#99 | Spotify Rolling Out NFT-Gated Features

Estimated Read Time: 7 minutes

Hey friends,

Welcome back to today’s specially curated Morning NFTea, it’s great to have you with us! In today’s edition, we have big news from Spotify, an innovative initiative from Alo Yoga, and JOMO’s mental health NFTs. Let’s jump in!

Our coverage on Spotify started a full year ago when the world’s largest music streaming platform dived into Web3 with special NFT sections added to artists’ profiles that gave fans and listeners a new way to connect and interact with their favorite music. It seems like this was a success because Spotify hasn’t given up on Web3 with a new pilot program that will bring even more NFT-enabled features to their platform, starting with NFT-gated playlists.

For this new pilot, the pixelated owl NFT project Moonbirds has been selected as a partner to test out this new feature, where holders can unlock exclusive musical content starting with Moonbird’s limited-edition Spotify playlist dubbed “Sound of a Digital Renaissance”. As a pilot, the features are pretty limited with only holders using Android phones (because of Apple’s policies against NFTs) from select countries (USA, UK, Germany, Azerbaijan and Australia) being available for the trial. Nonetheless, it’s a collaboration that highlights another awesome way that renowned Web2 brands are delivering exciting and new experiences to communities through NFTs and Web3.

Earlier this year Spotify also partnered with Universal Music Group and NFT band KINGSHIP to offer similar functionality, showing how Spotify is committed to a more immersive and interconnected digital ecosystem for their listeners. Moonbirds shares this same notion, saying “This playlist will fuel the creative minds of our community and our artists” while seeing this opportunity as a way to onboard Web2 to Web3 as these brands and platforms continue to be intertwined.

That being said, Moonbirds holder sentiment has not been great regarding this ‘perk’ for their holders:

Although playlists that require connecting your NFT may sound a bit gimmicky, we can’t look past one of the world’s biggest Web2 platforms continuing to embrace and experiment with NFTs, bringing us another step closer to mainstream adoption.

Alo Yoga is one of the leading yoga apparel brands in the US right now and a recent partnership with MoonPay will see the start of a progressive initiative that lets customers collect free NFTs at their stores. Why would real-world shoppers want some NFTs? Well, it started in February when we covered Alo Yoga’s free “digital twin” NFTs that gave owners of their most expensive clothing line “2022 Aspen Collection” a digital certificate of authenticity that was also a spinning 3D render copy for the real-world units, they also came along with IRL perks and experiences. With that success, Alo is taking some important steps to open up Web3 to the rest of their customers.

At each of their US stores, customers will find an NFC terminal that says ‘Tap for Mindfulness.’ When customers bring their smartphone close to the NFC chip, they’ll be redirected to a web page to claim a free daily NFT. These NFTs in question are stored on Ethereum with MoonPays NFT minting system serving as an intuitive and easy way for anyone to get involved; Alo Yoga CMO Angelic Vendette said “We’re not using Web3 jargon. Instead, we are allowing our community to explore digital ownership in familiar environments… It enables a mass onboarding of consumers to enter the space in ways that aren’t confusing”. Highlighting the importance of initiatives like this that really do bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3.

It’s worth noting that Alo hasn’t just rolled out NFTs for every piece of apparel they have, but instead, these free daily NFTs are a collection of inspiring affirmations to honor Mental Health Awareness Month. Alo’s developments within the NFT and Web3 space not only show the continued effort to onboard people to Web3 through user-friendly experiences but shows the increasing pressure that this new age of the internet is having on Web2 brands to level themselves up in new ways.

On the topic of Mental Health Awareness Month, the NFT space can be pretty tough given the intense volatility of this newly emerging technology. So it seemed on theme to cover the launch of the JOMO Effect NFT collection. The collection in question is backed by a stacked lineup of 11 partners including the likes of TIME magazine, Unstoppable Domains, and prominent projects like Adam Bomb Squad to name a few. These large Web3 players have all banded together to put a refreshing spin on Web3’s FOMO (fear of missing out) through the JOMO (joy of missing out) perspective that signifies the collective’s dedication to destigmatizing and prioritizing mental well-being in crypto/NFTs.

The open-edition NFT collection is crafted by over 40 visionary creators who have contributed unique pieces of art such as Kristina Flynn who donated her first-ever public art piece. These tokens also give perks to the aforementioned partners of the project such as access to Deepak Chopra’s transformative Soul of Leadership course, exclusive Peace Inside Live meditations, and mindfulness materials amongst other offers. The cherry on top here is that proceeds from these Polygon-based NFTs will be donated to five commendable mental health charities including the esteemed American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

As an outspoken proponent for the long-term opportunity that Web3 and NFTs have to change our world positively, this message of not letting the short-term FOMO get to us is something Morning NFTea very much supports. As collectors frantically plunge into various collections and projects, striving to capitalize on every NFT opportunity and hoping to be omnipresent within the space, the Joy Of Missing Out presents a refreshing perspective encouraging individuals to embrace the blissful state of our ever-changing world, and remembering to focus on what truly matters.

Before we jump into the Ledger Recover shenanigans, a few updates on the $BEN token that dominated last week’s news cycle:

Another day, another crypto influencer choosing to use his followers as exit liquidity and fund his own goals.

But onto the news of the week — Ledger messing up big time in terms of launching a new feature that nobody asked for.

Here’s the tweet about Ledger Recover — a product that promises to help non-crypto-savvy users have a way to back up their seed phrase by having it split up into three (‘sharded’) and stored in separate locations.

The problem with that? That takes away from the security aspect that you’re buying a Ledger for in the first place, as it would only take one hack to get into your wallet and access all the crypto; i.e. the point of getting a hardware wallet is so nobody else could possibly access that information.

The customer service replies to inquiries didn’t make it any better.

Of course, the internet had a field day, with many people destroying their Ledgers in one way or another as well as make some brutal jokes.

Thanks for joining, we hope you enjoyed this edition and wish you all the best over the next few days while we whip up our monumental #100th Newsletter!! See you then.

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DISCLAIMER:

None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.#99