Photo Credit: Sona
TOKiMONSTA-founded Web3 protocol Sona launches its streaming platform following a $6.9 million seed funding round.
Sona, a new Web3 streaming protocol using DeFi (decentralized finance building blocks) to provide artists with a new way to stream content and manage rewards, auctions, and more, has announced the open beta launch of its streaming platform.
The company also announced a $6.9 million seed funding round headed by Polychain Capital, Haun Ventures, and Rogue Capital. Those funds will aid in hiring engineers and developing new features.
Sona Stream combines a free music streaming service with a marketplace where artists can share music and auction off “digital twins” of songs that can only be owned by one person at a time. Sona’s marketplace allows artists to auction their digital assets, called SONAs, to collectors for 24 hours.
Artists set a minimum price and sell to the highest bidder, with the owner of a SONA receiving 70% of the streaming payout rewards based on a pro rata share of total streams across the platform. Artists get 30%, with the company taking a 7% fee.
The rewards pool is funded from a percentage of SONA sales, so each purchase supports all artists on the platform. In the future, Sona will include other transactions such as tipping, merch sales, ticket purchases, stem downloads, and fixed price audio downloads for DJs.
“It’s pooled every two weeks and then redistributed to every artist and collector, proportional to how much (that specific song) is streamed,” co-founder Laura Jaramillo told TechCrunch. “So, you’re paying artists for their work quickly, incentivizing the creation of that work, and then also rewarding the people that are actually supporting those artists.”
A long time NFT product designer, Jaramillo created Sona to help her mother, Puerto Rican artist and activist Raquel Gonzalez, and other independent artists who struggle to earn a living from their music.
“I wanted to create something that ultimately my mom could use, who is running into some of the biggest challenges that an artist faces — building an audience and making sustainable revenue,” says Jaramillo.
“The artist and rights holders retain 100% ownership of the original song — so that’s a bit different and why we don’t really see ourselves as a music NFT platform,” explains co-founder Jennifer Lee, also known as producer and DJ TOKiMONSTA. “We’re focused on the relationships between artists and fans.”
Currently, Sona’s streaming service is home to over five million tracks; by next year, the platform’s founders say it will have 16 million songs. Sona will host its first auction on December 7 at 8 PM, featuring TOKiMONSTA’s 2017 track, “Rouge.”
