NFTS and the dance music industry.

NFTS or ‘Non Fungible Tokens’ are a blockchain based technology that can take the form of audio, video, music and more. There is no doubt that this new financial product has democratised content and allowed many to gain financial security and independence but these ‘tokens’ are not without their controversy.

Many in the music idustry have understandably embraced NFTs as a means to escape the current race to the bottom nature of music sales. One NFT sale can generate thousands in comparison to the pennies from millions of streams and almost non existent download store sales.

As lucrative as this may seem, NFTs are still crypto which means they function according to the sketchy rules of crypto finance. In a Pioneer DJ blog, digital artist, Mat Dryhurst points out:

The doomsday scenario….which I think is real and will happen, is pump-and-dump schemes.

How will NFTs reshape dance music?

From an artist point of view, selling an NFT is selling the ownership of their music while still being able to distribute it through the common channels (streaming sites, download stores) which seems like a win-win for the artist.

It’s a given that the artists at the top will make the big money but there is proof of lesser known artists making a good income that suplements merch, vinyl etc.

That being said, cryptocurrency in general is volatile and while NFTs have seemingly evaded the financial crashes associated with Bitcoin and Ethereum, they can, and do lose value.

It could be argued that Fiat currency is also susceptible to devaluation- as borne out by what appears to be yet another recession on the horizon- but Fiat is generally a lot more stable than crypto.

Then there is the environmental cost of carbon emmisions from the huge server farms required to mine and store NFTs. Advocates of NFTs point to concepts like ‘proof of stake’ (essentially a lottery that punishes poor crypto miners in the global south ) or carbon ofsetting but neither of these intiatives are going to mitigate the vast c02 emmisions being pumped out of the blockchain.

The purpose of this blog is not to dunk on NFT advocates or gaslight them, There is no doubt that NFTs offer a viable solution for artists who deserve to make money for their art. On the other hand, crypto and web.3 in general is dominated by the likes of Elon Musk, riddled with ponzi schemes and exploitative behaviour (not unlike conventional finance).

For now it appears to be a case of tme will tell and being judgemental is not going to help. The music industry has been crushed by late stage capitalism and deserves our support, not condemnation.