Hip-Hop Artist ILL Bill to Auction “Silk Road” Music NFT on Phantasma
The Phantasma blockchain, a custom built blockchain platform for NFTs, gaming and decentralized applications, is launching a new non-fungible token (NFT) auction feature on the NFT marketplace GhostMarket.io. In celebration producer, record label owner and hip-hop legend ILL Bill will kick off the launch with an exclusive music NFT release, titled: ILL Bill — Silk Road ft. Lord Goat (Produced by ILL Bill).
NFTs are taking the music industry by storm
Music NFTs are suddenly on everyone’s mind in the music industry — just ask ILL Bill. “Most of my friends are musicians and artists, and NFTs have been the main topic of conversation over the past few weeks.”
Every artist seems to find their own unique way to approach releasing a music NFT, and ILL Bill is no different. Drawing inspiration from Wu-Tang Clan’s release of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, only one copy of this song will ever be available, making it as rare as a painting and therefore highly collectible. It’s a game-changer for an industry where music is normally treated as a commodity.
“What’s really exciting, revolutionary and empowering about the music NFT,” ILL Bill says, “is the ability for musicians to sell a 1 of 1 digital song the same way an art gallery would auction a painting by Basquiat (or any other artist). Creatively and financially, the possibilities are endless. I remember when Wu-Tang sold their 1 of 1 album for $1 million dollars a few years back and being extremely curious as to what that album might sound like. The fact that only the sole owner (and whoever he chose to play it for) got to hear the album was intriguing to a huge Wu-Tang fan like myself. RZA blurred the lines between the traditional music industry and the world of high-end collectible art, and the music NFT is the digital evolution of that concept, plus so much more.”
Choosing wisely among leading service providers
With several NFT platforms available today, artists need to choose wisely according to their values and priorities when creating and selling their music in online marketplaces. The Phantasma blockchain was designed after studying legacy blockchain projects like Ethereum, Neo and the still in development Cardano, and built to utilize some of the best concepts from each chain. A major challenge facing legacy chains is the limited native feature set, causing developers to try to work around existing limitations to implement new features that the legacy blockchains were not designed to support in the first place. To avoid this, Phantasma has built scalability, speed, affordability and the most advanced NFT technology into the core of the blockchain. Together with a designated musicians fund, this allows any artist, whether famous or unknown and struggling, to get started creating music NFTs absolutely free of charge.
Phantasma and GhostMarket.io have already seen multiple world firsts, one of the most noteable being the world’s first music album NFT “Anthology” by artist Mansa Obi on December 23rd 2020 — followed by the world’s first live concert NFT by the same artist on January 19th 2021. This second NFT was in fact created as a bundle, where the buyer received not only an NFT ticket to the event, but also a full music album and a ticket guide — all as separate NFTs bundled with a single purchase.
Collecting, creating and sharing music
As a lifelong album collector, ILL Bill is excited to be one of the very first artists to adapt to this new music format, and he plans to continue releasing NFTs regularly on GhostMarket.io. “I already have a bunch of NFTs in the works, and this year we’re just gonna experiment and have some fun with it. Since I was a kid, I’ve always been a collector of all things music, comic books, toys and beyond, so why not NFTs? I’m gonna have to start a collection of my own.”
What does the winner of the auction receive? The unlockable downloads that only the owner of the NFT can access include the full-quality WAV file of the original master recording of “Silk Road ft. Lord Goat,” as well as the full collection of front and back cover album art and digital stickers. Owning the NFT does not give the buyer the rights to the song, however, those remain with the artist and his label.
Artists’ rights — preserved
Preserving the artist’s copyright is part of the vision for the music NFTs that musicians are developing independently within the Phantasma community, one which protects the rights of artists while embracing the new technology. And there are indications interest in music NFTs is starting to hit a J-curve: today there are over 900 NFTs for sale in the music category, up several hundred in just a few days. Not bad for something that only a few months ago didn’t seem to exist except as a few scattered proofs-of-concept.
Other artists planning to launch music NFT auctions on Ghostmarket.io soon include the Biscodini Trio, a jazz trio named for members Curt Bisquera, Scott Healy, and John Chiodini. It’s just the first of several projects that Conan-keyboardist Scott Healy and his jazz label Hudson City Records are planning to release as non-fungible tokens on Ghostmarket.io.
The auction for ILL Bill’s “Silk Road ft. Lord Goat” began Monday, March 1st at 9pm CET and will last for 7 days, ending at 9pm CET on March 8th. Bids will be accepted in SOUL, the utility token of the Phantasma blockchain, which is traded on Kucoin and Uniswap.
The auction for the ILL Bill — Silk Road ft. Lord Goat non-fungible token (NFT) is being held online on the NFT’s page found here
To the Future of Music,
Team Phantasma
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