Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have existed since early 2021 long before we started creating headlines every other day. Its popularity surge is due to a single sale in March last year.A spectacular collage known as Every day: First 5000 days Sold for US $ 69 million as an NFT at a Christie’s auction by American artist Mike Winkelmann (well known as Beeple).
Since then, the flood of NFT artwork and its demand has increased exponentially. NFT sales in 2021 totaled $ 25 billion, compared with $ 95 million in the previous year.
In fact, the 10 best-selling NFT artworks in the world were sold in 2021. Several celebrities have launched their own NFT collections, including Lionel Messi, Justin Bieber and Snoop Dogg. These developments speak of a volume about how NFTs have taken the central stage in their collections.
Music xNFT and its future
Despite its appearance early last year, music NFTs in the form of songs and instruments will not be as mainstream as other NFT-based artworks such as Beeple paintings and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) characters. ..
Nonetheless, this form of NFT is growing thanks to the growing interest among collectors and the opportunity it introduces their work to non-mainstream musicians and makes money from their sales.
Merck Mercuridis, who previously managed Elton John, Beyonce and Guns N’Roses, said in December 2021 that NFTs are the future of music.
“Like Nile Rodgers, the song has been incredibly successful for 40 years … every 6 months, (he) is 10,000 pages long and has billions of microtransactions from Sony. I will receive a statement, “Mercuriadis said in an interview. Reuters Next Conference. “In the future, we will be able to use NFTs and blockchains to return these billions of transactions in real time.”
Mercuriadis seems correct. In February 2022, music icon John Legend launched an NFT platform named OurSong with Our Happy Company. OurSong is described as a “social commerce platform” that helps musicians create exclusive digital covers and access their own audio clips.
Marketplace with music-based NFT
High seas
One of the largest markets for NFTs is OpenSea. Almost all of the largest collections, including BAYC and CryptoPunks, are traded on the platform. These are two of the most famous NFTs in the world and are also an expensive collection to date.
Among the other collections at OpenSea is Lostboy NFT. Known for its collections that combine art and music to create unique tokens that can be exchanged for Ethereum (WETH) wrapped on the platform. The Lostboy NFT collection has a total of 10,000 works that emphasize mental health.
Like many other well-known avatar-based NFTs, the Lostboy NFT token is a unique mannequin-like character that puts your hand in your pocket or behind your back, the nominal Lostboy. It is a feature. Each NFT has its own characteristics such as shirts, beards and hats.
The tokens listed in Lostboy NFT combine images, animations and music to create NFT pieces. In this case, the music is the original Lostboy song.
Nifty Gateway
Another major market for music NFTs is the Nifty Gateway, where Grimes sold his work. It is estimated that it is less than half of all music-based NFT sales.
Gramatik, whose real name is Denis Jašarević, is one of the most frequent collaborators at Nifty Gateway.Musicians have released collections such as Cinematic collection‘ When G Drops Collection! In markets other than five full-length tokenized songs.
Origin protocol
As early as February 2021, musician 3LAU launched him Ultraviolet rays Album as an NFT on the platform. According to the Origin Protocol, this album was first sold as an NFT. The Ultraviolet rays The collection with 33 different NFTs sold for US $ 11.7 million over the three days of March.
DJ KSHMR is also his first NFT collection Harmonica Andromeda, Origin protocol. The collection, named after his debut album, was released in June 2021.
Super rare
SuperRare has been focusing on music-based NFTs since 2020.
In an interview with 3LAU in October 2020, the artist elaborated on music in the form of digital art and how it is changing the artist’s landscape.
Today it is one of the best markets for music-based NFTs.Some of the recent ones The winner is …A musical piece combined with animation, released as an interactive NFT by artist @balkanbump.
According to the description of the work, it features instruments such as trumpet, euphonium, piano, clarinet, and percussion.
Some notable music NFT sales
Prior to the record-breaking Beeple Sale, singer-songwriter Grimes became a hot topic in the NFT world when her series of 10 pieces sold at Nifty Gateway for $ 6 million.
Among them was a video titled Death of old, Obtained the highest price of US $ 389,000. The video shows a panorama of strange things such as crosses and swords and was set to Grimes’ original song. In a sense, Death of old It was a music-based NFT.
In March 2021, the Kings of Leon band released an album — When you look at yourself — In the form of three types of tokens under the series named NFT Yourself..
according to Rolling stone, Kings of Leon is the first band to release an album as an NFT. The collection sold for over US $ 2 million. The three tokens were a special album package, an opportunity for fans to win a front row seat in life, and exclusive audiovisual artwork.
Kings of Leon: Less than an hour before the NFT Yourself Auction is released with six golden tickets. #yellowheart # Kings of Leon #nft @ High seas @JoshkatzYh @ Kings of Leon
Information: https: //t.co/Gq1Mey9mfs pic.twitter.com/eZudw3Ge43— YellowHeart (@YellowHeartNFT) March 5, 2021
In May 2021, the Dallas-based choir Verdigris Ensemble sold a 21-minute song. Betty’s Note Digital art auction blockchain platform AsyncArt for US $ 375,000. Recorded in January, this song was the first classical music sold as an NFT.
In the same month, BT, famous for trance music, was released. Genesis.json US $ 212,000. Genesis.json Is software that contains over 15,000 hand-sequenced audio and visual moments. The “software” is designed to play 24 hours a day, repeat daily, and continue to play until the Internet is present.
One of the biggest sales of music-based NFTs came on December 13th when the rare Whitney Houston demo recording took place for US $ 999,999.title OneOf OneThe unprecedented recording of NFTs was paired with artist Diana Sinclair’s digital video and sold on the OneOfNFT Marketplace.
Whitney Houston OneOfOne NFT, an unprecedented demo track from 17-year-old Houston, for $ 999,999! Thanks to everyone who has made this wonderful moment possible in the history of music and NFT! ? @dianaesinclair #BeOneOf #whitneyhouston #NFTnews #WomeninNFTs pic.twitter.com/cmdSuyfOBH
— OneOf (@OneOfNFT) December 15, 2021
Beyond sales, major music companies are increasingly enthusiastically exploring the world of NFTs. In November, Universal Music worked with BAYC to create a virtual band of boring apes known as the Kingship.
Music-based NFT platforms also have their drawbacks. As with all other cases, collectors need to be careful before investing in these NFTs.
In February 2022, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sent a legal letter to Hit Piece, a music NFT platform. Many artists, including Mammoth WVH band leader Wolfgang Van Halen, were shut down after sounding a warning when the platform tried to sell music NFTs using the artist’s name and album art without permission.
((((Main images and featured images: Aditya Chinchure / @ adityachinchure / Unsplash).
