Sound Agriculture

Sound.xyz emerged in 2021, co-founded by David Greenstein, Vignesh Hirudayakanth, and Matt Masurka (also known as Gigamesh), with a clear mission: to revolutionize the music industry's economic model for artists. Greenstein, having experienced the traditional music industry firsthand through an internship at Atlantic Records, recognized the inherent challenges artists faced in reaching audiences and, more critically, earning a sustainable income from their music. The prevailing streaming model, while offering vast reach, often left artists with meager earnings, with a disproportionate amount of revenue flowing to the top tier of musicians. This realization fueled the creation of Sound.xyz, a platform designed to empower artists by leveraging the burgeoning potential of Web3 technologies, specifically non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The journey began with a simple yet powerful hypothesis: if fans were given a more direct and meaningful way to connect with and support their favorite artists, the true value of music could be unlocked. Sound.xyz set out to build a suite of tools that would allow musicians to release their music as NFTs, creating unique, collectible digital assets. This approach aimed to flip the traditional model on its head, enabling artists to set their own prices, sell directly to their fans, and receive instant payments. Early on, the platform operated with a curated approach, onboarding artists individually to refine the process and experiment within a controlled environment. This careful cultivation allowed Sound.xyz to attract notable artists like Snoop Dogg and Pussy Riot, generating significant revenue directly for creators even in its initial phases. The platform's core offering centered around 'listening parties,' where artists could debut new music as a limited set of NFTs, allowing fans to not only own a piece of the music but also to publicly showcase their early support and become part of an interactive community. As Sound.xyz evolved, it secured significant backing, including a $5 million seed round in late 2021 and a $20 million Series A funding round in mid-2023, led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto), underscoring the growing confidence in its vision to build a more equitable music economy. This financial backing has been instrumental in expanding the platform's capabilities and, crucially, opening its doors to all artists, marking a new era of accessibility and aiming to become a primary destination for music discovery on the internet.