Disintermediation, speculation or financialization? Uses and discourses about nft in the music market

Abstract

The article analyzes the ideology, uses and implications of the NFT (Non-Fungible Token) for the music economy. The NFT rescues the ideology of the disintermediation of economic relations by promising higher financial returns to the artist, resulting from the direct connection with the consumer. Technology, however, reorients artists’ careers as well as their relationship with fans. Informed by anarcho-capitalist philosophy, the use of the NFT demands artists to treat their works as assets with volatile value, as for the fans, the use of this new financial technology demands them to play the role of investors. From the bibliographic analysis, we analyzed: (1) the role of the ideology of disintermediation in the music economy, (2) the anarcho-capitalist inspiration in the development of new financial technologies, such as the NFT, (3) the use of NFT in the music market and (4) the role of fans in a financialized music economy. As a conclusion, we point out how the use of technologies such as NFT is part of another moment in the music industry that can be labeled as post-streaming.