By
Svetlana Soroka
April 24th, 2024
Platforms have teamed up to test how NFTs could help music artists manage their event bookings.
Blockchain-based music research and analytics platform Viberate has joined forces with Blockparty marketplace to launch an experimental non-fungible token. The NFT offer will include the right for a live performance by one of the Viberate co-founders, world-acclaimed Techno DJ UMEK, marking the introduction of the world’ first “live gig NFT”. Viberate also has a native token VIB already listed on Binance, Bittrex, OKEx, and Uniswap.
The announced April 29 drop will feature five different NFTs, and run for 24 hours. Three of the tokens feature exclusive remixes of UMEK’s illustrious 1999 Techno track “Lanicor” (to ensure uniqueness and collectability, the DJ vowed to permanently delete the remix files once sold, making the content of each token a true non-replicable original), while the remaining two hold the rights to book UMEK for one livestream performance, or one live gig.
Since the end of February, high-profile music artists such as Kings of Leon, Grimes, Steve Aoki, and Kyga have successfully bid and sold their NFTs, either as digital art collection, tracks, albums, products, and exclusive tour tickets. The numbers are impressive, as Steve Aoki’s debut NFT collection was sold for more than $4 million, while Grimes made almost $6 million in only 20 minutes.
But Viberate sees a much broader potential beyond art collectibles. “When it comes to NFTs, we hope it’s a craze that takes hold in the general public as well,” says Matej Gregorcic, Viberate CEO. “We’ve been a part of crypto community for several years now, and like other companies and individuals in it, we’re excited about the potential blockchain holds for the entire live music industry, especially in terms of transparency and security. NFTs could become a standard way of handling bookings in the future, and we hope our drop will help the community explore both livestreaming, and live event options.”
Since the tokens are authentic and their ownership can be verified by blockchain technology, Viberate and Blockparty see them potentially bringing great value to the music industry. For example, “tokenized” concert tickets cannot be counterfeited, or bought and re-sold for a higher price. Similarly, the details of a live performance cannot be tampered with once the agreement was reached, meaning more safety for both organizers and artists. If nothing else, the attractive part right now is being assured that there’s a live gig waiting once live music events return worldwide.
UMEK too sees the upcoming drop as an opportunity for artists that are currently on a professional hiatus due to the covid-19 lockdowns. “I know that Electronic music scene is very diverse – there are many DJs out there who don’t produce and sell their own tracks, but play plenty of gigs, and there are lots of artists who are not very well-known or backed by major labels, but looking for gig spots. Those are the people that don’t get talked about a lot, but are still an important part of the live music industry. I’m hoping this NFT drop will start a dialogue and spark new ideas about how gigs could be managed, and also evaluated, since many artists right now are streaming their work for free as we speak. In the end, I’m hoping our community can help create a more democratic live music industry.”
Viberate and Blockparty will use the drop to test the “live gig NFT” concept. If the concept proves to be successful, Viberate plans on providing the options of gig token minting to nearly half a million music artists in their database, along with minting artist ID NFTs through a secure verification process. These ID NFTs will then act as a certificate of authenticity, reassuring the buyer that the contents indeed come from a verified artist.
UMEK’s NFT drop will launch on Blockparty on Thursday, April 29, 2021, at 8:00 pm GMT+1 (3:00 pm EST).