High gas costs suck.

Collecting music should be about the music, but lately it costs more in gas to collect a song than the cost of the song itself.

Artists need to have a material amount of ETH to deploy their song, and that’s a non-starter for many.

So today - we’re excited to partner with the Optimism Collective to bring Sound to a Layer 2.

Uploading and collecting will now have significantly reduced gas fees and lightning fast transactions.

Starting today, artists can upload on Optimism.

• Lower cost. 90% reduction in gas cost to upload and collect songs

• Faster transactions. ~6x improvement in transaction speeds

• Accessible to all. Pay with card or with ETH on Mainnet or Optimism

Introducing a Layer 2 is mission critical to building a world where artists can earn a living from their music alone, and we’re thrilled to be among the pioneers bringing onchain music to Optimism.

We specifically chose Optimism not only to unlock cheaper and faster transactions, but also because we share similar philosophical ideals. Just as we aim to help artists better profit from their art, Optimism has a unique funding mechanism that rewards builders who contribute to the ecosystem.

For Artists

Artists can choose between Optimism (Layer 2) or Ethereum (Layer 1) when uploading their music.

We recommend the Optimism chain to fully benefit from lower gas fees, but ultimately leave the decision up to the creator.

Collecting on Optimism

Collectors will be able to listen to and collect songs across both chains while exploring Sound.xyz.

To collect a song on Optimism, you’ll need ETH on Optimism. To fund your wallet, bridge funds on the official Optimism Bridge.

Keep in mind: on Sound, you can also either pay with ETH or Card.

We’re also introducing a way to pay with Mainnet ETH and deliver the Music NFTs to your wallet on Optimism.

Commemorative drop

To commemorate our launch on a Layer 2, we’re dropping a song by Optimism co-founder @ben_chain and Sound co-founder @Gigamesh as a free open edition.

Available to mint for 7 days here: sound.xyz/optimism/v-buterin

We’ve also partnered with a number of Sound artists to give you dozens of great songs to collect the first week on Optimism. Check out a full calendar of upcoming drops here.

Why this matters?

We believe in a world where every dollar spent should go straight into an artist’s pocket – not to transaction costs.

Projects like Optimism directly make this possible - and reduce the financial barrier to entry for all participants.

We’re well aware of the many different scaling solutions out there, and feel very confident that Optimism is here to stay.

In the future - we look forward to Sound supporting multiple networks - but want to start by prioritizing accessibility and then quickly making Sound open to the public.

We believe this integration unlocks an entirely new world of possibilities for Sound and could not be more excited to be one of the first projects to bring onchain music to the Optimism ecosystem.

Stay tuned for more updates coming very soon!