With the Activision deal, Microsoft has become a music publisher of soundtracks for the first time – not least Hans Zimmer’s Call Of Duty scores. If gaming is “the building blocks to the metaverse”, music is the cement. The commitment of Microsoft’s chairman and CEO Satya Nadella to ‘invest deeply in world-class content, community and cloud’ could result in the acquisition of a music-driven company. Concord could be it.
Source: The gamification of the music industry has just begun.
Bob Iger sees ‘extraordinary’ possibilities for Disney NFTs—but called out OpenSea for the levels of copyright infringement in NFTs sold on its marketplace. “When you think about all the copyright and trademarks, characters Disney has, and the NFT possibilities, they’re extraordinary,” Iger said. Unsurprisingly, given Disney’s iron hold over its copyright, Iger was concerned about the level of IP infringement in the NFT space.
Source: Former Disney CEO Bob Iger Predicts NFT ‘Explosion’ – Decrypt
Warner Music Group (WMG) has officially finalized a “label-wide partnership” with Quincy Jones-backed music NFT platform OneOf. The pact arrives about eight months after OneOf scored $63 million in seed funding. Besides the financial support from 88-year-old Quincy Jones, the likes of John Legend, Doja Cat, and the Whitney Houston estate were previously announced as early OneOf partners.
Source: Warner Music Group Inks ‘Label-Wide’ Deal With NFT Platform OneOf
Around two decades ago, Warner was one of the major labels that fought hard against the rise of file sharing, largely in the form of Napster, a disruptive technology not unlike the metaverse that ultimately led to a catastrophic collapse in recorded-music sales. Major-label adaptation to streaming saw music revenue start growing again around 2015 after 15 years of huge declines.
Source: Family clarifies no ‘Picasso NFT’ is set to be sold online
Warner Music Group is planning a future of virtual concerts within the metaverse, announcing today that it has partnered with upcoming Ethereum game The Sandbox to open a music-themed area within the shared online game world. The major label will use its virtual LAND plots in the game to create a space that serves as both a music-centric amusement park and a venue for concerts from its artists.
Source: Warner Music Plots Metaverse Concerts in Ethereum Game The Sandbox – Decrypt
Heirs of Pablo Picasso, the famed 20th-century Spanish artist, are vaulting into 21st-century commerce by selling 1,010 digital art pieces of one of his ceramic works that has never before been seen publicly—riding a fad for “crypto” assets that have taken the art and financial worlds by storm. “We’re trying to build a bridge between the NFT world and the fine art world,” said Florian Picasso, the artist’s great-grandson.
Source: Picasso heirs launch digital art piece to ride ‘crypto’ wave
YouTube is exploring features for its video creators to capitalize on non-fungible tokens, its chief executive officer said on Tuesday, becoming the latest tech company to tap into a digital collectibles craze that has exploded in the past year.
The European Parliament has approved the Digital Services Act (DSA), including several key changes. The proposed legislation adds a right for people to use and pay for online services anonymously. However, the amendments to ban site blocking and ‘dumb’ upload filters were voted down by the majority.
Source: EU Parliament Adopts DSA Without Banning ‘Dumb’ Upload Filters and Site Blocking * TorrentFreak
Adapt and reinvent on a massive scale. That’s the 2022 strategic advice for media and entertainment companies looking to use blockchain, NFTs and metaverse experiences to engage consumers and build new products, according to Deloitte’s new report. Analysts said they see these individual trends growing as individual forces and working together to reorganize “the structural foundations of the internet.”
Source: How the metaverse, blockchain and NFTs are radically changing entertainment