There’s fantasy football (both types), fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball – and certainly a fantasy game for just about every major sport. But what about a fantasy game for musicians?
Currently in a private alpha, Vault’s Fantasy music game tasks players with a selection of five artists from the Solana-based NFT music platform, awarding points for an increase in monthly Spotify listeners. To lock in their selection, players must own the artists’ limited-edition NFT drops through the Vault platform.
As it stands now, Vault is releasing an average of five new drops per week, including their associated ones Cassette culture 3.0 project, most of which qualify for the Fantasy Music game. Older editions are also selling out due to the size of the drops, which typically contain between 50 and 100 NFTs each.
Screenshots from Vault’s Fantasy Music game. Image: safe
Last week, 50 players took part in the Private Alpha, giving away $500 in prize money. That number will increase as the game gets bigger, according to Vault CEO and co-founder Nigel Eccles, who described the current setup as “very janky.” Declutter. But he said Vault hopes to launch a more polished beta in the next four weeks, with sign-ups available here.
Eccles, who co-founded fantasy sports website FanDuel in 2009 and was the company’s CEO before leaving in 2017, had been toying with the idea of a music-related fantasy league game for a while, but didn’t know how to gauge its popularity. .
But then he started tracking Spotify stats for artists involved with Vault, and found the playlist additions and the impact TikTok had on their fame very interesting. For the game, Vault focuses on artists with fewer than 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
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“The first thing people say is, ‘I don’t know any of these artists’ – and that’s the point,” Eccles said. “It lends itself to our Vaults mission of celebrating emerging artists, but it’s also more fun. We don’t have Taylor Swift in the game because she was discovered. But can you find the next Taylor Swift?”
The game uses Spotify’s data, as the streaming music platform has quickly become the industry standard for measuring popularity, with the numbers updated daily. Instead of total streams, Vault is interested in monthly listeners.
“One person listening to your song 100 times is great, but 100 people listening to your song is even better,” Eccles explains, with artist discovery being the name of the game.
“Originally I thought it would just be a marketing exercise and a bit of fun,” Eccles admitted, with the prize money taken from Vault’s marketing budget. “But it is more than that,” he adds.
In addition to tracking the artists’ Spotify stats, Eccles said players are already asking about tour dates, release schedules and the backstory for each of the bands involved. In the future, Vault wants to showcase both the raw data and the art behind it. Some players also take to social media to promote their favorite artists once they’ve set their schedules for the week, in an effort to grow their listenership, but also because they’ve invested in the music.
“In the long run, I think the exposure will probably be more valuable to the artists than the money they make from selling NFTs through Vault,” Eccles said. “Discovery is so hard right now, and it’s hard for new bands to connect with an engaged fan base because there’s so much music out there. I really see people going on a journey with this product, and the bands are joining in.”
In 2009 we created an internal alpha of a simple fantasy game. It ran on Excel and was super janky. That game became @fanduel. Today we’re doing a private alpha of a new fantasy game, but instead of drafting athletes, pick emerging performers. Then register on the waiting list below.
— Nigel Eccles (@nigeleccles) October 19, 2023
Hachi Mugen makes jazzy, lo-fi music and has seen a steady increase in listenership since early October, with two Vault music releases supporting a string of singles. Mugen told Declutter that they found Vault Dripa Solana-based NFT detection service, and reached out to Vault about collaborating.
“One of the biggest topics on new artists’ minds is, ‘How can I introduce people to my music and have a chance to be seen?’” they said. “It is the most important factor in creating a path to a career in this industry.”
They believe NFT projects like Vault can build a better relationship between the artist and listener. “Artists spend so much time on the music, the artwork and the overall sense of storytelling, but we lose that sense of connection with songs that are just being curated into playlists,” they explained, with the Fantasy Music game already increasing their fame it was enlarging.
I’m happy to finally show you this!
inspired by @lofigirl / #lofi #lofimusic pic.twitter.com/g67Sm1asC9
— Hachi Mugen (@MugenHachi) September 1, 2023
“We are all still trying to find innovative ways to promote our music,” she added. “The standout artists will get noticed through this opportunity and it will be a path to success for some.”
Tactics also play a role in Fantasy Music. Smaller artists are less likely to explode in listeners, but they’re also less likely to lose them all. Some players are buying Vaults from artists they think will do big things, and there’s already a lot of friendly banter going on in the Vault office. In the future, Eccles hopes to introduce the ability for players to interact with each other, while genre-specific games are also in the works.
“It’s still a work in progress,” Eccles said. “But we will see how it develops. The way FanDuel grew was through talking to our top players, seeing how they used the platform, and asking what they needed. It will be the same approach for this.”
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When FanDuel first took off, many people wondered whether fantasy sports games were bad for the sports industry, worrying that fans supported their fantasy roster more than their home team. But the opposite seemed to happen: fan engagement increased instead.
“People ended up watching more games and building a deeper appreciation for the sport,” Eccles said. He believes Vault’s Fantasy Music game will have a similar impact. “It directly supports the artist at the beginning of their career, it gives fans an exclusive product and it creates a more direct relationship between the two,” he added.
Eccles said Vault ensures that the art of music does not simply become a numbers game, while remaining mindful of the overall impact of such an interactive experience.
“We asked the question, ‘Does this make music a commodity?’ and we will continue to think about that as we shape the product so that this doesn’t happen again,” he explained. “We want to celebrate the artist and we want to help them become more successful.”