Music-Focused NFT Marketplace Pianity Secures $6.5M in Seed Funding

Music-focused NFT marketplace Pianity has raised $6.5 million in seed funding. Here’s how the platform works.

Pianity allows artists to sell their tracks as limited editions as a new way to monetize their music. It’s among one of the first NFT platforms launched in 2021 and has sold 11,000 NFTs with 20,000 users on the platform. Artists have made over $1.9mm from NFT sales to date.

The seed funding round was led by Digital Renaissance Foundation, Big Brain Holdings, and Longhash Ventures. Other participation included IOSG, LD Capital, Sebastien Borget, Co-Founder and COO at TheSandBox, ViaBTC, ArkStream Capital, Arweave, and Ronny Shibley CTO and Co-Founder at Gorillas.

Pianity says the proceeds from the investment will be used to partner with major music companies worldwide.

In addition, the company plans to expand its headcount with a team of country managers and A&R managers. It will open offices in the U.S. and Latin America to support its expanded reach across the music industry. The investment will also help support the development of the Pianity mobile app and provide additional functionality for its streaming services.

“NFTs open up great opportunities for all artists because they are transforming the music industry business model,” says Kevin Primicerio, CEO and Co-Founder of Pianity. “With NFTs, artists can monetize their music like never before, which is something they couldn’t do with traditional streaming platforms. We’re excited about this funding round because it enables us to move forward in transforming the business model for online music.”

Using the Pianity platform, fans and collectors can give back to their favorite artists by purchasing limited edition tracks that are indefinitely stored on the blockchain. The platform says it helps make musical creations scarce and timeless, rather than infinitely reproducible.

Jazz pianist Sarkis Ricci is using the platform to supplement his income. “NFTs have been a game-changer in my career as a new source of income. I sold 100 copies of a never-released composition on Pianity for over $150,000. That’s the kind of value that only a very few can reach on streaming platforms. With NFTs, we can connect directly to our audience and create value around music.”

Pianity’s model is a profit-sharing community that redistributes 50% of its earnings in tokens to all active users each week. The amount users receive is based on the size of their NFT collection – encouraging continued use of the platform. Pianity takes a 20% fee while the rest is redistributed to platform users in this way.