4 million raised by AnotherBlock after Rihana's success

Music rights have always been the biggest controversy in the music industry and usually other than the label or the artist it is impossible for anybody to buy music rights. The introduction by Web3 startups to tokenize music assets has brought a whole new idea of fans having access to music rights. The hype of buying tokenized music rights began last year when the hype of NFTs, web3, and crypto went through the roof.

Fans having access to music rights

One such startup that tokenized music rights was “Royal”. The company launched an NFT-based music platform allowing users to buy or sell a part of the artist’s music rights. By selling a piece or percentage of streaming rights, fans got the opportunity to earn royalties just like the artist.

The company went on to raise $71 million in its funding rounds including investors such as a16z crypto. But soon after the web3 and NFT boom faded away, companies weren’t active in this space. But you see, blockchain technology can not be backed off because this is the best possible way to prove your ownership.

AnotherBlock, web3 music company

AnotherBlock is a Sweden-based company founded by Michel D. Traore, Sebastian Ljungberg, and Filip Strömsten in 2022. The company recently raised 4 million euros in a funding round led by U.K.-based Stride VC. A well-known Swedish Musician, Axwell also participated in the round. Before this round, the company raised $1.2 million in the pre-seed

round which included VC J12 and some angel investors.

Very similar to the Royal, AnotherBlock has the pretty same business model. Tokens and NFTs are used to gain access to ownership of rights and royalties can be earned through them. Additionally, a trade royalty payment is made to the artist whenever the NFT is traded.

Due to such a model and advantage to both the fans and the artist, it’s gaining a lot of popularity in the music industry. To cite a recent incident, Jamil Pierre, producer of Rihanna’s song BBHMM made a whopping $63,000 by selling his share of the song as an NFT on the platform AnotherBlock. The huge demand for the song rose ever since Rihanna’s clips during her performance at Super Bowl LVII went viral.

Given all the advantages around the NFT sale of music rights, it has to be understood that it is no piece of cake. Rihanna’s song BBHMM got unlisted several times from the OpenSea platform without any specific reason. AnotherBlock’s NFT owner agreements include and allow secondary sales. Keeping in mind the secondary sales, the owner of the rights is obligated to pay their holders at least two times a year.

Gabbi Cahane, partner at Stride.VC, said in a statement: “This proposition could be a seismic shift for an industry that has traditionally been extremely protective over the ownership of IP”. Artists that are currently associated with AnotherBlock include The Weeknd, Martin Garrix, Alan Walker, Offset, and R3HAB.

Axwell, the Swedish artist who participated in the funding round of AnotherBlock said that he has been with the company since the very beginning and he feels their vision aligns with his. The concept of owning rights will bring more flexibility to the industry and help artists financially, is what Axwell believes.