In brief
- Kings of Leon have a new album out on Friday.
- The band announced today that it’s coming along with an NFT.
- The tokenized version of the album offers fans a digital deluxe package and other perks.
Kings of Leon, the Tennessee rock band known for such late-2000s hits as “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody,” are releasing their new album in NFT form.
“When You See Yourself” is the band’s eighth studio album, and their first foray into the world of Web 3. NFTs are non-fungible tokens—cryptographically secured assets that work as digital collectibles.
The tech, which operates primarily on the Ethereum blockchain, has been around for years, but it’s only in 2021 that it’s begun to intersect with the music industry in a significant way. Grimes just sold a collection of digital artworks as NFTs, and Jacques Greene sold the publishing rights to a new single by way of an NFT.
2 days #KOL8 pic.twitter.com/VkyYRu2L9s
— Kings Of Leon (@KingsOfLeon) March 3, 2021
Kings of Leon are releasing three types of NFTs for the new album, per Rolling Stone. One is a sort of limited deluxe package that includes the digital album, vinyl, and an animated digital album cover. Another is a “golden ticket,” which is linked to an actual concert ticket, and promises VIP perks like front-row seats for life and a personal concierge for shows. It comes in an edition of 18, six of which will be auctioned off; the rest will go unsold, presumably with the hope that they’ll accrue value over time.
The last is a riff on the “open edition” concept, where, for a set amount of time, fans can pay to “mint” as many “When You See Yourself” NFTs as they want. The idea is that when the window closes this Sunday at 8pm, the NFTs in that finite pool will become collector’s items.
All three are being released through a blockchain platform called YellowHeart, which focuses on ticketing for concerts.
And for the crypto-skeptical, “When You See Yourself” is still being released on digital streaming platforms, like Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube.