Only True Kings create NFTs

With the help of decentralized ticketing platform YellowHeart, this is the first time an album is released as an NFT. This move is a significant step in the complete adoption of NFTs.

Let's do a quick rundown of what's in this collection:

Golden ticket collection

These are a collection of 18 minted NFTs, with 6 of them going on auction until March 7th. The band will hold the remaining 12 for future use. These NFTs come with unlockable perks; owners will be able to redeem four front row tickets to one Kings of Leon headline show per tour and will come with VIP backstage passes and band merch. The NFT also comes with a physical version and is a great incentive to get boomers introduced to the NFT space.

NFT Album Edition

The album is priced at 0.035ETH and will be on sale for two weeks. On March 18th, owners of this NFT will receive a full digital album download, a physical vinyl, and of course, the NFT.

NFT Visual Art

These are just your typical musical artist NFT that we have seen coming out these past few months.  

What is YellowHeart?

YellowHeart is a blockchain ticketing provider that "wants to use blockchain technology to bring value back to music." They plan on bringing more artists into the NFT space to sell more of these NFT albums and ticket options. YellowHeart is trying to show the world that NFT tickets are the way of the future. Through NFTs, artists can get a percentage of a ticket's resale and set a ceiling on resales. This would almost automatically Thanos snap ticket scalpers from existence.

Are NFTs the future for music?

In the art world, NFTs have shown to benefit the creators rather than the publishers and have allowed more independent artists to thrive. This could become true for musical artists as streaming services, and musical labels fail the creators.

For example, Kevin Kadish, the songwriter behind Meghan Trainor's "All That Bass," claims to have only made $5,679 in royalties in 2015. At the time of his claim, the song had over 178 million streams but could only make $5,000. That's a broken system where people profit from the geniuses doing the actual work. This system is rigged against creators.

NFTs are the perfect solution to this gross misconduct streaming services and record labels have done to artists. Not only would NFTs allow for music artists to release their music and keep all of the profits, but they get a portion if the NFT is resold.

Who would most likely be next to come?

Although this was the first attempt at selling an album NFT, I would say it successfully brought more people into the space. For example, it got boomer magazine Rolling Stone to cover the release, and they have an extensive reach into the older scene. Another example of new people coming in is my 52-year-old mom, she asked for help on buying this NFT album, and I found it very interesting because she thinks I'm a crazy person for buying art that is "not real."  

It wouldn't be crazy to expect more artists to follow the Kings of Leon's path and drop more music as NFTs. I would definitely expect EDM artists to become some of the first people to adopt this new trend, especially 3LAU. He has made over $116 million in NFT sales, and he has re-released one of his albums as an NFT before. Another example is Flume; he just auctioned off his first NFT for more than 28 ETH, and it came with an unlockable song. He says that he plans to release more, which may add up to a whole album.  

Like always, the sky's the limit for NFTs, and it's exciting to see where people and artists will take this space.