Popular Art NFT Use Cases

There are multiple options for individual artists to sell their digital works, but other use cases exist for those who fall outside the ‘digital artist’ demographic.

NFT and the Music Industry

In March 2021, before Grimes sold a collection of NFTs for nearly US$6 million, American DJ 3LAU sold 33 NFTs offering original content to his fans. The sale brought in $11.7 million.

A few days later, the rock band Kings of Leon offered up their album for sale in the form of an NFT. Eighteen “golden ticket” NFTs were linked to real concert tickets, providing holders with VIP advantages including front row seats for life. The auction of this collection raised $2 million.

In April 2021, Griz partnered with the visual artist Kitasavi for an NFT sale on Nifty Gateway.

In May 2021, Gramatik made an NFT drop on the generative music platform Audioglyph called The G Drop. Each music pack contained 5 NFTs animated by artist DarkPxl. Gramatik had already written a song about Satoshi Nakamoto in 2016 with Adrian Lau and Probcause.

Since these projects were completed, the initiatives mixing the music industry and NFTs have increased dramatically..

Deadmau5 presented an NFT collection called Head5 to reward holders with new Deadmau5 projects and future integrations. With his longtime collaborator Nick “Smearballs” DenBoer, Deadmau5 put 5,555 NFTs up for sale on Monday, November 15th 2021.  Within 3 days, 1870 NFTs were sold at a price of 0.15 ETH each. 

In August 2021, TikTok also turned towards NFTs. The Ethereum-based Audius protocol became one of the first streaming platforms to be integrated with TikTok. It allows almost 1 billion users to directly share tracks on the social network and directly on the Audius app. The new feature has been called TikTok Sounds.

In November 2021, Universal and Grammy-winning rapper and producer Timbaland announced the launch of an entertainment brand Ape-In Productions (AIP), based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection.

One of the most committed musicians in today’s NFT space is undeniably Snoop Dogg. In 2022, the rapper has expanded his commitment: building his own virtual world: Snoopverse, in The Sandbox In addition to the Snoopverse, Snoop has been re-recording some albums from his Death Row Records label, as well as launching an entire NFT collection of iconic Snoop Dogg collectibles and exclusive songs on Cardano.Faced with this influx of artists and personalities from around the world, Fortune has even created an “NFTy 50” ranking that brings together the 50 personalities or projects that are the most influential today in the world of NFTs.

NFT and the Movie Industry

NFTs are also being utilized as a new kind of officially licensed product to engage and benefit fan bases, comparable to official merchandise and other more traditional product lines.

It was first noted in March 2021, when Legendary Entertainment released two new special NFT collections in collaboration with Boss Logic and Terra Virtua Ltd. Their goal was to sell Godzilla vs. Kong-themed NFTs. They provided limited-edition, collectible NFTs of the two monsters fighting.

Rarible hosted an NFT sale by award-winning director Michael Beets to generate funding for the world’s first documentary filmed by refugees from all around the world.

Enderby Entertainment collaborated with CurrencyWorks in June 2021 to develop VUELE, the first full-length feature film NFT viewing and distribution platform. The first NFT auctioned off by Vuele was Zero Contact, a science-fiction film starring Anthony Hopkins.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the movie Zero Contact was entirely digitally produced in 17 different countries.

The animated series “Stoner Cats” raised US$8.4 million through an NFT sale at the end of July 2021, selling out in only 35 minutes. These NFTs allowed their holders the exclusive right to view certain episodes.

Fox Entertainment has announced a US$100 million creation fund for the NFT industry. They accomplished this through Blockchain Creative Labs, with the purpose of operating a digital marketplace. Customers will be able to buy characters, background art, and GIFs associated with the series and other projects that join the platform.

In September 2021, the Dune movie launched an NFT collection in collaboration with IV gallery, Lineage Studios, and MakersPlace as part of the promotional campaign.

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