Last week, Kings of Leon became the first band to release a new album as a non-fungible token (NFT) – and a representative said Rolling Stone that the band has already grossed more than $ 2 million in sales, with $ 600,000 of that going to Crew Nation. While Kings were not the first musicians to distribute work in this way, their high-profile project attracted a number of curious fans and highlighted a technology trend that was – until recently – flying under the radar like a marginal craze.
So, let’s take a look at some important artists who have adhered to this trend in recent weeks. (Don’t know what NFTs are or why they are important? Read first Rolling Stoneguide to cryptographic conversation in music.)
In the hours before the fall of Kings of Leon, Tory Lanez launched three new tracks as NFTs. Two of the songs came from their new album, Playboy, which arrived 10 hours later, and one is from his eighties-themed album, still unnamed. The rapper collaborated with a blockchain company called Bondly.Finance to create 450 music NFTs, all including the chance to meet and greet the star virtually. Tokens sold out in two minutes. The Lanez collection earned a record $ 500,000, including resale, in the first 24 hours, said a representative Rolling Stone.
The same representative points to a press release dubbed Lanez “the largest independent stream artist to release full songs as NFTs before the album’s release on other digital platforms.” “This album is one of the biggest releases of my career, so I had to make the release strategy bigger than ever,” said Lanez in a statement last week. “That meant delivering the tracks to my superfans earlier.”
But the wave was brewing before Lanez and Kings of Leon reached it. During the week of February 15, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda became the first artist on a major label to release a single as NFT. His “Happy Endings”, with Iann Dior and Upsahl, was auctioned by an NFT market called Zora. 10 tokens were created, housing a 75-second clip of the song defined as an animated art by Shinoda and contemporary artist Cain Caser, Input reported. The token “# 1 of 10”, for example, ended up being sold for five WETH, which is equivalent to something around $ 8,000 USD. (WETH means “grouped Ether” and refers to tokens executed on the Ethereum network.)
The following week, a popular DJ called 3lau made history with the first album NFTs. When re-launching her 2018 album, Ultraviolet, in that format, he made about $ 12 million in 24 hours. As of February 25, fans had 72 hours to bid on their 33 NFTs. The winners were then able to exchange them for special edition vinyls, new songs, unique experiences and bonus music NFTs, according to a press release.
“I’m very excited to present the first tokenized album on a direct collector’s platform built by Origin Protocol,” said 3lau in a statement at the time. “This marks a major turning point in the NFT space; creators will have maximum flexibility in issuing digital assets to fans. “
When 3lau’s auction ended on February 28, one organized by Grimes it was just beginning. A few minutes after the opening of the auction, the price of an audiovisual work of art called “Death of the Old” – containing a demo of the unprecedented song “Anhedonia” – exceeded the value of US $ 100,000. According to Insider, the entire collection earned about six million dollars in 20 minutes – and “Death of the Old” finally sold for around $ 400,000 at the end of the auction.
On the same weekend – and in the same online marketplace that Grimes used, Nifty Gateway – Latin star Ozuna unveiled its first collection of NFTs. There, Ozuna uploaded 15 identical “Ositos” NFTs that reimagined their traditional logo and used 19 seconds of audio without lyrics. (They look like engaging collectible cards.) A source on Ozuna’s team says the work generated more than $ 456,000 in 15 minutes.
While Ozuna watched the negotiation of his NFTs, a company called Genies, which creates celebrity 2D and 3D avatars, started a partnership with Shawn Mendes, in which they would launch collectible and wearable accessories for said avatars in the form of NFTs. Mendes agreed to donate all of his proceeds to The Shawn Mendes Foundation Wonder Grants, reports Venture Beats.
There are seven types of NFTs in the Mendes collection, six of which are sold out in minutes, according to a Genies representative. And they vary in rarity: there is a one-to-one NFT, while the others went from 50 to 250 in quantity. The single NFT is still up for auction and is currently valued at around $ 181,000. Together, the collection resulted in the negotiation of 558,476 ETH, which is worth more than one million dollars to date.
The Genies representative says that the crash announcement led to “more OpenSea traffic [the largest NFT marketplace] already tried it ”, adding that transactions are already happening in the secondary market“ where people are selling Genie Moments / digital products for $ 6-8k when they bought for hundreds of dollars ”.
(It is important to note that, in preparing for the downfall of the Genies, Mendes’s manager, Andrew Gertler, was fascinated by the technology. He has since announced his plans to help launch a new NFT market called STURDY.exchange.)
Then the Kings came. But Steve Aoki it was not far behind. On Sunday, March 7, the famous DJ released 11 original pieces by Antoni Tudisco, a digital artist known for his particularly traveled looks, at the Nifty Gateway. There were three levels: for the first, eight of these NFTs cost $ 2,000. Two others called “Character X” and “Run” cost $ 2,500 and $ 5,000, respectively. At the time the sale was opened, 618 “Character X” tokens were minted and 280 “Run” tokens were minted, meaning that Aoki generated about three million dollars from these two tokens alone.
The final single piece went to auction, closing at $ 889,000 on Monday afternoon. (With just over an hour left, it went up chaotically from $ 151,000 to $ 425,000 – before firing in the last 30 minutes or so.) All tokens considered, Nifty Gateway sources said Rolling Stone on Monday night that Aoki had generated just over $ 4.2 million.
Aoki’s launch weekend was also the NBA All Star Weekend, for which hip-hop stars Quavo, Lil Baby, 2 Chainz, and Jack Harlow collaborated with Bleachers report in an NFT collection on OpenSea. (Kings of Leon and Mendes also used OpenSea for their NFT releases.) “The digital 3D models will feature four personalized basketballs that mix music, culture and sport with innovation,” explained a representative to Rolling Stone via email on Friday, March 5. In this case, there were two layers: gold and silver. Each artist received their own NFT silver edition, of which 150 were minted. They were sold for a fixed price of 0.4 ETH, which is worth about $ 715 to date. The artists also each received their own gold edition NFTs, presented as “10 out of 10” and put up for auction.
When Bleachers reportWith the gold auction closed, these tokens were sold together for more than $ 591k. Together, the gold and silver tokens generated about $ 903,000 over the weekend. So far, 2 Chainz had the highest selling price with its gold “# 1 of 10” going to 38 ETH ($ 68,030 USD). A representative of Bleachers report points out that encryption users traded 503.15 ETH (more than $ 900,000) in the first 24 hours of the All Star Weekend collection.
Of course, all activity in the music business represents only a fraction of the NFT activity in general – and the space is expected to get hotter, with many celebrities currently in talks to launch their own NFTs, the sources say. Don’t just believe us: Google searches for “What is an NFT” went from nonexistent in the first week of February to stratospheres in March.