Mastercard enlists Polygon to enable emerging artists to use Web3 technology

Mastercard’s Artist Accelerator, as the program is called, will teach five different emerging artists, including singers, musicians, DJs and producers, how to use blockchain tools to build their brand and fan engagement.

Mastercard partners with Polygon to teach Web3

Traditional financial companies are now looking to harness the power of blockchain for a myriad of activities in different areas. Mastercard, one of the largest payments companies, has partnered with Polygon, an Ethereum scaling platform, to introduce five different emerging artists to the possibilities Web3 technologies can bring to their businesses.

The Mastercard Artist Accelerator Program will use the Polygon network to teach selected artists how to perform a series of activities that will allow them to cut out the middleman, monetize their own collections of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to increase online fan engagement, and be present at metaverse-based concerts, among other things.

Autonomy and freedom seem to be one of the biggest goals of the program, and the two companies have prepared a curriculum called “first of its kind” for this task. On this subject, Ryan Watts, CEO of Polygon Studios, said:

Web3 has the potential to empower a new type of artist who can develop a fan base, make a living, and introduce new ways of expression and connection on their own terms.

Web3 and music

Mastercard’s relationship with music is not new, as the company is currently an official sponsor of the Grammys and even got into music production by launching its own label. The importance of decentralized technologies to Mastercard is clear, as it seeks to empower new artists in the ecosystem to achieve relevance on their own.

” Music is a universal passion, inspiring, moving and bringing us together; however, it can seem impossible for aspiring artists to break through ” said Raja Rajamannar, CMO of Mastercard, reinforcing the relevance of these technologies to the development of today’s artists.

The five artists who will be eligible to participate in the program have not yet been selected, and artists can still apply. The program is scheduled to kick off in spring 2023, and fans will also be able to join these artists along the way, teaming up to learn how these tools work.