It’s been nearly 18 months since we published our first in-depth report on the state of music and Web3. Back then, commentators were pointing to artists’ million-dollar returns on NFT sales as a sign that Web3 was a surefire antidote to a variety of music-industry ills, from streaming economics to social media burnout.

Fast-forward to today, though, and things feel quite different. The broader NFT market experienced a 91% drop in trading and sweeping layoffs in 2022. Not only have floor prices for music NFTs plummeted, but labor-intensive marketing strategies that once worked in a bull market also no longer yield the same results. As crypto-native rapper and W&M contributor Black Dave tells us: “The same amount of work translates to far less return.”

No wonder morale is low. For many artists and their teams, it feels like the playbook (which had barely been written in the first place) has once again been ripped up.

How should Web3 fit into an artist’s strategy going forward? To better understand this situation, we reached out to eleven artists, managers, and builders across the W&M network to explore how they’ve shifted their strategies to reflect market fluctuations.

—

This article is available only to paying Water & Music members.

If you’re already a member, please sign into your account here.

If not, you can read more about our membership benefits here, or sign up directly for a quarterly or annual plan to get unlimited access to our music-tech research moving forward.