Single NFT Feature Updates

February 2, 2022: NFTs For Shopify Are Here!

We're proud to announce the addition of NFT Releases to our set of D2C Tools for Shopify. Like the other pieces of your D2C commerce, it’s time for NFTs to come “home” to your webstore, and this easy-to-use feature seamlessly integrates the power of digital collectibles into your existing merch and sales strategy.

Ready to get started? Follow the link below to learn more, fill out your information to contact our support team, and we'll send activation instructions!

Note: instructions to activate the feature in your store will be sent assuming you've installed the Single App. So if you're not currently a user, we forgive you, but head here get that done first!

January 26, 2022: NFT Use Cases + A Live Demo Event!

We’ve spent the bulk of these updates explaining why NFTs belong in your store as a part of your merch strategy, and today it’s time to focus more on what exactly that can look like for you.

Through listening to your feedback, we’ve found that it’s helpful to distill NFTs down from their most technical inner workings. Our system is designed so neither you nor your fans will necessarily need the level of tech-savvy that seems the most commonly perceived barrier to entry. To simplify the vocabulary, substitute NFT for “collectible” and/or “merch.” On their surface, NFTs are collectible merch — and that’s a language you and your fans already speak fluently.

So…what should I drop?

New releases: try alternate, collectible or digitally signed album covers. Did you end up with 4 potential album covers before choosing one? Now you’ve got a use for the ones that would otherwise be on the cutting room floor. 

Anniversaries and throwbacks: got a big album anniversary on the horizon? Craft a commemorative album cover and watch your fans’ nostalgic side come to life in your store as you reignite the hype around a past release. 

Exclusive digital artwork add-ons: much like an art insert in a CD cover or album jacket, consider a small run of unique digital art pieces, behind the scenes recording photos, or handwritten digitized lyrics exclusive to your store to accompany your digital releases.  

Band member series: a series of NFTs made for (perhaps made by?) each member of a band is a great way for fans to interact with each band member and send them chatting/trading with each other to round out a whole collection.

Exclusive live photos: No, NFTs don’t just have to revolve around albums - new or old. Have some never-before-seen images from your last tour? A small collection of them (or numerous collections) as NFTs is a great way to keep your store engaged year-round.

Past concert posters and ticket stubs: the most common misconception when considering the art aspect of NFTs is that they have to be something ‘new.’ Old poster designs and digitized ticket stubs, like the commemorative album covers ideas above, are a great way to activate your fans' love of collectibles.

And…how should I drop it?

Standalone merch item: don’t overthink it. If you’ve got a good collectible priced at a palatable point for your fan base, your digital collectible will feel right at home in your store as a standalone piece.

Upsell campaigns: that said, when wrapped in a larger strategy, our upsell campaigns will be a sensible and effective way to present these digital collectibles as value-adds to other pieces of merch in your store. When tied to selected products in your store, the tool will present NFT add-ons for one-click purchases when customers add other items to their cart. 

Livestream drop event: like their collectibles, fans love access to their favorite artists in real time. Why not use our tools for both? Host a livestream drop party from directly in your store and hang out virtually with your fans while you all celebrate the NFT release together.

But what’s next? Should I wait?

We’ve had a ton of really great questions about how artists will be able to use purchase data of these collectibles as ‘keys’ to unlock other ‘doors’ like gated content or fan club access. The point is, these use cases don't have to be written into the NFTs themselves. Instead the keys can be sold first; NFTs will be "plug and play" with different future apps and use cases. In the meantime…gets your fans in early, and hype what’s coming in the future. Treating NFTs as merch and selling directly from your store gives you the most valuable thing of all: D2C data about your purchasers. That data will always be applicable to future use cases of the technology.

Tommy Stalknecht

Founder & CEO, Single Music

Join us February 3 for a live demo and Q+A Session

We can (and will!) keep telling you about all the great parts of our new NFT Release feature for Shopify — but we’d rather show you.

Join us February 3 at 2pm EST for a live demo / Q&A session and see it for yourself.

 

 

  

January 13, 2022: Let’s talk Fees, Profits and Resale…

We’ve gotten some questions on who exactly will be able to access our NFT tool in the coming weeks, so let’s take a moment to clarify some of the eligibility requirements:

Yes, it’s true that the only way to sell NFTs on Shopify using Shopify Payments is as a Shopify Plus user in the United States. But that doesn’t tell the full story. There are hundreds of payment gateways available for use on Shopify - some of which allow for NFT sales in their terms of service. This means that as soon as we launch this tool as a private beta, any Shopify user regardless of Plus status will be able to publish and sell NFTs, given they use an alternative payment gateway.

Fees, Net Profit & Resale potential


Web3 and NFTs are a new thing for many of us, and we want to take a quick look at how this tool fits in with our existing products and how we structure our fees to be more fair to artists. Our goal will always be to remain as transparent as possible.

Primary Sale


The technology underlying these digital products is substantially different from what we’ve seen before. However, our billing structure is almost identical to how we bill for digital albums. Artists will be able to publish NFTs to their storefront at no cost to them. The artist is only billed when a customer completes a purchase of the NFT. Just like our digital delivery service, we bill through Shopify. 

The fan is then emailed a link to claim the NFT. After clicking on the link, fans are asked if they have a Solana wallet. If they select no, fans are walked through the Phantom setup process. They can then “Claim” the NFT, which is a transaction that Single covers the cost for. This allows for maximum new fan onboarding as no Solana is required to obtain full custody of the digital asset.

How should I price my NFTs? How much can I make?

When people think of NFT sales, they often default to the idea of single items or very small collections at very high price points. Our tools for treating NFTs as merch are designed to encourage artists to sell larger (though still limited edition) collections without the sticker shock, particularly to fans who may be new to the idea of purchasing NFTs.

As for fees, Single’s rate for NFT sales is $5 base + ~$2 variable mint cost per purchase. These fees won’t vary based on the price point of your NFT. Much like we’ve approached livestream ticketing, doing a set dollar fee vs. a percentage is far more artist-friendly.

Some quick examples of potential earnings for the primary sale:

For a ...

Collection of 100 items @ $25/each, the total net would be ~$1800

Collection of 100 items @ $50/each, the total net would be ~$4300

Collection of 50 items @ $100/each, the total net would be ~$4650

Collection of 100 items @ $100/each, the total net would be ~$9300

No one knows your fan base better than you, so our baseline recommendation when pricing NFTs will always be to trust your gut on what will be palatable to your fans.

Secondary sale

When a fan buys an NFT, they’re buying the combination of art and ownership. Each NFT is unique, which makes them valuable to both the original purchaser as a collector, but also gives them inherent value on secondary markets. After an NFT is claimed into a fan wallet, they may hold onto it, resell it or send it to a friend. If the fan would like to sell it, we’ve created an easy path for them to list on a popular Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden.

If there's a secondary sale, 90% of the sale price is retained by the original purchaser / seller. The other 10% is divided further into 95% the artist and 5% for Single.

We’re very close to launch, and we thank everyone again for the great interest and feedback we’ve received. If you’re not on the waitlist list, sign up here to stay up to date, and of course feel free to schedule a demo with us to learn more!

December 28, 2021: Why is Shopify perfect for NFT’s?

Shopify is the largest e-commerce platform for users to easily build their own online stores and sell directly to consumers, powering 2 million shops that allow creators to fully own their storefront, branding and data.

With the guiding principle of  “If it can be sold direct-to-fans, it should be”, Single was created to help artists leverage Shopify to sell their work without needing 3rd-party platforms. Just as Single brought ticketed livestreams, simplified chart reporting, and automated digital delivery to Shopify, we’re now helping artists bring NFT releases "home" to sell direct from their storefront.

Thousands of artists already trust Single to power their digital delivery and create a simple purchase process for fans, and our NFT features will follow suit - with added benefits from the Shopify platform:

• Because of Shopify's existing integrations, NFT's can be introduced in places like Spotify, Tik Tok or Facebook

• Shopify has a full-featured payment processing system so shop owners can accept virtually any form of payment - crypto or traditional.

• Shopify’s best-in-class point of sale hardware will allow artists to experiment using NFT’s in combination with in-person events or brick-and-mortar retail.

• Shopify also features a robust advertising platform that will help drive users to your store and offers easy integrations with third-party platforms for an even wider reach. 

In the early days of Single, we made this note as we looked forward to a future of helping artists and creators maximize their D2C revenue on Shopify: 

​​In our estimation, Shopify’s success can at least partly be attributed to its willingness to bet on growing trends and emerging technologies. Building out integrations before these technologies reach a tipping point ensures Shopify (and the thousands of stores powered by Shopify) stays ahead of the curve - and is ready when these trends reach the mainstream.

(from The Single Blog: Shopify, Crypto, Music & The Lightning Network - 07/15/2019)

The future is now, and we’re excited to be a part of it.

Sign up for our NFT waitlist here, and if you haven’t already, make sure you download the Single app to familiarize yourself with our interface as we get closer to our newest feature launch!

Tommy Stalknecht

Founder & CEO, Single Music

December 15, 2021: Why Solana?

One of the most common questions we’ve been asked since announcing the addition of NFT Releases to Single is how and why we chose Solana as our blockchain platform. We researched the pros and cons of various chains and landed on Solana for several reasons…

Energy Efficiency

One of our biggest concerns at Single Music before jumping into the web3/NFT space was the environmental impact of the decision. It's widely publicized (and rightfully so) how energy-intensive some blockchains can be and we needed a solution that would alleviate those concerns.

Recently the Solana Foundation created an Energy Usage Report that really puts things into perspective and helped solidify our decision: "Solana Foundation can report that a transaction on Solana takes less energy than two Google searches and 24 times less energy than charging your phone."

Cost & Accessibility

Beyond energy efficiency, building our blockchain tools on Solana allows an easy on-ramp for music fans who are new to web3. Not only can new tech (wallets, marketplaces, etc.) seem confusing, but the added fees make many NFTs out of reach for the average fan - leading many fans to be wary of NFTs in general. Solana’s network fees are orders of magnitude lower than other chains so there are no surprises when purchasing and the costs can remain low - which leads to more volume & participation.

Additionally, we are partnering with leading Solana wallets and exchanges so we can make the process of claiming, storing, and selling your collection as seamless as possible. Showing fans they own an asset that can be sold or traded will be key to them understanding the inherent value of their NFTs. 

We’re excited about how this feature is beginning to take shape and appreciate your interest thus far! Keep sending your questions and we’ll be in touch with more updates soon!

Tommy Stalknecht

Founder & CEO, Single Music

December 2, 2021: Our NFT Vision

Hi Everyone, 

Tommy here. 

I want to start by thanking you for your interest in our NFT beta that will be launching in January - we’re very excited to see how many of you have signed up to be a part of our web3 journey!

Our overarching goal at Single has always been to help artists have greater control over their work through direct monetization and connection with fans. Over the last few months we have been carefully watching the web3 space to determine where Single can provide actual value to artists rather than jumping in for the sake of trendiness.

As we head down this path we want to keep you up to date with our progress and hopefully answer your questions long before our first public release is available to fans. To that end I am going to answer frequently asked questions on a weekly basis based on the inquires we have received thus far. 

What will the first NFT offering look like?

We believe the biggest challenges to web3 adoption for most fans are cost and user experience. There’s still a lot of education to be done on the fan side about the utility and value of NFTs. Additionally, we believe the entire point of web3 is to create direct connections with fans, meaning NFTs should inherently be sold directly from an owned channel (your webstore), using currencies like USD, at prices that are accessible to all. 

To keep the onramp as simple as possible for fans, our first NFT offerings will be exclusive & numbered album artwork that can be sold alongside “standard” digital versions. We want to bring the idea of signed vinyl or unique colorways into the digital age and really get the fan experience right.

This also helps artists with more complex ownership structures get around the legal headaches that come with minting music files directly to the blockchain, but we do plan on supporting albums, art, video, and other files to be minted not long after our Album Art NFT rollout. 

We see these initial offerings as the building blocks to a much grander experience for artists and their fans through Shopify / D2C - think exclusive content, fan clubs, etc. - and we’re excited by the enthusiasm artists have for this new technology. 

If you don’t have the Single app installed, I’d encourage you to do so. It’s free to download and poke around, and the NFT release will make more sense when you’re familiar with the interface. As we wait for the rollout, we hope you’ll find value in some of our existing services, as well.

-Tommy Stalknecht

Founder & CEO of Single