Well, here’s something different. The electronic producer Jacques Greene has a new track called “Promise” on the way. It’s not out yet, but he spent today auctioning the publishing rights for the song in exchange for the blockhain currency Ethereum. I can not even pretend to barely understand how this shit works, but Greene seemed pretty excited about it.
“As we explore the possibilities of art on the chain and the promise of web3, we can maybe begin to let go of old systems,” Greene said in a Twitter thread. “This NFT represents the AV clip — but also the publishing rights to the eventual song release… I got out of a long, pretty bad publishing deal with a big company last year—a big personal and professional victory! Didn’t feel they brought much value to my work.
He added: “I’m excited (and scared) of what possibilities and promises lie in this field and for the arts and culture in general. I have a lot of hopes and fears tied to it. Much rather think and talk about what might happen than sitting around feeling dread. The platform is a promise. You can buy the copyright here. In purchasing, you will own the publishing of the song, but I reserve the right to approval. That’s the promise.”
I also have no idea what one song from Jacques Greene would be worth in publishing rights one way or another, but I suppose this worked out for him: In the end the rights for “Promise” sold for 13ETH, which comes to $22,972.04. You can look at the auction page here.