DJ Justin Blau on how NFTs can help creatives monetize: 'It's more of distributing ownership'

In an interview with Decrypt Executive Editor Jeff Roberts, DJ and Royal.io Founder Justin Blau discusses how artists can generate revenue through NFTs.

Video Transcript

JUSTIN BLAU: I think that artists haven't necessarily been able to monetize to the fullest extent possible, because they've been dependent on other resources, like record labels, for financing. And as you start to explore the ways in which crypto enables creatives to monetize, like, what everyone has seen in the NFT space is just this explosion of interest in digital ownership. And NFTs are simply just certificates of authenticity that prove ownership on the blockchain. A lot of people think of them and define them in different ways, but they're digital certificates of authenticity, for all their purposes. And so, when fans and other artists can actually purchase those certificates to prove their patronages in a creative, not even just a musician, but any type of creative, it's one of the first new ways that creatives can monetize without the necessity of an intermediary.

JEFF ROBERTS: Right, and just take us through how that works exactly, though. Like, you know, once upon a time, you know, an album drops, people lined up at a record store, and then it might sort of, you know, drop unexpectedly on a streaming service, and some people with the right password might get it early. But tell me how you would release music in the form of a token. You know, show the for-dummies version. No one's done this before. How would they go about listening to your music in this way?

JUSTIN BLAU: Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's pretty key to understand that, you know, tokenizing ownership of a song doesn't necessarily mean listening to or streaming the song. It's actually just owning a piece of the song. And, of course, that song can be played at every other streaming service, right? So my new company, Royal, is not really about streaming music. It's more of distributing ownership. And we actually launched one of our first assets, "Worst Case," the song that was playing earlier, and we gave away 50% of the ownership in that song in the form of an NFT to account holders on Royal. It was actually a free giveaway. And since it's been given away for free, the total valuation of the song, based on 50% from the NFTs, is upwards of the price at which fans really want to own a song, which is pretty wild, when you think about it, that only, you know, 333 people owning 50% of the song represents, you know, a total valuation of the song at over six million. It's quite wild, and to be specific, the floor price on that asset currently is just above two Ethereum.