The great artist, sculptor, and polymath of the Renaissance era Leonardo da Vinci has quoted “Artists see things that others have only caught a glimpse of!” It would not be an exaggeration to say truer words have seldom been spoken about artists. Sadly, except for a few celebrated creators, the world does not celebrate artists.
Maybe artists were celebrated and art was encouraged when kings were connoisseurs of art. However, these days, artists are left at the mercy of intermediaries. It holds true irrespective of the form of art. Music creators get paid a measly sun for all the plays that they get on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.
This, Vover, it’s all set to change, thanks to the introduction of nonfungible tokens or NFTs as they are commonly abbreviated.
What are NFTs?
As the name implies, NFTs, unlike other crypto coins, are irreplaceable and unique tokens that exist on the blockchain . In most cases, an NFT does not match with any other NFT with the same attribute.
Along with any other asset on the blockchain (just like how crypto coin trading at transactions are facilitated), NFTs can also be moved from one blockchain address to another without any geographic barriers. This happens without any loss of data, thanks to the inherent properties of the blockchain which include provenance, security, and immutability.
How does this affect artists?
It does affect artists very positively. NFTs bring a lot of benefits to artists spread across multiple territories.
Transparent monetization
In the world of Web 2.0, as we have already seen, artists were left at the mercy of intermediaries. The intermediaries, in the disguise of providing amplified visibility, consumed a major chunk of revenue, ending up paying only meager revenues for the artists.
With NFTs, however, the need for intermediaries is completely remote, meaning the artist can directly connect with their art consumers. Using an NFT trading platform, it is possible for the artist to directly sell their creation to an art connoisseur or just an art collector. The collector, if they realize that the art is really valuable and if they would like to monetize their collection, can sell the art on the same NFT trading platform.
With the right kind of planning, the artist will continually get their royalty for every trade because the proof that the art was first created by a particular artist does not get destroyed… Ever!
Indisputable provenance
In the highly connected world powered by Web 2.0, how many times have we come across instances where an artist less claim over a particular creation only to find out that the attribution of creation has been tampered with at some point in time along the journey?
An artist would find it more devastating to lose the credit for their creation then losing money! It is such a pain to see your hard work and creativity drawing credit for someone else!
With the introduction of NFTs, such troubles would be rendered obsolete. A word of thanks needs to go to the blockchain technology for making this possible. As you may have known, it is almost possible to tamper with data entered on the blockchain unless that is universal consensus from all the participating nodes. Therefore, when an NFT trading platform registers a particular artist to be the first creator, it will remain so even when the art/creation changes millions of hands when it comes to ownership.
This also ensures that the ownership cannot be faked. Let us all admit it! There are certain instances when a particular piece of art requires more value because it was owned by someone really significant or famous. With NFTs, it is now impossible to cook up false information about ownership. This also helps verify the number of instances of an artist receiving their royalty because they’re supposed to receive royalties for every trade.
Creator economy
Web 2.0 was Surely revoting experience for creators but their rewards were not as much as they were supposed to receive. However come in in this new age of creator economy powered by NFTs, it is time for artists and creators to reclaim their worth… Not just in terms of fame but also in terms of fortune!
Read more: How to Invest in Non-Fungible Token (NFT)?