This week’s Web3 Wrap includes a new social token launched by Canadian DJ and producer BLOND:ISH, new music NFT platform Sound’s announcement of its $5 million fundraise, Nike’s acquisition of RTFKT studio, nftnow’s top 21 music NFT moments of 2021, Water & Music’s $STREAM research series, and more.

Dive into the full wrap below.

Nike Acquires RTFKT

Earlier this week, Nike announced the acquisition of NFT studio RTFKT.

RTFKT is most known as the creators of the NFT avatar project CloneX, a collaboration with Takashi Murakami, which has a current floor price of 4.7 ETH at the time of writing. The acquisition gives Nike direct access to RTFKT’s talented designers and developers, bringing them in-house to accelerate Nike’s metaverse plans and to develop assets for Nike’s athletes and creators. According to President and CEO John Donahoe, Nike’s plan is to “invest in the RTFKT brand, serve and grow their innovative and creative community and extend Nike’s digital footprint and capabilities.”

You can read more about the acquisition here.

Sound Raises $5 Million

On Wednesday, Sound, a new music NFT discovery platform, announced it had raised $5 million in an investment round.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with investment also coming in from Variant Fund, The LAO, Flamingo DAO, and angel investors and artists including Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst, Jess Sloss, Trevor McFedries, Cooper Turley, DJ Drama, and many more.

Sound launched last week and has onboarded and dropped NFTs from seven artists, each of which sold out in under a minute, “generating revenue for the artists equivalent to 21 million streams in less than 7 minutes.” The platform lets artists release new songs via listening party premieres, and the artists can then batch create and sell 25 NFTs for each song, selling them for 0.1 ETH ($396 at the time of writing).

You can read more about the investment announcement here.

BLOND:ISH Announces New Social Token $ISH

Canadian DJ and producer BLOND:ISH will be launching a social token called $ISH.

$ISH will be the first token launched on P00LS, a new decentralized exchange for creator tokens with a platform-independent development model. $ISH will be officially minted by P00LS early next year, although, fans can start working towards earning tokens now by sharing BLOND:ISH’s music, content, and $ISH token news on social media, and by inviting others to learn more about BLOND:ISH’s vision, the causes she advocates, and how to earn $ISH. 

The token will act as the gateway to “Happy Happy World,” BLOND:ISH’s vision for the metaverse, and gives holders exclusive access to unreleased edits and tracks, new merch and discounts, and access to token-gated channels on her Discord server. Holders will also be able to buy tickets to BLOND:ISH’s shows with $ISH.

You can find out more and start earning $ISH here.

Water & Music Releases a Week-Long $STREAM Research Series

This week, Cherie Hu’s Water & Music, and its team and collaborators, released an in-depth research series on music and Web3.

The five-part research project was developed by the Water & Music team and collaborators over the last two months and focuses on the state of the music and Web3 ecosystem. The five parts have been rolled out over this past week, releasing a feature a day. Part one posed the question “Will music NFTs ever get their PFP moment?” and featured a deep dive into the stats of music NFTs and why, at this stage in the development of NFTs, music NFTs weren’t flourishing as much as their visual counterparts; part two looked at the legal ramifications of music NFTs and what it actually means to “own” a music NFT, especially in regards to those that promise and sell royalty shares; part three gives an overview of the Web3 music ecosystem and the current tools and platforms available to artists and creators; part four analyzes a range of current onboarding strategies and the “narrative and technological friction” weighing down Web2 fan bases; and part five is yet to drop but is scheduled for today.

You can check out the full series here.

nftnow Wraps Up the Year With “The Top 21 Music NFT Moments in 2021”

NFT news platform nftnow has released a list of the top 21 music NFT moments of 2021.

Although they are still behind many of their visual counterparts—at least in terms of sales and widespread attention—music NFTs and the ecosystem surrounding them proliferated in 2021. In a partnership with Coinbase and UnitedMasters, nftnow has pulled together and outlined all the key moments in what has been a monumental year for music NFTs.

Among the top 21 you can find, among many others, Jacques Greene’s February sale of “Promise,” which included the publishing rights (“in perpetuity”) to the single in one of the first NFT sales to experiment with music rights; Audius’ partnership with TikTok, which was the first time a streaming service had partnered with the social media behemoth; the launch of musician cohort and incubator SongCamp and the release and sale of its genesis NFT drops; the release and subsequent sale of BT’s “genesis.json,” a 24-hour composition of audio and visuals that loops forever in a dedicated program; and PleasrDAO’s purchase of the lost Wu-Tang album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin from the US Government.

You can check out the full list here.

What to Join and Who to Follow:

Matthew Chaim: NFT artist, music producer, and SongCamp founding member.

Interdependence: Matt Dryhurst and Holly Herndon’s brilliant podcast on “the people, projects and technologies shaping 21st century culture.”

Devaughn Dix: community manager for The Willow Tree DAO.

Mint Songs: music NFT marketplace.