Can you imagine having an album of your favorite artist, with a song made to your specifications and that only you could listen to it? How much would you pay for that privilege?
The well-known American DJ 3LAU wanted to find out. His fans are willing to pay millions: Specifically, $3,666,666 for one song and over 11 Million collectively for an entire collection of digital art tokenized on the blockchain in the form of NFTs.
The auction for 3LAU’s Ultraviolet album successfully concluded with total proceeds of $11,684,101. It was possible thanks to the joint work between 3LAU and Origin Protocol, a platform focused on the development of marketplaces on the Ethereum blockchain as well as the development of IPFS technology.
According to Origin Protocol, the auction was historical, as it was the world’s first tokenized album ever.
The auction consisted of several tiers. The most premium one -the Platinum tier- offered a custom song created by 3LAU according to the bidder’s tastes and direction, a physical vinyl, all of the 11 songs NFTs offered from the Ultraviolet album, as well as unreleased music.
The winner of this category was the pseudonym BIDDER65 with a bid of $3,666,666.
The next category -The gold tier- offered a custom mix, a physical vinyl, and unreleased music. It was awarded to those ranked 2-6 on the list, with the highest bid at $3,555,555.
Finally, the silver tier offered a physical vinyl and 3 tokenized songs from Ultraviolet to those ranked 7 to 33 of the highest bids.
The 33 highest bidders received a loyalty NFT.
The NFT market is on fire. It is no longer a niche market exclusive for gamers and lovers of digital kittens. The market has moved over $300 million, experiencing exponential growth since the last half of 2020, 3 years after Cryptopunks and Cryptokitties sparked the fever.
Now, the use cases for non-fungible tokens have expanded to areas such as art, sports, and memes.
For example, the NBA Top Shot team said that 25,000 users were waiting for the line to purchase their collectibles at the time of its launch, recording a trading volume of $32 million on its first day of trading.
Sorare, another platform oriented to the development of tokens for the world of soccer, has closed deals with the biggest UEFA clubs.
And in the world of plastic art, million-dollar and extravagant sales are the new norm, with artists like Justin Roiland (the creator of Rick and Morty), Beeple, and a Banksy challenger also selling their art collection.
And 3LAU is not the only musician to venture into creating his NFT. Already Lindsay Lohan had auctioned off her own Lightning Network-inspired NFT, and reggaeton artist Ozuna releasing first digital blockchain art collection | The Music Universealso announced today the launch of his digital art collection.
It seems that in the future, there will be an NFT for everyone.