How Do NFTs Impact Artists' Royalties in the Digital Art Market?
An interesting question and one to keep an eye on as the answer has been evolving, and will continue to evolve, over time.
Here's a bit of education and a couple of views on the topic for those interested:
🚨What Are NFT Royalties?🚨
✅ Through NFTs, artists can tokenize their works and sell them directly to collectors on various online platforms, allowing them to retain a larger share of the sales price and have greater control over their work.
✅ Artists can choose their royalty percentage (dependent on restrictions if you are minting on certain platforms) and are able to make a percentage return on secondary sales of their work.
This seems all rosy, but it doesn't come without disadvantages and controversies. Let's look at a couple:
👉 You may be able to gain a higher percentage of sales than selling in a physical gallery, but for many artists, it could be harder to sell on digital platforms.
👉 As for controversies, OpenSea announced that it would no longer enforce royalty payments after August 31, 2023. Additionally, other marketplaces such as Blur and LooksRare, have also cut royalty rates for artists, leading to a significant impact on creators' income in a race for more users on the platforms.
If you are an artist in the digital or physical space, you need to choose a platform that works for you.
One where you can grow your audience and show your art in the best way possible and the best way for you to earn. 🖼️🎨🧑🎨
Happy Friday, all!
What are your views on the fractionisation of artwork?
For those unaware of what this even is, here's a quick overview:
👉 A digital art-backed NFT or physical art piece backed by NFTs that can be divided into smaller pieces, allowing multiple investors to gain partial ownership of it.
NFT fractionalisation has made it easier for crypto art and physical art enthusiasts and investors to get hold of some of the world’s most expensive pieces or own a share of an expensive and famous physical art piece.
As seems to be the case with any new tech, there are advantages and disadvantages:⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
💡Advantages💡
✅ Increased accessibility to those who can't afford high-priced art which could lead to opening up the art industry
✅ Fractionalisation can increase liquidity in the art market.
✅ Investors can diversify their art investments by holding fractional shares in multiple artworks rather than concentrating their investment on a single piece.
✅ Ownership can be determined directly on blockchain bringing needed transparency.
🚨Disadvantages🚨
❌ Legal and regulatory challenges, especially in terms of compliance with securities laws.
❌ Complex Ownership Structure
❌ Could attract solely speculative behaviours rather than buying art because you love it.
❌ Fractionalisation could lead to a perception of dilution of the artwork's cultural or aesthetic value
Most importantly, The big disadvantage for me here is regulations and securities laws. This is still convoluted and muddled, with many projects from the past being pulled up and audited, with some being fined.
Have you, or would you, buy fractionalised artwork? 🤔
My Vinyl Journey
As my first post in the community, I want to take you through my journey to vinyl and what it means to me. It all started with a love...
I've trialled Friend.Tech for the last week.
For those of you uninitiated, here is a simple way of looking at it:
👉 Friend.Tech is a new web3 ingrained, decentralized social network where you can buy 'keys' via cryptocurrency to gain access to chat groups of people on the platform.
👉 The more keys that are bought for a person/chatroom, and therefore the more people in those rooms, means that the price rises to purchase those keys for any newcomers.
👉 Anyone who joins a room can chat with each other in kind of very basic messaging group.
👉 You can also sell your keys to those chatrooms, sometimes for profit. For example. if you join a room at a lower price, then that room gets popular, you can then sell your keys at a higher price. The platform and the room owner get a percentage of that sale.
👉 So obviously there has been an influx of influencers heading over and opening rooms (especially as it is directly connected to your Twitter/X account).
So what does all this mean, and is it a good or bad thing?
In my view, it's a bit of both.
✅ I wouldn't call it a ponzi scheme like many because it's open about everything that it does. People know what they are getting into and what they are spending their money on.
✅ You will find a hell of a lot of influencers and degens just trying to make money at the moment, but you will also be able to see the potential goodness of having access to rooms that connect with you and offer something that you are willing to pay for.
✅ This doesn't mean it's right for you though. Many, especially at the moment, won't feel the benefit of joining. It's very early and very basic at present.
✅ For influencers, there will be a mix of those with good and bad intentions in joining the platform. The good ones will try to create rooms with rich content and usefulness for their followers. Others will just be trying to make money from them through hype and the promise of getting rich quickly.
If you are interested in giving it a whirl, be careful and don't go into it thinking it's a way to make money, go into it with the thought it's a new tech to try out and the chance to perhaps grind through all the chaos and scammy groups that are already in there to find those chat groups that actually offer something.
Or just mess around to learn and have fun!
If you've tried it, what are your thoughts?
#friendtech #web3 #blockchain
Those of us on the edge of technology and in the web3 space need to remind ourselves not everyone is technologically minded.
I read a great article today by the Guardian about how the world is forgetting the non-tech savvy.
With the world increasingly leaning towards less reliance on physical cash (the article cites a sharp decrease in car parks allowing people to pay with coins as an example) it's up to us to make sure people aren't left behind.
The article also points out that there is an estimated 1.3 million adults in the UK who are 'unbanked'. 😲
This figure surprised me and pushed to the forefront that many will struggle with the new 'cashless society'.
What can we do?
👉 Remain mindful of these facts. When we're building and creating, have this problem in mind.
👉 Use inclusive initiatives to educate, promote and care for those less technologically minded.
👉 Look to those that are concerned about tech nad create education and support (the article mentions a charity called The Good Things Foundation that is a digital inclusion charity)
Technology, web3 and AI have the opportunity to improve our lives, create efficiency and security, but it also means some people will feel they are being left behind.
We need to be there for them in this fast-paced new world.
#technology #web3 #support