Grimes, 3LAU, Steve Aoki, Deadmau5 and Kings of Leon joined the NFT stage
NFTs are typically associated with digital images sold as collectibles. However, music NFT projects become the in-thing during the pandemic.
NFTs began to take the world of music by surprise alongside COVID-19. Artists found new ways to monetize their work, keep connections with their fanbases and save streaming costs, despite being unable to perform live.
Here are some examples of the top 5 music NFT projects created by iconic artists and why:
GRIMES
In a short notice auction last year, Grimes sold a collection of digital artworks embedded with poems for almost $6 million, proving her music NFT project to obtain the most significant profit.
Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, announced the auction on Twitter a day before the sale. The collection comprised ten artworks branded WarNymph Collection Vol 1. Her two most famous artworks included her Earth’ and Mars’ NFTs. Around 300 copies sold within two days at a fixed price of $7,500.
Smartly, Grimes sold her artwork ‘Death of the Old’ as a one-off to the highest bidder. Following a bidding war between fans, the NFT sold for a surpassing $400,000.
3LAU
Justin Lau, otherwise known as 3LAU, chose to auction his album through a music NFT project rather than directly selling his music. But, to be distinguished, he streamed the digital assets live and – like most other artists – publicized the drop of NFTs on his social accounts, like Twitter and Discord.
Despite being in the Web3 game since 2020, his most notable NFT moment was at the beginning of last year. He sold 33 Ultraviolet albums via NFTs in three days, which led to a whopping market cap of $11.7 million. In addition, the digital assets enticed fans by offering generous rewards, including special edition vinyl, unpublished tracks, state-of-the-art merchandise, and concert tickets.
Shortly after, 3LAU announced plans to create Royal, a marketplace for musicians where fans can take ownership stakes in their favorite songs. Surpassingly, it closed a $55 million Series A funding round almost immediately. The platform continues to reach higher heights.
STEVE AOKI
Following the trend, Steve Aoki dropped a music NFT project consisting of 11 unique works. Created in collaboration with visual artist Antoni Tudisco, the collection of digital assets, Dream Catcher, presented music tracks alongside awe-inspiring animations. The NFTs shortly sold for $4.25 million on the marketplace Gemini, which other celebrities, including Elon Musk’s ex-wife Grimes, also benefited from using.
Dream Catcher holders get exclusive access to Aoki’s metaverse, AOK1VERSE. The ecosystem gives token holders free mints, NFT releases, partner drops, tour tickets, pre-sale access, virtual metaverse performances, digital and physical collectibles and more.
DEADMAU5
Late last year, electronic music producer for Deadmau5, Joel Zimmerman, partnered with digital artist, Nick DenBoer, to create his music NFT project of 5,555 NFTs, head5, featuring many characters in Deadmau5’s music videos. Exceedingly, exclusive Deadmau5 tracks are playable once clicking on the eccentric artwork.
Deadmau5 released music NFT project, unveiling distinctive art and music on Moonpay. In addition, the marketplace recently implemented a feature that allows customers to buy and sell NFTs using their credit cards within minutes, giving Deadmau5 more opportunity to sell NFTs due to reaching fans who are crypto novices. Thanks to this, Deadmau5 reportedly logged $4 million in NFT sales. The rarest NFT out of the bunch sold for $10,000, whereas others most frequently went for around $4,000.
KINGS OF LEON
Kings of Leon was the first iconic band to create a music NFT project. In March last year, the band’s most recent album, When You See Yourself, was minted into NFTs on the Yellow Heart platform and generated more than $2 million in sales shortly afterward. The collection included an album created for the NFT holders, digital artwork, merchandise, and outstanding concert experiences.
Subsequently, the American songwriters donated $500,000 of the proceeds to the Live Nation’s Crew Nation Fund—to support road crews sidelined during the midst of the pandemic.
ADVANTAGES OF MUSIC NFT PROJECTS
Despite the above music NFT projects skyrocketing between the years 2020-2021, music NFTs are still “a thing”. The market has recently taken a turn for the worst, but the digital collectibles’ assets remain the same.
The advantages of music NFT projects are endless; there’s nothing that isn’t achievable through non-fungible tokens. Many artists use NFTs to grant access to concerts, meetups, give away merchandise and more. What NFT collections include depends on how the creators structure and issue their NFTs. Thus, some collections are undoubtedly more generous than others.
Nevertheless, you can research the assets of music NFT projects before purchase. By checking the NFTs roadmap and utilities, users can decide whether or not it’s worth buying.
So, why not purchase an NFT from your favorite artist and potentially partake in some unique experiences?
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