Web3 integration has been used a lot in the music industry, for things like song rights, blockchain-based streaming, and new kinds of digital releases.
So far, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the music industry have been styles like pop, EDM, and hip hop. But classical music and opera, in particular, just made their way in.
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Living Opera is a Web3 community that combines classical music with blockchain technology. It is using this new technology to give opera and the artists who perform it a new voice.
In an interview with Asian Trade, Soula Parassidis, CEO of Living Opera, said that the first Magic Mozart NFT collection is a way to bring the new world of fintech to the old world of classical music and vice versa.
“We wanted it to be easy to understand, low risk, and a way for people to feel at ease.”
Parassidis says that these NFTs are a tribute to the idea of the “musikalisches würfelspiele,” which is a dice game that lets you make random music from options that have already been written. This is one of the oldest examples of generative art, and it is said that Mozart made it.
NFTs have been used by musicians to make extra money and give fans perks, like Grimes’ $5.8 million digital asset project. This could give classical music a whole new life and make it more important to the next generation.
A survey by the National Endowment for the Arts found that the number of adults in the United States who go to at least one opera a year dropped from 3.2% in 2002 to 2.2% in 2017.
Because of the pandemic, classical venues and opera houses all over the world had to close. The Metropolitan Opera, which is one of the best opera houses in the world, said in July 2021 that its income was $25 million less than the year before.
Experts explain how music NFTs will make the connection between artists and fans stronger.
Christos Makridis, the chief operating officer of Living Opera, told Asian Trade that NFTs give classical artists and opera singers a new way to get grants and endowments without having to make a proposal.
“Blockchain-based digital assets get rid of traditional barriers like proposals, artist grants, etc., so that artists can connect directly with philanthropists and save a lot of money on administrative costs.”
Makridis says that NFTs give artists in this genre access to “short-term liquidity” that didn’t exist before.
Some classical artists, like the New Zealand composer Matthew Thomas Soong and the American composer Poser Cristina Spinei, have done their own NFTs.
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The Dallas Symphony Orchestra was one of the first classical music NFTs in the year 2021. The orchestra put out an NFT to raise money for musicians whose paychecks were stopped because of the pandemic.
Living Opera is set up like a DAO, which makes it possible for artists and their projects to get small donations. Parassidis pointed out that this kind of innovation is rare in an industry with a long history, and he called NFTs a force for social and cultural change.
“They can be used to bring attention to voices, art forms, and causes that need more exposure.”
Both Parassidis and Makridis say that this technology can help get young people interested in art and give longtime fans new ways to get involved.
