FanTiger Raises $5.5 Mn To Strengthen NFT Music Platform The fresh capital will be used to build blockchain technology to help independent artists supercharge their career powered by fan communities
By Soumya Duggal •
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ArtistFirst Technology Inc, which runs music non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace FanTiger, has raised $5.5 million in a seed round led by Multicoin Capital. The round also saw participation from Krafton, Pravega Ventures, GAMA, Woodstock Fund, IOSG Ventures, Polygon Studios and individuals Sandeep Nailwal (co-founder, Polygon), Gokul Rajaram (board member, Coinbase), Prashant Malik (founder, Tykhe Block Ventures) and Miten Sampat (CRED).
Ahead of FanTiger's official launch, the company has opened an 'early access' program for music fans on www.fantiger.com. The early access waitlist gives its most eager fans a chance to get exclusive benefits, such as priority access to the launch of music NFTs, OG title, limited-edition merchandise, access to music concerts and more. The biggest pull to its early access waitlist is the 5,000 free NFTs it plans to give away to its early members, said a statement.
"The business of music should be to serve the best interests of artists. With the advent of blockchain, music NFTs have the ability to disrupt the music industry, much like music streaming transformed music listening. FanTiger is at the forefront of this revolution to redefine the music industry by creating artist-fan relationships as have never existed before to give birth to a new era for music. It will be the first time in history when Indian artists will have a fanbase which is properly incentivized to market a song, which will create wonders in setting new milestones for song success. Our vision is to onboard 10 million users to our platform to own digital collectibles and supercharge the career of 100,000 artists," said Prashan Agarwal, CEO and co-founder, FanTiger.
"The company plans to use the funds raised to grow its team across product and technology, extend industry partnerships and onboard well-known and aspiring Indian artists," Aggarwal further added.
Cryptographic assets on a blockchain, each built with a unique set of identification codes and metadata, are referred to as the NFT. They can range from art and sound recordings to tickets and more. According to American music and entertainment magazine Billboard, NFTs generated an impressive $25 billion in overall sales in 2021. EDM artists were early leaders in the NFT world. In 2021, 3LAU, an American DJ, auctioned 33 NFT collectible versions of his album Ultraviolet, which ended up selling for $11.7 million, and marked the first album to be tokenized.
"The FanTiger platform is uniquely positioned to grow the digital collectibles ownership in the music industry. We are excited to partner with Prashan, who brings vast experience of building the largest music streaming platform in India, to disrupt the music industry once again," said Kyle Samani, partner, Multicoin.
Founded by Prashan Agarwal, ex-CEO of Gaana and co-founder of PropTiger, and Krishna Singh, FanTiger empowers independent artists to build fan communities on the platform and to enable fans to help shape their career using music NFTs. Fans can buy music NFTs to get access to an exclusive artist community, earn rewards and special privileges like exclusive behind-the-scenes content, meet-and-greet opportunities, backstage access, etc. Artists can use the proceeds from the sale of music NFTs for song creation, studio production, music video, etc., and can also commit upto a certain percentage of the royalty earned from the song to the fan community for marketing the song.
