Kings of Leon to send an NFT into space
American rock band Kings of Leon will become the first act to send an NFT (non-fungible token) into space.
The band are teaming up with the Elon Musk-founded SpaceX, which is preparing to send the all-civilian Inspiration4 crew on a three-day orbit.
The band’s NFT – a new, live recording of their track ‘Time in Disguise’ – will be played onboard via an iPhone on 15 September.
The offering is up for auction now, with proceeds going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Bidding for the NFT starts at US$50,000, and the winner will receive both the NFT itself and the iPhone that gets sent up
Bidding for starts at US$50,000, and the winner will receive both the NFT itself and the iPhone that gets sent up to space.
The NFT is part of a wider auction – which includes limited edition space merchandise – to help raise $200 million for the hospital.
“It means so much to us to be a part of this historic moment,” Kings of Leon told People. “When we wrote and recorded ‘Time in Disguise’ in the studio, we always thought it had a spacy feel to it and then the visuals from our live show have that vibe, as well.”
“To now have that song and those images be a part of something as historic as this is really cool, and having it raise money for a cause we’ve always cared so much about, makes it even better,” the band adds.
Earlier this year, Kings of Leon generated more than $2 million from a collection of non-fungible tokens, titled ‘NFT Yourself’.
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LiveXLive launches NFT content division
LiveXLive, a live music streaming and content production platform, is expanding its offering for artists with an NFT (non-fungible tokens) and digital art content division.
The division will focus solely on the creation, production, promotion, and selling of NFTs to encompass original video content, pay-per-views, events, podcasting and vodcasting, merchandise and audio businesses.
The multi-faceted digital entertainment company says the new branch will present a range of revenue streams for artists, helping them to create, promote and sell NFTs in the form of music, merchandise, photographs, tickets, posters and experiences.
“There is potentially significant value in building a dedicated business to support these new forms of digital assets from both a monetisation and promotional perspective,” says Robert Ellin, Chairman and CEO of LiveXLive.
“Our events across music, pop-culture, gaming, pay-per-view, podcasting/vodcasting and audio align perfectly with the value proposition NFTs represent to superfans and collectors across the world.”
“Our events across music align perfectly with the value proposition NFTs represent to superfans and collectors”
The creation of the new division follows a recent boom in artists selling NFTs, which reached a peak when Kings of Leon generated more than $2 million from their NFT collection, ‘NFT Yourself’.
Grimes, Shawn Mendes, Steve Aoki, Quavo, Lil Baby, 2 Chainz, Jack Harlow, Tory Lanez, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, 3lau, Ozuna have also released collections recently.
GET Protocol‘s Olivier Biggs recently told IQ how the live business can harness non-fungible tokens, particularly with ticketing.
“NFT ticketing is a use case worth taking very seriously. When applied correctly, it enables ticket issuers a variety of benefits that impact and drastically improve the ticketing experience. Both for the fan and the organiser or artist,” he said.
Read more about the benefits of NFT tickets here.
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Kings of Leon generate more than $2m from NFT sales
American rock band Kings of Leon has generated more than $2 million from ‘NFT Yourself’, a collection of non-fungible tokens the band put up for sale through blockchain technology company YellowHeart.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a form of cryptocurrency asset; a spendable token that you can exchange for other cryptocurrencies, or spend on goods where they’re accepted, on the blockchain (a Cloud for financial assets).
The ‘NFT Yourself’ sale, which ran from Friday to Monday, included the band’s new album ‘When You See Yourself’ as an NFT, as well as an auction of six different ‘Golden Tickets’.
Each ‘Golden Ticket’ would give the successful bidder four front-row seats to one show of every Kings of Leon headlining tour for life.
Of the Golden Tickets, ‘Bandit #3 Grid’ and ‘Heads in the Clouds’ sold for $91,000; ‘Golden Cherry Echo’ sold for roughly $95,700; ‘Bandit #1 Red’ and ‘Couch Distortion’ each sold for close to $97,000; and ‘Bandit #2 Wave’, which also included audio, sold for roughly $162,000.
Kings of Leon previously announced that Live Nation’s Crew Nation would receive the proceeds of both ‘Bandit Wave #2’ and the album tokens, which are priced at $50 each and include limited-edition vinyl and a digital download of the album.
The band has confirmed that $500,000 of the $2m has been donated to Live Nation’s Crew Nation fund
The band has confirmed that $500,000 of the $2m has been donated to Crew Nation fund to support live music crews during the pandemic.
The Golden Ticket auction was originally scheduled to end on Sunday but Kings of Leon ended up extending that deadline to give fans who are first-time NFT buyers a chance to partake.
“Breaking new ground is never easy….if it were, it wouldn’t be groundbreaking,” the band wrote in a since-deleted statement on YellowHeart’s website. “Many fans are first-time NFT buyers and are experiencing a learning curve. We hear you and are going to extend the ‘NFT Yourself’ Collection for an additional 24 hours, in hopes that more time allows more fans to participate in this historic offering.”
‘When You See Yourself’ can still be purchased as an NFT on YellowHeart’s website until 19 March but any limited-edition collectable NFTs that are not sold at the end of the sale will be deleted and no more will be made.
While Kings of Leon are reportedly the first act to release a new album as an NFT, a number of artists including Grimes, Shawn Mendes, Steve Aoki, Quavo, Lil Baby, 2 Chainz, Jack Harlow, Tory Lanez, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, 3lau, Ozuna have released collections recently.
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Kings of Leon sign with WME worldwide
Kings of Leon have signed with William Morris Endeavor (WME) for exclusive worldwide representation.
The US rock superstars, previously with CAA domestically and WME for international touring, will now by represented solely by the latter in all areas, including music, film, television, books and endorsements. They continue to be managed by Vector Management’s Ken Levitan and Andy Mendelsohn.
Kings of Leon’s fourth headlining tour, Walls, wrapped up in Mexico City on 4 November after taking in arenas and festivals across North America and Europe, including the record-breaking BST Hyde Park 2017. Their third world trek, 2014’s Mechanical Bull tour, grossed US$34.9m from 66 shows.
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