NFT is an abbreviation that you may have heard in the last few weeks. If not, it's not a big deal, because today we're going to explain what it is exactly and why NTFs can be a great opportunity, especially for the music industry.
Non Fungible Tokens come from the crypto world and are currently conquering the art market. An NFT is something like a digital ownership certificate, stored in a blockchain. Art, music & co., pretty much anything can be sold as an NFT. For example, you can also release your next album to the market as a Non Fungible Token.
What are Non Fungible Tokens actually?
A Non Fungible Token (NFT) is an asset in digital form. It is stored in a blockchain, which is a tamper-proof list of records. Like Ethereum or Bitcoin, for example. When someone buys a digital item, the blockchain records that this particular item now belongs to the person that has purchased it. The work generally remains visible to everyone on the network and can still be downloaded, sent or copied. The NFT simply proves who now owns the artwork. NFTs can be collected, resold or advertised. So in principle, anyone can join in.
Below, we'd like to show two more examples of how artists have used NFTs to their advantage.
Don Diablo recorded an one-hour concert that took over a year to shoot in collaboration with videographer Paul Snijder. The video concert was framed with green screen effects and 3D rendered characters and sets.In an auction, the concert NFT was sold as a single piece for 600 Ethereum or the equivalent of about 1.2 million dollars. The artist himself says that this piece has become almost priceless because they worked on it for almost a year and put an incredible amount of love and effort into it. It is not yet clear if the video will be made available to all after the auction closes, or if it will be the sole property of the NFT owner.
German music-group Scooter has also released his new work as Non Fungible Token (NFT). On the release day, the group auctioned a digital copy of the album including an animated cover as well as a limited fan box with two CDs and Scooter merchandise. The important point of the auction is also a lifetime ticket that comes with it.
The rarer the NFT is, the more valuable they become. With NFTs, fans get something unique and can interact with the music in a new way.
Crypto-art is the new buzzword running through the media landscape. While you don't have access to the image right, you still have the ownership of the audio. No matter if your work was copied, duplicated or distributed - you still are registered as the owner of your work and can be paid as such.
What is the purpose of NFTs?
For artists, it's a way to finally see money for their work. Likes on Instagram are all well and good, but you don't earn anything with them. If the NFT is resold, the artist can receive a percentage. As a buyer, you probably see it more as a way to honor digital art, much like a museum honors physical art. In any case, it's an investment that should pay off at some point.
For artists, it?s a way to create something truly unique and make money with their work.
As a buyer, it?s a unique way of honoring digital art much like a collector honors art. To know that what was bought may only exist a couple of times in the whole world. In that regard, NFT makes it possible to transfer the advantages of music in physical form (like a Vinyl for example) to the digital world and thus make art truly unique and valuable.