Well, that’s a headline we could probably run every single day for the next few months. But with the music industry still buzzing with questions about non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their potential, it’s worth keeping abreast of the latest debates.
Start today with the “long-ass blog post” by artist Rev Dan Catt, which is an even-handed assessment of the problems and the opportunities in NFTs. “I think the ecological impact of NFTs are currently too high, and I hope that comes down soon. I agree with everyone’s complaint about the eco side of things,” he wrote. “Pretty much everything else about ‘copyright’, ‘rarity’, ‘digital isn’t real’, ‘what do you get, nothing?’, I think is pretty much either BS or a problem that exists just as much in the ‘real world’ as the digital, and isn’t because ‘NFTs’ but rather because people are dicks…”
However, for another dose of scepticism, check musician and artists’ rights campaigner David Lowery’s tweet thread questioning the timing of the NFTs boom, and its potential relation to debates about artists’ streaming royalties.
Meanwhile, for a belly laugh, check this unimpressed reaction to tech maven Cameron Winkelvoss’s trumpeting of NFTs as something that “liberate art” – because “Traditional art is confined to time and space. You have to be in the right city, go to a museum, be invited to someone’s home, etc. Anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection can view NFTs and take them in. This is a huge breakthrough”. The response: “You’re describing a JPEG.”
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