Opulous is a music NFT platform launched by Ditto Music, one of the world’s largest record companies. The biggest feature of this project is that it introduces the concept of decentralized finance (DeFi) into the music industry, as stated on the Opulous official website.

By virtue of Opulous, musicians can mint the copyright of their music works into NFTs and sell them on the platform, while users are able to obtain the copyright of the work by purchasing these music NFTs. Moreover, the subsequent royalty income of the work will also be distributed to the holders of the NFTs. Thanks to Ditto Music’s extensive music distribution, distribution business, and huge resources of musicians, the Opulous platform also enjoys active music distribution and trading.

Source: dittomusic.com

Opulous integrates functions of NFT issuance (Launchpad), NFT transaction (Exchange), and wealth management (DeFi). To a certain extent, the emergence of Opulous has changed the way artists get money, and it also provides the music industry with a copyright-backed NFT distribution platform.

The birth of Opulous

The Dilemma Facing the Traditional Music Industry

The Internet has penetrated into the lives of each of us and has become a key force in changing the world over the 30 years since its birth. However, its profound growth has also led to problems including internet monopolization by some giants and strengthened centralization. Against such a background, the decentralized Web 3.0 based on blockchain technology could be a new direction of Internet development.

As a creative economy, the music industry faces similar difficulties to industries such as video creation platforms and social platforms.

First, the sticking point of the traditional music industry is that musicians and ordinary users rely too much on third parties. As a result, music creators can only obtain little income, which, however, has something to do with the common streaming media mode of traditional music platforms. So what is streaming mode? The streaming media mode is the mainstream model adopted by traditional music platforms. It operates in such a logic that musicians publish music works on Web 2.0 platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and QQ Music; every time the work is played on the platform, the music creator can get a fixed amount of income.

However, this mode has two major disadvantages. One is that the income from a single play of a piece of music is infinitely reduced. If a song is played 1,000 times, the creator can only earn about $5. The other is that most of the income is obtained by the music platform and the record company. Real creators can earn very little. Relevant surveys show that it is third-party companies such as record companies and streaming media platforms have gained nearly 90% of the income from music works, and music creators can only obtain about 10%. For those musicians who don’t have a large fan base, it’s hard to make a living. Obviously, this will discourage creators from creating innovative music works.

On the other hand, traditional music platforms have strong power in the field, which makes it difficult for music creators to carry out work, such as launching and promoting their works independently. Even good works may be buried without music platforms and record companies. As a result, individual musicians are further squeezed by big platforms, and they can hardly live on creating music. In addition, large record companies and music platforms often hold distribution rights to music works. Then, various copyright disputes are also a normal problem facing the music industry.

The Web 3.0 Revolution in the Music Industry

The internet has evolved from Web 1.0 to 3.0 during which we changed our roles from viewers to creators, and then to owners. It can be said that Web 3.0 is a revolution in which creators seize content ownership from oligarchs. Whether they are lyricists, writers, or artists, they can all win a place in Web 3.0 and directly benefit from the works through tokens and contracts.

In the era of Web 3.0, it’s possible for new music platforms to build a decentralized music community with blockchain technology and get rid of the unreasonable income distribution system. There will be no intermediaries who extract profits in the work distribution process, and the value of musical works can be returned to creators. By virtue of various tokens such as NFTs, the Web 3.0 music platform endows music works with scarcity and value in the digital world. This approach mitigates the copyright issues faced by music works. It also helps creators directly connect with fans through music NFTs.

Audius, Pianity, Royal, and Opulous introduced in this article are all vital players in this revolution in the music industry.

Opulous: The first music copyright NFT platform

Opulous states on its official website that it is the first platform to launch music copyright NFTs. It says that the platform can not only issue NFTs but also supports NFT trading. Unlike NFTs on other music platforms, Opulous tokens give its owners a certain share of music copyrights.

Source: opulous.org

Music copyright NFT

Musicians mint their works into music copyright NFTs on Opulous and then distribute and sell them on the platform to obtain huge profits. As music is played on major platforms (such as Spotify, Apple Music, etc.), corresponding royalty income will be generated. NFT holders can also benefit from the monthly royalty income generated by these NFTs because they always obtain royalties from the purchased copyright NFTs. In this process, musicians can even raise funds by selling music copyrights, and fans can also support their idols and build a closer connection with them by purchasing these music copyright NFTs.

The music NFT minted by the musician is pegged to the copyright of the musical work itself. If users purchase the music NFT, they obtain the whole or partial copyright of the music work, which means they will be able to get a certain dividend from the subsequent work income. Some platforms even allow holders of NFTs to modify the content of the musical work. This mode endows the issued music NFT with a more intuitive commercial value than the collection value.

On top of that, Opulous also supports music NFT trading, allowing users to trade music NFT with each other. The role of copyright dealers in traditional music platforms is replaced here by NFT and smart contracts, and the value of music copyrights can also flow more flexibly.

Musicians’ DeFi financing platform

Opulous also introduces risk-free DeFi loans based on real-world music assets and future royalties.

On the one hand, musicians with a stable royalty income can apply for loans from the platform by staking their music copyright off-chain. The loan amount can be as high as their 12-month royalty income, and the interest rate is as low as 4%.

On the other hand, NFT holders can also stake the copyright NFT they purchased to borrow money on the platform. For musicians who deposit their funds on the Opulous DeFi platform, they can often obtain higher interest rates than that traditional banks can offer. Compared with ordinary DeFi platforms, the Opulous DeFi platform has mature music works and can help bring relatively stable cash flow. Thus, NFTs with the copyright of corresponding music works are reliable collateral for DeFi financing.

Token Economics

Opulous’s DeFi component is built on Algorand - the next-generation of high-speed public chains, and it also supports the Ethereum chain and BNB Chain. $OPUL token is native to the platform. The total volume tops 500 million pieces. The token also serves as a means of payment on the Opulous platform. Using this token to trade NFT on the platform will result in transactions. In addition, OPUL also serves as the platform’s DeFi payment and a way to gain income.

Source: Opulous white paper

During the process of cooperating with a large number of musicians, Ditto discovered the dilemma facing musicians. On the one hand, piracy is rampant in the Internet age, and music often loses value because it is regarded as a “free commodity”; on the other hand, record companies and music giants control the real copyright of music works. Thus, it is difficult for fans to support musicians directly when they back the corresponding music works. As a result, Musicians can hardly sustain themselves financially, and they must continue to “create for love” with low income.

Create a value chain for musical works

NFT establishes property rights in the digital world, while DeFi removes the middleman from the value chain. For struggling musicians, Opulous undoubtedly is another financing channel other than traditional banks, helping creators better develop their careers. Among its three main functions, Opulous has created a closed loop of the value chain of musicians and music works.

After creation, musicians mint their works into NFTs and sell their copyrights with future returns to obtain sufficient financing, while fans and investors support the creation of musicians by buying and holding music NFTs to gain future royalties. NFT holders can also earn income by staking tokens and NFT assets, and the project party will be able to support more musicians after they get returns.

Picture: Some of Opulous’ current cooperative artists

The growth of the Opulous project

Now Ditto, the parent company of Opulous, has established partnerships with over 500,000 independent musicians and record companies around the world, and will jointly release music NFTs with lots of famous musicians. In April 2021, British rapper Big Zuu and American musician Taylor Bennett released 50% and 75% of the record, respectively, through Opulous. They also minted 50 and 75 NFTs respectively, each representing 1% of the copyright share.

On November 6, 2021, Opulous also collaborated with Lil Pump and Soulja Boy to mint their song “Mona Lisa” into an NFT for sale, and collected $500,000 within 2 hours. Lil Pump is a well-known rapper with 7.2 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

In June 2021, Opulous announced that it had received investment from a number of institutions, including R3 and Algorand. The total financing is over $65 billion, of which $1 million was obtained through crowdfunding. Moreover, in October 2021, Opulous also reached a cooperation agreement with Tech Plus (LTP), the crypto business of Japanese communication giant LINE, and the two parties will jointly develop NFT products.

Conclusion

As a music NFT minting and trading platform, Opulous is also a DeFi lending platform designed for musicians. With Ditto’s deep experience in the traditional music industry, Opulous is expected to evolve into a key supporting project in Algorand’s ecology.