American rock band Kings of Leon will become the first music artist to release an album via a non-fungible token (NFT), as per a report on music industry publication Rolling Stones today.
NFTs are cryptographic representations of tangible or non-tangible items on a blockchain that prove the holder’s ownership of whatever they back (such as digital art, music, real estate, or in-game assets). The sector saw muted growth in the past years but has surged to a $3.44 billion sector in the past few months.
The tech allows the peer-to-peer exchange of the ownership of assets, one that, in turn, rewards creators fairly—a benefit that Kings of Leon wants to capture.
“Over the last 20 years — two lost decades — we’ve seen the devaluation of music,” said Josh Katz in a statement regarding the launch. Katz is the CEO of Yellowheart, a blockchain-based ticketing company and the firm that is providing smart contracts to aid the album launch.
