Benefits of digitizing creative work
Creatives, pay attention. What you write, paint, sculpt, compose, and design is yours, yet you sacrifice and give away too much for free. Whether it is your creative work or your data, others are making money off of you. With non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology, you can regain control, market to new communities, and increase profitability.
Artists take notice of NFTs
In March 2021, Beeple’s work Everydays started the NFT “craze” when it set a record as the third-highest auction price by a living artist. It sold for $69.3 million at Christie’s auction. Mike Winkelmann, the artist, created this NFT as a collage of 5000 digital images.
With this publicity, NFTs became increasingly popular as others jumped at the opportunity to make money with digital art. In 2021, almost $18 billion in NFTs and $2.6 billion in ‘art’ were traded, according to NonFungible.com.
Since then, artists have noticed the great benefits and realized the potential of using blockchain technology with NFTs. It is similar to a certificate of authenticity and gets recorded in a decentralized public ledger in a digital database.
Provenance
“NFTs can transform the ecosystem of digital images, establishing this aura of ownership and, in turn, digital provenance of artworks.” - Artbasel.com
Each time an NFT is bought and sold, we can view the transactions and trace the path. Galleries, collectors, and even celebrities will find this information helpful in determining value and impact.
Royalties
Reselling art in the past has only benefited the current owner of that piece. With NFTs, artists can write into the code instructions (smart contract) to pay a percentage for royalties on each future sale. Royalties are an added benefit that has been difficult to conduct previously.
However, recently, royalties have become a controversial topic. Some secondary marketplaces have chosen not to acknowledge royalties. By not paying out royalties, the seller will keep more profits.
Betty, the CEO and founder of Deadfellaz, describes this well in the article for nftnow.com: “Artists and creators are the ones who arguably created this industry through the creativity they’ve put out into the world. One of the reasons any of them have engaged in Web3 is because it solved problems that artists have faced forever — being exploited for our creative work. Royalties answer that. It provided people with newfound value. It changed and continues to change a lot of lives. By pandering to the zero percent royalties crowd in this race to zero, it places too much focus on the flipping side of the NFT industry. But, if you pull royalties out, it all collapses.”
Charitable Giving
Another benefit of NFTs is the ability to write into the smart contract instructions to pay out a percentage to a specific person or organization.
The proceeds of a sale of an NFT may be split as many ways as the creator intends. Sharing the sale with a charitable organization is a popular way to attract attention to the work and provide another way for charities to raise money for their causes—both the creator and the charity gain financial reward.
A new type of art buyer
The cost may be prohibitive for those who want to own a valuable piece of art. With digitizing the work, many can own a fractional share that is more affordable and have the option to trade it freely on the secondary market.
Additionally, artists take their work directly to their customers and fans. Record companies, galleries, and music platforms provide the marketing power needed in a Web2 centralized world. In a decentralized environment, artists use their fans to promote and sell their work. Create a community of supporters and incentivize them to promote and share work.
Expanding market reach
As we move further and further onto the internet and spend more of our time, our physical possessions will become less important. Our digital assets, however, will. Those who create artwork, fashion, architecture, and objects for our use in the metaverse will be in higher demand in the future.
Creators that embrace this inevitable change will prosper.
Artists will not only produce in-real-life pieces that can be hung on walls or displayed on surfaces but will be viewed digitally in virtual spaces. This expands the reach and produces more ways for new audiences to appreciate and value the work.
Conclusion
The traditional method of buying, appreciating, and selling creative work is evolving. The creator has more opportunities to expand to new markets, reach new fans, and earn more for their work through digital tokens.
Whether it is a fractional piece of art, a digital pair of shoes, or a song that unlocks a VIP experience, we all will be consuming and appreciating creative work in a whole new way.
