The NFT market has been on the rise in recent years. When Afronifty launched in September 2021, the crypto industry, valued at around $3 trillion, was booming at its peak. The Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Marketplace had a niche mission that was in equal parts ambitious and auspicious for the thriving market: to use blockchain technology for the empowerment of black market creatives, via artistic freedom, financial stability, and community building.
Popularly known as the ‘NFT Marketplace for Music’, Afronifty works by offering a platform for musicians to create different songs, and mint and list them in the marketplace for their fans and investors to bid on. Sadly, the bullish highs of the crypto sector were short-lived, plunging in June 2022.
More than a year has passed since the crypto market downturn, but Afronifty remains steadfast in its mission initiated two years ago. It has rapidly accumulated over 9,000 music NFTs, establishing itself as the leading NFT Marketplace in Africa based on NFT mint volume.
The success of the NFT Music Marketplace is largely attributed to Cover Art collectibles, comprising 55% of the NFTs on the platform. With the exponential rise of Afrobeats, Afronifty has witnessed a proportional increase in musicians choosing to mint their music cover art on the website.
Hosting at least 4000 cover art NFTs, such as the value NFTs of breakout rapper OdumoduBlvck and emerging Afro-Fusion singer Kold Af, Afronifty helps shape the future of music investments by strategically leveraging Music Cover Art.
Research done at the firm indicates that, yearly, the music sector loses value on music cover art to the tune of nearly 7 billion dollars. The co-founders of Afronifty, Nnanna Mbila, Patrick Oramah and David Adeleke, stated:
“We noticed a gap in the cover art space.”
Mr. Mbila explained:
“Traditionally, once music cover arts are designed and uploaded on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, they have no inherent value.”
The brilliant minds at the helm of Afronifty saw that gap, and the indomitable rise of Afrobeats and Crypto Users in Africa, as a chance to create lots of liquidity in a manner never seen before in the music sector. Mr. Mbila added:
“We (Afronifty) are building an open market to tokenize music cover art which will be a way to invest in music, simply by owning the original cover art NFT of a song.”
In 2023, NFT mints at Afronifty increased by over 420%. We are now seeing the rapid creation of a decentralized stock market for music.
Notably, Afronifty’s model is straightforward: a seller (an artist or record label) mints their music cover art, sets its selling price and the royalty percentage for every time the cover art is resold, while the devoted community of music fans and investors can speculate on songs and artists that they think will perform well, by buying the NFT cover art directly from the artist.
As the music blows, the original value of the non-fungible token increases, and it can be resold. Trading music has never been this smooth.
Afronifty extends an invitation to not just musicians and record labels but also welcomes investors and the ever-expanding community of music enthusiasts to collaborate. This collaboration aims to leverage the lucrative asset demonstrated by the success of music cover art, providing an opportunity for investors to build portfolios supporting musicians they believe in.
Based on a statement by Nigerian newcomer singer, Z’bah, whose cover art was acquired for 0.3 BnB on Afronifty:
“I never believed my cover art could have secondary value, but thanks to Afronifty, I discovered that it’s possible to tokenize your cover art to make them immutable and investable by others”.
Afronifty presents a distinct trading opportunity in the music sector. Everyone can agree that the trading of music cover art NFTs has the power to reimagine the shrewdest ways the artists, record labels, and music listeners can position themselves for financial stability, from the growing global music market, expected to double in revenue by 2030.
In the ever-changing world of NFTs, you can join hundreds of artists and record labels in their journey to wealth creation.
