Hey, it’s been awhile 💽
Since releasing Catalog in early 2021, we’ve remained the proud home of 1-of-1 records, a model that we believe can fundamentally reshape how music is archived and valued. Today, we’re announcing a project-level evolution that supports and expands on our original mission. Thanks for being here.
Catalog Radio: A new place for music
We’ve long believed the internet needs more places to experience music together. Not just collaborative playlists, but gathering grounds with a real sense of collective presence, time, and memory. In this spirit, we’ve created Catalog Radio, a first of its kind for onchain music, airing in early 2024. Catalog Radio will serve as a live, 24/7 broadcast and shared listening space, dedicated to curated programming, special shows, untold surprises and experiments. All songs played are onchain, making real-time celebration and support of artistry easy and instant.
Too often, music listening flows through services with the same features, the same value models, the same UX, the same lopsided incentives. Not here. We’re excited to work alongside artists, producers, principled managers, curators, and labels to prove alternative paths for enjoying and supporting music online. Imagine, listen, improve, repeat.
Our efforts follow in the ongoing footsteps of beloved stations that shape our fandom, play our music, and accept our USBs: dublab, NTS, The Lot Radio, Radio Alhara, Seoul Community Radio, n10, FOUNDATION FM, Balamii, Metanol (RIP), and many others. Catalog Radio also nods to our own Loft Radio roots, which set out to explore novel experiences for music discovery and community. Radio, when paired with new systems and the right people, has a bright future.
Cosigns
Alongside Catalog Radio, we’re introducing cosigns, a more affordable way to support your favorite artists and align yourself with the music you love — even for records that have already sold. Any number of people can cosign a record infinite times, forever, for roughly the price of a traditional download. Here’s how it works:
- Artists press 1-of-1 records on Catalog just like they normally do, with an added option to enable cosigns for their record. With cosigns enabled, records can automatically be cosigned on L2 as soon as they’re pressed, no bridging required.
- Fans pay .001 ETH (~$2 currently) to cosign a track, minting a non-transferrable, infinite supply ERC-1155 token to their wallet for every cosign, visually represented by the record’s cover art, akin to a memento. By cosigning, fans receive a high quality download, their name on the record page, and any other rewards that an artist may choose to provide to their onchain list of cosigners. We’re actively exploring other benefits and rewards for cosigning.
Importantly, we don’t view cosigns as “collecting” music NFTs in the traditional sense. Instead, cosigns serve simply as an onchain endorsement of a song — a new, more accessible unit of support for music makers we love. Because they use the ERC-1155 standard, multiple cosigns don’t clutter wallets, and because they’re non-transferrable, they aren’t a medium for financial speculation. All cosigns will be created under a shared Catalog collection.
Rather than abstract platform fees into a free mint model, where take-rates can exceed 30 to 40%, we strive for transparency with the pricing of cosigns.
- Cost to Cosign: 0.001 ETH
- Artist Share: 0.00085 ETH (85%)
- Catalog Share: 0.00015 ETH (15%)
Onchain splits are honored on cosign revenue just as they are on record sales. Artists will continue to receive 100% of revenue and resale royalties on sales of 1-of-1 Catalog records.
By introducing cosigns, Catalog records continue to serve as a high-value medium for music ownership on L1, and simultaneously enable price accessibility and distribution through a support tier via cosigns on L2.
Artist opt out
Upon launching Catalog Radio, all existing Catalog records will have cosigns enabled by default. We believe this will significantly broaden the avenues for artists to receive support for their current and future music, as well as for fans to enjoy their time on Catalog. That said, we deeply respect an artist's autonomy over their work and how it’s monetized, so we've made it easy for artists to opt out of this feature for their existing records at any time before January 11th, 2024.
What’s next?
Catalog Radio and cosigns will go live in early 2024. We’ve built a new application from the ground up and spun up our broadcasting infrastructure from scratch. Our team’s excited to iterate on new experiences for music with this new foundation beneath us: radio, cosigns, 1-of-1s. Live broadcast, internet record shop, permanent archive. Multiple ways to express your taste and celebrate artistry onchain. An internet made for music — if you’re reading this, you’re playing a part. Hear you soon.
