Rapper Nas Drops Royalty Share NFT with Royal.io

“Queens New York Hip Hop icon Nas drops an NFT collection that allows the owners of the NFT to own streaming royalty rights for the songs “Ultra Black” and “Rare.”

“Users who buy and hold the NFTs, dubbed limited digital assets (LDAs), will get a specific percentage of streaming royalty ownership depending on the token that they hold.

The limited digital assets (LDAs), will be sold through the NFT music platform Royal.io.

Nas also reportedly invested in Coinbase, one of the biggest crypto exchange platforms, when it went public last year.

What is a NFT?

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger.  NFTs can be associated with reproducible digital files such as photos, videos, and audio. NFTs use a digital ledger to provide a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership, but do not restrict the sharing or copying of the underlying digital files. The lack of interchangeability (fungibility) distinguishes NFTs from blockchain cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin.

What Is a Blockchain?

A blockchain is a distributed database that is shared among the nodes of a computer network. As a database, a blockchain stores information electronically in digital format. Blockchains are best known for their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems, such as Bitcoin, for maintaining a secure and decentralized record of transactions. The innovation with a blockchain is that it guarantees the fidelity and security of a record of data and generates trust without the need for a trusted third party.

What Are Streaming Royalties?

Streaming royalties are the fees paid to rights holders (e.g., artists, record labels, songwriters, publishers, etc.) every time a song is played on music streaming services such as Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music. These fees are a vital source of income for songwriters and artists.

Interactive streaming (also known as “on-demand” streaming) gives users the ability to choose the songs that are played (“interact” with the service). Services that offer interactive streaming include Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Google Play, and now Amazon with their Amazon Unlimited Music offering.

Non-interactive streaming (also known as “internet radio) allows users to create a station or playlist generated from algorithms based on an artist, song, genre, etc. However, the user is not able to directly select a song, resulting in a laid-back listening experience. Services that offer non-interactive streaming include Pandora, SiriusXM, and Last.FM.