NFT Explainer: How entertainers can earn a fortune with new technology
Recent digital technology trends are opening up other avenues for artistes to make money apart from streaming and endorsements.
Hardly can you turn anywhere on the internet without being confronted with relatively new terms such as Cryptocurrency, NFT, Metaverse, Blockchain and Web3. These are the current global trends and as a social media user, you must have had your ears and eyes full.
They are unavoidable today and continue to disrupt the landscape of business, technology and every other sector, including music. However, not many have an idea of these concepts.
What then is NFT in simple terms?
The full meaning of NFT is Non-Fungible Token. It is a digital, intangible version of real-life objects like artwork, music, game items, videos, images etc.
Imagine a scenario where you walk into an art gallery and you see paintings on the wall that have been put up for sale. You buy one and it becomes yours. The beauty there is that such paintings can be resold at a later date, for a much higher price, just like a typical auction.
That’s essentially how NFT works. The only difference with the analogy is that NFT is digital. Hence, the transactions take place on specific online platforms. So, pictures, music and other forms of art can be created digitally, using blockchain technology. Here is a very simple explanation of blockchain technology. With blockchain technology, every NFT has a unique signature that cannot be duplicated, and every transaction is recorded openly for all to see.
So, album covers, songs, music arts and memorable images of artistes can all be turned into NFTs. You may recall that Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey created an NFT out of his first-ever tweet and sold it for a whopping $2.9 million. That’s way less stressful than trying to sell out the London 02 Arena.
So, let’s say 2baba decides to do an NFT with African Queen or 9ice with Gongo Aso, Wande Coal with Bumper to bumper, D’banj with Fall in love, Davido with Fall, Wizkid with Ojuelegba, Burna Boy with his Grammy-winning Twice as Tall album and so on. That’s not to talk of memorable pictures.
Of course, there are too many artistes to mention as well as their iconic projects. And you would agree with me that our music industry has had quite a number of generation-defining projects.
Imagine the latent NFT worth attached to these works of art. Just imagine.
Unsurprisingly, some are already seizing the initiative. M.I has mentioned that he may release a whole album as NFT, Buju has become BNXN because of digital wealth while Falz launched an NFT collection some weeks back. Expect many more to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned.
But the real catch is this. If the artistes who have literally made a fortune of a lifetime from their music careers decide to switch it up on NFT…
Well, just consider this an unofficial advert that I’ll make a good NFT manager.
Well said Sir
Great