Sona Launches Sona Stream – A Free Music Streaming Service Coupled with a Song Marketplace

The music industry just saw the launch of a new Web3 streaming protocol called Sona. The project uses DeFi primitives, the basic building blocks of decentralized finance, to empower artists and offer a rewards model. Additionally, the new service also provides auctions and ad-free music streaming.

And we're live Thanks to our launch artists, investors and partners for your continued support for our shared vision of a more equitable and rewarding music industry.

We're humbled, grateful - and just getting started!

We're building a new pathway for artists to capitalize...

- sona.stream (@sonastream) December 6, 2023

A new Web3 music platform is here

Sona is a brand-new product that just emerged from stealth on December 6. Its arrival brought a lot of hype, as the project announced the open beta launch of Sona Stream, its very first product.

Sona Stream is a free music streaming service requiring no subscriptions and features no ads. It is also equipped with its music marketplace, which allows artists to share their creations and auction off SONAs.

SONAs are described as digital twins" of songs, which come as digital assets. They can only be owned by one person at a time.

However, that is not the end of the company's announcements. It also revealed its $6.9 million seed funding round from Rogue Capital, Polychain Capital, and Haun Ventures.

It noted that it intends to use the funds for further development of new features and for hiring engineers who will make its new service even better in the future.

How do SONAs work?

While ad-free music streaming will likely attract most of the platform's users, Sona's marketplace is the more exciting part of the project. It will allow artists to auction their SONAs to collectors for 24 hours.

They can set a minimum price and then sell to the highest bidder, resulting in instant liquidity. Further, the owner of a SONA would receive 70% of the streaming payout rewards, which are based on a pro-rata share of total streams that the platform will see.

The artists will receive the remaining 30%, while the company will take a 7% fee. The rewards come from the rewards pool, funded by a small percentage of SONA sales. In other words, each purchase of SONAs will support all artists on the platform.

The project also plans to introduce tipping, a merchandise store, the ability to buy tickets, fixed-price audio downloads, stem downloads, and more.

The project's co-founder, Laura Jaramillo, explained that the funds will be pooled every two weeks and then redistributed to all artists and collectors, proportional to how much each song is streamed.

According to Jaramillo, users will be paying artists for their work, thus incentivizing the creation of that work. Along the way, they will reward the people supporting the artists.

SONAs are not typical NFTs

The idea behind SONA and music NFTs, in general, is to encourage fans to support their favorite artists and help promote their creations.

When SONAs owners share songs on social media platforms, their followers will be directed to Sona Stream, which will help the streaming service grow its user base. At the same time, the platform will earn revenue.

SONAs are also unlike other NFTs, as they are unrelated to royalties from other streaming platforms. All rewards are from the Sona ecosystem exclusively.

Another co-founder, Jennifer Lee, addressed this, saying that the artist and rightsholder get to keep 100% ownership of the song. This differs from a typical NFT situation, so Sona doesn't see itself as a music NFT platform.

However, there are some limitations to the service. Collectors must live in the US and be 18 to purchase a SONA. They can then sell or trade SONAs on the native or third-party marketplace.

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