John Kohl is co-founder and CEO of TuneGO, where he provides the strategic vision for the Company. That vision focuses on both disrupting and improving the music industry for the creative community, by building a platform that helps creators protect their intellectual property, safely collaborate, distribute their music and pursue new opportunities
Russ Alan Prince: What is TuneGO and can you tell us about your newest offering, TuneGONFT?
John Kohl: TuneGO is a Web3 tech company for the music industry. Our patented technology—the TuneGO Vault—creates the world’s most advanced end-to-end solution for securing content and creative rights, distributing music and video to digital platforms, and creating NFTs.
The foundation of the music industry, especially music royalties, is extremely antiquated compared to other industries. This part of the industry has yet to fully embrace technology. It’s so fragmented that the information is all over the place and not properly collected or organized.
Every single year there are billions of dollars of royalties that are collected but not distributed to the creative community. Until TuneGO and our Vault, there was no unified system that goes from the origin of the creation of the art all the way through to commercialization.
TuneGONFT is our new marketplace that secures creative rights in the TuneGO Vault and on the Flow—by Dapper Labs—blockchain. This forward-thinking technology certifies the “DNA” of a song, video, or digital artwork prior to the minting of the NFT, maximizing the value in the eyes of collectors. In addition to securing all rights, this first-of-its-kind solution enables artists to, mint NFTs, distribute their music to streaming platforms, monetize their music on social media, and license their content for TV, films, and video games—all on one unified platform.
Using TuneGONFT, NFT buyers and collectors can gain secure, private access to the patented TuneGO Vault after buying an NFT, where they can view the original creative rights, as well as access, and view, and download all of the digital files included on the NFT.
Prince: NFTs have taken the industry by storm in a short period of time, what does their future look like?
Kohl: In 2021 NFT sales reached $25 billion growing from a mere $95 million in 2020. That’s an over 26,000% increase, and we see them growing and evolving especially within the gaming and music industries.
But specifically, within the creative community, NFTs are great for generating revenue and royalties. Equally important, is the deep and meaningful connection and bond NFTs establish between creatives and their existing fans in addition to new audiences. The power of the connection comes from the fan’s ownership of the NFT collectible. TuneGO provides artists with a platform to engage directly with fans with NFTs for new music, digital artwork, plus exclusive real-world experiences that fans love, such as virtual meet-n-greets, and behind-the-scenes viewing of studio sessions, concert tickets, and much more.
While there is still a bit of a learning curve with NFTs and a consumer education process, NFTs create a stronger relationship between creators and their fans. We currently live in a technology world built for consumers, but Web3 and NFTs are creating a world built for creators plus collectors, and enthusiasts. We are seeing more experiential NFTs where artists provide viewing of recording sessions, virtual meetings, Q&A sessions, concert tickets, etc. We also can’t forget about the monetary aspect of NFTs, we are seeing a lot of money being made on the secondary market by fans and collectors.
We are also seeing that NFTs have opened a whole new world of investible assets. Industries like music and gaming are gaining exposure to an entirely new subset of fans.
Prince: There has been a lot of buzz about the creator economy, but you see a different emerging trend with collectors, can you expand?
Kohl: Creators and collectors have a symbiotic relationship with each other—I like to think of them like a shark—the creator—and its pilot fish—the collector. The collector keeps the creator healthy and thriving. As we move into a Web3 economy, creators can make a sustainable, recurring form of income through direct engagement with their fan communities.
Web3 is allowing creators to have greater control over their content and how they interact with fans. It is removing the middlemen and enabling creators to take ownership of their IP and royalties and own and develop relationships with their fans, creating this mutually beneficial economy.
For those consumers who purchase NFTs from our platform, they have the reassurance that all of the metadata and creative rights have been confirmed and verified.
Russ Alan Prince is the executive director of Private Wealth magazine and one of the leading authorities in the private wealth industry. He consults with family offices, the wealthy, fast-tracking entrepreneurs, and select professionals. Connect with him on LinkedIn.com.