9 Best Music NFT Marketplaces In 2024 For Artists To Sell Music

Editor's note: This post was originally published on September 21, 2022 and has been revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Music NFTs are changing the way that artists interact with their fans. We have explained how the NFT music space works for musicians in our previous article. In this article, we have listed our picks for the best music NFT marketplaces of 2023.

Artists can easily mint and sell music NFTs of songs or entire albums thanks to NFT marketplaces. These music NFTs can then be sold exclusively to fans, removing the need for a middleman. New music NFT marketplaces are appearing frequently, giving musicians a wide variety of selections when it comes to minting and selling a piece of music as an NFT.

Best NFT marketplaces for music NFTs

1. OpenSea

• Launch year: 2017
• Supported blockchains: Ethereum, Klaytn, Polygon
• Supported payment methods: 150+ digital payments, including Ethereum, USDC, DAI, Solana, etc.
• Monthly platform visitors: 30.4M+

Community:‍

• Twitter: 1.8M+ Followers
• YouTube: 34.2k+ Subscribers
• Instagram: 1.1M+ Followers
• Discord: 200k+ Members

The most popular and, currently, biggest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, lets creators and artists build and sell almost every kind of NFTs you can think of, including digital goods such as art, collectibles music videos, domain names, and music. As the largest marketplace for digital assets, OpenSea has a dedicated section of NFTs for the music industry.

The platform enables musicians and artists to create and sell music NFTs with its minting tool. The marketplace also allows musicians to customize their NFTs in such a way that they can earn royalties on secondary market sales.

The NFT marketplace is promoting independent artists record labels and musicians. Big names in the music NFT collection on OpenSea include The Weeknd, Snoop Dogg, Imogen Heap, etc.

Read more: OpenSea Vs. Magic Eden: Which Is The Best NFT Marketplace To Sell NFTs?

2. Audius

• Launch year: 2019
• Supported blockchains: Ethereum and Solana
• Supported payment methods: $Audio
• Monthly platform visitors: 389.5k+

Community:

• Instagram: 43k+ Followers
• Twitter: 143k+ Followers
• Discord: 37k+ Members

Audius is a music streaming and sharing site as well as a music NFT marketplace. Audius intends to decentralize the music industry by utilizing blockchain technology. It runs a streaming service like Spotify, where artists can sell NFTs through its $AUDIO token to generate revenue from their music.

Artists can use Audius to engage with their fans, share original works, monetize their songs, empower songwriters to share additional content, hold remix contests, and offer exclusive bonuses to collectors. Users can also link their music NFTs on Solana and Ethereum to their Audius profile. Audius collaborates with a number of well-known artists, including Deadmau5 and Rezz.

3. Zora

• Launch year: 2020
• Supported blockchains: Ethereum and Zora Protocol
• Supported payment methods: ETH, wETH
• Monthly platform visitors: 110k+

Community:

• Twitter: 72k+ Followers
• Instagram: 22k+ Followers
• Discord: 21k+ Members

Zora describes itself as a "universal media registry protocol," allowing artists to publish and monetize their digital creations. The Zora protocol  Instead of using multiple tokens or NFTs, the Zora protocol uses a single, unique token that can be used by anyone, regardless of who owns it. The original token can then be resold, and buyers who like it can buy the tokens directly from the current owners. With every resale, the original owner receives a portion of the revenue.

The Zora protocol also offers instant cross-platform royalty payments and markets itself as a gas-efficient protocol with zero fees. A number of crypto groups, like publishing startup Mirror and collective FWB, have praised and used Zora's toolkit for making NFTs.

4. Mintable

• Launch year: 2018
• Supported blockchains: Ethereum and ImmutableX
• Supported payment methods: ETH
• Monthly platform visitors: 229k+

Community:

• Twitter: 64k+ Followers
• Discord: 26k+ Members

Mintable lets creators mint their digital works on the blockchain for free. The NFT marketplace is popular thanks to its wide variety of available assets for trade, including a great selection of electronic music and pieces. It offers various types of auctions for its vibrant user community. The easy-to-use marketplace lets you create and sell NFTs seamlessly.

5. Rarible

• Launch year: 2020
• Supported blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Flow, ImmutableX and Tezos
• Supported payment methods: Cryptocurrencies, Stable Coins, and Credit Card
• Monthly platform visitors: 9.7M+

Community:

• Twitter: 491k+ Followers
• Instagram: 289k+ Followers
• Discord: 56k+ Members
• YouTube: 4.5k+ Subscribers

Rarible is one of the earliest and best NFT marketplaces that support the trading of music NFTs. This platform is actually owned and operated by its community. Rarible's decentralized framework is run by those who hold the digital token RARI. Those who wish to mint music related NFTs on Rarible can do so using the RARI token. Apart from music albums, Rarible also supports other types of NFTs—including books, digital art, and movies.

In terms of fees, Rarible charges 2.5% on each and every sale that takes place on its marketplace. Furthermore, the platform offers up to 10% in royalties, which makes it one of the best NFT music marketplaces for musicians. The NFT marketplace also gives the option to pay for music NFTs using a debit or credit card. It also supports multiple blockchains, which gives the users access to a large selection of music NFTs.

 6. PlayTreks

• Launch year: 2021
• Supported blockchain: Polygon
• Supported payment methods: NA
• Monthly platform visitors: 5k+

Community:

• Twitter: 1.3k+ Followers
• Instagram: 21.6k+ Followers
• LinkedIn: 4.3k+ Followers
• Facebook: 16k+ Followers

PlayTreks is an AI-driven analytics platform and a music NFT marketplace that is slowly gaining popularity. Among other things, PlayTreks provides artists with unlimited music industry-related data, licensing control, free music distribution, radio airplay analytics, and access to its blockchain NFT marketplace for music NFTs.

Artists on PlayTreks can get actionable insights from various sources like major record labels, social media and streaming platforms so that they can make better and more informed decisions for their future releases. Artists can also get digital proof of ownership for their songs through the platform's blockchain-based NFT marketplace called The Playground, which allows minting music to convert it into an NFT.

7. Catalog

• Launch year: 2021
• Supported blockchain: Zora Protocol
• Supported payment methods: ETH, wETH
• Monthly platform visitors: NA

Community:

• Twitter: 25.7k+ Followers
• Discord: 7.9k+ members

Catalog is among the best music NFT marketplaces for launching single-edition music NFTs, a category known as 1/1 in the NFT world. Catalog is a unique marketplace as it allows for the minting and release of a single edition of a music token, making the NFT market a great place to acquire collectible tokens that aren't available anywhere else behind the scenes.

On Catalog, the artist can add a record or a song to the catalog's open music library and set a "buy it now" price. The artist can list and mint songs from their NFT in a reserve auction, or accept an offer made by a collector. Besides keeping all of the revenue from their first sales, artists also get a cut of the profits from any successive sales of their albums. Furthermore, artists can also control the resale price they receive.

Apart from being an NFT music marketplace, Catalog is also a music streaming platform for the music that the users have purchased on the platform. The Catalog describes itself as a digital record shop and a music community. However, the platform is currently invite-only. It will likely remain so for some time, as the platform is run by a very small team and onboarding takes time. Artists can still fill out the Catalog submission form to get their name on the waitlist.

They launched the marketplace in 2021 in collaboration with 20 artists. Within its first two months of operation, the marketplace had signed up a number of well-known artists, including Richie Hawtin, Laxcity, SALVA, and Boys Noize, among others. 

8. Sound.xyz

• Launch year: 2021
• Supported blockchain: Ethereum
• Supported payment methods: ETH
• Monthly platform visitors: 32.3k+
• Music NFTs listed: 12.2k+
• Number of artists: 163

Community:

• Twitter: 43.7k+ Followers
• Instagram: 10.7k+ Followers
• Discord: 12k+ Members

Sound.xyz is a music NFT marketplace that sells music and also serves as a streaming site. Fans can directly support their favorite artists through the platform, and artists can host a launch event for the new tracks they're releasing. Artists can release their music as NFTs, each with a unique number, allowing their fans to buy these NFTs early on and show their support for emerging artists.

These listening parties and events can also benefit fans as these new tracks are considered early editions, which have a higher value than future versions. Sound.xyz differs from other platforms in that it allows fans to post comments on the soundtracks they endorse. It's also the first platform to offer artist-owned contracts, which allow creators to keep ownership and chain of custody of their works.

9. Royal

• Launch year: 2021
• Supported blockchains: Ethereum and Polygon
• Supported payment methods: ETH, Matic, Credit and Debit Cards
• Monthly platform visitors: 54k+

Community:

• Twitter: 62.4k+ Followers
• YouTube: 400+ Subscribers
• Insatgram: 40k+ Followers
• Discord: 19k+ Members

Royal is a music NFT marketplace founded by Justin Blau, AKA 3lau, an EDM DJ, and Justin Ross, co-founder of Opendoor, that gives NFT owners the rights to songs sold on the platform. The music creators are the most important part of the platform, and they can decide how much they want to get in royalties for their work.

For this reason, many artists state that Royal is the overall best music NFT marketplace. Artists can also provide additional perks on music NFTs, such as fan experiences, special tracks, and digital art, at their discretion.

What separates Royal from other NFT marketplaces is that it allows artists to share control of their soundtracks with the NFT owners and collectors. This means that if you're a collector on Royal, you get a portion of the secondary sales. Royal is also very convenient for users. You can pay for Royal Music NFTs using a credit/debit card or cryptocurrencies.

 Royal, like Catalog, is an invite-only marketplace. Famous artists like Nas, The Chainsmokers, and Diplo have all released their NFT collections through Royal. 

How to create music NFTs

1. Choose your preferred music NFT marketplace and create a wallet

The first step is to choose an NFT marketplace where you will list and sell your NFT music. The best NFT music marketplace for your songs is entirely dependent on your requirements. You have the option of selecting one or more marketplaces from the list provided above.

Once you've decided on the best NFT marketplace, you'll need to create a cryptocurrency wallet on MetaMask or any other crypto wallet of your choice if you don't already have one. You will need an account as well as a crypto wallet to access these marketplaces.

2. Minting your music NFTs

Once you've created a wallet and an account on your preferred NFT marketplace, you can begin minting your music NFTs. Minting is the process of submitting and verifying your soundtracks on the blockchain. The minting procedure is straightforward; simply click on a few prompts, such as "Mint Your NFT", and validate the transaction. A gas fee is typically charged for the transaction. The NFT platform does not charge these gas fees; instead, they are fees for blockchain transactions.

3. List your music NFT on marketplaces

Once you have minted your NFT, you are ready to list it and sell it! Again, the steps are usually straightforward but differ slightly in each marketplace. Depending on the platform, there are three ways to sell your NFT: declining-price listings, fixed-price listings, and highest-bid auctions. Make sure to read the platform's guide if you are confused.

What's next for the music industry?

Musicians have always faced issues when it comes to making money from their music. Most musicians make a large portion of their revenue through streaming services. Still, they don't receive more than 12% on average of the revenue earned by these platforms. NFTs are starting to reshape the music industry in various ways. Fair royalty payments are a big problem in the modern music world, which is dominated by streaming services.

Then there are issues like loans for music production, music rights holders, and reliance on music gigs to make a living. As a result, NFTs are becoming a popular method for musicians to earn money. NFTs give musicians a plethora of creative opportunities to interact with their audience and fully own their own music together. NFTs allow musicians to be more self-reliant and productive in their interactions with their fan bases.

Looking for more ideas to promote your Music NFTs as an artist?

Selling music and other digital artwork only on the blockchain allows artists to connect directly with their fan base without the requirement for a record label or a music streaming platform. If done correctly, music NFTs have the potential to increase the artist's profits.

We may have reached a tipping point in the music industry's acceptance of NFTs. Several artists have launched their music NFT collections that have captured the attention of fans and created millions of dollars in revenue. As with most other aspects of NFTs and cryptocurrency, there are numerous ways for creators and fans to benefit from music NFTs.

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