Mastercard Creates a Mastercard Artist Accelerator Program for Musicians Through Web3

JAKARTA - Global payments giant Mastercard is once again increasing its involvement in blockchain technology, after announcing its Polygon-based accelerator program to help musicians build their careers through Web3.

The credit card company announced its "Mastercard Artist Accelerator" program in a blog post on January 7, outlining that starting this spring, it will connect five emerging musicians from around the world with mentors who will help them build their brand in the Web3 music space.

"Artists will gain exclusive access to special events, music releases, and more. The first-of-its-kind curriculum will teach artists how to build (and own) their brand through Web3 experiences such as creating NFTs, representing themselves in virtual worlds and building engaged community," the post read, as quoted by Cointelegraph.

The program will culminate with live artist performances at the end of the year.

Mastercard is also launching a non-fungible token (NFT) collection called "Mastercard Music Pass" for those not selected for the program. The goal is to provide sellers with educational materials and "unique resources" through brand collaborations to help budding musicians learn about Web3 integration with the music sector.

“Web3 has the potential to empower a new breed of artist who can grow their fan base, earn a living, and introduce a new medium for self-expression and connection on their own terms,” said Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Watt.

Polygon looks poised to become a hub for music-related Web3 projects. On December 6, Cointelegraph reported that global entertainment giant Warner Music Group has partnered with Polygon Studios and e-commerce and interactive platform maker LGN.io, to build a Web3 music platform called LGND Music.

The platform is scheduled to launch later this month and will allow users to stream music and collect and trade music NFTs.

Mastercard has been actively continuing its involvement in the blockchain and crypto sectors. In January 2022, Mastercard joined forces with Coinbase to enable the use of Mastercard cards to purchase NFTs on the Coinbase marketplace.

In mid-October 2022, Mastercard partnered with Paxos to enable banks to offer cryptocurrency trading and related services to their customers.

Meanwhile that same month, Cointelegraph also reported that Mastercard had launched a crypto-fraud protection tool that allows banks to discover and prevent fraud on crypto merchant platforms within its network.