NFTs can help spawn a major industrial revolution, say Christos A. Makridis and Soula Parassidis

致谢: Vera Molnar, Dispersion, 1985. Courtesy of The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection

It may surprise you that some of the current ~$1.2 billion in NFT sales involve music NFTs. But given the importance of classical music in the history of generative art, it has yet to realize its market potential in the NFT space. Except for a few sporadic examples, the classical music industry remains behind the curve, in part because repeated COVID-19 lockdown measures have forced musicians to find new ways to address the lack of live performances. Sadly, some studies have shown that the mental health of classical musicians has been disproportionately affected throughout the pandemic. Recent data shows that between 2019 and 2020, the U.S. arts economy shrank at nearly twice the rate of the economy as a whole, with film and video production, performing arts presentations, and performing arts companies generating a 40% decline.

Vera Molnar, Rectangles (Ref.85H), 1983. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Osiris

As we noted in our recent white paper, at least in the United States, despite being more educated, artists still earn less than the national average. Of course, the pandemic has also spawned an explosion of NFTs, which promise to level the playing field by allowing artists in different fields to build their own marketplaces based on their skills and followers. The most recent data available shows that global classical music streaming revenue more than doubled between 2016 and 2018, to $140.8 million. This is a testament to the future of classical music as a digital product. What needs to change is the way musicians are paid. By knocking out (or at least eroding) traditional publishers, NFTs allow creators to connect directly with their fans. Platforms like OneOf are designed to support musicians by leveraging their brands, while Royal is specifically designed to ensure artists earn money every time a song is played.

These examples show that NFT can become a new source of income for musicians after the difficult period of the epidemic.

Vera Molnar, Untitled, 1985. Courtesy of The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection

Classical music has specific qualities that are a perfect fit for the current digital art market. First, since nearly all classical music is already in the public domain, digital artists can save on licensing fees when they want to use music to enhance the audience experience. Second, the long history of classical music, which provides the intellectual base for the recent surge in code-based art, reinforces the cultural importance of NFTs in reviving generative practices. Several generative art pioneers have recently spoken about the overlap between musical and visual systems, Vera Molnar stated:

As you know, [algorithms] have been around for a long time. I keep telling everyone, did you know Mozart used dice? He played with probability.

Vera Molnar, Du Cycle: Segments et leurs Croisements No. 8 (Of the Cycle: Segments and their Intersections), 1972. Courtesy of The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection

One of the pioneers of the music system, Mozart is often credited as the originator of the musical dice game (Musikalisches Würfelspiel), in which dice are rolled to generate random number combinations that correspond to pre-combined pieces of music. Between 1757 and 1812, at least 20 such musical dice games were published in Europe, enabling those who could not teach themselves composition to compose different forms of popular dance music. ‍

Publications like The Musical Dice Game (*Musikalisches Würfelspiel)*, following Johann Kirnberger's 1757 edition, became the model for subsequent games that used chance to determine art. It also inspired our own NFT project, Magic Mozart, which provides fragments of Mozart's composition for The Magic Flute (1791) and has a governance interest in the Living Arts DAO, offering mentorship and small-scale sponsorships to musicians around the world.

Vera Molnar, Ascension (Ascent), 1984. Courtesy of The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection

Random composition experienced a renaissance in the 20th century, with randomness becoming the basis for the visual creation of members of the European Dada movement such as Marcel Duchamp. It also highlights John Cage's seminal work Music of Changes (1951), while Iannis Xenakis developed the stochastic synthesis algorithm to find order in musical chaos. Uncertainty forms the basis of much electronic music today, although dance music still relies on the basic eight-beat rhythmic structure. How much randomness an artist should control in a composition is an ongoing debate between Vera Molnar and composer Pierre Barbaud.

#Barbaud claims that when you write a program in which randomness or chance plays a role, the program has value in itself. You should not interfere, and you cannot interfere. This is his opinion. My opinion is that randomness is a tool at your disposal, an artificial intuition. (Vera Molnar)

Vera Molnar, Post-um (Written After), 1987. Courtesy of The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection

The ability of NFTs to commoditize ephemeral art forms suggests that music could benefit from tokenization in the same way contemporary generative art does. One of the challenges is securing NFT items through tight licensing in a way that provides both security for creators and clarity for collectors about what they are actually buying. To this end, Andreessen Horowitz recently proposed some basic templates based on the Creative Commons model. The beauty of many works of classical music is that, because they are now in the public domain, they can easily be adapted into digital art collections.

Classical music is called classical because it has stood the test of time, which is why Apple is so eager to acquire classical music streaming app Primephonic in 2021.

Vera Molnar, Ecriture Rouge (Red Writing), 1987. Courtesy of The Anne and Michael Spalter Digital Art Collection

Two core features of NFT technology — authentication and ownership — have also defined the cultural value of individual musicians throughout history. Before the modern era, classical musicians typically trained under a mentor who not only guided them but also acted as their agent. Tutors receive some compensation based on the musician's future earnings, but ownership of the work primarily belongs to the musician. In one case in the early nineteenth century, the English composer Isaac Nathan persuaded the famous tenor John Braham to lease his authorship on the cover of his Hebrew Melodies (1815) in exchange for 50% of any profit of any kind.

At a time when people are generally skeptical of NFTs and cryptocurrencies, repositioning classical music as a history of generative art can enhance the value of NFTs in the public eye. At the same time, NFT can help restore the classical music market and the livelihood of individual musicians. The close relationship between art and music is not new. What is new is that technology allows individual musicians to provide a one-stop and personalized diverse experience for their own community of fans. As NFTs open up new avenues in the creator economy, it's time for classical music to recognize its place in art history.