Polygon: partnership with Warner Music Group

LGND has announced a multi-year partnership with Warner Music Group (WMG) and Polygon Companies. 

The partnership will cover the creation of LGND Music, an innovative platform dedicated to music and collectibles with a proprietary player. This will enable the playback of so-called “Virtual Vinyls.” 

Selected WMG artists will thus launch digital collectibles on both the app and desktop platform to offer fans the opportunity to enjoy special content and experiences. The platform will be built on Polygon, so as to offer cheaper fees and faster transactions.

LGND Music will officially launch in January 2023, and will include a collaboration with WMG’s famous dance record label Spinnin’ Records. 

LGND builds interactive and e-commerce platforms based on blockchain and NFTs through user-friendly technology. 

WMG

Warner Music Group is a group of artists, songwriters and entrepreneurs operating in more than 70 countries. WMG’s Recorded Music division includes record labels such as 300 Entertainment, Asylum, Atlantic, Big Beat, Canvasback, Elektra, Erato, First Night, Fueled by Ramen, Nonesuch, Parlophone, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Sire, Spinnin’, Warner Records, Warner Classics, and Warner Music Nashville. 

WMG’s publishing branch, Warner Chappell Music, has more than one million copyrights in its catalog in every genre of music, from Great American Songbook standards to 21st century greatest hits. 

Despite its more than 20 years of experience in the industry, it has also long since begun experimenting with new solutions, thanks, for example, to its WMX division for next-generation artists, which also includes Songkick, or the live music app; EMP, the merchandising e-tailer; UPROXX, the youth culture destination; and HipHopDX, the hip-hop music news site, among others.

The Polygon network

Polygon is the main layer 2 of Ethereum, enabling scalability, convenience, and security for Web3 projects. 

Polygon’s scalability solutions already have widespread adoption, with tens of thousands of decentralized apps, nearly 175 million active addresses, and over $5 billion in total assets. It hosts some of the largest Web3 projects, such as Aave, Uniswap, OpenSea and well-known companies such as Robinhood, Stripe and Adobe. 

Its token, MATIC, is now among the top ten in the world by market capitalization, with over $7.8 billion, ahead of Polkadot’s DOT, Litecoin, and Shiba Inu. 

Today its price is down due to a widespread decline in crypto markets, but in the last week it had risen as high as $0.94 from the $0.82 at the end of November. 

In early November it had risen as high as nearly $1.3, but the collapse of FTX had then brought it back to late October levels. 

Its current price is 69% below its all-time high in December last year, but is well above its mid-May high after the implosion of the Terra/Luna ecosystem. 

It is worth noting though, that in late 2020, which was before the start of the last big bull run, it was below $0.03, so compared to then it is still about thirty times higher. 

The comments

According to Warner Music, Web3 music initiatives have virtually unlimited reach because they can foster greater interaction between fans and artists by ushering in a whole new creative era for musicians. 

WMG’s Chief Digital Officer & EVP Business Development said: 

“We are incredibly excited about the ways in which evolving technologies are changing and challenging the music industry. There is tremendous untapped potential for artists to interact with their fans and to monetize that fandom. And, as we continue to lean in and drive forward, WMG’s partnership with LGND and Polygon will help our artists to experiment with and build across Web3 technologies in order to grow and engage their communities.”

LGND Music CEO Michael Rockwell commented: 

“We are beyond thrilled to finally announce this monumental and ground-breaking partnership with Warner Music Group and Polygon. We’ve been working for over a year to deliver the best-in-class blockchain experience for passionate music lovers all over the world, and look forward to innovative and unique content from all types of WMG artists. With the strong support of the Polygon ecosystem, LGND Music is poised to help evolve the entire music industry.”

Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt added: 

“Web3 has the power to transform the music industry for both artists and fans. The way that we own and experience music is evolving, by fully embracing decentralized technologies and collectibles, this exclusive partnership between Polygon, LGND, and WMG represents an exciting milestone for the music industry. Polygon is proud to be powering this innovative initiative that will elevate music ownership and bring more music lovers and artists to Web3.”