I shared some background on NFT’s – Non Fungible Tokens – in a recent post, ‘Digital, collectable assets‘. Since then I’ve thought about them a bit more. One of the things I think is most exciting about these tokens is how they are being used by artists not just to share and profit from their digital art and music, but also how they are providing opportunities for fans to share experiences with them.

See this article: AS 3LAU MAKES $11.6M FROM NFT SALES, HIS MANAGEMENT COMPANY EYES MORE AUCTIONS FOR MORE ARTISTS

“The top NFT sold during this particular auction, which included an opportunity for the buyer to record a song with Blau, fetched $3.6m…

“At a time when artist income has been severely impacted due to the loss of touring income and other factors during the COVID-19 pandemic, NFT auctions offer an exciting opportunity to monetize new aspects of creative output and Justin [Blau] demonstrated that in a historic way this past weekend.”

But probably the most exciting thing about the sale of NFT’s is that there is a digital trail of the sale of these, and many platforms that share them give 10% of the resale value to the artist. First, if a piece of digital art sells for $1,000, the artist will get almost $850 (far more than they would normally get if they sold art in a gallery). But then here is the really exciting thing, let’s say the NFT that originally sold for $1,000 then re-sells for $5,000. The artist gets 10% of that follow up sale, or $500. This is amazing! Often, art collectors make 100% of the resale value, but now artist can share in the success of their works being resold.

These two things: selling experiences as part of the sale of a digital item, and artist profiting from the resale of their work, are empowering artists in ways that were not available to them before. We could see artists that used to struggle creating niches that allow them to move from ‘starving artist’ to career artists that make a decent living sharing their art and passion for creativity. And in doing so, artist rather than producers, agents, and galleries, will see more revenue from the works they create. This could be a new renaissance period for artists.