Web3 music platform Sound (Sound.xyz) has revealed that it raised $20 million in funding in a Series A round which closed in February. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm, led the round, which included contributions from Snoop Dogg, Ryan Tedder, Sound Ventures, and others. The company plans to utilise the money to expand its workforce, especially in the areas of engineering and design.
Sound.xyz’s goal is to ensure that musicians can make a living from their craft. New music can be released as a series of NFTs on the platform, which fans can then stream for free or buy as collectables. Artists can, crucially, determine the price tag of their own NFT releases, giving them more freedom to forego the modest streaming payments per play that have become the industry standard.
Sound also gives musicians full control over the distribution of their music while they upload tracks on the blockchain. Additionally, artists can sell all of their publishing rights and establish direct connections with their fans without the need for an intermediary.
Sound, which launched a year ago, had already secured $5 million in a seed round last December. Sound says it has distributed $5.5 million to 500 artists over the past 12 months of closed beta. These artists have released over 1,600 tracks as music NFTs.
Sound enables musicians to create NFTs on the Ethereum mainnet and Optimism, the scaling network. While fans can “collect” any song on Sound for free, listening to the songs themselves will cost them an NFT. Fans can use this method to either directly support their favourite musicians or speculate on the future value of the NFTs they own. In addition, since all transactions for Sound recordings take place on the blockchain, buyers will have irrefutable proof that they “discovered” a musician before they became famous.
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