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The incentives of being a music fan have been waning over the years. Ticket prices continue to skyrocket<\/a> thanks to monopolized\u00a0ticket marketplaces, and streaming prices are also rising<\/a>. As a result, attendees are finding it less rewarding to show up for their favorite acts, and artists are having an increasingly difficult time mustering connections with their core audiences. <\/p>\n All in all, the music economy feels incredibly constricted.<\/p>\n This is precisely why creators and consumers have been turning to the blockchain. It\u2019s a way to circumvent some of the worst features of the music industry. Now, some of the NFT-enabled features conceived over the last few years have started trickling outward to the mainstream.<\/p>\n From NFT ticketing<\/a> to decentralized community building<\/a>, a wide variety of token-gated endeavors have made their way to the masses. Now, token-gated streaming has reached mainstream audiences thanks to Spotify\u2019s recent product updates. <\/p>\n What should fans and the traditional music industry expect from the rise of token-gated streaming? What are the benefits and risks? We turned to industry experts and holders of\u00a0the Now Pass<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the access pass to the Now Network, the foundation for all of our initiatives to build the future of tokenized media and pioneer a community-centric media model \u2014 for input.\u00a0<\/p>\n Token-gating, in essence, is any instance where a blockchain token \u2014 often an NFT, but it could be another kind of crypto token \u2014 is used as an access pass. Token-gating has become popular in Web3 because it is a means of quickly and easily restricting access to content, events, collections, Discord servers, and more to those who hold a specific token.<\/p>\n Although token-gating is more often than not used for allow-listing purposes, it has recently become a tool for creators in the Web3 music space to create a layer of exclusivity surrounding their content. For example, Spottie WiFi token-gated several of his music NFT drops<\/a>, and Daniel Allan and Reo Cragun launched token-gated sample packs<\/a>. At this point, when it comes to streaming, token-gated success stories abound. <\/p>\n And now, the legacy streaming industry has caught on.<\/p>\n In February of 2023, Spotify started testing \u201ctoken-enabled playlists<\/a>,\u201d which let holders of specific NFTs use their wallets to access curated music. For the first part of the rollout, Android users in select countries gained access to the feature if they held NFTs from Fluf<\/a>,\u00a0Moonbirds<\/a>,\u00a0Kingship<\/a>, or Overlord<\/a>. <\/p>\n Speaking to nft now about the rise of token-gated streaming, Thomas Fiss<\/a>, Head of Music NFTs at the eco-conscious NFT music platform OneOf<\/a>, said he sees Spotify\u2019s interest in token-gating as a net positive for Web3.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen big players like Spotify start exploring with cryptocurrency-based models, it\u2019s good for all of us in the space and for mass adoption in general,\u201d said Fiss. \u201cAt the core, we\u2019re talking about attribution of streaming (engagement), and artists and labels being given additional transparency to their fans\u2019 listening behaviors, and rewarding them for it.\u201d<\/p>\n \nBut first, what is token-gating?<\/h2>\n
Spotify and token-gated streaming<\/h2>\n