Kings of Leon releasing next album on non-fungible tokens

Rock band Kings of Leon plans to launch its next album, titled “When You See Yourself,” as a non-fungible token.

According to a March 3 Rolling Stone report, Kings of Leon plans to release three different kinds of NFTs as part of its “NFT Yourself” series.

As with most non-fungible tokens—one-of-a-kind digital assets with their ownership and provenance permanently stored on a blockchain—the emphasis is on limited availability and exclusivity. Because of this, the issuance of the tokens will be limited to only the number sold in two weeks starting on Friday.

One of the three tokens is a special album package, another one features exclusive audiovisual art, and a very limited third NFT includes superfan perks like front-row seats for life and band meet-and-greets. All those NFTs include art designed by the band’s go-to artist partner, Night After Night. 

The smart contracts that they leverage were developed by music tokenization firm YellowHeart.

“Over the last 20 years—two lost decades—we’ve seen the devaluation of music,” YellowHeart founder and CEO Josh Katz told the magazine. “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 a 100,000 at a dollar each, then they just made $100,000.”

The “When you see yourself” album will be also available on normal, non-blockchain based digital music distribution platforms Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and Amazon. 

However, those albums will not include any of the NFT versions’ bonus features. The tokens cost $50 and feature a moving album cover as well as the right to download a digital copy of the music and acquire a limited-edition vinyl.

YellowHeart is also minting 18 “golden tickets,” six of which will be auctioned off by the band while the rest will be vaulted. Each of those tickets will grant access to a front-row seat at one Kings of Leon concert per tour for life, as well as a VIP experience including a personal driver, a concierge at the show, a hangout with the band before the show and exclusive lounge access, and a bag with every item from the merchandise booth.

Katz explained that such a system could be also adopted for standard concert tickets and it could provide additional income by imposing a fee every time tickets are sold on the secondary market. The issuer can also set a maximum price at which the NFT can be resold, in an attempt to eradicate scalpers.

NFTs are seeing rapid evolution in the space of collectibles and artwork. Recently, one tokenized artwork in the form of a ten-second animation by the artist Beeple was resold for $6.6 million on an NFT exchange. Some less-than-precious items have also traded at exorbitant prices, like Uniswap’s  socks-backed SOCKS tokens, which  reached a ludicrous $158,000 on March 3.