March, 2021

Justin Blau aka musician and producer 3LAU, sold a NFT collection for $11.6 million via an online auction between February 25-28. Following the success of that sale, his management company, YMU, says that it is now lining up more NFT auctions for other artists on the company’s roster.

Source: As 3LAU makes $11.6m from NFT sales, his management company eyes more auctions for more artists

On Friday, Kings of Leon will release their new album, titled When You See Yourself, in the form of a non-fungible token. The band is actually dropping three types of tokens as part of a series called “NFT Yourself,” people involved in the project tells Rolling Stone. One type is a special album package, while a second type offers live show perks like front-row seats for life, and a third type is just for exclusive audiovisual art.

Source: Kings of Leon Will Be the First Band to Release an Album as an NFT

Project Gucciberg is the latest drop from viral factory MSCHF. Using machine learning, MSCHF created an audio deepfake of Gucci Mane reading a selection of classic texts from Little Women to Beowulf. They’re all free to listen to and come with book covers that blend in perfectly with the artwork of Gucci Mane’s prolific discography.

Source: Project Gucciberg offers classic audiobooks read by an AI deepfake of Gucci Mane

Electronic music producer 3LAU — pronounced “Blau” — sold the world’s first digital tokenized album on Sunday, generating over $11.6 million in online sales in under 24 hours. One song from 3LAU’s album was sold for over $3.6 million on his own custom-made digital-token auction site.

Source: Musician 3LAU sells the world’s first-ever crypto-albums, making $11.6 million in under 24 hours

The technology is still in its nascent stages of experimental use cases. But the technology could change how music is monetized in the future. Let’s look at how some artists embrace music NFTs to change how they get paid. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda sold a digital piece of art for $30,000 via NFT.

Source: NFTs Blowing Up In the Music Industry – Grimes, Steve Aoki Make Millions

A 10-second video created by digital artist Beeple recently sold for $6.6 million in an art auction. The video itself is a “non-fungible token” or NFT, a digital asset whose origin or ownership has been authenticated by blockchain technology.  While this is making it easier to assign monetary values to digital art, critics like Blake Gopnik are afraid this will replicate a problem that’s been affecting the physical art sector for generations: valuing art for its authenticity but not for the art itself.

Source: You can now own “authenticated” digital artwork

In 1919, legendary Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninov, recorded his own performance of his Prelude in C minor onto piano roll, so it could be preserved as a recording. The Prelude in question is a very difficult piece, and Rachmaninov was able to play its hardest passages up to speed, and with exhilarating energy. And now – as well as hearing the performance through the historic piano roll, you can now see the performance.

Source: This AI has reconstructed actual Rachmaninov playing his own piano piece