The Mastercard Artist Accelerator was developed in collaboration with Polygon Studios to assist five up-and-coming musicians in utilizing blockchain-based technology.

The financial services business revealed on Friday that the Mastercard Artist Accelerator will make its world premiere at the CES in Las Vegas in 2023. The program will help five up-and-coming musicians traverse the sometimes confusing world of blockchain-based technologies. It will also help to connect them with mentors, fans, and technical resources.

The brand said that its upcoming web3-based music program is set to debut in the spring. It will include a first-of-its-kind teaching method that will teach the artists how to build and own their brand through web3 experiences. They will learn how to mint NFTs, represent themselves in virtual worlds, and establish an engaged community.  Through the Mastercard Music Pass, a limited-edition NFT, fans will also have access to exclusive resources in real life and the metaverse.

The Mastercard Music Accelerator is being created in collaboration with the blockchain platform Polygon Studios.  

Artist Accelerator will connect musicians with their fans as they earn a living

The Artist Accelerator will link musicians with their followers as they make a living.

Since the start of the pandemic, musicians, particularly those who were less established, had to find new ways to interact with audiences and make a livelihood. Web3 has since arisen as a transformative force within the music industry. For instance, NFTs have made it possible for many artists to give their fans access to unique experiences and merchandise without having to deal with the sometimes exploitative contractual requirements imposed by labels and other third-party middlemen.

Mastercard’s investment in Artist Accelerator is part of its commitment to helping people find their passions.

According to Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing, and communications officer at Mastercard, music is a global passion, and connecting people to their hobbies has been Mastercard’s mission for years. So deciding to invest in this initiative was a natural approach for the company to achieve this objective.

 If artists and producers know how to make use of web3, it offers enormous potential for them to produce, own, and sell their work.  NFT, for example, is an avenue to unlocking their financial potential. Mastercard believes that AR, NFTs, and blockchain are technologies that will continue to gain ground if properly implemented. If upcoming artists have the skills and expertise to produce NFTs, they are then able to fund their careers.

Other web3 projects by Mastercard

Mastercard has previously ventured into the web3 space through its project Crypto Source and its partnership with Coinbase. The company unveiled Crypto Source in October, a program designed to assist banks in offering cryptocurrency services to customers. Early in 2022, Mastercard also began a partnership with the cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase. The aim of the partneship was to enable users to use Mastercard cards to buy NFTs through Coinbase’s NFT marketplace.