What if Kanye had moments and merch as NFTs for Donda?

On August 26, 2021, Kanye West performed his 3rd concert for his upcoming Donda album.

Kanye West's Donda album has changed how albums are released.

Kanye West is the greatest example of a music artist being a Brand. Yes, he produces and creates music, art, and fashion, but the brand of Kanye West has a following unlike very few.

Traditionally an artist will be in the studio, record an album, then go on a concert tour to promote the album, boosting album sales and selling merchandise, the two most common and often profitable revenue streams for a musician. Kanye has done the opposite.

Over the last several weeks, Kanye has hosted listening parties (2 in Atlanta and 1 in Chicago) filling up football stadiums with fans eager to listen to his highly anticipated Donda album, named after his late mother Donda West. Kanye is essentially "building in public", a term made popular in the startup-tech world, making adjustments to his music and his performance.

Between ticket sales for his three shows, streaming revenue, merchandise sales, and STEM Player, Kanye has brought in nearly $15 Million before the album has even been released. Now imagine if Kaye West was selling #NFTs?

Kanye's NFT opportunity

Currently, we see NFTs as pieces of art and avatar collections created by digital artists and minted on a blockchain. No doubt, Kanye could operate in a similar capacity, but Kanye being the businessman he is and the brand he is, affords him the ability to apply business logic to his NFT strategy. The value of NFTs is more than a new means to sell artworks digitally or a means for an artist to create more direct revenue streams. By incorporating commerce mechanics, loyalty, awareness, and one more sale opportunity, Kanye could catapult his merchandise sales by adding NFTs.

Here are some examples as to how Kanye can incorporate NFTs into his Donda album.

Merchandise

Kanye has created a fashion empire and has always done well with selling merchandise at shows. He's already sold over $7 Million worth of merchandise for Donda. Instead of selling an NFT solely an art piece, Kanye could have follow-on sales of any merch item and have an NFT equivalent or NFT enhancement. For example, one could purchase a Donda sweatshirt and then pay separately for the accompanying NFT. NFTs can be a "one more sale" opportunity or a free addition from Kanye.

Ticket Stub

When selling tickets to events, Kanye could issue out NFT ticket stubs as part of the ticket price. This provides proof of attendance and collectability for fans who can say they had attended the event. Adding the ability to purchase an NFT collectible or a ticket that comes with an NFT as an alternative product provides additional revenue opportunities for Kanye, as well as fans to collect and purchase unique digital products relevant to the event. Whether or not these NFTs increase in value is not of most importance, but rather the remembrance of the event just as someone might save a paper ticket stub.

Moments

NBA Top Shot is an NFT collectible where fans can own a moment in NBA history, like a LeBron Jame dunk or a Stephen Curry 3-Pointer. These moments have had tremendous success with collectors consisting of fans, athletes, entertainers, and famous entrepreneurs. For Kanye fans, the opportunity to be the sole owner of a moment in time during a performance would be a dream. Highlights from recent Donda performances include Kanye setting himself on fire, Kim Kardashian West walking in a wedding gown, and Kanye ascending into the sky. Exclusive Rights to Songs

Trey Lorenz recently had his entire album as an NFT, selling 1 million copies at $1 so his fans can resell the album and make a profit while going platinum with the unit sales.

Kanye could allow one of his songs from the album to be owned collectively by his NFT holders, essentially turning the song into a security-like product. He could also consider selling a one-of-one song via an auction, providing the sole owner of that NFT exclusive rights.

Membership

NFTs can be used to provide access to other items, events, products, or anything. Kanye would be able to create an NFT collection or set quantity of NFTs that provide the ability for special access. This NFT could provide member priority for NFTs around the merchandise, ticket stubs, and moments.

Conclusion

NFTs provide new and interesting opportunities for music artists, particularly those who understand their business and brand value to create increase revenue, loyalty, and find new fans. As simple as we see music artists sell physical merch and in-person events, the integration of the digital world will lead to an enhanced fan experience.

Brands looking to add NFTs to their product offering and looking for a turn key solution can visit Niftmint.com.

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About Niftmint

Niftmint integrates with Brands to simply mint, sell, and custody NFTs on their websites or apps without needing to manage cryptocurrency or a crypto wallet. The thought of selling NFTs can be overwhelming for brands due to cryptocurrency, minting, and custody, which why Niftmint handles this all on behalf of the Brand and their customer, allowing the transactions to occur via credit card.

If you are a Brand or partner who like to discuss your NFT strategy and begin selling NFTs, please visit Niftmint.com and fill out the Contact Us form.

What Brands and Companies can learn from Visa purchasing a CryptoPunk NFT for $150K

On August 19, 2021, Visa purchased a CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000 (49.5 ETH)

Visa announces NFT purchase

This week Visa announced it had purchased a CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000 (49.5 ETH) grabbing the attention of the entire cryptocurrency community, along with mainstream media. CryptoPunks is a digital avatar drawn in an 8-bit graphic style with thousands of unique designs represented as a cartoon-like person. Visa purchased a female CryptoPunk, #7610 which is one of 10,000 and one of 3,840 female punks.

Visa, the worlds largest credit card company, has an entire team devoted to cryptocurrency with led by Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto, who said in a blog post released Monday,“We think NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce.”

Sheffield also stated, "We also wanted to signal our support for the creators, collectors, and artists driving the future of NFT-commerce. Enabling buyers and sellers is what we do — whether its helping small and micro business owners get online, or making it easier for companies to pay their partners across borders. We’re excited to work with this growing community to make NFTs useable and accessible in a variety of contexts."

Why would Visa purchase a CryptoPunk NFT? Visa is taking a strong stance in showcasing their business position on cryptocurrency and NFTs, even stating they see the purchase of the CryptoPunk as an "artifact". The recent NFT mania coupled with the market and financial institution acceptance of Bitcoin, and even early adoption of DeFi, among other crypto assets has shown cryptocurrency is here to stay. NFTs have the ability to bridge the gap between crypto early adopters and late majority consumers.

By purchasing the CryptoPunk NFT, Visa is able to use as a marketing and PR opportunity establish credibility with a growing community of crypto enthusiast, hold on to an asset which is showing to hold its value, build brand awareness and loyalty, and showcase themselves as a leader in NFTs for potential business partnerships.

What Brands can learn from Visa buying CryptoPunk NFT

It's only a matter of time before Brands dive into the deep end with NFTs. Currently brands have been introduced to NFTs from the lens of selling art or acting as an artist. While the NFT boom has been great for artist and the creator economy, there is a tremendous opportunity for brands to get involved, and Niftmint is supporting brands to use NFTs as opportunities for "one more sale", building brand awareness and loyalty, and gaining new customers.

Here are some lessons Brands can take from Visa's recent purchase.

Marketing and PR

By simply purchasing an NFT, Visa was able to leverage a tremendous amount of press mentions across business and tech mainstream media. Visa could have just as easily spent $150,000 in advertising and while we don't believe marketing was the only reason, but it definitely played a factor. Owning the CryptoPunk provides will provide ongoing marketing and PR opportunities for Visa as they own full rights to the piece and can use in future content.

While purchasing a collectible may not be the right strategy for every brand, purchasing NFTs belonging to artist or communities related to customers Brands are looking to build audience with could prove to be an interesting starting point. Brands also have opportunities to build their own crypto-centric communities by creating their own collections.

The key for Brands is to keep their customers on their website and to have them transact with their preferred payment method of the consumer using Niftmint.

Build credibility with new audience

By adding NFTs to product offering, Brands open up doors for new customers who skew towards Gen Z and Millennials and are generally more technology savvy. These new audiences are often part of broader communities in cryptocurrency which give chances for higher user growth.

In addition to finding new audiences, NFTs help show relevance with a Brand's existing community and even creates the opportunity to become the entry point for their consumers to purchase their first NFT.

Not every customer will want to or know how to purchase with cryptocurrency or store an NFT in a wallet, which is why Niftmint handles both on behalf of brands and their customers.

Hold an asset

While most Brands strictly carry cash or inventory on their balance sheet, cryptocurrency and NFTs have created an interesting opportunity to hold a diversified asset as treasury. We have seen companies like MicroStrategy, Square, and Coinbase commit to holding Bitcoin in treasury.

We may soon see companies begin to hold NFTs as treasury. The companies holding Bitcoin have taken the opportunity to leverage for press and marketing exposure.

We are not providing financial advices and any Brand considering holding assets should speak with a financial advisor first.

Build brand awareness and loyalty

Whether purchasing NFTs or creating branded NFTs, Brands are able to use to grow Brand awareness and loyalty. Arizona Ice Tea recently purchases a Bored Ape and has let on they will be using for marketing along with its broader brand value.

Selling NFTs directly on the Brand website not only brings new customers, but also create continued engagement opportunities as Consumers interact with the NFT. Niftmint custodies NFTs on behalf of the brand and via API allows Brands and their customers to visualize the NFT on their channels.

Create business partnerships

Getting involved in the NFT space opens Brands up to future opportunities with business partnerships, influencer and sponsor partnerships, and even net-new revenue opportunities. Visa will no doubt have partners reach out to them regarding potential collaboration. such as cobranded products and cobranded NFTs leading to additional discovery.

Brands looking to add NFTs to their product offering and looking for a turn key solution can visit Niftmint.com.

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About Niftmint

Niftmint integrates with Brands to simply mint, sell, and custody NFTs on their websites or apps without needing to manage cryptocurrency or a crypto wallet. The thought of selling NFTs can be overwhelming for brands due to cryptocurrency, minting, and custody, which why Niftmint handles this all on behalf of the Brand and their customer, allowing the transactions to occur via credit card.

If you are a Brand or partner who like to discuss your NFT strategy and begin selling NFTs, please visit Niftmint.com and fill out the Contact Us form.