Sound.xyz – Namecheap customer – (United States)
Web3 pioneers continue to use .xyz domains to launch innovative ideas. Decentralized Autonomous Organization project FlamingoDAO.xyz created a platform for members to pool funds for NFT investments. Cryptocurrency investment platform Launchpool.xyz offers exposure of investment projects to their growing community. Publishing platform Mirror.xyz helps writers distribute and monetize their minted work. In this week’s #WebsiteWednesday, we’ll introduce you to a new Web3 publishing platform that aims to help musicians release and monetize their music: Sound.xyz.
Sound.xyz is the online home of a new crypto music publishing platform aiming to disrupt the music industry. The artist-focused platform looks to help recording artists gain more of their music’s value by harnessing the power of blockchain technology to turn songs into collectible NFTs. Sound.xyz has plans to help musicians with this process by developing a full suite of Web3-native music and economic tools for use on the platform. On December 15, 2021, the startup announced they had raised $5 million in a seed round led by the a16z Crypto division of technology venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Sound.xyz joins a roster of crypto projects in a16z Crypto’s portfolio, including blockchain storage software Arweave and Ethereum-based decentralized finance protocol Uniswap. Other backers of Sound.xyz include Variant Fund, Scalar Capital, and rapper and record producer 21 Savage.1
The new platform aims to bolster the economic benefits musicians receive for their work. Inspired by NFT platform (and fellow .xyz community member) Manifold.xyz, the platform’s Sound Studio helps artists to mint original high-quality song NFTs while retaining true ownership of their work through embedded smart contracts. Artists are intended to receive 100% of the proceeds from their NFTs, as well as 10% of every resale, without losing ownership of their master or publishing rights.
Sound.xyz’s first tool, Listening Party, was released in early December to great praise from the platform’s inaugural artists. After launch, Sound.xyz featured a Listening Party for each of seven songs from independent artists on the platform. Each song sold out in less than a minute and generated revenue for the artists equivalent to 21 million streams on leading platforms.2 Daniel Allan tweeted that after the release of his song “Too Close” on Sound.xyz, it quickly sold out and he “earned $11K in five seconds.”3 The platform currently supports crypto wallets MetaMask and Wallet Connect.
The platform was developed by former Pandora Product Manager David Greenstein, Web3 programmer and DJ Matt Masurka, and former Apple Software engineer Vignesh Hirudayakanth. We are inspired by this forward-thinking team, and all of the innovative Web3 pioneers, in the .xyz community. We look forward to watching (and hearing) Sound.xyz develop along with all of the talented musicians who release music on the platform. You can learn more by following along on Twitter and Instagram, or by visiting Sound.xyz.
1https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/15/sound-xyz-raises-5m-from-a16z-to-explore-how-web3-can-upend-the-economics-of-the-music-business/
2 https://mirror.xyz/davidgreenstein.eth/jE31-g1kCirNczLj18fow78b_TNz6zXESfx4h1nkrN8
3 https://twitter.com/imdanielallan/status/1469067623774113795
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