Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.
A look at why NFTs are changing the game for artists of all sizes.
When it comes to NFTs in the art and music world, here’s something that is going to blow your mind.
Artists don’t want you to pay for the privilege to view or listen to their work as an NFT.
You’re actually welcome to enjoy the artwork, whichever medium it may be, completely FOR FREE.
That’s right, this means that the concept of turning your art into an NFTs is not to try and keep your prying eyes out.
In fact, it's quite the opposite.
You’re actually welcome to look, show your friends, screenshot and even save the file if you so please.
NFTs in art are not what you think
Think about it this way.
Employing unit-based or pay-per-play models for a digital medium that can be infinitely cloned, just doesn’t make sense in today’s world.
There is no getting around the fact that it is technically possible to create infinite digital copies of whatever piece of digital art is produced by anyone.
Obviously if you’re pricing a piece of art, that can be infinitely copied, per unit of views/listens, then it is going to be priced incredibly low.
This of course has led to the Spotifys of the world taking advantage of all but the biggest of artists found on Web2 platforms of that ilk.
But NFTs turn this entire business model on its head!
Actually providing free access for all, but keeping ownership of these assets scarce.
If it’s something that you as a consumer likes, then creators are actually encouraging you to consume it.
FOR FREE.
Why?
Because turning art into an NFT, ensures the content remains infinitely free, but ownership remains scarce.
It’s this model of scarce ownership that empowers artists to employ a different business model to the classic Web2, ad-based models of Facebook or Spotify.
With scarce ownership, tracked via a decentralised public blockchain such as Ethereum, choice and power remains in the hands of the artist themselves.
Not the exploitative tech-platform like we see now.
This is the key.
Web3 changes everything
By offering a choice, Web3 changes the game.
Pricing any piece of digital art with in terms of pay-per-play is a race to the bottom hosted by the Web2 tech platforms, but between the artists.
Currently these platforms hold all the power.
But shouldn’t it be the artists?
I mean it’s the artists’ that you actually want access to, not the platform.
NFTs, via the different revenue models that scarce ownership makes available, changes the game.
This time, all the power is in the hands of the individual artist or creator.
Is it scary that NFTs flip the entire model that people have grown accustomed to on its head?
Yes.
But this model has made it extremely difficult for artists outside the top 1% to make any money from their work for years.
Pushback to NFTs in the art world shouldn’t come from artists or consumers.
They’re the winners here.
The only losers are the Web2 tech companies which have taken advantage of artists and their users' personal data, for too long.
Ultimately, NFTs shift the power from tech platforms, back into the hands of the creators themselves.
NFTs are what allow artists to control how they monetise their content
When you screenshot a piece of digital art or right click and save a song to your computer, you’re not showing a flaw in the system.
You are in fact helping the artist by generating views and building a buzz around their work.
A buzz that thanks to it being released as an NFT on a blockchain that tracks scarce ownership, can be directly monetised.
Exactly how they do so, is completely up to the artist, with tomorrow’s blog discussing some of the innovative ways to monetise art in 2022.
Best of probabilities to you.