What Are NFTs?
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are, simply put, a kind of digital code created on a ‘smart contract platform’ – in this particular case, the Ethereum blockchain. In laymen’s terms, they are digital collectors-items that are worth varying amounts depending on their rarity.
Anyone can create, buy, or sell NFTs, and ones you buy can’t be exactly replicated. Only one person can own a specific NFT at any one time, and there price goes up based on the amount of people after them.
The most common NFTs in the market come in the form of re-imagined trading cards, digital collectable figurines, and of course, music tracks, albums and merch.
NFTs in the Music Industry
You may be wondering how small pieces of digital currency have started changing the landscape of the music and arts industry. Well, the premise is simple.
Because anyone can create and sell an NFT, creators can make them out of their own work, and sell them on. So, for example, say you’re a music artist with a brand new song. you have the option to make hundreds of small NFTs from the song, each of which are a small piece of your music. Your fans then buy these NFTs from you.
There will be a finite number of NFTs created from your song, so, if you’re lucky, the price will go up and up as more people look to purchase a small section of your creation. This is where the collectors-item analogy comes in; the more rare and sought after, the more valuable your NFT will become, just like at a traditional auction.
The Pros
The idea behind revolutionising the music and art industry with NonFungible Tokens has been in the minds of crypto-wizards for a little while now. In fact, if you’re in the know, you may well have secretly been expecting a breakthrough like this.
Despite this, the practical implications are still relatively new. The first headline-making NFT sell-off came in 2017 when Dapper Labs game CrypoKitties was sold for more than $100 million because of its unusual purchasing method.
The positives of technological progress such as this are far-reaching and truly exciting to think about; fans can have a part of the action in a more real way. After all, how cool would it be to own a slice of your favourite track?
Many think NFTs are the future, with some even advocating that this unique advancement will become more popular and fruitful than traditional art collecting.
The Cons
Selling off your creations may seem like an excellent way to share your art with the world, but there are some serious implications to consider. The first, and most concerning, of which has to be the still unclear copyright implications of selling your work to hundreds of individual people.
Hypothetically, you may be left with having every person with money in one of your NFTs make decisions on behalf of your work. After all, if you have sold it, the law is not on your side when it comes to copyright infringement cases. But realistically, selling an NFT isn’t actually selling part of your work. It’s more like purchasing the frame the ‘Mona Lisa’ came in, rather than the actual art itself.
How to Find NFTs
There are a couple of ways to find NFTs to purchase. Marketplaces are the best way to purchase NFTs, and there are plenty to choose from. The most popular include Nifty Gateway, MakersPlace, SuperRare and OpenSea. These platforms allow you to quickly and easily find the NFTs that you are looking for.
There are always new markets popping up, just as there is always new NFTs! So if you are on the look out for that one special thing, it is definitely worth keeping your ear to the ground when it comes to new places to find cool original online art.
Once you have found the NFT you need, purchasing it is a simple case of creating a WAX Cloud Wallet (WCW). And for this, all you will need is a username and password.
