The nearly $6 million haul Grimes made from her auction of NFT artwork caught the attention of many; however, the artist is by no means the only to be collecting serious change through the relatively new NFT medium. Music Business Worldwide reports earnings of over $25 million in the past month alone for music-related works, with a staggering $100 million in sales overall during that time span.
Those who have already seen success include Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, whose February NFT auction garnered $30,000. The sale of Kings Of Leon’s new album When You See Yourself made $2 million when released as an NFT, and this new medium for music sale was pioneered by PelleK, whose album made $160,000 in February of this year.
Ozana made over $456,000 in 15 minutes in an NFT auction, and DJ Steve Aoki’s NFT art collection made $4.2 million.
For those unfamiliar with the term, NFT an acronym for non-fungible token, which uses blockchain technology to allow digital transactions in which the owner of a digital good can verify the authenticity and ownership of a digital product, regardless of how the work is duplicated and dispersed. It creates a sense of false scarcity and the ability to have a “digital collectible,” which has proven to be a viable source of income for a select few artists during the past few months. There is skepticism, however, as to whether the advent of the NFT trend will provide to be significant alleviation of the financial burdens which the pandemic has imposed upon the greater array of musicians, who are no longer able to tour and struggle to make sufficient income from streaming revenues.
Photo credit: Raymond Flotat
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