Musicians are finding ways to uncover hidden value in the NFT space. This is a huge win for both the artists and fanbase, with recent examples set by A Tribe called Quest’s and their sale of 5% of royalties from their complete album catalog to fans, or with Torey Lanez recent NFT digital album release direct to fans selling out 1 million digital units in less than one minute.
We are now seeing a new twist based on the idea of the practical application of fractional ownership. With the Debut Of “The Age Of Now” NFT album release, where almost the entire album royalties will be going to the fans who purchase it.
The Age Of Now, a fitting title for the sophomore album release by Modest RA featuring Billboard artist and icon Riff Raff. Riff Raff is most well known for his wild, colorful style and having his music featured in the recent Hollywood film Sonic The Hedgehog.
The album features other up-and-coming artists such as A.F.R.O., or All Flows Reach Out, who has performed live on The Jimmy Fallon show. He was recently featured on a single with Tech Nine, Bizzy Bone of Bone Thugs N Harmony, and who was seemingly discovered by Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan. He is now on a meteoric rise with his recent critical acclaim.
Fractional Ownership Of Royalties For Fans
This album represents a new way for fans to participate in music through fractional ownership by offering the holder of the NFT the right to receive a percentage of all royalties from all future sales of the album.
“It is essentially a way to connect and become one with our audience offering the fans an opportunity to not only have a sense of ownership in an artist, but a true feeling of long-term interest in the form of royalty ownership that ties the artist and fan together in a radical way allowing both to benefit from the concept,” said Modest RA. “We envisioned this project as a way to bring the power back to the fan and the music community with the idea of “The Age Of Now” changing the paradigm in which the power goes back to the people who have succeeded in understanding that through coming together and pooling our resources as one that we have an unlimited ability.”
Imagine a world where the fans directly fund the artist, and through that relationship, the artist then funds the people with the profits of their works as opposed to a record label.
What is radically unique about this launch is that 100% of the entire album rights will be sold as NFTs. With Only 5000 copies minted, fractional ownership of .020% is granted to each NFT holder in perpetuity for life. Like any other property, it can pass on to their heirs, or be resold as the potential value of the asset grows as a limited collectible that holds real world utility in the form of ownership.
The list price will be $100 for each NFT giving holders not only a digital and physical copy of the album but an actual stake in the artist’s work as fractional ownership.
Utility VS Speculation
In the NFT space where everything seems to be moving at the speed of light, we can see blockchain also moving in a million different directions with the new tech being applied to virtual real estate with recent successes and billions of dollars flowing into platforms like The Sandbox and Decentraland. Other examples include virtual art, music, and apparel, citing the recent $300 million dollar acquisition of RTFKT, a virtual clothing provider, are leading the charge in proving the value of virtual assets. We will likely see blockchain technology moving rapidly into escrow and transactional service platforms likely incorporated into many of the contracts we use daily.
We have seen breakout success stories in the exploding NFT market with projects like The Bored Ape Yacht Club that offer exclusive digital art pieces trading at an average of $280,000 or in creative NFT memberships such as Gary Vee’s launch this month of The Fly Fish Club allowing purchasers exclusive pre-paid memberships to a 5-star Sushi restaurant in New York City.
As this space expands the question of utility vs speculation has been a hot topic amongst the community.
The consumers and holders of the NFT’s continue to unlock value with limited supply as we see the value rise in these spaces due to simple supply and demand.
The idea of holding stores of value with music royalties is very exciting to the fan/holder as it operates in not only limited supply but also as a perspective revenue generator adding long-term value as tied to the assets distribution and future sales.
We have no idea what will come out next from this space but look forward to a very interesting coming year as we all learn how to take part in this new ever-expanding virtual universe. For more information on “The Age OF Now” NFT release visit theageofnow.com
