US-based music commerce app Single has secured an investment from Shopify and launched a token-gated commerce and content feature. Single was founded in 2016 as a collection of music-specific toolsets for online stores.

The company handles merch and record sales, sales reporting, ticketing, live stream concert hosting, and more. As of July 2022, Single says it has worked with more than 3,000 artists and labels, and has reported over 20 million record sales, delivered over 5 million digital albums, and facilitated more than 500 live-streamed events with around 1 million tickets sold. Its clients include Live Nation and EMPIRE, among others.

Single’s venture into Web 3. 0 With the release of token-gating content and commerce for the Single app on Shopify, Single claims that ‘in mere minutes’, a creator can upload any file to the Single Platform to mint it as an NFT on the Solana blockchain. The company says they can then push it directly to their Shopify storefront to be purchased by fans alongside their existing merch.

Following the purchase of an NFT, fans can use their NFT as a ‘digital key’ to gain access to exclusive offerings from the creator such as merch, audio or video content, live streams, and more. By integrating Web 3. 0 functionalities into its Shopify app, Single claims to be enabling creatives, artists, and musicians with tools to engage with their fans in new ways and to unlock innovative commerce experiences.

Single’s company officials stated that Web 3. 0 is having an impact on the broader creator ecosystem, especially in the music space, but the feedback they get most often is that NFTs don’t inherently have value on their own. A better way to think about tokengating is to compare it to a fan club.

A fan purchases an NFT through a creator’s Shopify storefront, which gives them access to exclusive offerings and experiences that only fellow NFT owners have access to. .