NFTs and Creators — The Future of the Creator Economy
I saw a tweet a few days ago:
This is a pretty interesting claim. I didn’t believe it at first glance, so I did some digging. Here’s what I found.
Without many contexts, it looks like a mixed bag. Artists claim they are making more by working with NFTs and others (*not artists*) claim they are not. Well, we’ve got access to many different artists, creators, and athletes all buying into NFTs to help them earn more and connect with their fans better. They seem to agree that the future of fan engagement and even their careers are on the blockchain.
Let’s revisit the tweet from above.
Breaking this down: let’s assume a music artist makes $35,300 annually¹. This number is from things outside their music through a label like teaching. Let’s take 22% away from that gross value for the percentage reported from teaching. That leaves us with $27,534. There are other factors here, but to prove a point, let’s say that’s what the average artist earns when working with a major label.
Now, let’s think about this. Let’s be even more conservative here and say that the number over a three-year period is more than what our good friend Dyl here earned in 1 year. That three-year total brings us to $82,602. What is the likelihood of this being true?
More Numbers
Let’s now look at NFTs. In 2022, an average NFT comes in at a price under $200². So, $150 per NFT sale. A typical drop is often between 1,000–10,000. 3,000? So if an artist were to sell 3,000 NFTs at a price of $150, they’d make $45,000. This does not factor in external costs from using a platform. Even overestimating those, we can say that they’d earn about $30,000 per drop. That’s more than what an artist makes on average per year. Three drops in one year? $90,000.
Let’s Be Real
It makes sense for artists and creators to give the NFT approach a shot. There are platforms (shameless self-plug) that help creators build and launch collections to begin engaging with their fans more directly. That means that they can control the interaction better and be more connected while earning more of the paycheck that they rightly deserve.
We have spoken, albeit briefly, about musical artists, but what stops an athlete, social media influencer, inventor, doctor, personal therapist, and anything else you can think of (erm, license-permitting) from utilizing the blockchain in this manner?
This is the future and we are still barely getting our pinky toes wet.
References
1 https://output.com/blog/how-much-musicians-actually-earn
2 https://youngandtheinvested.com/nft-statistics/
