- Sound raises $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz and Snoop Dogg.
- Sound aims to connect music artists directly with fans through blockchain, allowing artists to sell their songs as NFTs and keep 100% of the revenue.
- The funding will be used to expand artist relations, marketing, and engineering teams as Sound prepares to open to the public.
Sound, a web3-based music platform, has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and American rapper Snoop Dogg.
Sound Ventures, led by actor Ashton Kutcher and artist and producer Ryan Tedder, also participated in the funding round.
Sound aims to assist musicians by eliminating intermediaries and connecting them directly to fans via blockchain. Music creators can mint their songs on-chain as a non-fungible token (NFT) and sell them directly to their fans via the Web3 music platform.
Since its beta launch in 2022, Sound claims to have generated $5.5 million for creators through direct music sales as NFTs.
Artists Show Support for Sound
Sound’s latest funding round follows a $5 million seed round in 2021.
Snoop Dogg, the legendary rapper and NFT enthusiast, has previously expressed concerns about current music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.
The musician complained that the artists do not receive enough money in comparison to the popularity of their tracks on these streaming platforms.
Now, the popular rapper has invested in a blockchain-based platform that aims to remove intermediaries such as streaming platforms from the artists’ path. Atlanta-based rapper 21 Savage is also an investor in the Web3 music platform.
According to the announcement, the new funds will be spent on artist relations, marketing, and engineering teams as the company prepares to open to the public.
Sound Is Preparing to Compete Against Music Streaming Giants
According to David Greenstein, co-founder of Sound, as music subscription services have emerged in recent years, they have increased access to songs while decreasing artists’ earnings, as reported by CoinDesk.
Greenstein added that artists on Spotify earn about $0.003 per stream.
He also explained how Web3 facilitates direct payments for songs by allowing musicians to cut out the middleman and keep 100% of their earnings.
Artists can use Ethereum and the layer two scaling solution Optimism to upload their music, mint it on-chain, and sell them on ETH. This process can be completed without requiring fans to create a wallet since the platform accepts fiat payment.
Several artists have already embraced the new music industry shift by releasing their songs as NFTs.
Anotherblock, a Web3 music platform, converted one of Rihana‘s songs into a fractionalized NFT earlier this year.
