Bankless: 5 blockchain music projects you should know about

Author: Nick Shaheen, Head of Business Development at Bankless; Translated by: Baishui, Golden Finance

Going on the blockchain can create new forms of income and connections for musicians and their fans, potentially breaking down the walled gardens built by big tech companies and the status quo of the music industry.

Indeed, while big tech companies control our data like vampires, the music industry itself is often likened to the mafia, where success depends on pleasing the right people.

This is a crossroads ripe for disintermediation, which is why blockchain technology is so interesting: it can eliminate middlemen and give artists more power. That being said, what are some cool efforts in this space worth paying attention to right now?

Let's take a look at 5 projects that are trying to innovate in this space that you should be paying attention to!

Audius

Audius is a fully decentralized digital streaming service for musicians based on Ethereum and Solana. Owned and operated by a global community of contributors, Audius allows artists to share exclusive music directly with fans and monetize streaming, while developers can build applications on top of Audius to access a unique audio catalog. The project's $AUDIO token is used to operate nodes, secure the network, and participate in platform governance. At the very least, this is a community-driven music experiment worth watching.

Fam

Fam is a multiplayer music community platform based on Base, Party, and Zora. It enables music communities to grow, collaborate, and fund creative projects together. Think of a record label, fan club, or music collective on-chain! Membership helps grow a community-owned shared pool of funds for which members can propose and vote. Projects can include funding live events, creating music clips with built-in segmentation, and more. It's a great new showcase for the creative possibilities of the collaborative culture of the music industry.

Oscillator

Oscillator aims to create a federated data layer where music apps can share data, creating a "smart account" for fans so they can carry their music identity across platforms. This standardization opens up new possibilities for fans, artists, and developers. Fans can seamlessly connect with the music they love, and artists can directly engage with their 1,000 favorite fans. Oscillator's protocol enables artists to own their audiences and grow them across platforms, while allowing creators to create innovative products on open datasets, promoting a more open and connected music ecosystem.

Songcamp

Songcamp is a music-first Zora client. This means that the platform runs on top of the Zora protocol and specializes in showcasing and catering to the commentary and collection around the minting of its music NFTs, of which there are currently many. The team recently launched Audiato, a space to publish, share, and mint music on Base with a simple 30-day minting process. With a persistent music player and an artsy minting page, Audiato allows musicians to seamlessly showcase their music and fans to participate through commentary and tips.

Sound

Sound is a music NFT platform and protocol combination. It allows artists to launch new music in the form of NFTs with unique numbers, making each release an event, and fans can show their early support by owning these NFTs, which can bring various benefits. The platform provides customizable minting formats, end-to-end royalties and gas-efficient transactions, and supports token issuance on Ethereum, Optimism, and Base. In addition, it also features channels for specific genres for centralized discussions, enhancing the prospects of music discovery and community participation.