accountability.

On top of this, music NFTs (non-fungible tokens) provide fans with the opportunity to participate and invest in the artists and music they love — while also receiving their own financial gains. This also allows artists to independently fund their projects.

There are a few decentralised Web3 platforms offering artists and fans alternatives to ownership and royalties. The streaming platform, Royal, allows fans to become invested partners and promises upfront royalty revenue to artists. Musicoin gives a 100% revenue return to musicians for each playback.

Beyond this, artists can tap into virtual platforms to gain new audiences. Rapper, Travis Scott’s record-breaking virtual concert event for his single “Astronomical” took place through Fortnight. It was a series of concerts in the game that included multiple dates and show times. Over 12 million players participated from all around the world.

Disrupting big agencies

While technology definitely has democratised music-making, record labels, and big music companies are still largely gatekeeping the industry, trying to centralise these systems.

For example, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly influential in the music industry. Streaming sites like Spotify use AI-powered algorithms to suggest tracks to you, personalise your recommendations, and create customised playlists. They essentially influence what you’re listening to.

To add to this, Google researchers recently introduced MusicLM — a model that generates music from text prompts. You can listen to some of the samples they’ve shared here. Much like with AI art generators, AI music generators are on the rise.

Only, now, artists have an opportunity to leverage these same types of technologies too. Web3 decentralisation may just be what independent artists need to begin disrupting the power structures within the traditional music machine.

What does this mean for musicians today?

Today, artists have access to a variety of tools made available to them through Web3. From ledger technology and virtual and decentralised music platforms to music NFTs and AI music generators.

They’re able to cut out third-party intermediaries and instead interact directly with their fans, and their projects, and build audiences across platforms both virtually and IRL.

With the evolution of Web3, artists are becoming better equipped today to successfully pursue a career in music.