ROMA – The Nft revolution (acronym for Non fungible token) has changed the contemporary art market a few months ago and is starting to change that of music, redesigning the landscape and breaking the balance. Already several musicians, particularly in the rap and R&B fields, have launched into this new form of creation: from A $ AP Rocky, which made its first NFT collection available on Nifty Gateway, to The Weekend, which it beat at auction some unreleased artwork and songs just a few days ago for a total amount of over 2 million dollars.
In Italy, the first to move on this terrain are the artists of BHMG, the company founded by Sphere Ebbasta, Shablo e Charlie Charles, which, together with Small Gué, from next week they will start presenting their collections: “BHMG, always attentive to transformations in the field of musical and technological innovation, is the first Italian artistic collective to bring this novelty to the field in a structured way, riding the disruptive wave of tokeneconomy-, he tells us Pablo Miguel Lombroni Capalbo, definitely better known as Shablo, Italian-Argentine musician, producer, DJ, manager and record company, reference point for Italian urban music of the last decade. The blockchain, which effectively removes intermediaries, is in our opinion a new principle of democratic redistribution in all areas, innovative, but above all traceable and transparent. Music, which is the immaterial art par excellence, but also every visual or digital object now obtains its unique traceability “.
The NFT allows to identify the uniqueness of a digital work, brings together art and new technologies, transforms what was elusive into unique, allows the creation of “originals” in a world of identical copies. And it allows artists to present themselves in unprecedented and new ways, “The example of Sfera Ebbasta is clear”, says Shablo, “a boy who comes from the suburbs who until a few years ago was unknown and today thanks to digital streaming has a real influence on the record market. In a world where massive economic investments were needed to emerge first, today his art is not given only by his music but by the strength that is recognized by the public. Thanks to this strength we are facing a new beginning in terms of digital art, economics and branding, we are the first collective that faces the cryptoworld aware of the innovation we will bring “.
The four will therefore offer different, digital works of art, “each artist will present his Nft”, Shablo continues, “it will be a mix of music, visual arts, digital paintings, video clips, behind each NFT there will be a concept, a story , unique works or limited editions “. The value will therefore not be strictly linked to the work, but to its creator, a bit like he did David Bowie when he launched his “Bowie Bonds” in 1997, ten-year bonds that used the intellectual property of the British artist’s first 25 albums as collateral. Only now they are original works, created specifically for the new digital market, intellectual works that, in the midst of the era of access, focus on the possession of intangible “objects”, which have value for popularity and success of the artists who create them.
So let’s talk about a new way of redistributing music-related economies that will bypass platforms and record companies? Will it be a new way of conceiving intellectual property? “It is an inevitable change, equal to the fifth industrial revolution. We are redefining the boundaries within a space that has been completely free and unregulated. I am convinced that our great Italian recording partners, as already happened abroad, will follow us in this epochal transition, they will also be our interlocutors on this “, continues Shablo,” This is the direction today, our bet is to put at stake: we are ready to embrace the disruption of the digital market at multiple levels. An artist is now so relevant that he can even influence the financial markets, once only politicians and bankers did, today a suburban rapper can do it ”.
Is it a momentary trend, a bubble destined to burst? “Obviously, today’s enthusiasm will be destined to wane, but it is clear that in the world of music we invest in intellectual property, in large digital catalogs, it is a reality in complete movement and artists must be among those who define the rules of the world. that will come. I mean that to be in this new scenario it is not enough to translate analog into digital, you need to have a completely digital mindset to understand the infinite possibilities of this new vision of the world. Some will like it, others will not, but evolution does not stop ”.
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