NFT's are for every musician, not just those at the top.
How Album Artwork will again become a key marketing instrument for Music Artists because of NFT's
We've been frequently confronted with the term NFT, a non-fungible token, during the last couple of months. The NFT is an entry in a blockchain representing some unique digital art digitally. Sounds complicated? Because it is. The digital image is the asset, and the NFT is the representation of that asset. That representation is unique. The Kings Of Leon created NFT’s with the latest album “When You See Yourself”, with several different digital items for sale, such as artwork, gifs, and songs. Some of it comes with unlockable physical content like VIP experiences, gig tickets, album artwork, and sneaky pre-show pints with the band. Kings Of Leon minted their content into the Ethereum blockchain. To buy or sell, you need a digital wallet loaded with some Ether.
Steve Aoki just sold a bunch of artworks on Nifty Gateway. Although too an NFT, it's minted in Gemini’s blockchain and can be traded directly with your credit card. No cryptocurrency is required. Both projects generated several $ million. How can we use this for music marketing if we're not the Kings Of Leon or Steve Aoki?
The possibilities for music NFT's are limitless, and they will disrupt the industry once again, but let us start with something simple you can shout about on social media tomorrow. I suggest if you have a decent fanbase, go back and mint any of your single/album artwork, sign it or don't and offer it to your fanbase.
Be aware that at the moment, you can't just sell on Nifty Gateway without an application. You can go to Opensea.io or Rarible.com, my personal favorites, and mint your item, but you will have to pay a GAS fee (Ethereum transaction fee) for your first item. The gas fee varies a lot, so best to go and try several times before you commit. You can check historical GAS prices here. However, you probably will end up spending around $60.
Ethereum is a rather old network and still struggles with the number of transactions per second it can execute. Is the network busy, gas prices are high. I expect many more platforms to offer NFTs, built on a variety of blockchains
When you’re artwork is on sale, don't accept cheap offers either, because you have to pay another GAS fee when you accept an offer. Here is a considerable risk you may lose money. Just be aware of that.
Your fans will love you for minting your artwork, as they can invest in your career, and when you build your catalog and become more successful, the value of your NFT's may also go up. Of course, the exclusivity factor matters too. If a fan decides to sell on the artwork at a profit, you will get a royalty every time the artwork sells. So what I suggest to you is that you take NFT's into consideration when you design the artwork for your next single/album. Make t something memorable, put effort into the design. Just like in the days of the LP, the artwork will matter again. Like in the days of record shops, people will discover music by browsing album artworks, and they may check out your music because they like its visual representation.