Phantasma blockchain is launching a new auction feature on NFT marketplace GhostMarket.io and producer, label owner and hip-hop legend ILL Bill is kicking off the launch with an exclusive NFT release: ILL BILL — SILK ROAD ft. LORD GOAT.
Drawing inspiration from Wu-Tang Clan’s $2 million release of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, only one copy of this song will ever be available, making it as rare as a painting and, therefore, highly collectible. It’s a game-changer for an industry where music is normally treated as a commodity.
“What’s really exciting, revolutionary and empowering about the music NFT,” ILL Bill says, “is the ability for musicians to sell a 1-of-1 digital song the same way an art gallery would auction a painting by Basquiat (or any other artist). Creatively and financially, the possibilities are endless. The fact that only the sole owner (and whoever he chose to play it for) got to hear the album was intriguing to a huge Wu-Tang fan like myself. RZA blurred the lines between the traditional music industry and the world of high-end collectible art, and the music NFT is the digital evolution of that concept.”
As a lifelong album collector, ILL Bill is excited to be one of the very first artists to adapt to this new music format, and he plans to continue releasing NFTs regularly on GhostMarket.io. “I already have a bunch of NFTs in the works and, this year, we’re just gonna experiment and have some fun with it.”
What does the winner of the auction receive? The unlockable downloads that only the owner of the NFT can access include the full-quality WAV file of the original master recording of “Silk Road ft. Lord Goat,” as well as the full collection of front and back cover album art and digital stickers. Owning the NFT does not give the buyer the rights to the song, however, those remain with the artist and his label.
Preserving the artist’s copyright is part of the vision for the music NFT that musicians are developing independently within the Phantasma community, one which protects the rights of artists while embracing the new technology. And there are indications that interest in music NFTs is starting to reach exponential growth: today there are over 900 NFTs for sale in the music category, up several hundred in just a few days. Not bad for something that only a few months ago didn’t seem to exist except for a few proofs-of-concept.
Other artists planning to launch music NFT auctions on Ghostmarket.io include the Biscodini Trio, the first of several projects from Conan-keyboardist Scott Healy and his label Hudson City Records, as well as LA-based synth-rock group Robot Nature.
Bids will be accepted in SOUL, the governance token of the Phantasma blockchain, which is traded on Kucoin and Uniswap.
The NFT auction can be found here.
