Kings of Leon are releasing their new album as a non-fungible token, or NFT, jumping on the craze for the digital assets akin to bitcoin, in cooperation with the tech startup Yellowheart.
The US rock group will sell two different types of NFT: one, which will be made available for a limited time, acts as a sort of deluxe version of the band’s new album When You See Yourself; the other, of which just six will be sold at auction, is effectively a lifetime ticket to the band’s shows.
The former token will be sold for $50 (£35.70), and comes with access to a digital download of the music and a vinyl, as well as other digital goods. The latter will probably be sold for somewhat more, but while only six will be sold, a total of 18 will be minted, which the band will be able to sell off in the future.
“Over the last 20 years – two lost decades – we’ve seen the devaluation of music,” YellowHeart’s chief executive, Josh Katz, told Rolling Stone, which first reported the band’s plans. “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 NFT sector has been booming over the past month, thanks to a spillover of interest from the wider cryptocurrency industry. The technology allows artists, musicians, and others to “wrap” digital goods in code which allows it to be bought and sold in a decentralised way, creating a fully digital replication of the traditional art market.
On Monday, the artist and musician Grimes sold almost $6m of visual art in an NFT auction.
But the field has been criticised for its vast power use, and for the limited utility of the tokens themselves. Just one work of art by Grimes, sold in 303 editions, produced an estimated 70 tonnes of CO2 emissions as it was turned into an NFT. And while the tokens convey “ownership”, they don’t provide significant actual use, providing an explanation for why the Kings of Leon NFT comes with the addition of a decidedly non-digital vinyl copy of the album.
