IOI
‘SALE’, from Hindi Rock giant Euphoria, will be released as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), in a new trend that highlights the use of blockchain technology in the music industry.
As part of the NFT project Token Runway, the band will offer nine behind-the-scenes photographs and the music album NFT, which will be auctioned after it is released to the public. The auction started on 9 September and will end on 12 September after which the album will be released on 14 September.
A journey through seven songs comprised of differing genres, sounds, styles, emotions and lives experiences awaits listeners on ‘SALE,’ Euphoria’s eighth album. Each song was penned during different points in Euphoria Founder Palash Sen’s career, reflecting a real-life experience he and the band experienced together. This album is the culmination of 17 years of hard work and passion compressed into 7 soulful tracks.
Co-Founder of Token Runway, Priyank Mahajan, discusses the upcoming NFT drop at Euphoria by saying, “After decades of experience in the field of entertainment and media monetization we are excited to embark on this blockchain powered journey with Token Runway. The system is built in a manner which guarantees trust amongst sellers and buyers, which lets the creators focus on their craft. We are excited to be able to work with Euphoria on our first NFT as the band being a legend has a history of many firsts, and will keep striving to bring exclusive and rare NFTs to our community.”
Explaining the rationale behind slipping into the NFT trend, Euphoria Founder & Singer Palash Sen says, “We believe that it is important to take our music to all communities. This will widen the outreach of our work to the global blockchain community and we certainly are looking forward to it. As seasoned musicians, we think it is essential for us to be a part of this movement. We come from a time when it was impossible to release an album without a label or a rich dad. NFTs offer a whole new distribution mechanism without affecting the artist’s other revenue streams.”
As a piece of creative work, an NFT can be considered a piece of digital ledger. Several forms of digital media can be auctioned by musicians and artists through non-profit auctions. Essentially, this marks the beginning of an era when artists can do business directly with their fans and sell their NFTs as they used to if they had self-produced CDs.
In the case of NFTs, the networking technology is a blockchain, a publicly available and transparent network in which any transaction can be seen. As part of a network, the computers that are involved in transactions are constantly updated and cannot be hacked.
Since the pandemic went global last year, NFTs have become a mainstream method of generating revenues from the digital audio distribution side of the pandemic. Euphoria sees huge potential for growth via this new trend, and the release of this album as an NFT will be the first of many to come for the band with Token Runway in the coming years. “In the long run, fans will have access to exclusive work from the musicians and will bring back the concept of ownership of music like in the case of CDs, cassettes and records. For the musicians it will provide new reasons and challenges to better their craft,” said Palash.
In terms of the future plans, Palash says: “After the release of SALE as an NFT, we are also going to be working on creating a year long calender or a roadmap to release further content, memorabilia, Euphoria demos, and several other special things relating to the band’s journey. It is definitely exciting as it helps us connect with an audience that is interested in and seeks off beat collectibles. Being an independent artist, our options are limited. But then, the sky is the limit.”
“We have been working on this album for over 17 years, it was not till recently we thought of doing an exclusive pre-release SALE as an NFT. It so happened that we were in the process of releasing the album when the NFT trend set in. As we had the album almost ready we decided to take the plunge with it, mainly to test waters and gauge the response from our audience. We are very happy to have collaborated with Token Runway for our very first NFT project. It has been truly euphoric to work with them.”
