NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens have become quite popular lately and the world seems to have turned their eyes on crypto. The music industry is no stranger to the world of NFTs and artists are making millions of dollars from these unique digital assets. With the NFT universe rapidly expanding, artists from around the globe are looking to capitalize on this opportunity.
According to a recent survey, the NFT market grew by almost 300% in 2020. With the introduction of NFTs in the music industry, artists can generate new revenue streams for themselves and create exclusive content for their fans. NFTs also give artists a lot more control over their digital assets. The world of art and music is rapidly evolving and NFTs are a major part of this transformation. In this article, we will go over what NFTs are, how NFTs are changing the music industry, how artists can sell NFTs, and much more. So, let’s get started!
What Are NFTs?
Before we proceed any further, let’s understand NFTs from the basics. A NFT or non-fungible token is a one-of-a-kind asset in the digital world that is stored on a digital ledger called a blockchain. This blockchain certifies these digital assets to be unique and therefore are not interchangeable. NFTs can be sold or bought just like any other asset, but they do not have any tangible form of their own.
NFTs are digital tokens that can be considered as a certificate of ownership for virtual assets. NFTs allow art or music to be tokenized and bought or sold, therefore giving the owner full rights and ownership of that unique digital asset. NFTs cannot be forged or duplicated because the ledger on the blockchain is organized and maintained by thousands of computers around the globe. Plus, any form of art, music, or creation can be tokenized and be bought or sold as an NFT.
How NFTs Are Changing the Music Industry
NFTs have made a huge impact on the music industry and artists from around the globe are making millions of dollars in revenue by selling their music in the form of NFTs. The potential of making money through NFTs is literally limitless. To see how powerful music NFTs actually are, let’s go over some of the music artists who’ve made it big with their music NFT campaigns.
Music artist and DJ, Steve Aoki made over 4.2 million within a week of releasing his music NFT. Canadian musician Grimes made over $5.8 million in under 20 minutes whereas Post Malone auctioned off an NFT to play beer pong with him. In February 2021, music producer and DJ, 3LAU made over $11 million just by selling music NFTs in less than 24 hours. These are just a few artists who’re taking advantage of the NFT trend and creating new streams of revenue for themselves.
NFTs allow artists to sell their music, art, or any form of creation to the world and create rare collectibles that can be stored on a digital ledger. These digital assets can be sold or auctioned off to interested buyers, thus helping the artist create additional revenue from their creation. In today’s day and age, several artists do not make enough revenue from streaming platforms alone, and NFTs could be a game-changer that allows them to generate revenue from their music in a commission-free manner.
Plus, purchasing NFTs is a very convenient process as all the buyer needs is a digital wallet and has to participate in the auction to win their own unique digital asset. While the traditional music industry is filled with middlemen, the world of NFTs is practically middlemen free, therefore artists can save on commissions and earn commission-free revenue. Additionally, NFTs offer a lot of flexibility to artists as they can literally auction any form of digital asset that can include music, albums, merchandise, concert tickets, and much more.
However, there are a few drawbacks when it comes to music NFTs. Creating and selling music NFTs for established & popular artists is relatively easy when compared to newer artists, who face a lot of difficulties if they wish to create their own music NFT. Plus, there are several legal obligations that make the process of creating an NFT quite complicated. But nonetheless, NFTs are a great opportunity for artists to generate additional revenue streams from their music and create exclusive content for their fans in a unique and artistic manner.
How Can Artists Sell NFTs?
If you’re an artist who’s looking to set up your own NFT, then here’s the entire process in a nutshell. The first step that you need to take is own a crypto wallet. Having your own crypto wallet is essential to sell or purchase any type of NFT. This wallet allows you to save your cryptocurrency and use it whenever required. After you’ve made your crypto wallet, you need to purchase some Ether and add it to your crypto wallet. Ether is the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and the majority of NFTs are sold in Ethers.
The majority of NFTs are sold in Ethers and stored on the corresponding Ethereum blockchain. After this, you’re almost done and now need to register at a marketplace for NFTs in order to auction them. You can check out marketplaces like Rarible, Open Sea, Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, and more. After you’ve connected your wallet with the marketplace of your choice, you’re all set. Now, you can sell your own unique NFT to your audience via auctions and create additional revenue from your creations.
Successful NFT Campaigns by Music Artists
In order to see the potential of NFTs, let us go over a few successful NFT campaigns held by music artists. These artists have generated millions of dollars in revenue via their NFT campaigns and have demonstrated the potential of NFTs.
Grimes
Claire Elise Boucher or better known as Grimes is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who made over $7 million dollars from her NFT campaign that included auctioning a series of 10 pieces on Nifty Gateway. With copies going for over $7,500 each, Grimes generated a ton of revenue from her digital art that included original artworks and short videos set to her music.
Steve Aoki
American DJ, music programmer, and record producer Steve Aoki is another artist who generated over $4.2 million dollars in revenue from his NFT campaign. Being one of the first artists who capitalized on the NFT trend, he worked alongside visual artist “Antoni Tudisco” on his debut NFT called “Dream Catcher”. His NFT campaign was held on Nifty Gateway and was a huge success.
Kings of Leon
Popular American rock band, Kings of Leon, composed of brothers Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Followill is another band who sold their latest album “When You See Yourself” as a collection on their NFT. They are one of the first major music bands to sell their music via NFTs. However, their decision to sell their music as an NFT collection generated a whopping $2 million in sales!
Eminem
Legendary rapper Eminem is another artist who has capitalized on the NFT trend. His first NFT collection called “Shady Con” became a huge success which was also sold on Nifty Gateway and generated over $1.7 million dollars in revenue. The NFT collection also included several digital action figures based on his iconic characters from his music videos.
RAC
André Allen Anjos or better known as RAC is a Grammy-Award-winning Portuguese-American musician and record producer who sold a collection of NFT’s that featured his new music record “YOU”. What’s amazing is this NFT campaign made him over $700,000 in sales which was way more than his combined revenue from album sales over the last decade!
Nick Voorhees is an electronic music producer and the owner of the music industry start-up Melody Nest. He is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Icon Collective College of Music, and has been working in the music industry for nearly 10 years.
