How an Artist Dropped by Sony Made $250k Selling NFTs

*Photo: Dylan Rucker, Pixel art: Chloe Zorn*

After competing on American Idol and being signed then dropped, by Sony, Miami-born, Cuban American singer-songwriter Sammy Arriaga has fast become one of the most interesting musicians of the Web3 world.

Before establishing his impressive Web3 presence, Arriaga built a significant following online via TikTok, Instagram Reels and Spotify. Now, he credits Web3 as a major contributor to his success.

"It's safe to say Web3 is the best thing to ever happen in my music career thus far. Ever since I immersed myself into Web3, I've been reignited and re-inspired. I never thought that being introduced to Web3 would impact me and my music career so greatly," Arriaga says.

One of the Nashville-based artist’s first steps into the Web3 world was facilitated by Twitter Spaces. He promoted his NFTs by searching Twitter Spaces for conversations about NFTs and Web3. He introduced himself there and offered ‘music breaks’ to users where he performed his songs, and told listeners they could buy them as NFTs. He reinforced this simple tactic by pinning his message to the chat.

The self-described "Twitter Busker" released his first blockchain single 'METAGIRL' in April of 2022. The Web3-themed love song was embedded into a 3D art piece of an anatomical heart. Each 'METAGIRL' NFT acted as a key that gave owners access to the artist's exclusive recordings, merchandise, music videos, interviews, in-person performances, presales for future projects and more. Exclusive packages were rewarded to fans who collected five particular ‘METAGIRL’ tokens, and one fan received a custom made guitar and personal message from Arriaga.

In less than two months, Arriaga's first NFTs sold out, with 2,500 purchased, and $250,000 USD made in sales.

'METAGIRL' was followed by 'PIXELATED' in June 2022. The 'PIXELATED' release saw Arriaga share NFTs based on 14 different versions of the same song. For his second run of NFTS, Arriaga released more than 4,000 tokens, each of which came with one of 150 profile picture for fans to use across social media. The profile picture even correlated with the song styles. 'PIXELATED' followed in 'METAGIRL's footsteps, and sold out.

Arriaga has continued to keep the NFT ball rolling with releases like 'Pulse Pass by Sammy Arriaga', ‘THE Airdrops by Sammy Arriaga', and 'Sammy Arriaga - The Singles'.

By building a foundation with Web3 communities, Sammy Arriaga reminds us that investing in audiences and curating experiences and merchandise to their tastes has huge potential upside.

The Habit Weekly

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