NFTs and the music industry: The future for hardcore fans and collectors
Up until recently, the most famous case of an one copy album being sold through auction to a fan was that of Wu-Tang Clan Once Upon a Time in Shaolin being auctioned off to farmabro, Martin Shkreli for $2,000,000 back in 2015. I will not touch much on the controversies around Shkreli. Some hate him, others like him, while a third group thinks he is misunderstood and a scapegoat for Big Farma price hiking routines. Long story short, when Shkreli ended in jail the album was part of the assets that the feds seized from him.
Let's move to today. Shkreli is still in prison and his album in fed custody. That would have never happened if he owned the album in a digital form like an NFT would it? Probably not, if he was smart.
What are NFTs though?
For the ones of you who are still not involved much this is a quick explanation, the others can skip it for the more interesting parts of this piece.
NFT stands for non-fungible token. Richard Smith, an expert in markets and financial cycles, says the word “fungible” refers to a good that can be mutually exchanged — if you have a $1 bill and he has a $1 bill and you swap them, nobody is the richer.
Non-fungible is the opposite of that; the token is attached to a super special item.
“We can’t just trade one for another and not lose any value,” Smith says. “It’s a collectible, and you’ll be able to uniquely identify and authenticate yourself as the owner of that collectible.”
How are NFTs changing the music industry?
The Kings of Leon were of the first of the famous music artists that released their own NFT. At least, they were the first I noticed going about that way. The Sex is On Fire creators which was a instant hit back in the late 2000s. The band released their When You See Yourself digital album for $50 dollars price on March 5th and it was available sale only for 2 weeks, making it a digital collector's item and a superfan's darling. In total there were three different types of tokens: the first a special album package, the second offering live show perks and the third containing exclusive audiovisual art.
The American powerhouse in Electronic Music 3LAU also auction off his NFT albums in March through Origin Protocol Platform. In total he sold a rare 33 unique pieces of each one different that the other through a bidding process. His returns were massive, with the albums settling for a total of more than $11.600.000 in revenue. One of the bidders in the auction bid more than $3.600.000 for one of the albums. That's a lot of money!
Then we have Snoop Dogg! Yes, D O DOUBLE G has just launched his own NFT collection "A Journey with the Dogg" through Crypto.com's new NFT platform. It was launched on April 3rd and it will be available for 48 hours. The icon of hip-hop and entertainment always finds a way to remain relevant and up-to-date to the latest news. The drop is influenced by the Snoop's journey from his childhood until now featuring rare artwork from his youth and an exclusive NFT music track that will become a collector's instant classic! There is still some hours left before the drop closes and you can find it here.
Other artists that have already released NFT music and albums include Grimes, Steve Aoki, Shawn Mendez, Tory Lanez, electronic music legendary duo Daft Punk, and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park who released a demo teaser.
Upcoming
Another 2 artists have joined Crypto.com's NFT marketplace and are releasing new music and art through that. These are the pop icon Boy George and Lionel Richie, one of the best selling music artists of all time! Damn, even Elon Musk, the Technoking and Tesla daddy created his own NFT music track and was teasing to sell it!
The NFT craze in music is just taking-off and we will soon have all major artists releasing their collections or exclusive NFT music which is a profitable business, especially now that festivals and concerts have been cancelled. My bet is that legendary rock, hip hop, and pop icons will come out of retirement for exclusive one-off NFT content.
Most contemporary hit makers like Travis Scott, Drake, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, Cardi B, the Weekend and others will soon join the trend as it ensures massive returns for the needed effort that they will be putting into it.
I can't stop thinking of how incredibly lucky, and probably rich in the future, someone will be for having an exclusive unreleased NFT track from the Rolling Stones or Eminem.
