How an artist dropped by Sony made $250k selling NFTs

Hey there, Happy Friday and welcome back.

In this week’s edition:

• Fred again..‘s secret show frenzy.

• TikTok’s SoundOn launches in AUS, major label music removed.

• Twitter's new 4,000 character limit.

How an artist dropped by Sony made $250k selling NFTs

After competing on American Idol and being signed then dropped, by Sony, Miami-born, Cuban American singer-songwriter Sammy Arriaga has fast become one of the most interesting musicians of the Web3 world.

Before establishing his impressive Web3 presence, Arriaga built a significant following online via TikTok, Instagram Reels and Spotify. Now, he credits Web3 as a major contributor to his success.

"It's safe to say Web3 is the best thing to ever happen in my music career thus far. Ever since I immersed myself into Web3, I've been reignited and re-inspired. I never thought that being introduced to Web3 would impact me and my music career so greatly," Arriaga says.

One of the Nashville-based artist’s first steps into the Web3 world was facilitated by Twitter Spaces. He promoted his NFTs by searching Twitter Spaces for conversations about NFTs and Web3. He introduced himself there and offered ‘music breaks’ to users where he performed his songs, and told listeners they could buy them as NFTs. He reinforced this simple tactic by pinning his message to the chat.

The self-described "Twitter Busker" released his first blockchain single 'METAGIRL' in April of 2022. The Web3-themed love song was embedded into a 3D art piece of an anatomical heart. Each 'METAGIRL' NFT acted as a key that gave owners access to the artist's exclusive recordings, merchandise, music videos, interviews, in-person performances, presales for future projects and more. Exclusive packages were rewarded to fans who collected five particular ‘METAGIRL’ tokens, and one fan received a custom made guitar and personal message from Arriaga.

In less than two months, Arriaga's first NFTs sold out, with 2,500 purchased, and $250,000 USD made in sales.

'METAGIRL' was followed by 'PIXELATED' in June 2022. The 'PIXELATED' release saw Arriaga share NFTs based on 14 different versions of the same song. For his second run of NFTS, Arriaga released more than 4,000 tokens, each of which came with one of 150 profile picture for fans to use across social media. The profile picture even correlated with the song styles. 'PIXELATED' followed in 'METAGIRL's footsteps, and sold out.

Arriaga has continued to keep the NFT ball rolling with releases like 'Pulse Pass by Sammy Arriaga', ‘THE Airdrops by Sammy Arriaga', and 'Sammy Arriaga - The Singles'.

By building a foundation with Web3 communities, Sammy Arriaga reminds us that investing in audiences and curating experiences and merchandise to their tastes has huge potential upside.

In Other News

Fred again.. has caused a frenzy with a secret show in Australia this week. The British producer sold out his secret Melbourne show in just 3.4 seconds and fans went wild for his sweat towel scavenger hunt, which provided access to two tickets.

Ahead of Rihanna's Super Bowl performance, Apple Music has shared a passionate rendition of 'Stay', performed by 32 NFL fans.

TikTok has launched its DIY distro service SoundOn in Australia. In the same week, they've made a controversial move by limiting users' access to major label releases as part of a test.

Meta might be considering paid verification. A reverse engineering pro has done some digging, and found evidence in Facebook and Instagram's codebase that suggests the platforms will be following in Twitter’s footsteps by charging users for their blue ticks.

OpenAI, Microsoft and Stability AI are facing legal action for their approach to sourcing data to generate AI content. The argument is that these tech giants are gaining an unfair advantage by taking content from other online sources. This content is used to build up search queriers for ChatGBT and others like it - benefiting off of other’s hard work.

AI music startup WaveAI has launched a new AI songwriting tool that aims to assist musicians, rather than replace them. MelodyStudio generates vocal melodies and chords, while keeping the artist in control.

Instagram is offering more creators the opportunity to make money, as it expands the Gifts feature in the US. Creators can receive gifts from their audience who purchase them within Stars on the Instagram app.

TikTok Promote is expanding its advertising tools. The platform is introducing new features like traffic and message-focused Promote goals, Live promotions, and expanded audience targeting options.

Twitter has left its 280 character limit behind. You can now tweet up to a whopping 4,000 characters. This feature will only be available to Twitter Blue subscribers and users in the US, for now.

Fast Facts

👉 Kid’s and teen’s TikTok use is exploding. A new study reveals that they're watching 107 minutes of TikTok a day. That's 60% longer than the time they spent watching YouTube videos, and puts TikTok well ahead of all other video and social apps.

Chart

Fred again.. is blowing up in Australia right now.

ICYMI

Catch up on our recent stories:

• Miley Cyrus' Controversial Marketing Strategy

• Marketing Artificial Intelligence in Music

• Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' Marketing

Written by Olivia Gliku and Nick Lynagh.Promoed is published by Habit Music Pty Ltd.

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