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Violetta Zironi: "Off the back of NFTs, my music career survived"

An X Factor Italy finalist, signed to a major record deal and even a Netflix actress — on paper, it would seem chanson-style singer-songwriter Violetta Zironi was absolutely thriving in the traditional music industry. But after the traumatic experience of a reality music show followed by the heavy restrictions of being signed to Sony Music Italy took their toll, she faced the choice of quitting music or finding a new path. Now, Zironi is one of the leading voices selling her music as NFTs using blockchain technology, generating tens of thousands of dollars for her music that she couldn’t have dreamed of from streaming and record labels.

Italian-born Zironi is speaking from Berlin, her home after leaving London some years ago. When she describes the early part of her career, it sounds like a fairytale on the face of it. That is, until you hear the gritty details. 

“I started in 2013 when I entered the Italian X Factor,” she says, her accent now a hotchpotch of different dialects after an international life. “Before that I was playing shows at town fairs, small bars and small festivals. And then at 18, I entered the competition and it went really well. I got to the final and I was third in the end. 

"I signed a major label deal with Sony Music Italy and I was with them for a couple of years. It was a really terrible deal that I had no idea I had gotten myself into. But I learned a lot from that experience. After that, we managed to part peacefully with the label, thankfully.

“I became independent, and started playing shows all over Italy, up and down all the time. Then I met singer songwriter, Jack Savoretti – we shared the same Italian management. He asked me to go on tour with him around Italy, the UK and Germany. That pushed me to move to London, and that's when I really started developing my songwriting skills and being faced with the international music industry.”

Unpleasant record label experience aside, the music industry seemed to open up for Zironi, particularly as she moved to Germany. Commercial opportunities came knocking, as well as a certain film and series streaming company

 “I started writing songs for other artists, for commercials, for movies – and movies that I was in! I was just tapping into every aspect of the entertainment industry. I was lucky enough to have the chance to act in a couple of movies. 

"One of them is called Rose Island, which is on Netflix. At the time it was the biggest European Netflix production ever made, which was really cool.”

When I discovered NFTs, that was it and I decided to give it everything.

However, the global pandemic and ensuing international lockdown exposed the great frailty of a musician’s career in the traditional industry, especially since the advent of streaming – particularly for an artist like Zironi, who fits the classic singer-songwriter mould (which her sound meets very elegantly), who was previously always travelling and relying on shows, guitar in hand.

“I was so broke over those two years,” she says. “Even though I had done all those things. I was independent and I'd used my own funds to reinvest in my career, and when you cannot play live, you can't network. 

'Movie productions slowed down as well; it was just a mess. I was at a point where I wanted to get signed to a label again. I was aiming for labels like Decca, Sony Classics, but there would always be something about my music or something blocking it from happening. So it became, ‘I have no choice right now. I either quit and do something else, or I find something drastic that is going to change my career completely’. And when I discovered NFTs, that was it and I decided to give it everything.”

If you’re reading this and wondering what on earth an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) is, here it is in layman’s terms: An NFT is a digital asset that you sell online (in Zironi’s case, for example, songs, EPs, albums), using blockchain technology, aka the tech that powers cryptocurrencies like the notorious Bitcoin. 

Because said technology is so powerful, complex and very difficult to hack, it essentially knocks out the music industry middlemen, e.g. record labels and agents – allowing musicians to sell their music, music videos and more for very fair compensation. 

Very fair when compared to Spotify’s $0.0049 per stream. To give you an idea, one of Zironi’s songs, Oasis, is currently listed for resale for 7.77 Ethereum, which translates as $24,439.21. To earn that from Spotify, she would need millions of streams.

I signed with a major label; it was a really terrible deal, but I learned a lot from that experience.

“I joined the NFT space at the beginning of January 2022,” she says. “I just started exploring, talking to people, going on Twitter and listening, doing a lot of research on my own. Then I met Nifty Sax, who is one of the OG music NFT artists. 

"His first collection was out in March last year, and was really successful. I got in touch with him on Twitter, introducing myself and asking if he had any advice for me. We started working together and strategizing together. I then released my first collection, Handmade Songs. I’d asked Nifty Sax what sort of music I should do for an NFT — because I was so used to people telling me you need to have ‘that kind’ of song for Spotify, you need to have ‘that kind’ of song for radio, etc. 

"He just said to make whatever makes you feel good. And that was the first time someone ever told me anything like that. I enjoy writing my songs on the guitar. I play my songs live on the guitar all the time. So that's exactly what I did. I went to the studio and did one take for each song, no edits, just a little EQing. Off the back of this, my music career survived and I was able to reinvest.”

It’s quite an astonishing gamechanger, and that’s putting it mildly. And Zironi is one of the foremost artists pioneering this tectonic shift in the industry — as well as these releases, she’s very active in its community, hosting conversations and open mics via Twitter Spaces so that other musicians get a chance to be heard and ask questions about what could of course be an overwhelming topic. 

She’s just released her latest project, Moonshot, as she builds up to her first full album release as an NFT. To the moon, indeed, is where she’s headed.