NFT’s & Music
NBC Article:
Most people, at this point, have heard of Bitcoin, but few people — even those who own some — really understand it. In the simplest terms, Bitcoin utilizes something called blockchain technology, which is a digital way of recording information that cannot be erased or altered but is transferrable. It can be used to create signatures, or virtual money (which is what Bitcoin is) or, in the case of NFTs, an original piece of art that is limited in number and essentially signed by the artist.
Think of an NFT like a first edition of a book signed by the author, a print of a painting signed by the artist, or a limited-edition vinyl record signed by all the members of the band. You can create a bunch of NFTs of a work, or only one — but whomever owns it can only transfer it, and never copy it, even if it only exists in a digital form, something which had heretofore been impossible to do.
But more important than the money-making promise NFTs offer to musicians is what the phenomenon is revealing: There is a massive gulf in our culture between the value music brings to people’s lives and the price they currently pay for it — which has for years been kept artificially low by large corporations to prevent the so-called piracy that cut into their enormous profits far more than artists’ incomes.
Some of the value in these dizzying NFT figures right now is likely inflated: Speculators and cryptocurrency investors who have made (or which they had made) a killing on Bitcoin are rushing to be the first in an emerging art and music market, which is probably overvaluing the NFTs.
But even if the value is currently inflated, these sales are capturing something important, something I think we all understand intuitively: A song which changes your life is worth more than a third of a cent per stream.
We always heard that the internet was going to change music by empowering artists, and that might finally be happening. And though NFTs are not the only solution, they may finally offer a way forward and away from the existing industrial business model. Maybe the next step (or steps) will become clear as artists experiment with other new business models, other new ways of connecting to audiences, other methods that challenge the old order and fulfill the promises made to us for 20 years.
The music industry of the past may not have been built for us. But the music platforms of the future could be.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/think/amp/ncna1261205
“Mikel Jollett”
Mikel Jollett is the lead singer of the band The Airborne Toxic Event and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, "Hollywood Park."
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