Universal and Sony spent $550M buying Bob Dylan's music rights. Now they're making NFTS with him.

Over the past couple of years, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Group have jointly splashed over half a billion dollars on Bob Dylan’s copyrights.

UMG spent somewhere close to $400 million on his song catalog in 2020, while Sony bought his recorded music rights for north of $150 million last year.

Now, the two majors are partnering on an NFT project founded by Bob Dylan himself.

The new NFT trading platform, Snowcrash, was co-founded by Dylan and his son, filmmaker Jesse Dylan. Snowcrash’s other co-founders are Walter De Brouwer, who is described as “a pioneer” in financial engineering, decentralized finance, and NFTs, as well as entertainment executive, Jeff Rosen.

Snowcrash has been formed in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment and UMG, and, according to a media statement, aims to “bring together diverse segments of technology, the creative arts and digital innovation”.

If the name ‘Snowcrash’ sounds familiar, that’s because Snow Crash is the name of the influential 1992 science fiction novel, by author Neal Stephenson, who coined the now widely-used web3 term ‘metaverse’.

According to Snowcrash’s website, the platform believes that “Web 3.0 will push machines to the center and humans to the edge (now we have humans at the center and machines at the edge)”.

It adds: “This reversal implies the construction of a digital twin of the natural world (from 1 to 1?). Turning atoms into bits has now become possible because of non-fungibility and DeFi as the crypto-economy of the Metaverse.”

NFTs already slated for release by the platform this year will come from Bob Dylan and Miles Davis, as well as emerging artist Varvara (who reimagines the paintings of John James Audubon).

Further projects with partners will be announced in the coming months.

Snowcrash says that its work also goes beyond its own NFT storefront, with one such effort already active. Leveraging a long-time relationship of Jesse Dylan-founded Wondros, Snowcrash recently partnered with UNICEF on NFTs celebrating the 75th anniversary of the organization.

Snowcrash explains that its platform runs on the Solana blockchain and is owned by a Delaware-based company called Snowcrash Markets Inc..

The platform “started as an idea in March 2021, was incorporated in May 2021, and began operations in November 2021,” according to Snowcrash.

Snowcrash also says that it has entered a joint venture with cryptocurrency exchange FTX and is a strategic partner of Solana Labs, the makers of Metaplex.

FTX recently raised $420 million at a $25 billion valuation and signed up Stephen Curry and NFL stars Tom Brady and Trevor Lawrence as its  global ambassadors and shareholders.

Elsewhere on the Snowcrash platform’s website, it states that, as part of its ‘Belief System’, that “Decentralization is the uncompromising and ruthless consequence of the 2009 Satoshi paper”.

It adds: “As long as there is something centralized, it is in danger of disappearance, hacking or censoring. If we want to build things that withstand time we have to decentralize them.”

De Brouwer said: “With Snowcrash, we have found a perfect opportunity where the entertainment community, Silicon Valley and Wall Street all come together to create opportunities for artists and organizations impacting the world today.

“We have also launched the platform on the Solana blockchain, which is a much better choice for the environment.”

Jesse Dylan said: “By creating Snowcrash, we have a platform that brings artists together with impactful organizations. I believe we have seen just the tip of the iceberg in this emerging space.”

Dennis Kooker, President, Global Digital Business, Sony Music Entertainment, said: “Snowcrash is a promising new NFT marketplace with strong leadership connections to the music community, experienced technology vision and differentiated in-house creative capabilities.

“We are pleased to be partnering with them to identify and develop a range of opportunities for our recording artists with a focus on delivering accessible, user-friendly experiences for both creators and fans.”

Michael Nash, EVP, Digital Strategy, Universal Music Group, added: “A critical part of UMG’s strategy in this space is to develop artist-focused, premium campaigns and fan-oriented collectables with world-class partners, which will enable our artists and labels to advance their cultural influence at the forefront of innovation.

“The all-star team behind Snowcrash, with the incredible experience and perspective that Jeff, Jesse and Walter bring from their varied backgrounds and fields, promises to deliver exciting new creative opportunities for our global roster of artists and songwriters.”