Are NFT gated playlists a clue to a future music streaming business mo
Last week (Feb 22), KINGSHIP, the Bored Ape Supergroup created by UMG, added some utility for their Key Card NFT holders. Key Card owners who have a Spotify account on an Android device can unlock a private and exclusive playlist. They even included a handy diagram for those who found the process a bit complicated.
Much of the commentary we’ve read about this has leaned towards the ‘so what?’ territory and if you were looking at this as a one-off exercise, it’s easy to agree with that perspective:
1 - It was Android only
2 - To the NFT illiterate, it looked complicated to access
3 - There was no exclusive music or content
But at CIRKAY we don't see it quite like that.
For us, this is an example of content on one platform being unlocked by a token that was issued on another.
“Token gated access” in other words.
Delve deeper and you realise that no personal data needed to be exchanged between the parties involved; the token itself was enough.
“Anonymous token gated access” gets really interesting.
Sidenote: When the clunky wallet experience is fixed (see here for our thoughts on that) it means that frictionless exchanges of value can be created between two parties. This permissionless relationship based on token ownership (I’m going to write a follow up on that subject) will have a profound impact on how businesses interact in the future.
So if you look at the KINGSHIP and Spotify experiment through this lens, consider how it could change the music streaming business model which is currently the centre of a lot of discussions between the tech companies and the music industry. What would be the impact if the NFT was able to unlock music rather than simply a playlist?
So here is the CIRKAY prediction for an augmented streaming model for 2024:
Artists release standard edition albums to the streaming platforms with, say, 10 tracks from a total of 15.
Artists additionally sell an NFT ‘Fan Edition’ version of the Album from their D2C store for anywhere between £20 & maybe £200 depending on the value contained. This Fan Edition will contain additional content and access to the additional 5 tracks.
Purchasers of the NFT album validate it on their favourite streaming service and the further 5 tracks are unlocked and added to the fan’s streaming library.
The artist pays the streaming platform a service fee for unlocking the NFT.
A few companies are already working on such extended experiences; at Push we have the CIRKAY ‘Living Album’ but the Serenade ‘Digital Pressing’ or LGND ‘Virtual Viny’l all understand that an enhanced digital experience will play a part in the future.
The end result will be a proper artist-centric model with a fair exchange of value between all parties allowing the streaming platforms to work with the artist to innovate and differentiate should they wish.
Simon Scott
London
1st March 2023