Five Music NFTs I've Added To My Treasure Chest
Betting on the fantastic rapper/singer Xian Bell and four more artist ideas for your consideration on the Mint Songs platform.
Disclosure: I’m not an investment advisor. I merely share what I do and why I do it. You shouldn’t take anything I say as investment advice and always do your own research when making investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies, tokens, STONKs, and digital trinkets could all go to zero. I have no job and I live in my wife’s basement. I’m the last person on the face of the earth who you should listen to for financial advice or life advice. I’m not featured on trustworthy financial news sources like CNBC or Bloomberg and I don’t wear a necktie when I make my trades.
The artists are finding Mint Songs! It's exciting to see. A couple months ago I shot one of the co-founders a message on Discord and gave some feedback. Among other things, I told him that I've been finding artists that I never would have otherwise heard if it were not for the Mint Songs platform. That's a pretty strong compliment and I absolutely meant it. Mint Songs is allowing me to love new music again. It's been awhile. The interest in the project has definitely been growing. And it isn't just artists looking to cash in on their music who are finding the platform. The social media growth for Mint Songs has been better month over month than Royal, Catalog, and Sound.xyz. My thesis is playing out. Unit pricing is critical. As I suspected last month, Catalog appears to be getting unit pricing wrong. That platform's social growth lag compared to peers is proving it. And we’re still at the very beginning of all of this.
While this is a sick growth rate, I do want to be clear that MintSongs.com still has the smallest following of the four platforms based on raw numbers. But, if these rates continue at the same pace, MintSongs will have a larger Twitter following than Catalog.works by May. Beyond just the huge growth rate in social following, I can see the platform discovery manifesting in the quality of artists that are being onboarded. To give you a sense of how long I've been monitoring this, I'll tell you this: when you create an account with Mint Songs, anyone who looks at your profile can see when you joined right under your name. For example, there's an artist called "Fluffy Bear" who just minted a track. Fluffy Bear is the 16,951st person to join the website.
Would you like to know what my profile number is? I am number 175. And I've been scanning the marketplace almost weekly since I joined last August. It's not a stretch for me to guess that there are very few people who have heard as much of the music on Mint Songs as I have. My entire goal is to find good music and artists who I think have or will have a loyal following ten years from now. This process has had an impact in two ways.
The first, and most obvious, I'm buying music NFTs because I think I'll be able to sell them for more later if I choose to do so. But the second impact is that I'm finding music on Mint Songs that I genuinely like. And if you think back to my post about investment art from last year, the best way to buy art as an "investment" is to buy it if you actually enjoy it. Because if your investment thesis is wrong, at least you still like the art. I approach music NFTs the same way.
This past weekend, Xian Bell, a singer/rapper from Los Angeles minted a track on Mint Songs. It was a 1/1 with potential metaverse utility. It passed the immediate ear test. Which is to say I enjoyed the cut quite a bit. After doing a little digging on Xian, I scooped up his NFT real quick. To this point, it's the most I've spent on a music NFT and I'm completely okay with that. Since I already own his 1 of 1, this isn't necessarily the most immediately actionable insight. However, I'm going to share more on Xian with the hope that he'll be minting more songs soon. And if that does happen, you can decide for yourself if his NFTs are a good fit for you. Following that, I'll share four new Mint Songs NFTs that I've purchased since my January music NFT series; all four of which still have editions available.
Xian Bell Background
His website doesn't appear to have been updated in at least a year. But in piecing together some things from the interviews that are available on YouTube and through various industry publications, I've found Xian Bell's story to be absolutely fascinating. He studied psychology and theater in school. I believe he has a masters degree. And he played basketball professionally overseas before deciding to come home and pursue a career in music full time.
He released an album called "You Were in My Dream" back in 2019 and though it wasn't universally heard in the music industry, some of the more hip-hop focused outlets gave it great reviews. Notably, Joe Budden gave it the stamp of approval on his podcast. Bell has worked quite a bit with fellow LA artist REASON. REASON has a much larger following than Xian and over 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Having a larger associate act who you work with regularly is generally a good thing when you're a talented artist on your own merits. I believe that's the case with Xian Bell.
If you're putting on the traditional A&R hat to find the next big musical act, there are certain things that you would look for. Obviously, the person has to have some level of talent, they have to put out music that can sell to a wide audience, and up until recently, being a sex symbol was probably a prerequisite. Xian has a great voice, his music bumps, and he definitely looks the part; built like a wide receiver. He checks off all the boxes. Beyond that judging from his podcast appearances, he has a fun personality, he's smart, very introspective, and he's funny. He's a gem. And I'm excited about unlocking whatever it is his NFT will open up in the "metaverse."
The Music
It's actually really hard for me to pick a favorite song from Xian Bell. He's a very versatile artist. I'll share three of his tracks. First, "Dollar and a Dream." This is actually his most streamed song on Spotify at a little under 1.1 million streams.
When I first listened to it, I couldn't figure out if he was rapping or singing. I determined that he figured out a way to do both at the same time. That said, he is a very capable vocalist and we see that on "Would You Mind."
Though I like both of the tracks shared above, I think "Top Flow" might be my favorite. This is the one I'm finding myself singing in the shower. I know... shut up. This track also wins for best thumbnail image.
Each of those tracks are from his debut album "You Were in My Dream." He's released several singles and EPs since. Because I haven’t mentioned it yet and I’m sure you're curious, the song that he minted via Mint Songs is called "Dollar 2 (Unplugged)" and it's a follow up to "Dollar and a Promise." Though he hasn’t personally minted another song, he is on the track “Something” by RATED TG. That cut has 25 editions available on Mint Songs at a 0.0175 ETH ask.
Data & Social Following
Twitter Followers: 15.4k
Instagram Followers: 23.5k
TikTok Followers: 74.2k
Monthly Spotify Listeners: 13k
Spotify Followers: 3,744
Spotify Playlists: 91
Playlist Reach: 2.29 million
The playlist reach trend has been largely flat since his album release even though the playlist trend has continued to climb. I’d wager that’s existing fans adding his new singles to their Spotify lists every few months.
I think Xian's story in music is really just beginning and I can't wait to see what else he produces.
Four more NFTs I Added to the Collection
Now that I've shared the thinking on Xian Bell, here are a few more quick ideas that you can act on. I have purchased four more NFTs since the January NFT series that still have editions remaining. One of the perks of being a subscriber is getting all of the ideas. So I'll share two of the four NFT ideas with everyone and the remaining two will be paywalled for members only. However, if you'd like to see my entire music NFT series from January as a non-member, you can buy an a la carte PDF version of that series via PlebPay for just $1. PlebPay utilizes Strike and the Bitcoin Lightning Network for fast, cheap micropayments. I think it's worth the dollar personally. Of course, you can get immediate access to all of the NFT stuff and much more simply by becoming a paid subscriber.
Kabuki - "Quantum Rainbows 1/4"
This track is cool because it's exclusive to Mint Songs. Some artists like to sell NFTs that already exist. Others sell the songs as exclusive NFTs. Mint Songs lets the artist decide. I do enjoy buying things that are platform exclusive. Even though the title says 1/4, that's actually the track number. Quantum Rainbows is described this way:
The full composition is broken up into 4 shorter sections, which are released bi-weekly and can be collected individually. After the release of the final section a snapshot will be taken, and if you hold the tokens for all 4 sections the complete 16 minute composition will be airdropped into your wallet.
Kabuki has 63,000 monthly Spotify listeners. This NFT costs 0.0064 ETH and there are currently 38 of 50 editions remaining.
Erin//Ivey - "HalfLight"
The song is described by Erin//Ivey like this:
"HalfLight" opens with a sample of my grandmother’s voice and ambient field recordings from my time in Portland, Oregon, where the album was made in 2007. // I am hopeful for the future we are building together. Thank you for witnessing and taking part in it.
This is not something that I would generally listen to but when I put it on I loved her voice. The progression in the instrumentation kept me drawn in as well. It costs 0.003 ETH and there are currently 37 of 50 editions still remaining.
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