The Sandbox, in what was the platform’s first major label deal, and in January, it teamed up with Quincy Jones-backed NFT platform OneOf, described as a “Green Web3 Company built for music”, in what they called a “first-of-its-kind preferred partnership”.
Now, following the firm’s increased activity in the fast-growing Web3 landscape, Warner Music Group CEO the publication of its quarterly results on Tuesday (February 8), which showed that recorded music revenues hit $1.386 billion in the three months to end of December, driven by major sellers including Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Dua Lipa and Silk Sonic.
The company also revealed that its music publishing operation – On the call, Cooper was grilled about the firm’s results and was asked about his views on the future role of the record label as Web3.
Cooper noted that “with respect to Web3,” which he notes, “is a broad way of talking about blockchain, crypto, NFT”, WMG sees “the beginning of interactive models coming to the surface and beginning to engage fandom around the world”.
He added that “There are going to be more opportunities than we can even imagine as I’m sitting here in my kitchen today”.
Elsewhere in the world of NFTs and blockchain, Warner Music Group recently partnered with New York-headquartered digital collectibles platform Blockparty, marking the firm’s first major label partnership.
WMG also struck an NFT-related global partnership in April last year with Genies, which dubs itself “the world’s largest avatar technology company”, while. In September 2019, it joined an $11 million investment round in blockchain firm Dapper Labs.
Commenting further on the role of the record label in music’s Web3 future, Cooper suggested that “the emergence of Web3 is going to further amplify the importance of music labels and publishers.”
“Labels and publishers will be more important than they are today as the world becomes more and more complex.”
Steve Cooper, WMG
He added: “The technology of blockchain, the perils of navigating crypto [and] the skill sets required to deal with distributed autonomous organizations will require organizations like us that have the financial resources [and] the intellectual capital”.
“By that I mean the specific skill sets, and the global footprint to be able to help our artists and songwriters not only navigate through this brave new world, or brave new universe, but navigate successfully in order to optimize their presence inside the world of Web3 and to optimize their revenue options and their revenue alternatives inside of Web3.
“Labels and publishers will be more important than they are today as the world becomes more and more complex.
“I don’t believe that when I look at individual artist managers – their agents, that they will be able to be as successful as they can be, unless they navigate these very interesting waters with Warner Music and others like us.”Music Business Worldwide
