NFTs and electronic artists

Although NFTs have been around for a few years now, the movement has truly taken off in a massive way recently. If you’ve been on social media at any point in the past month, you’ll know what NFTs are, but in case you don’t we’ll break it down. 

 NFTs, or non-fungible token to give it it’s full name, allows buyers to bid for – or straight up buy – digital goods. These digital goods come in the form of an image, animation, video, song or anything along those lines in the form of a digital token which lives on a blockchain. Once you buy a piece of NFT art, you will be the sole owner of it and it is non-interchangeable. You’re essentially paying for the ownership of a piece. 

Because of the limited capacity of some of these art pieces, or whatever the artist is selling, prices can skyrocket into the millions. As one example, singer Grimes recently sold a collection of art on Nifty Gateway – one website of many where artists are choosing to sell NFTs – for $6 million. It is the hottest new way for artists to make a lot of money in a short amount of time from their art, and is especially helpful in these current times where touring is not a possibility as a means of making money right now.  

Electronic artists are no stranger to this trend. Many are getting involved, and you have likely seen one of your favourite DJs posting about it or selling for themselves. Some love it, and some are against it which has sparked a lot of conversation around the subject. Artists like Steve Aoki, Dillon Francis, 3LAU and more are using the rise in the popularity of NFTs to their advantage. Below, we’ve listed just a few that have made a massive impact through sales.

Steve Aoki 

Steve Aoki recently made history on auction site Nifty Gateway – which seems to be the most popular NFT website for buying and selling at the moment – with one piece from his collaborative ‘Dream Catcher’ collection with 3D visual artist Antoni Tudisco selling for an auction record of $888,888.88. The entire collection itself collected a hefty $4.25 million. 

3LAU 

In total, 3LAU made $11.7 million from what he has sold, which has included a custom song, access to unheard music on his website, custom art, and new versions of the tracks from his ‘Ultraviolet’ album. The person who won that bid now owns the rights to the original masters of the tracks. A person who goes under the name of WhaleShark was the one to buy an NFT token from 3LAU for a head turning, and record breaking, $3.5 million.

Image credit: Alamy