They’re being called ‘niftys’, and they’re being heralded as a new era in music and digital art. However you want to look at them, NFTs are popping up everywhere, with investors and collectors eager to get in on the action. Ladies and gentlemen, the non-fungible token, and how it affects DJs.
What’s going on here?
Let’s imagine that a fictional 80s synthwave track called ‘Miami Neon’ (by an artist called DJ SpankRod) is being released in a couple of days. The track itself is going on sale through Beatport and the usual channels. But there’s also a separate sale for the NFT associated with the work. It states who owns the original copy of ‘Miami Neon’. Yep, even though it’s a digital track which can be ripped and uploaded on YouTube, someone can now own the original. Individual track downloads might make the author of the work a big chunk of change in the short-term release period, but the nifty is really the big kahuna. Why? Read on.
OK. Then what?
‘Miami Neon’ happens to be a hit. What does this mean? It means that suddenly everyone wants a piece of it. So the NFT-holder decides to sell their NFT for a profit, which they do. In the process, the author of the work (the music producer) gets an automatic cut using blockchain-based smart contracts to safely ensure an automatic and immutable revenue split. The buyer is happy because they now have bragging rights as the NFT-holder of ‘Miami Neon’. Something which had little to no value before (an audio file which can be copied for free) now has value (a ‘deed’ to the work which can’t be copied). There’s now something to pay for instead of simply getting the free version. Everybody wins.
Who is it for?
Last week, Steve Aoki made this comment on MSN.com: “The space is gonna grow to be something that we’re all gonna use as a means of collecting art … in the future. The culture’s gonna be NFT.” In the words of smart person Tom Bilyeu, “the release of music tracks as NFTs is meant to reach collectors more than investors”. There are no greater collectors than DJs. In other words, NFTs might be a technology expressly invented for DJs. In the long-term, it’s likely that we’ll see DJs gain status and credibility as collectors of the original (digital) copy of a track, with NFTs being the deed of ownership.
There’s a lot more to unpack here. Why is it important to know who the track belongs to? Who is going to pay for something they can get for free? How does this impact the type of music being made? Lots of questions and we’ll hit you up with some answers in the coming weeks. In the meantime, take your career as a DJ a little more seriously by checking out the Career Tips DJ course by DJ Courses Online.