$360,000 for a “member”: Universal Music presents the group NFT

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Céline Joshua, founder of 22h22. © Jimmy Fontaine

With “Kingship”, 10:22PM, a sub-label of Universal Music, founded a group that does not even exist: the members of the group are all NFT. With the purchase of a final NFT worth $360,000, the group is now complete.

Kingship is a project of the Universal Music 10:22PM sub-label. The concept behind Kingship: The entire group is made up of NFTs only – in this case images of monkeys whose uniqueness is ensured by the associated NFTs.

→ You can read more about the NFT hype here!

What’s behind?

10:22 p.m. previously announced the concept for Kingship in November 2021. The label also announced that it would be working with collector and NFT entrepreneur Jimmy McNeils on the project.

The group is made up of three characters from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT Project, which launched in April 2021 and includes a total of 10,000 NFTs. This was followed in August 2021 with Mutant Ape Yacht Club, a BAYC-based collection made up of 20,000 “mutant” versions of the original Bored Apes. One of Kingship’s “members” comes from this Mutant Ape Yacht Club.

With the purchase of another NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the Kingship project is now complete: “Noët All” will take on the role of manager of the group. The label spent around $360,000 on this NFT.

The next generation

According to Celine Joshua, founder of 22:22, Kingship aims to “introduce a new generation of artists, fans and community engagement”. The label also wants to stage virtual performances of the band in the Metaverse and also launch a Discord channel where fans can exchange ideas.

In addition, a scenario must be designed for the group, in which each member of Kingship acts according to his own story and his own personality. Newcomer Noët is supposed to advance the plot of the story in the role of manager. In addition, she will have the task of communicating with the (potential) fanbase around the “group”.

To the concept

With Kingship, Universal/10:22PM wants to learn how the Metaverse or NFT works: The group is meant to test new possibilities in virtual space – and to assess the role of fans.

What is striking is that the “group” as such already exists, and the story in which it is embedded is already being worked on – but there is no music to be heard yet. . So, although launched by a music label and announced as a musical project, it shows that the marketing and narrative aspect is clearly at the forefront here.

Unlike what are probably the best-known “cartoon band” to date, the Gorillaz, Kingship is not founded by musicians who want to explore the possibilities of music in the visual medium, but primarily by a label that is primarily driven by marketing interests will. Therefore, it remains to be seen how successful this project can or will actually be outside of crypto circles.

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