When artists die, there are a finite set of assets that can be used by their estates to: a) keep them in the public eye; and b) keep them making money. There are, for example, only so many tracks that lie in the studio vault (yes even Prince’s vault will eventually run dry). But new technologies are giving these estates a lot more opportunities to generate whole new assets and fan experiences.
First there was the hologram, kickstarted by Tupac’s estate at Coachella in 2012, with the estates of Whitney Houston, Maria Callas, Roy Orbison, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and more following suit. The latest, and potentially most lucrative, new opportunity is now in NFTs.
Already in the last year we have seen posthumous NFTs from MC Doom, XXXTentacion, Chris Cornell, Jerry Garcia, Tupac (of course) and Whitney Houston (where an early demo was offered as part of a bundle and generated over $1m).
The estate of Biggie Smalls (aka Christopher Wallace) is now entering the fray by partnering with the Quincy Jones-backed OneOf, which claims to be the greenest option for musicians (or their estates) to produce and sell NFTs.
The NFTs are being created around the 25th anniversary of the rapper’s death and the posthumous release of his Life After Death album. An undisclosed cut of the money raised will go to The Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation.
“Using NFT technology, Biggie’s legacy and his outsized impact on music and culture will be forever cemented on blockchain, to be honored and shared with fans around the world and for generations to come,” said Josh James, co-founder and COO of OneOf.
Biggie’s mother added, “We are excited about our partnership with OneOf and their expertise to memorialise my son Christopher with this first official NFT drop to give his fans an opportunity to participate in and honour their love of him and his music.”
Details of the NFTs and their cost remain scant ahead of release, but there will surely be crown motifs involved. Fans looking to buy NFTs when they launch have to sign up on the OneOf site or join its Discord.
When dealing with new platforms and outlets, estates are often damned if they do nothing (accused of dereliction of duty) and equally damned if they do (accused of crass commercialism). But they have to remain active and find new ways to draw in potential younger fans.
NFTs are not going to be “the new boxset” or “the new biopic”, but they are part of a necessary process of estates reinventing themselves as new opportunities, platforms and technologies come along.
