Web3 Watch: Spotify Trials NFTs and Madonna’s First NFT Collection

Music streaming service Spotify has selected a small group of artists to embed and promote NFT galleries on their profiles, according to Music Ally. The NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will appear under the artists’ songs and albums.

Steve Aoki and The Wombats are among the first musicians taking part in the test, and both are big NFT collectors. The feature is currently available to select Android users in the US who can view and buy available NFTs from external marketplaces.

Because users cannot make direct purchases via Spotify, the company is not taking any cut of NFT sales. Spotify sent out a survey to gauge interest and excitement for any additional future NFT implementation on its platform.

Recently, Meta also rolled out a feature for select Instagram creators to display their NFTs on their feed. 

The “Queen of Pop” drop

Madonna dropped a non-fungible token collaboration with NFT artist Beeple on SuperRare last week that garnered descriptors such as “bizarre” and “spicy” due to its graphic content. The three-part series of NFT videos titled “Mother of Creation” explores the concept of birth, creation and motherhood.

The videos feature a naked 3D avatar of Madonna giving birth to a tree, butterflies and centipedes in different backdrops. The message, according to the website, likens how children come into the world to how an artist brings creativity to life: “You never know where you are going to find life, and you can never give up hope.” 

Proceeds from the sale will benefit three nonprofit organizations that support mothers across the globe, including The Voices of Children Foundation, The City of Joy, and Black Mama’s Bail Out. The triptych was created with infrastructure support by Moonpay, which also reportedly contributed $100,000 to each charity.

So far, 309.1 ETH ($636,823) has been accrued in sales on SuperRare at the time of publication. 

Fireside x SKALE Hollywood grant program

Mark Cuban’s entertainment platform Fireside and Ethereum-based blockchain network SKALE recently announced a $100 million Web3 creator fund. The “Creatives Unleashed” grant program aims to empower the next generation of Hollywood creatives to transition to Web3 and make content without the middlemen.

Blockworks spoke to Fireside and SKALE to learn more about the partnership. 

BW: What kinds of creatives is the program looking for?

Fireside: Fireside is home to over 2,000 different types of creators, including podcasters,vodcasters, authors, comedians, actors, television hosts, filmmakers, musicians and more. This program is for any Fireside Creator who is looking to “Web3-ify” their business with better community engagement tools and unlock crypto-enabled business models. This is the solution for any professional creator who has an established audience and wants to accelerate the transition of their media and entertainment businesses to Web3 via Fireside in a simple way without a big upfront investment.

BW: What problems in Hollywood is Fireside trying to tackle? Why use blockchain technology to do so?

Fireside: We are already seeing signals that the next big content hits will be created between creators and their audiences and brands directly. This is where Web3 comes in by removing traditional middlemen and unlocking entirely new business models where communities and brands can now participate as part of the intellectual property creation and distribution, and help shape the media empires of the future.

Fireside is the next evolution of media and entertainment which is participatory, creator-led, and decentralized in a way that brings creators and their audiences closer than ever before. 

BW: What is SKALE’s long-term vision? Why partner with a content studio like Fireside?

SKALE: Our purpose is to bring the power of blockchains to 1 billion people globally in a way that’s optimized to give everyday consumers a great user experience. We do this by creating a scalable network of hundreds to tens of thousands of interconnected SKALE chains that work to power decentralized Web3 applications, much like Amazon Web Services does for mobile apps today.

The reason we’re so excited to work with Fireside is because they’re really creating a new paradigm for how content is being funded, created and distributed, all using the power of decentralized blockchains. Content has always been king, and we love being able to offer a solution that lets creators do it faster, more affordably and in a way that disintermediates the middleman, so they can create more content for people to consume.

Interview responses were edited for brevity and clarity.