Polkadot is one blockchain that we haven’t recently associated in the entertainment and sports coverage here at Bitcoinist. Blockchains like Polygon, Solana, Tezos and Avalanche (among others) have taken a very culture or creative-first approach in a variety of ways, but Polkadot – despite being a consistent top 20 player – has rarely been in that dialogue recently.

That tide could be in the midst of turning as the chain has announced a new partnership with electronic music powerhouse Beatport this week.

The two parties will be collaborating on a new, on-chain electronic music platform. Let’s take a look at the details we know thus far.

Beatport Meets Polkadot

Beatport and Polkadot are launching Beatport.io, which is currently a landing page directing to a waiting list. As the platform comes to life, it aims to be a platform that will allow “artists, producers, and record labels to enjoy the benefits of Web3, while also giving music fans an opportunity to explore the value of digital collectibles and deepen their connection to their favorite artists and DJs,” according to a byline in a press release provided to Bitcoinist.

In addition to building out this music-based platform, the two partners will also work on congruent live event activations, with a goal of 10 events over the next year and a half; each event will look to celebrate a new NFT collection on the platform.

Beatport has been a staple in the DJ community for nearly two decades, carrying a catalogue of 16M+ tracks and a record label network that spans across nearly 100K labels. Beatport taps into the community through streaming, plugins, sound packs and more – all areas conducive to the web3 landscape today.

On-Chain: Music, Entertainment, And Culture At Large

Polkadot has had a relatively quiet start to 2023, and this move marks the chain’s first strides into a music and culture vertical at this sort of size and scale. Earlier in the year, we saw Polkadot-based Astar Network host a hackathon that tapped the Japanese Toyota Motor Corporation as a sponsor. Otherwise, it’s been a quiet year for corporate and cultural partners, and this latest story certainly shakes things up for Polkadot.

Elsewhere in crypto and music, we’ve seen web2 music monster Spotify dipping their toes in the sand, Warner Music Group pair with OpenSea, and blockchains have even been aggressive in building in this vertical too: VAULT is a new platform in the works from the co-founders of sports betting platform FanDuel, which is being built on Solana, and Flow-based ChartStars is working with Billboard and Universal Music Group.

Can web3 change the way we interact with music? Plenty of projects on plenty of chains are working towards exactly that.