Back in November I recall Mike Boyd Jr. (Gary Vee’s trusted music curator) asking up and coming musicians to reach out to him if they were serious about getting involved with NFTs.

Just a couple short months later Budweiser’s Royalty artist collaboration NFT dropped, featuring 22 up-and-coming artists hand-selected by Mike Boyd and Gary Vee.

How These NFTs are Paving the Way for the Future

This NFT is a perfect example of the type of thing Gary has consistently been promoting since early 2021 when he realized the revolutionary impact NFTs and smart contracts have the potential to offer.

For musicians, artists, and creatives of all sorts, NFTs provide a chance to let fans invest in artists they love, and artists a chance to crowdfund their careers directly through their fanbase instead of having to rely on labels for funding.

Here’s an example of how NFTs can change the game for artists and fans:

In the past, a label might approach an artist that has potential and offer them an enticing sum of money upfront, while on the back end taking a major percentage of everything the artist’s music earns after. This means that over time the artist only gets to keep a small percentage of the money their music earns.

With NFTs, instead of relying on that upfront payment from a label, artists can release their own NFT project directly to fans and crowdfund their careers. This allows early supporters to invest in the careers of artists they love, receive special benefits for being early supporters (artists could offer anything from backstage passes to percentages of their streaming royalties to fans), and the artist can keep the majority of money their music earns in the future.

And in addition to the initial proceeds artists earn from their NFT sales, because NFTs live on the blockchain and ownership is tracked, artists can earn royalties on those NFTs every single time one of them is sold — so when a fan sells the NFT to another fan, the artist receives a percentage of that sale amount as a royalty, in perpetuity.

What’s the Utility of this specific NFT?

These NFTs allow fans early access to directly invest in these up-and-coming artists, and the opportunity to share in the potential upside of appreciating value as these artists become better known.

So think of it like this: 

If one of these artists becomes a superstar, as a fan you essentially have digital ownership of their rookie card, which would likely be a pretty nice collector’s item!

Besides that, you have a very real connection with this artist by supporting them and owning their NFT — the artists have already been hopping in the Budweiser Discord daily to chop it up and chat with their supporters!

There are also more concrete utilities that come with some of these NFTs, including a chance to participate in a virtual listening party if you obtain one of the rare ones, or if you grab an ultra rare, you’ll get a virtual listening party AND a 1:1 video call with your artist!

And finally, one of the beautiful things about smart contracts (the contracts that underlie these NFTs) is that anything can be added - it could be decided that every holder gets a backstage pass to shows, free merch, etc. However, it’s important to note that things like this are just potential future benefits, and are NOT part of your initial purchase - I’m just speculating on what could be offered at some point. Please don’t buy expecting these specific benefits, but it is good to know that things like this can be added down the road.

Is this NFT right for you?

As Mike and Gary explained on their Youtube livestream with the artists last week, NFTs offer fans incredible opportunities to invest in people they believe in.

What Budweiser and these artists have teamed up to do is release NFTs on the platform of an internationally recognized brand, and this gives fans the chance to buy rookie cards of artists that could very well be superstars someday!

I think it’s also important to note that although these artists are described as “emerging”, most of them are already well on their way to big things. (Think about it — if they’re on Mike Boyd and Gary Vee’s radar they’re obviously doing something right.)

For instance, Blu DeTiger (the NFT that I happened to mint) appeared on Saturday Night Live recently, and Lil Keed and Farina already have millions of followers and streams on their songs.

That all said, I couldn’t put it better than the man Gary Vee himself: NFTs are high-risk, high-reward. You shouldn’t invest money in ANY NFT that you can’t afford to lose, and there’s certainly no guarantee that you’ll make big returns on this.

You should invest in this NFT if you can afford it financially, and are excited at having a chance to connect personally and support these insanely talented musicians.

Where to Buy the NFT

Since the mint (initial offering) is sold out, you can now buy them on the secondary market - see the Budweiser Discord for official links.

Featured Artists:

• Millie Go Lightly

• Lian Faz

• Lulu

• Fresco Trey

• Blu DeTiger

• Polo Perks

• DTheFlyest

• Lil Keed

• Lil Benjas

• Satomaa

• T:ME

• SPRTYK

• Samantha Sanchez

• Leo Canoza

• Nardean

• Immasoul

• Farina

• Kablito

• Ilham

• paopao

• Fase Yoda

• Beanz