How NFTs will help artists

More artists should consider selling their work as a non-fungible token (NFT), one tech expert says, explaining that it’s a great way to generate more visibility and make a lot more money.

Ramona Pringle, associate professor at Ryerson University, says NFTs are the “best of both worlds” for artists. NFTs are tokens that are attached to specific items using blockchain technology. It makes each item unique and traceable when traded or sold.

Pringle explains how musicians and artists have had to figure out innovative ways to protect their work from being copied and sold online.

“There are all these ways that companies have and creators have tried to create scarcity, on a medium, [the internet], that really is not receptive to it because it’s so open and everything can be shared by nature,” she said.

With NFTs, Pringle says, artists are not only able to create scarcity and re-introduce value to products, but they also don’t only have to rely on streaming services to get discovered.

“In the case of Kings of Leon, they release their album as an NFT, it doesn’t mean that it’s not still streaming, it’s not on Spotify,” she said. “[NFTs] is the coming together of what the internet is great for, which is spread, and reach, and virality, but at the same time that element of scarcity that was previously lost in the internet age.”