A never-heard-before recording of Whitney Houston has just been sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) for $999,999 (roughly Rs. 7.62 crore) through the music-focussed marketplace OneOf. The song was recorded when Houston was 17, but was never released. The American singer and actor went on to become one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. NFT platform OneOf announced the sale on December 15, after first revealing in November 2021 that several Whitney Houston NFTs would be sold, with artwork by artist Diana Sinclair.
These NFTs have been going on sale during the Miami Art Week, which started on December 1. Several NFTs related to Houston's career have been released, which are available to buyers depending on the tier that they have bought in on the platform.
Gold and platinum tier users have access to rare, archival photos of the singer. Diamond tier users can obtain artwork by Diana Sinclair based on some of Houston's most famous songs.
The collection also includes thousands of fixed-price NFTs, including archival photos from Houston's early life and career. Proceeds from the sales of the collection will go to the non-profit Whitney E. Houston Foundation.
OneOf calls itself an “eco-conscious NFT platform built specifically for the music vertical.” It has received support from celebrated producer Quincy Jones. The platform wants to list NFTs at affordable fixed prices, and it intends to have thousands of NFTs on its platform.
There has been a lot of discussion about how NFTs could transform the music industry by increasing the amount of revenue that goes to artists. This seems to be the sentiment of the crypto community in response to the announcement of the Houston NFT sale. Sure enough, an increasing number of musicians and artists in other industries are strongly considering working with NFTs.
That said, NFTs have received criticism for sometimes being pointless, but sales like the one made for the Houston recording shows that there's a lot of potential. The list of artists that have announced NFT releases or have already released NFTs grows by the week.
Eminem, Grimes, Snoop Dogg, The Weeknd — are only a handful of musicians who have released NFTs in recent times. In many cases, the proceeds from the sales of NFTs linked to artists go to good causes, like the Freddie Mercury-inspired NFTs that were released to benefit an AIDS research charity.
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