Mastercard Announced “Artist Accelerator” Program

Mastercard, which previously signed major partnerships in the blockchain field, has now joined forces with Polygon. The Polygon-powered acceleration program will allow musicians to build their careers in Web3. Mastercard announced its program called “Mastercard Artist Accelerator” in a blog post dated January 7th. According to the announcement, the program will go live next spring. With the collaboration of Mastercard and Polygon, five musicians from around the world will be given the opportunity to establish their brands in Web3 music.

“Artists will gain exclusive access to special events, music releases, and more. The program will teach artists how to build their brands through Web3 experiences such as printing NFTs, representing themselves in virtual worlds, and building an engaged community.”

Mastercard also published the announcement on its official Twitter account. The company underlined that it is happy to take part in the Web3 supported “Mastercard Artist Accelerator” program with Polygon. In addition, Mastercard announced that it has launched an NFT collection called Mastercard Music Pass for those who were not selected for the program.

Commenting as part of the announcement, Ryan Watt, CEO of Polygon Studios, made the following statements.

“Web3 is one of the best environments for artists to grow their fan base, make a living, and express themselves. Web3 also has the potential to empower a new breed of artists that can offer new avenues for connection.”

Polygon continues to take firm steps towards becoming a center in the music-related Web3 space. The blockchain platform rolled up its sleeves to create a Web3 music platform called “LGND Music” by the global entertainment giant Warner Music Group in December 2022. On the other hand, the program, carried out in cooperation with Mastercard and Polygon, is expected to start at the end of January. Starting later this month, users will be able to start streaming music, collecting and selling music NFTs.

Mastercard has been making its presence known in the blockchain and crypto industry for a while. The payments giant joined forces with Coinbase to enable the use of Mastercard cards for NFT purchases on Coinbase in January 2022. In mid-October 2022, the company partnered with Paxos to offer cryptocurrency trading and related services to bank customers.