Crypto funding: NFT music service backed by Snoop Dogg leads with $20M

Sixteen crypto startups raised over $94 million this week, with Web3 music marketplace Sound leading the pack. 

Sound secured $20 million in a Series A round led by a16z crypto with participation from Palm Tree Crew, Scalar Capital, Coinbase and others. 

Music celebrities also kicked in support, including rapper Snoop Dogg, singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder and record producer Tay Keith. 

The project, which was founded in 2022, seeks to provide a better model for artists to make money. The status quo for artists is to simply drop a song on Spotify or Apple Music and hope enough people listen to make money. 

Spotify, for example, has paid artists as little as $0.0033 per stream, according to a 2021 Business Insider investigation. Under that regime, artists would need to get just over 300 streams to make $1. 

On Sound, artists can sell their music as song NFTs, however, some musicians appear to opt for free public mints. Owners of these NFTs can publicly comment on the song tied to the digital asset, essentially using it for bragging rights. 

Users can verify they were “a fan from way back in the day,” according to a Q&A from Sound. The platform utilizes Ethereum and layer-2 network Optimism.

Sound has seen the number of song NFTs minted more than double, to a total over 130,200 since January 2023, according to data from Dune. In a press release announcing the fresh fundraise, Sound claimed it has “generated $5.5 million in revenue for a select group of creators” in the past year.

Now, following the raise, Sound said anyone is welcome to release music on the platform and start earning money through NFT sales.

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