[TL; DR]

• The first ever NFT music streaming network, OME, was founded by Clay Hawkins and aimed to return ownership and control of music to artists and fans through the innovative NFT marketplace.

• Musicians worldwide can mint their songs as NFTs and market them directly to customers and fans via OME platforms.

• The platform is community-driven, meaning that the musicians and fans decide most OME choices. The platform has full music/media streaming features, letting users manage, archive, and access their favorite music NFTs.

• With the emergence of OME into NFT music, the objective of decentralization is actualized even faster.

• NFTs, musicians, and fan tokens have the potential to reshape the entire music industry. We now see a significant, long-lasting shift in how musicians create music and interact with their fans.

OME Storms the Music Industry

Music is a limitless resource and can go entirely independent of its original creator. It can be performed anywhere around the globe, appreciated by anybody, and even live on long after its creator has passed away.

Popular songs can bring in massive sums of money with time, but the original artist does not have full control over their music.

However, blockchain technology, through NFT music, is changing the narrative. The Open Music Exchange, an NFT startup known as OME, is on a quest to return full control to musicians and fans using blockchain and decentralization to completely redefine how world music is produced and sold.

By leveraging smart contracts to convert access to and earnings from the music into non-fungible tokens(NFTs), the artist can regulate both the sales and distribution of their music.

In 2021, NFTs emerged into music, completely transforming the music industry, and in this year, the OME storms. Numerous musicians and singers were drawn to the new technology, including up-and-coming artists like Grimes and venerable bands like the Rolling Stones. Some artists have increased their income by millions, offering tokenized copies of their songs or digital artwork.

What is OME?

OME, in full- Open Music Exchange is the first NFT music streaming service of its kind, which enables artists to typically be their own record label, distributor, and store while bypassing the traditional obstacles and expenses involved.

OME was founded by the musician and CEO Clay Hawkins to reclaim ownership and control of the music for artists and fans through an inventive NFT industry and media platform. The OME platform, now under BETA testing and development, allows musicians worldwide to mint their songs as NFTs and market them directly to fans and collectors.

According to Hawkins, the music industry is about to undergo a complete overhaul and a radical shift away from the middleman and record labels that hold distribution, control, and revenues.

"Up until now, recording companies and streaming services have controlled how music is produced and distributed. For 99% of musicians, there has been little money in the business because platforms and labels take the lion's share of profits and excessively monetize the labor of creative producers", claims Hawkins.

Musicians find it nearly impossible to profit from their creativity and hard work unless affiliated with a strong record and distribution label. Sadly, artists have come to accept this marginalization in the music industry, but that shouldn't be the case. OME is working to remedy this.

Source: Zycrypto.com

How Will OME Achieve This?

1. A Well-functioning Marketing Platform.

This offers a customizable profile and marketplace for artists to share, market, and manage their art. There will be built-in features like tour calendars, video/live stream embedding, vlog/blog uploads, an online store, and more. Also, the platform will keep improving the artist experience through community votes and input.

2. A token launchpad and NFT Platform.

Here, musicians use NFTs issued on the platform to sell access to their music. This includes giving the token unique properties, information, or access. With massive releases selling in millions, rare, constrained, unique, collectible versions can be produced. Fans on the exchange can swap these NFTs after being created and sold.

3. The Exchange.

This is where songs and tokens for artists can be purchased, sold, and swapped. As a fan's catalog develops over time, the secondary markets for NFT music expand organically. The artist can specify a portion of any residual sales to be paid back to themselves via smart contracts NFTs, guaranteeing they continue to receive royalties as the market for "used" NFTs expands.

Will OME Change the Development Pattern of NFT Music?

One of the key objectives of NFTs is to seize control from monopolists — in this case, record labels in the music industry. In a society where "who gets paid what" and the flow of music is mainly controlled by a few powerful companies, autonomous distribution and cheap production equipment have partially leveled the field, but not enough for talent to be fairly appreciated.

By returning economic power to musicians and fans, NFT music can potentially upset the current quo in the music business. However, with the emergence of OME into NFT music, this objective is actualized even faster. When a musician uploads on the Open Music Exchange (OME), they now have complete control over the cost and volume of NFTs they mint for each song or album and any extra benefits or features they choose to give the NFT.

Additional choices will become available as the platform develops, enabling artists to produce NFTs that unlock any content they can make, including remix, live stream access, or even event tickets.

Previously, when a fan bought an album from an artist, they had access to the music for as long as they possessed the album. Now, the same approach can be used by charging NFT owners for music access via streaming, and for this, the artist becomes their label and store.

OME acts as a safe, decentralized location to store music created by an artist, a way to stream, and a marketplace for unique works.

OMElab is a feature of the Open Music Exchange which aims to assist in employing the limitless profit potential of NFT music for global benefit. Thus, OMElab can actualize its aim because NFTs can be issued with attributes that specify to whom and how royalties are paid.

Conclusion

The Blockchain, with its decentralization and ability to monitor the value of the tokens issued on them, has caused a rapid new move in most sectors of the economy, especially NFT music. With the emergence of OME, these technologies can now be combined to alter how music is purchased, offered for sale, and delivered. Owning an album on OME or NFT of a song gives you unrestricted access to that music, just like having a physical copy of an album. Also, musicians now have complete control of their work.

Author: M. Olatunji, Gate.io Researcher

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