Kilkenny’s Oh Bryan look like they’re hitting the history books and getting off the mark quickly with a venture into NFT territory for their latest single, Our Surrender.
With a video recorded at Kilkenny Castle and released in recent weeks, No Surrender becomes the first Irish single, released independently, to the NFT format.
As reported by Rolling Stone earlier this month, Kings of Leon became the first band to release an album as an NFT, or ‘non-fungible token’.
What is an NFT you ask?
Essentially, NFT’s are a form of cryptocurrency except where crypto like Bitcoin or Ethereum hold a monetary value, NFTs hold an asset like music (hence the single release), tickets or art. Similarly to cryptocurrency, NFTs and their value are somewhat subjective and will fluctuate. With Bitcoin, one day a single coin is worth €100, or, at the time of writing, it could be worth €47,558.92.
NFT’s have had more of an underground vibe to them since their 2018 launch, but that’s all about to change. Kings of Leon’s album release was something of a landmark move to take the blockchain route for distribution with artwork, special tickets and more all bundled in.
In the case of Kings of Leon, they’re offering two different types of NFT – one is limited, a version of new album When You See Yourself; the other is a token going to auction, with the holder (and these are unique) pretty much getting a lifetime ticket to all of the band’s show, according to the Guardian.
In fact, said ‘golden ticket’ NFT for Kings of Leon grants the holder four front-row seats to any show, any venue, once per tour. If you’re a fan, and love seeing them live, that’s not a bad spot to be in.
Keep in mind that all of this is entirely digital, you might not ever hold or experience something physically, but acts are starting to see the potential of NFT releases as a way of restoring commercial value to their work and for holders, the token has the potential to turn into a solid investment should the value increase over time. Everyone likes the limited edition of something, right?
You can read more on The Guardian here.
Want to break it down even more and get into ownership? There’s a great article here via Wall Street Journal.
So, Oh Bryan and NFTs?
Getting back to Oh Bryan, their move makes the Kilkenny/Dublin outfit the first Irish act to enter the space.
“We are over the moon to I believe become one of the first if not the first Irish artists out there to list our very first audio single NFT for sale. Kings Of Leon became the first artist ever to release a full album on the platform and these are already selling fast and going up in value since March 9th.NFT are possibly going to become the future in collectable digital items and we have just released our first NFT. Looking at some of the other first of its kind NFT tokens in-country releases who knows where this Irish first could lead us”, said the band in a short statement released to social media.
The band have secured a listing for their work on Opensea.io, the largest NFT marketplace, allowing you to buy, sell and discover rare digital items.
There’s some strange items on there, but you’ve got digital only assets selling for a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.
For Oh Bryan, the bidding begins at a value of 0.5 WETH (like Ethereum), which puts the transaction at a value of $894.14 or €682.41, a shade higher than you would pay for the single on Apple Music, let’s say.
While it’s doubted that people are buying the tokens for the actual music – or at least just to listen to it – it will be interesting to see what else comes with the download, what kind of long-term value it may hold or if it’s an experiment that fails to pay off.
Either way, if you’ve got around €700 spare in cash, you’re looking to make an investment and become part of an interesting chapter in the history of Irish music, here’s your chance.
