Muse the First to Release the Entire Album as an NFT

“Will of the People” an album by Muse, will be the first chart-eligible and entirely NFT album released on the Polygon-based Serenade platform.

“Will of the People” is the British rock band’s 9th studio album, and it will be released on August 26. This NFT album will be the latest chart-eligible format since 2015, when streams were accepted by the international charts. From now on NFT albums will be eligible for both UK and Australian charts.

The album will be sold via Serenade, the “eco-friendly” platform that helps artists to capitalise on the NFT boom. Muse has always been pioneering in tech, so no wonder they signed up for this collaboration. Back in 2020, Muse were the only band that worked with Dapper Lab’s CryptoKitties project to create digital collectibles.

The Serenade platform uses layer-2 solution Polygon to mint NFTs as they see its proof-of-stake mechanism as a more efficient one compared to Ethereum’s current proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm. Serenade bears gas fees on behalf of artists and fans because they want all purchases to be frictionless. Also, the platform doesn’t require users to create a crypto wallet before purchasing NFTs, just credit or debit cards are enough. But users can still use existing wallets linked to Coinbase.

Muse’s upcoming NFT is, in fact, called a digital pressing, which includes full length audio, artwork, inclusion in the intimate community of owners, as well as the option to redeem unlockable rewards. For sure, digital pressings have introduced the new standard of royalty management. The Muse album will be limited to 1,000 copies globally and come as both an NFT and a limited-edition format. Fans will get a downloadable version of the album as high-resolution FLAC files containing digital signatures of the band members. Besides, fans will have their names permanently listed on the linked roster of purchasers.

Serenade is now among the chart-return digital retailers approved by the OCC, or Official Charts Company, the home of the official UK Top 40 charts. So, they are planning to work with various emerging and iconic artists to use the digital pressing format to release albums, EPs and singles.

Although Serenade is already collaborating with rock stars like Muse, they are facing fierce competition with the OneOf music based NFT marketplace, a Tezos-powered green platform, founded in partnership with Quincy Jones’ Quincy Jones Productions; and Royal platform, founded by 3LAU and JD Ross and focused on early music projects.

NFTs are said to revolutionise the music industry. Madonna, Snoop Dogg and many more world-famous artists are already using NFTs to strengthen their brands. So what makes this piece of news worth the article? In the past, NFTs have been connected with album releases. Until now, there has not been a release of an entire album as an NFT. Well, let’s continue to observe how NFTs may transform the music industry.