The NFT boom has captivated the world at large as visual artists continue to make and sell NFTs for tens of millions of dollars. With the rise of this new, fertile method for monetizing artistic pursuits, the music industry has been quick to get in on the trend.
In the last month alone, we’ve seen NFTs used for record releases, audiovisual clips, and album covers. Bonnaroo, one of the country’s biggest music festivals, just announced its 2021 lineup along with an exclusive NFT. While NFTs are rapidly becoming commonplace in the music world, many fans remain a little confused as to what they are and how they work. In order to better understand the concept and its wide-reaching potential, we asked five ahead-of-the-curve music industry experts their thoughts on NFTs.
Los Angeles-based booking agent Jeremy Catalino, who worked with high-profile EDM acts before being furloughed in May, found luck buying and selling an NFT clip of NBA guard Chris Paul complaining about a travel call last summer. Since then, he has pivoted to become an NFT consultant for touring acts. “I’ve been advocating for all DJs to shift to an NFT-based platform moving forward,” Catalino explains. “It’s a little bit slow-moving getting people on board, some artists are just set in their ways and can’t see the opportunity in front of them. But the numbers speak for themselves. Once they hear about the sums people are raking in on NFTs, the fact that they don’t fully understand the underlying process doesn’t really matter as much. ”
ExHeight Productions talent buyer Carolyn Burk, who books a number of long-running bluegrass festivals in Big Sky country, has been exploring the option of turning one of her smaller events into an NFT altogether. “I wouldn’t test such a risky process on our flagship festival, but we have this little regional show coming back this year that was struggling to sell tickets already in 2019, so we figured we may as well give it a shot. I think we would be the first festival to fully rebrand as an NFT.” Burk added that specifics on the festival’s NFT rebranding process would be available as soon as her niece finishes all her finals and returns her Instagram DMs.
Janine Farris, EVP of A&R at SabreTeeth Records, a subsidiary of GCT LLC, is hesitant to buy into the buzz surrounding the NFT boom in the music industry due to its well-documented environmental downsides. “Our planet’s natural ecosystem is so delicate. Right now, we have no idea what could happen when these NFTs enter existing habitats and co-mingle with the plants and wildlife. It could be fine. It could even improve things, like when they re-introduced those wolves into the environment at Yellowstone. But I’ve also seen Jurassic Park and I know what happens when humans go meddling in things they don’t truly understand.”
Meanwhile, Walter Norris Endeavor SVP Amare Solomon is preparing to adopt NFTs on an agency-wide level. During a recent office visit, the agency executive confidently detailed the firm’s plan to turn all furloughed employees into NFTs as his seemingly vexed 19-year-old intern muttered a cryptic rant from behind her laptop about “smart contracts, decentralized blockchain networks, and nurturing a legitimate fine art marketplace for an unprecedented range of new media and disciplines.” As the WNE VP promised to close his presentation, “We have made it our mission for this firm’s workforce to be at least 30% NFT by 2025.”
Carl Javits, an audio engineer at Denver’s Mission Ballroom, has used the cryptocurrency Biscoin, commonly abbreviated on crypto exchanges as “B4L”, to buy and sell various NFTs while the venue has remained closed. Since he began dealing in NFTs in September of 2020, he has netted more than 42 B4L—which currently amounts to roughly $74,000. When initially reached for comment on his remarkable NFT gains, Javits simply replied, “Certified Biscoin baller, yo! B4L to the moon!”
In a follow-up phone call, Javits divulged, “Look, as long as everyone is sort of confused about the whole thing, the possibilities are endless. Remember those couple weeks last year when everything was cake? NFTs are like this year’s version of that. Anything can be an NFT. Like yo, are you finishing that NFTaco salad? No? Dope, I’m gonna Venmo you some Doge and link it on my blockchain for lunch tomorrow.”