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Nas is selling the royalties to his songs as NFTs

American rapper Nas has announced he will be selling streaming royalties for two of his songs, for fans to invest in.

You can now be a part-owner of Nas‘ two singles, Rare and Ultra Black in the form of NFTs. He’s joined forces with music ownership company Royal to sell streaming royalty ownership to fans.

Nas
Credit: Johnny Louis/Getty Images

You’re probably reading this and thinking, “Ugh not more pointless shit being sold as an NFT.”

Look, kind of… but at least investors have the potential to earn real money if the songs perform well. Here’s how it’s going to work:

Tomorrow, Nas is going to release 760 NFT tokens for his song Ultra Black, then the day after, 1,110 tokens will be available for his track Rare.

Investors can purchase the tier of ownership they want to own, ranging from Gold tier to Diamond. The amount you invest corresponds to the percentage of the royalties that you own/earn.

Ultra Black tiers:
Gold: 0.0143% streaming royalty ownership for £37 ($58 AUD)
Platinum: 0.0857% streaming royalty ownership for £184 ($290 AUD)
Diamond: 2.14% streaming royalty ownership for £3679 ($5800 AUD)

Rare tiers
Gold: 0.0113% streaming royalty ownership for £73 ($115 AUD)
Platinum: 0.0658% streaming royalty ownership for £368 ($580 AUD)
Diamond: 1.5789% streaming royalty ownership for £7358 ($11,600 AUD)

Ultra Black has racked up a total of 23.6 million streams worldwide, so according to our calculations, if you invest in the Gold tier of ownership, you’d be sitting on about negative $40 in profit. Likewise, if you went with the Diamond tier, you’d be at a loss of just under $3000.

While this may not be the soundest investment, the concept of selling royalties as an NFT could be pretty huge for the music industry as a whole.

Put simply, NFTs could prove themselves as a new form of income for independent musicians and in turn, backers could invest in up-and-coming bands who they predict will become popular.

Without a record label, getting started can be the most difficult obstacle for musicians, because it can be an expensive gamble without a guaranteed income.

But NFTs could be a great option for indie artists because they could potentially sell the royalties for their first few singles and have the money upfront to fund the recording of a debut record.