This is how musicians discover NFT

The NFT market has already successfully collaborated with Kanye West, Jay-Z and Beyoncé and now meets the first producer of Hyp-Hop! Illmatic is releasing an NFT album.

Ramon Ibanga, better known as Illmind, has had a successful career as a music producer for three decades. He has produced tracks for world-renowned hip-hop artists. Illmind has worked with Kanye West, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Drake and J. Cole. In 2018, he won a Grammy Award for his production of Beyoncé and Jay-Z's "All Is Love." His latest hit? The album NFT.

Last Thursday Illmind released a compilation of 10 melodic compositions. The NFT album is called ALORIUM, and it was sold at a Mintable auction for $6,000. 

NFT and copyright !

The creation of Illmind has sparked controversy on Reddit about what owning NFT means for intellectual property and copyrights.

Any melodic composition in this package can be used and modified and then published for commercial purposes (license-free warranty + contract included in the file). Description for ALORIUM by Illmind on Mintable. 

The Ethereum-based token contains an exclusive link that only the owner has access to. It gives him the right to use the audio files for his own purposes without copyright restrictions. It comes with a contract with a "royalty free music guarantee”.

Until now, end users could buy and own a physical music album or buy and download digital content. However, copyright protects the works and the artist.

With digital music in the form of NFT, completely new issues arise from a legal perspective. Because unlike the widespread subscription or download formats, which only allow music to be played, with NFT the buyers are also owners in all respects - the legal claims of authors do not apply, and the regulatory framework still needs to be created. But that doesn't stop many artists from risking their copyrights and making money in this new market. 

Subverting the music industry

Many famous musicians have been thrilled by the unique tokens. Some of them discovered a new way to distribute their art. Same with Grimes, the girlfriend of crypto-enthusiast Ilon Musk. In less than 20 minutes, she sold NFT art on Nifty Gateway for $5.8 million.

Other musicians such as Deadmau5 and Sutu have released NFT collaborations on WAX. In addition, Sean Lennon used NFT to publish works on various media.

Last December, he sold the NFT artwork for $3,000. Linkin Park is also part of the party and selling the video for an upcoming NFT song through Zora. Zora is a digital goods marketplace dedicated to eliminating the influence of large corporations in the entertainment industry.

The list of artists who use NFT as a means of expression grows longer and longer. Despite unanswered questions about copyright, the hype around NFT is also gaining momentum in music. 

How to invest in NFT

Since there are already several investment funds that focus exclusively on investing in NFTs, let's take a look at how the average citizen can invest in NFTs:

• Digital Art. You can keep an eye on individual digital artists or studios and hope that you can get your hands on the next twenty-first century Picasso. Here are a few platforms where you can do that: OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway. I also like what Async Art does. If you don't want to pick out individual paintings or don't have enough money to buy out the whole object, you can buy a tokenized share on the NFTX platform.
• Platforms. Some platforms and virtual universes for NFT have made DAOs and released their own coins, like MEME, The Sandbox, Axie Infinity and that same Rarible. You can invest in individual solutions if you have confidence in the team. As one financial wisdom says: in an era of gold rush, it's best to sell (invest in) shovels.
• Index. You can buy an index. For example, Index Coop, who have made the most popular DeFi index DPI, are about to launch the Metaverse Index (MVI), which will include tokens from some of the biggest projects in the field. There are other NFT indexes, but I'll leave just this one here because I've involved in the project myself on the legal side.

The NFT segment is overheated right now, just like all crypto. So make your decision carefully. Of course, this is not a financial or investment recommendation of any kind.