The concept of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has potential to revolutionise myriad industries, as well as to change our fundamental perception of digital ownership. This is especially true for artists, who have historically battled to maintain control over their content once it is distributed and reproduced digitally.

MusicArt, a unique new NFT platform now launched on the BSV blockchain, addresses this demand by enabling the tokenisation of music-related art and imagery. This includes album artwork, music posters and lyric sheets.

‘MusicArt is a unique new NFT platform with a sole focus on celebrating and promoting music-based art and imagery, such as album artwork, music posters and lyric sheets. This makes MusicArt the perfect environment for musicians to trade their visual art, as opposed to seeing their work lost in a sea of NFTs in unrelated genres on other platforms,’ Co-founder Peter Ruppert explains.

‘Because it is uniquely focused on music, music fans and collectors will make MusicArt their number one destination for browsing music-based artwork, and this will only enhance the possibility of striking art being noticed by a casual browser. Artists can also link their Spotify and Apple profiles to allow those fascinated by a particular artwork to discover their music frictionlessly.’

NFTs provide the owners and creators of digital goods with the means to secure their property through its tokenisation as an object written to an immutable digital ledger – the blockchain. Many blockchain protocols support the ability to mint and transact NFTs, but none can rival the efficiency and security of the BSV blockchain.

Thanks to strong foundation based on the original Bitcoin protocol, BSV offers ultra-low transaction fees, high transaction throughput and support for the complex smart contracts that enable the minting and transaction of NFTs. This is one of the key reasons behind MusicArt opting to build its exciting new NFT platform on the BSV blockchain.

Efficient NFTs on the BSV blockchain

Ruppert was first introduced to blockchain technology and the Bitcoin protocol by the company’s other co-founder, Dirk Brockhausen, a few years ago and was instantly captivated by its potential.

‘I fell in love with the concept and the possibilities for music artwork, having been a great fan of album cover artwork all my life. What disturbed me was chatter of lost art on other marketplaces. I learned that only the smallest artwork, such as Crypto Kitties, were stored on-chain. Everything else was at risk, and I absolutely wanted the artwork to be on-chain,’ he says.

‘The minute someone submits their 3,000 x 3,000 album artwork to the DSPs, they should also go and store it on the blockchain, forever secured for all time. I also wanted to work with a blockchain that was legally compliant; I was worried about all these new chains and second-layer solutions popping up everywhere and the lack of transparency on their technology.’

To Ruppert, most of the other blockchains and second-layer solutions seemed to be custodial solutions, which he says made no sense considering the ability for BSV to store artwork on-chain.

‘We wanted a marketplace for all types of artists, famous or not so famous. Yes, we have super-rare Jimi Hendrix artwork on the platform, but we also wanted NFTs minted by new and emerging artists who may want to sell a limited edition run of NFTs for $10 each, or they may want to make them part of their marketing strategy to incentivize shares and pre-sales.’

‘Ethereum, with its high gas fees, was out of the question, BSV’s low transaction fees are perfect for us. In addition, artists want planet-friendly NFTs, another reason Ethereum would be a massive “no” for us.’

The regular and reliable payment of royalties to NFT holders is also crucial to MusicArt’s vision, especially considering the problems the Co-founders found to be rife on other blockchains.

‘[There were] too many horror stories on other platforms with irregular or missing pay-outs – another reason why a layer-two solution was off the cards. It begs the question, why would anyone use a custodial system for royalty management? With blockchain technology, those days should be gone forever,’ Ruppert says.

Navigating a new world of art

For me, NFTs are an exciting new area into which I can take my work. The Metaverse is the perfect space for psychedelic art. As someone who was there right at the beginning of psychedelia, inventing this style of imagery and experiencing the culture around it, I think it is pretty cool to be here too, at the beginning of this new art world. – Karl Ferris

Despite only launching recently, MusicArt has already attracted famous artists to its platform, offering them an easy way to tokenise their work and earn royalties. Prominent MusicArtists include Mike DuBois, who created album art for a litany of famous musicians such as The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Neil Young, as well as Karl Ferris, the principal innovator of psychedelic photography, who worked on cover art for Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Cream.

Both legacy and new artists are championed by the platform, Ruppert says, and the number of participating artists is constantly expanding.

‘On launch, MusicArt boasts exclusive pieces of art-rock icons. These include the works of contemporary music art pioneer Mike Dubois (The Grateful Dead, The Allman Brothers Band, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones), record sleeve legend Ioannis (Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Starship), and psychedelic photographer Karl Ferris (Eric Clapton, Cream, Jimi Hendrix).’

‘We’re in the process of onboarding thousands of new and emerging artists through our partnership with ground-breaking innovation independent artist portals Jamma Music and Aurovine.’

Looking to year ahead, Ruppert aims to expand the artwork included on the MusicArt platform to include more types of media.

‘On the roadmap for 2022 are music books and magazines and, of course, music. Again, thanks to BSV, everything will be on-chain. So, we need massive scalability – also something only BSV offers, with it already able to handle 100,000 transactions per second.’

‘That is something that is crucial when we produce song NFTs in the millions.’

How to start your collection

Under the hood, MusicArt runs on cutting-edge NFT solutions built on the highly efficient and secure BSV blockchain. But mechanically, it functions very similarly to music distribution platforms. Artists or their representatives can begin by opening what MusicArt calls a ‘collector’ account.

‘That account will manage sales revenue and royalties and hold the wallet. They will open an artist profile, which will feature the NFTs. Artists can create one-off NFTs, but we encourage limited editions. 10, 20, 50, 100, or more, depending on how they perceive their fans’ appetite for rare digital collectibles. Payments for the setup fee can be done using BSV, or even ETH, BTC, XRP, LTC, or others, PayPal or credit cards. This makes onboarding very easy,’ Ruppert explains.

‘Artists can auction their artwork or sell them at a fixed price. They may price them any which way they want. Our NFTs are numbered, which may well mean no. 1 of 100 could be more expensive than no. 80 of 100. The numbering also means that artists can assign special “gifts” to individual numbers.’

Once the artwork has been minted and listed on the MusicArt platform, fans can get involved and begin to buy and trade NFTs by opening their own collector accounts.

‘Fans open a collector account with which they can purchase NFTs, collect them in their on-site NFT portfolio and keep it there, show their collection to other fans or list for re-sale. They can send them to another wallet and list them on another STAS-compatible marketplace of which we know these are coming. The artwork always comes along as it sits safely in the chain,’ Ruppert says.

‘It is easy to buy on MusicArt. Either use your BSV or, with the help of Fabriik’s integrated exchange widget, pay with ETH, BTC, XRP, LTC or others.’

To check out the platform’s impressive catalogue of music artwork and begin building your collection of music art NFTs, visit the MusicArt website and sign up for an account.