Sony Launches First Music NFT Collection on Soneium Blockchain Platform

Sony has launched its first music NFT collection on the Soneium blockchain platform, in partnership with Web3 record label Coop Records and Tokyo-based music producer NUU$HI.

This collection, hosted on Sonova—Soneium's NFT marketplace—features previously unreleased tracks. Each NFT is priced at 0.000777 ETH (approximately $2.11) and will be available for purchase until the end of the month. Currently, around 124 out of a total of 999,999 NFTs have been minted.

Soneium, a Layer-2 solution on Ethereum developed by Sony Block Solutions Labs, is designed for digital content distribution. While the platform is still in its early adoption phase, Sony has recorded over 14 million user accounts and processed 47 million transactions during a four-month testing period that began in August 2024. However, the platform's long-term adoption remains uncertain, and the company has yet to announce plans for integrating it into its broader entertainment or music operations.

Coop Records, founded by crypto entrepreneur Cooper Turley, has brought over 600 songs onto the blockchain, collaborating with artists like Zeds Dead, San Holo, and Barry Can’t Swim. The label promotes NFT-based music ownership as an alternative to traditional industry models, though monetization in Web3 music has yet to achieve widespread acceptance.

Turley has acknowledged the challenges of generating revenue for creators within the tokenized ecosystem, especially for high-profile individuals. He noted that sustainable token-based revenue models do not yet exist, and Web3 revenue expectations for creators are still misaligned with investor behavior.

Although NFTs have been promoted as a way for artists to bypass record labels and maintain greater control over their earnings, sales have been volatile. Music NFTs saw early successes in 2021, such as Kings of Leon's $2 million NFT album release, but the sector has since struggled to achieve stable growth amid the broader NFT market downturn.

NUU$HI's collection launch is part of a series of planned releases on Sonova, but it remains unclear whether Sony will expand its involvement in blockchain-based music distribution. Representatives from Soneium have not responded to requests for comment on these matters.