Essential Tips on How to Sell Music as NFT and Get Recognized

Getting recognized by the music industry has been the unfulfilled dream of many aspiring artists. If you make your own music, you know how hard it is to reach outside the circle of your friends and relatives. As an artist, you want your creations to be heard by as many people as possible.

But wait, someone could say you have social media, Soundcloud, Spotify, and many more tools for aspiring artists. Maybe you’re not good enough? Or maybe it’s simply hard to get recognized? Both statements are true, but the second one is more common. However, the third question arises: Have you tried everything to get the recognition you deserve?

One way of reaching a wider audience is to sell your music as an NFT. However, we understand that getting into the crypto world can be overwhelming for people unfamiliar with blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. Don’t worry, though; at GamerSEO, you’ll learn what it takes to sell your music as an NFT!

What Are NFTS & How Do They Work?

We could give you a technical definition here, but we’ll explain it as an artist would. Think of NFTs (non-fungible token) as a digital art collection. You could have a print of a famous painting hanging off your wall, but you know how expensive it would be to get the original. There’s usually only one original painting, and an art museum owns it. NFTs are like a new type of art scarcity – giving the original owners bragging rights.

Any digital file – a song, artwork, trading card, etc., is kept on the blockchain as a unique collectible item. You can’t fake, copy, or delete an NFT. Every NFT has a digital certificate associated with it showing who owns it. Every creation is “non-fungible,” meaning it can’t be replaced or duplicated. 

Once you buy or create an NFT, it’s entirely yours until you decide to sell it – no one can take it away from you.

Make Your Music an NFT

Before anything else, you must create and upload your music. We assume you’ve already done that, but here are three essential tips to help you promote your music NFT. The ability to edit your music manually and provide listeners with high-quality files is crucial regardless of the selected promotion methods.

Label Audio Tracks Correctly

There are several ways of labeling your music. You can label them in the order they were recorded with their respective Take number or Track number with no spaces between letters and numbers. There is no solid rule here for labeling, but it has to be done. 

See the example above of how it’s done in Audacity. It’s for your own organization and upkeep but also for your listeners, as it’s easier for them to navigate.

Create High-Quality Music Files

No matter how good your tracks are from a musical standpoint, you can’t afford to make them sound muffled or stutter. Professional, solid audio quality is a standard nowadays, and you must keep up. The last thing you want is to lose listeners due to the poor recording quality of your music track. 

Make sure to save your files in lossless audio formats like FLAC or WAV. Also, don’t forget about mastering, so listeners can easily distinguish every instrument used in your track.

Original Cover Art Image

Don’t forget about a cover art image of your EP or album! Your digital artwork needs to catch the attention and be easily recognizable among others. If you don’t have the talent to do it yourself, hire someone.

And lastly, if you want to sell music NFTs make sure it’s original! If you take someone else’s work, it will eventually come out, and you’ll have to deal with copyright infringement problems.     

Encode Your Music as an NFT

You can find several websites that can convert your music to NFT, but we recommend Bitshares Music Blockchain. It’s beginner-friendly and provides a step-by-step tutorial on selling your music as an NFT. It also allows for more creative freedom than traditional methods such as crowdfunding campaigns or record deals.  

Here’s a quick overview of how to encode your music with BitShares Music:

1. Open the BTSM Wallet and click on “Create a new asset.”
2. Name your asset and click “Create.”
3. Enter the following information in the “Details” tab:

• Asset Symbol. You can name it the same way you would name your band or any piece of art. Rule of thumb: make it short and easy to spell.
• Description. A brief description of your music.
• Upload File. Upload your original song.
• Encode Asset. Your music is encoded into an NFT format and added to the blockchain.

Make Your Music Tracks Popular

Converting your music to NFT is only the beginning! To popularize and actually start selling music NFTs, you have to reach a wider audience through social media or decentralized music services like Audius. NFT won’t replace these canals; you still need recognition, but NFT is yet another reason for following you.

Social Media

Social media channels are currently the foundation of marketing. Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are your main channels for reaching out to people, but now you have something extra, an NFT. That said, don’t forget to include a link redirecting to your NFT so people know they can buy it.

If you already have many dedicated followers, you can post your digital artwork NFTs and generate more traffic this way. Post a preview of the NFT, so they know what they’re actually buying.

Online Music Platforms

Apart from traditional social media channels, use services that we’re made with music artists in mind. Streaming platforms like Soundcloud, Spotify, and Audius are perfect for that.

Soundcloud is a music streaming platform where aspiring artists post their work. You can even monetize your music with SoundCloud’s Pro or Premium subscription plans. But for a start, create a profile for your NFT so people can stream what they’re actually buying.

Spotify doesn’t need an introduction. It’s one of the biggest players in the streaming industry, with tons of artists and bands. A competitor for Apple Music that does at least one thing better than the company from Cupertino. You can sign up for Spotify Partner Program and monetize your music.

Audius is a blockchain protocol that acts as a digital streaming service in a decentralized manner. Its main purpose is to get aspiring artists the recognition they deserve by offering them higher revenue than Spotify. They also promote their own $AUDIO token, making it a great place for promoting NFT content. Audius should be your go-to platform to share your music if you’re just starting out.

These are only the most common examples, so feel free to extend this list and post your music wherever you see fit.

Live Performances

Doing a live version of your songs is one of the best ways to gain attention. While your first live performances won’t gather much crowd, the more often you play, the bigger your audience becomes. 

Remember that a large board with a QR code referring to your social media and NFT project is also great to have on stage. People are more willing to check you out if they notice you’re a great live performer.

Music Videos

A good music video is one of the best calling cards for your song. Music perfectly correlates with image, so any music video should complement the song’s quality. However, high-quality music videos can be expensive if you decide to hire someone.

Reddit

Visit r/CryptoMusicians on Reddit to promote your music. People in this community are interested in both music and crypto and are more than willing to discover potential investments. The point of posting here is to make people excited about your new song so they can buy it once it goes live. However, due to large competition, we recommend posting at least once per day until your NFT goes live. 

Best NFT Marketplaces

Once you’ve done everything to promote your music, it’s time to sell digital artwork NFTs you’ve created. NFT marketplace is the best place to do that, so we provide you with a list of the best marketplaces, including music-oriented ones.

OpenSea

Without a doubt the largest NFT marketplace there is. OpenSea is a gold mine of digital goods. You can find all sorts of digital assets here, including art, music, collectibles, domain names, etc. You can also find music NFTs shared by famous music producers like Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd, and Imogen Heap. Even artists like Calvin Harris or The White Stripes are collaborating with independent creators to help them gather a wider audience.

You can start making music NFTs directly on OpenSea with the provided minting tool. There’s even an option to earn royalties each time your NFT is sold. At the time of writing, OpenSea supports the following blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn, and Solana.             

Async Music

There was an Async Art, so it’s time for Async Music. As you can probably tell, it’s a music NFT marketplace. What separates it from Open Sea, for example, is its unique approach to NFT music. Each master track has multiple versions. For example, you can separate the track into three different layers called stems, each as a separate NFT. If you own a stem, you can select the exact variant that will remain active on the master track.

With the help of Async Player, you can see all the information regarding the track you’re checking. Another great feature for creators is “Recordings.” With its help, you can create limited edition recordings of the selected master track and sell them for more. All in all, if you’re looking for a music-specific NFT platform, Async Music is one of your best bets.

Enjin Marketplace

With over 1 billion blockchain assets, Enjin is ideal for collectors and enthusiasts. Whether it’s a digital piece of art, gaming items, or branded crypto-collectibles, every artist is given the same opportunity to make as much money as possible.

It features Enjin for Music, which allows creators to tokenize their tracks and create music NFTs for distribution and monetization. You can make a digital asset from everything music-related: concert tickets, listening parties, album art, limited bonus tracks, etc. The biggest advantage of using Enjin is that it lets you keep 100% of each sale and even monetize secondary sales. 

Mint Songs

Yet another music NFT platform with a unique asset that makes it stand out among others. Mint Songs gives you digital proof that you own every song you collect on the platform. Not only that, but loyal fans can support their favorite artists directly. And those not ready for collecting yet can listen to Mint Songs’ music collection completely free.

Thanks to its own NFT minter, you can easily create and share your music on the same platform. They don’t charge anything for minting, making it a great place for starters. And for those who are worried about eco-friendliness, Mint Songs is built on the Polygon blockchain, known for energy-saving. And to further offset carbon emissions generated from minting NFTs, they announced the future collaboration with Aerial.is.

Are NFTs Really For Me?

The whole NFT space, including various NFT platforms, was made with one thing in mind – to make more money. Can you actually earn extra money by using NFTs? It depends. If you’re already rich and famous, you can make it your alternative source of income. But if you’re just starting out, don’t consider NFT as your treasure trove.

People who made big money on non-fungible tokens are people who invested big bucks speculating on cryptocurrencies. And they’re investing in NFTs with those cryptocurrencies.

It’s no secret that major artists and major labels first introduced and mainstreamed new technology. CDs and streaming services gain popularity thanks to big names in the industry, and the same is happening with NFT. Once it went mainstream, independent artists adopted the technology and started releasing their music on CDs and streaming platforms.

NFTs are not yet mainstream. It’s true that sports NFTs like the NBA Top Shot digital trading cards are worth a pretty penny, but it was thanks to a large, already existing fanbase. Once people start to understand the potential of NFTs and buy them in large numbers, you can once again try to promote your creations. Until then, keep an eye on the news and see how NFTs develop as a creative format.