Kings Of Leon To Release Album As An NFT In A World First

In an industry first, the American rock band Kings of Leon are set to release their latest album ‘When You See Yourself’ as an NFT this Friday, in the latest NFT announcement by a mainstream music artist. 

Three types of tokens are being offered to fans of the band, as part of the ‘NFT Yourself’ series. The tokens include a special album package, free row seats for life, and audiovisual art. The sale of the NFT will commence via auction at 12PM EST on the 5th March.

Yellowheart is the company behind the development of the Kings OF Leon NFT’s which were designed by creative agency Night After Night. The founder and CEO Josh Katz spoke to Rolling Stone about the impact NFT’s could have on the music industry:

“Over the last 20 years — two lost decades — we’ve seen the devaluation of music,” Katz tells Rolling Stone. “Music has become great at selling everything except music. There’s been a race to the bottom where, for as little money as possible, you have access to all of it. Previously, it cost $20 to go get one song. [...] It’s early stages, but in the future, I think this will be how people release their tracks: When they sell 100,000 at a dollar each, then they just made $100,000.”

The Kings of Leon NFT sale may be the first full album released by a band as an NFT, but it is just the latest in a series of highly successful music NFT auctions.  Over the past couple of years, a handful of popular artists have turned to this form of cryptocurrency as a way to combat the decline of music sales, and a way to build new links with their fan base. 

In fact, recent NfT’s sales are showing that this arena can be hugely lucrative for artists who choose to make use of it. Justin Blau recently broke the record for the highest NFT auction, selling $11.7 million worth of NFT tokens. The boom in tokens over the past few months has played out as a series of domino effects, in which successful NFT sales by artist’s have encouraged others to do the same.

With the likes of Grimes having recently sold her “War Nymph” collection on the NFT platform Nifty Gateway, as well as controversially selling a portion of her “soul” as part of an online art exhibit, it is the uniqueness of each NFT that makes these tokens so valuable, as well as their potential to increase in value over time. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.