The Griddl3 NFT Music Platform

What is The Griddl3?

The Griddl3 is a set of smart contracts, scripts, and UI components that allow a musician to upload, mint, sell, and manage the sale and distribution of their music, merchandise, art, royalties, licenses, concert tickets, and more using Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

(note: “NFT” throughout this document will refer to both non- and semi- fungible tokens )

Eternal Discography (NFT Library)

At its core The Griddl3 is a library of NFTs that represent a range of the musician’s body of work in one convenient, artist-owned and operated location. Once issued the tokens are irrevocable for any reason, they will live as long as Ethereum v1 continues to run. Once launched, the artist can forever use the platform to launch their various multimedia projects for only the price of gas (ETH). The files and metadata associated with the NFTs are all uploaded to IPFS and will be eternally available (so long as someone somewhere keeps it ‘pinned’). This format also allows users to access and download the mp3s and other media for long-term storage and personal use.

NFT-Based DRM

Nobody likes DRM, it’s intrusive, it’s slow, it’s complicated, and ultimately it only hurts the honest customers. Using the same wallet that a user used to buy the NFT, The Griddl3 Webplayer verifies that a user owns the NFT that goes to the media they are trying to play, and then it simply plays it; same with the download button. If you were able to buy the token, you are able to use it to listen to the music. Buy the NFT. Listen to the music. Simple. Since they are transferable, the NFTs act as virtual CDs: you can loan them to a friend or resell them second-hand, something that was lost with the rise in popularity of streaming services.

Product Sales Platform

A key hurdle facing artists of all kinds is the sale and distribution of their albums, singles, and merchandise. Traditionally, musicians had to go through record labels and distributors and all the challenges that came with that. Even in our fully-digital now, current streaming platforms are restricted to the centralized gatekeepers known as music distributors. The Griddl3’s Album Core smart contract comes with the ability to bundle any number of media releases into a “product” and sell them directly for ETH. This bundling process allows for anywhere from one to 256 different types of NFT and any number of each. The artist then specifies the number of copies of this product to create and that mints the tokens. These products are immediately listable and when purchased will transfer the appropriate number of NFTs to the buyer. The product’s “profit owner” immediately receives the payment in the same transaction. All of this is done automatically and permissionless on Ethereum, no intermediaries, no payment processors. Your music, your sale.

Royalties

Each product created on this platform comes with the chance to assign a “profit owner”: an Ethereum address that receives all of the sales of that product, in real-time, at the time of sale. Given the nature of Ethereum, this profit owner address can be assigned to a smart contract. The Griddl3 Royalties smart contract allows the artist to assign points, similar to traditional record industry, to any other Ethereum wallet address, for all the Ethereum paid for that product. The Royalties contract also enables a payment channel for all licensing profits paid per the licensing token purchase agreement. This process allows profits and royalty payments to be shared in a variety of ways, all assignable by the artist at the time they assign the points. There are currently 5 types of assignable points:

Time-Based Points

• points are assigned to a wallet until a given block timestamp, then they revert back to the artist.

Sales-Quota Points

• remaining NFTs for sale must be below a certain number by a given date or points revert back to the artist.

Revocable Points

• Points that can be revoked by the artist at any time

Permanent-Transferable Points

• Points that cannot be taken away from the hodler for any reason and the hodler can transfer them at their leisure

Permanent-Nontransferable Points

• Points that cannot be taken away from the hodler for any reason and the hodler can never transfer them

In the end, the point of this system is to put the power to control the music in the hands of the artist for the first time. Artists control points, artists keep more.

Licensing

The Griddl3 Commercial Licensing smart contract generates license tokens that represent the legal right to use the given media, and a way, using the royalties system above, for licensing payments to get into the hands of the rightful owner.The terms are set by 3 parameters: initial cost, percentage, and payment schedule. The artist can issue a license token to any wallet address. For the license to become valid, the licensee must pay the initial cost, then according to the payment schedule they must declare sales and pay the required percentage. If at any time the conditions of the license aren’t med, the license is immediately invalidated and the licensee is in violation of their licensing agreement. This system is very much in development and open to new features and thinking as it develops.

Merchandise

If the artist so chooses, The Griddl3’s NFTs are redeemable for physical and digital merchandise. CDs, art prints, branded gear, one-of-a-kind signed merch etc. are manageable with this system. The NFT gets burned and then in an off-chain transaction the buyer proves they burned the token, then they fill in the order form. This system is also very much in development and open to new features and thinking as it develops.

Concert Ticketing System

For performing artists, a large portion of their income comes from ticket sales and, as with album sales, distributors and middlemen end up eating into much of that. Another service that The Griddl3 provides is the ability to verify entry into shows in a secure way that is robust against counterfeiting and uses the same sales/distribution channels as all the other NFTs on the platform. Once redeemed, the user retains the NFT as a collectible souvenir of the show.

Decentralized and Censor Resistance

The Griddl3 uses a mix between InterPlanetary File Service (IPFS) and Ethereum smart contracts to fully decentralized control of the NFTs and their files/metadata. All files: mp3, mpegs, pngs etc are uploaded and pinned to IPFS which is a decentralized file hosting system that ensures file availability as long as at least one person still accesses the file. The Griddl3 attempts to live up to the decentralized ideals where possible. This system allows anyone, anywhere (with ETH for gas ugh) to manage the sale, distribution, licensing, and royalties for their own media releases, all in a permissionless and censorship resistant way. Music uhh uhh, finds a way.

Combined media player

Artists that use The Griddl3 Album Core smart contract are automatically compatible with any other artist that does the same. This opens the possibility for someone/anyone to create a combined media player with the features of the major streaming platforms, but on a platform that empowers the musicians and the listeners. Combined players that automatically pick up on NFT or license ownership will be able to be embedded anywhere. This system is also also very much in development and open to new features and thinking as it develops.

Conclusion/sales pitch/available now/how to

The first artist to use this system is Sacrificial Pancakes and is available at https://sacrificialpancakes.com. This site REQUIRES MetaMask browser extension and will allow you to purchase listed NFTs and listen to them once owned.

Thank you for your time. A detailed how-to is planned.

Website: https://sacrificialpancakes.com (REQUIRES MetaMask)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/icodeblockchain

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/sacrificialpancakes/