Sona is a new web3 streaming protocol that uses DeFi primitives (basic building blocks of decentralized finance) to put financial power back in the hands of artists with its reward model, auctions, and ad-free streaming. Sona came out of stealth today, announcing the open beta version of its first product — Sona Stream, a free music streaming service with zero subscriptions or ads paired with a marketplace where artists share music and auction off SONAs, “digital twins” or digital items songs that can only belong to one person at a time.
Alongside its launch news, the company also announced its $6.9 million funding round from Polychain Capital, Haun Ventures and Rogue Capital. The funds will be used to develop new features and hire engineers.
The Sona market allows artists to auction their SONAs to collectors for 24 hours. They set a minimum price and sell to the highest bidder, gaining immediate liquidity. What is most notable is that the holder of a SONA receives 70% of the stream payment rewards based on the proportional share of the total streams on the platform. Meanwhile, the artists get 30% and the company gets a 7% fee. Additionally, the rewards pool is funded by a percentage of SONA’s sales, meaning every purchase supports all artists on the Sona Stream. In the future, Sona will include other transactions such as tips, merch, ticket purchases, master downloads and flat-rate audio downloads for DJs
“It is collected every two weeks and then redistributed to each artist and collector, depending on how much [the specific song] broadcast,” co-founder Laura Jaramillo explained during a private demo. “So you’re paying artists for their work quickly, incentivizing the creation of that work, and then rewarding the people who actually support those artists.”
The main idea with the SONAs — and the music NFTS in general — is that it encourages fans to invest in their favorite artists and promote their work. In this case, when a SONA owner shares the song on social media, their followers are directed to the Sona Stream, helping the streaming service grow its user base and earn revenue at the same time. And unlike other music NFTs, SONAs are not associated with royalties from other streaming platforms. Rewards only come from the Sona ecosystem.
“The artist and rights holders retain 100% ownership of the original song — so that’s a bit different and why we don’t think of ourselves as an NFT music platform. We focus on relationships between artists and fans,” co-founder Jennifer Lee, known as a producer and DJ. TOKiMONSTA, he told us. Last year, TOKiMONSTA sold 100 copies of their latest single, Loved By U, on Sound.xyza marketplace for musical NFTs.
Collectors must live in the US and be at least 18 years old to purchase a SONA. They are also allowed to sell and trade SONA, both on Sona and on third-party marketplaces.
Sona’s streaming service is currently home to five million tracks by artists Rochelle Jordan, CRi, Adam Oh, Cakes da Killa, Gavin Turek, Dakytl, Aquiles Navarro and Sara Hartman, among others. By next year, Sona will have 16 million songs on the platform.
Sona co-founders Laura Jaramillo and Jennifer Lee
Jaramillo, a longtime NFT product designer, created Sona to help her mother Raquel Gonzalez, a Puerto Rican artist and activist, along with other independent artists struggling to make a living from their music.
“I wanted to create something that could ultimately be used by my mom, who faces some of the biggest challenges an artist faces – building an audience and making a sustainable income. I designed a protocol that she could use to monetize those 100 to 1,000 true fans who want to show how much they appreciate her music, but then have a sustainable income every two weeks and combat the fact that artists don’t make so much in flux. And if they do stream something, they don’t see it for three to six months,” Jaramillo said, also revealing that musical talent runs in the family. While her music career was short-lived, Jaramillo was 16 when she was offered a record deal.
“The secret story is that when I was in elementary school through high school, I was a competitive songwriter and singer who represented Puerto Rico many times… [music label] he wanted me to drop out of high school, move to Los Angeles and become a Latin pop star. But that was the opposite of my music. I wrote music to help you get through the cleanse, so I pretty quickly gave up on that dream because I thought, ‘Oh, they see me as what they can sell me and not what I can create,'” Jaramillo said.
“[Sona] he’s trying to make it easier for someone to get into music without completely selling out or taking advantage of them,” he added.
Sona will be hosting her first auction tomorrow, December 7th at 8pm with TOKiMONSTA’s Grammy nominated track, Rouge. Released in 2017, the song marked her monumental return to music following her battle with moyamoya, a rare brain condition.
