- Vault, a digital music collectible startup (DMC), has raised $4 Million in a series A funding round.
- The funding round was led by Placeholder VC.
Are music NFTs making a comeback? An industry ripe for disruption has frequently been cited as a perfect target for a decentralized player to shake things up. While some platforms have emerged, they still need to establish themselves as industry leaders. VAULT, a new platform on Solana, is a significant competitor for some of music’s most prominent decentralized players.
The digital music collectible (DMC) format, created by FanDuel co-founders, has raised $4 million in a Series A funding round led by Placeholder VC. Other investors include Bullpen Capital, AlleyCorp, and Everblue Management. The competition brings their total raise to around $13 million amid a bear market.
According to a press release, the funds will advance the DMC format and accelerate the development of an open-source Vault protocol.
Vault’s DMC, founded by Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones, is a non-fungible token (NFT) for music fans, offering authenticated digital box sets and one-of-a-kind experiences. The Vault protocol seeks to be an open, decentralized standard for buying, playing, and sharing DMCs via third-party apps.
Let’s look at the VAULT powerhouse and see if it can compete with some of the early big dogs in the decentralized music space.
The Muse of Music: Can VAULT Change the Game?
The concept of audio and music-focused decentralized platforms is familiar to the space. There are several platforms, and some of these include, OneOf and Audius. Beyond dedicated platforms, we’ve seen traditional music companies get involved, such as Warner Music Group partnering with OpenSea, and Rihanna releasing her own NFT just this week.
While VAULT does not have a first-mover advantage, it does take an exciting mobile-friendly approach and is looking to build a ‘standard’ in the space with its ‘Digital Music Collectible’ (or DMC) format. It’s a novel approach that essentially ‘bundles’ music packages to make them more appealing than your typical album offering or listening experience on traditional platforms like Spotify.
However, aside from the latest Series A funding and, of course, the product itself, the project’s founders have another unique quality. Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones are co-founders of the massively successful sports betting platform FanDuel. NFTs and sports betting are still in their infancy, with complicated and difficult-to-navigate regulatory landscapes. Eccles and Jones found enormous success with FanDuel, and now they’ll see if they can replicate that success in the audio NFT space with VAULT.
The Results of the Test Run So Far…
We know Solana has taken a very mobile-heavy approach (see: the Solana phone), so seeing that through-line with VAULT is no surprise. While the primary focus is on music and audio NFTs, the full scope of VAULT is much broader, with photos, text, links, audio, and video all expected to be supported in the long run.
VAULT began with music because there was such a clear gap in the industry – the business has largely remained unchanged over the last decade, even as streaming technology iterated. VAULT began by releasing 3,000 DMC packs in collaboration with indie artist FLETCHER.
Nigel Eccles stated in a statement provided to Bitcoinist:
“I don’t believe scrolling and streaming create meaningful fan relationships for most artists… Many musicians see our format as an alternative to the algorithms that currently monetize music—and they can also provide fans with a richer, more meaningful experience of their music.”
