Major NFT artists have made fortunes from selling NFTs. Beeple and Pak have both made multi-millionaire fortunes from selling NFTs.
However, even a small, less well-known artist can mint an NFT or NFT collection today and start making money.
NFTs are changing the future for artists by empowering them and allowing them to earn more money from their sales.
Let's find out how NFTs are changing the game!
NFTs level the playing field
The whole thing about NFTs changing the future for artists comes from the decentralization aspect of DAOs and NFTs.
A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization with a common goal around crypto and Web3. Artists have created DAOs ever since the NFT boom to create NFT platforms that give the power back to the creators.
NFTs cut out the middleman that plagued the art industry. Corporations would charge artists for selling their art with them, cutting their profits and leaving royalties only for the most famous artists.
Many artistic mediums are filled with roadblocks, challenges, and bureaucracy for publishing or releasing their art.
Take musicians, for example. Many musicians of color have a more challenging time getting their name out there, landing major gigs, or even signing with a label than white musicians.
The same happens for women, who constantly experience a higher entry bar for their art than men in many artistic venues.
NFTs make it easier for musicians of all minorities to raise awareness and gain a following for their music.
This is also the same for artists of all branches. NFTs allow anyone with a story to tell through art a chance to do so through Blockchain.
NFTs create an alternative narrative for artists, ignoring the roadblocks posed by mainstream media.
Anyone can have funding; anyone can send a message through NFT art. Even better, some platforms promote NFT art of BIPOC and LGBT artists.
NFTs have crypto value
One of the main benefits of NFTs is their crypto value. NFTs are sold in cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Solana, or Cardano.
These cryptocurrencies can increase or decrease in value depending on the fluctuations of the crypto market, potentially allowing an NFT artist to make a fortune.
NFTs empower artists
Artists are now empowered to use NFTs to create art and make a profit. They can find audiences through the internet directly instead of going through a record labe or a studio.
NFTs decentralize how digital artists can monetize their art to be freed from the constraints of Web2. Blockchain technology allows for actual ownership of digital assets.
That's because Blockchain is a tamper-free ledger of accurate data that cannot be easily modified. As it can't be edited once minted, you can also easily verify the transaction history of an NFT.
An artist who mints an NFT owns it forever and can earn royalties from this NFT for an indefinite amount of time as long as it's sold on the secondary market.
NFTs create communities
Whenever a new NFT project comes out, the first thing you'll see in its social media marketing is a link to join its Telegram or Discord groups. That's because NFTs create communities where the developers and artists have a direct, two-way conversation with their followers.
Edenhorde is an excellent example of an NFT project where storytelling and community converge. Once you purchase an Edenhorde NFT, it's as if you're buying a character in a world with a rich story and becoming part of its narrative.
Another example of an NFT project that embodies community and empowers artists is Readl. Readl is a Web3 storytelling platform for NFT writers, where they can create universes within their stories and mint their stories as NFTs.
Fans of their stories can interact directly with the author through Readl's platform.
In short, NFTs open the possibility for more interaction between the artist and their audience and even provides the audience with ways to earn crypto by engaging with the artist's work.
Without go-betweens cutting both sides to make a profit, artists and audiences win with NFTs.
NFTs have utilities
Artists can imbue their NFTs with utilities beyond simply being art pieces. For example, the Generative Dungeons NFT project features an illustration of a rogue-like map but can also be played as a videogame.
This means the potential buyer purchases a neat-looking illustration that can also be played as a standalone game.
Final words about how NFTs can change the future for artists
NFTs have provided artists a new way to make money and promote their art. They can truly own their digital assets and all royalties that come with them.
NFTs are still a new technology and the artistic world is adapting to them. Don’t be surprised if more positive developments were to happen to artists this year.