When most people think of the relationship between NFTs and art, their minds usually turn to the Bored Ape Yacht Club and its eccentrically dressed primates. Celebrities like Tom Brady, Jimmy Fallon and Post Malone all sport these NFTs which cost around $200,000 on average. Comedic actor Seth Green has even floated the idea of creating a mixed real life/cartoon sitcom based on his bored ape—though he had to ransom the NFT back for nearly $300,000 after it was stolen from his wallet.
However, the tech underlying NFTs and the buzz surrounding them has broader implications for the entire world of art. The NFT market is worth $40 billion and, as of 2021, there were nearly 30 million wallets trading them, a number that’s increasing by around 40,000 new users each month. While the vast majority of NFTs sell for less than $200, some have truly staggering price tags. One work, for instance, was sold for nearly $70 million. For context, two 1634 Rembrandt paintings sold as a pair for $180 million. The fact that such a recent piece of art in such a new medium even came within the ballpark of those revered classics shows why art aficionados should all be taking note.
The full extent of how NFTs will change art is still unknown. While the market is hot right now, it’s possible that buyers will cool to NFTs as they become more commonplace. However, the impact of the blockchain-based phenomenon could have wide-reaching implications for visual art, music, games, and possibly film.
“It’s perhaps overly simplistic to think of NFTs as simply a token used to denote the ownership of, for example, a painting,” says Zain Jaffer, founder of Zain Ventures. “For serious collectors, this facet can mean a great deal. But the tech behind NFTs and the blockchain, along with the enthusiasm they’re experiencing right now, could herald great changes ahead for how we buy, sell, create, and enjoy art.”
A Fair Shake
The internet is full of artists trying to sell, for example, an original painting that they scanned into a digital file. However, no one who searches that painting would need to pay the artist to look at it, save it as an image file, and send it to everyone they know. While some try to monetize their work by using platforms like Patreon, or setting up a donation button on their websites, neither of these tactics provide a buffer against piracy.
This is where NFTs provide a unique service to artists. If an artist turns a painting into an NFT, they can formally sell the ownership of the painting to a connoisseur and profit directly from their work. Selling artwork as an NFT also bypasses some of the traditional gatekeepers, such as galleries, that traditionally decide whether a piece is worth selling.
The absence of gatekeeping intermediaries means that artists can experiment more freely, without worrying about their art being accepted or rejected based on the taste of a curator.
A Wide World
The blockchain means that multiple patrons can simultaneously, easily, and directly put money towards an NFT and share its ownership, allowing them to feel like they own a part of something valuable without having to be millionaires. A particularly exciting example of this dynamic is an artwork called The Merge, which was purchased by 28,983 collectors for a total sum of $91.8 million.
This ability to fractionalize ownership of an artwork could have implications for other pieces of art as well, such as songs. For example, if a song that was sold as an NFT appears in a TV show, the resulting royalties could go to every party that co-owns it. This could allow the creator, as well as the co-investors, to continue profiting from their work in the long run.
In massively multiplayer online videogames, NFTs could represent ownership of in-game property, meaning a player’s avatar could really own the deed to a parcel of digital land in the game world. Filmmakers can also sell official NFTs for digital or real-world files or objects from their movies: consider an NFT denoting the authentic suitcase from Pulp Fiction, or one for a page of concept art from Dune. Exactly how NFTs will change the world of art remains to be seen, but, according to Jaffer, it’s time for artists to start thinking about how to use them.
“It’s up to the blockchain industry to find ways to educate artists on how to create, buy, and sell NFTs. Artists are incredibly creative people by nature, so I expect many of them will find new and innovative ways of using NFTs to create and share their work,” Jaffer says.
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