RAC says NFTs offer a compelling alternative to streaming services, writing: "I have 3.5 million unique listeners per month on Spotify, yet I made more income from five NFT collectors."
A Grammy-winning artist has passionately defended NFTs after a week of negative headlines for the industry.
RAC's Twitter thread was directly addressed to those who hate non-fungible tokens — and while he didn't set out to change people's minds, the musician said he wanted to "offer the perspective of an artist who has been involved in the space since 2017 — before any of you heard about it."
He began by claiming that ecological concerns surrounding the asset class have been "basically solved" — with Ethereum in the process of moving to a more eco-friendly Proof-of-Stake blockchain, and a series of layer-two solutions handling transactions off the main network.
RAC also waged war on the so-called "right-clickers" — those who see little value in NFTs because of how they can simply save the JPEG for themselves without limitations:
"A lot of people seem to miss that the entire point of NFTs is to make content FREE while making ownership scarce. Nobody is forcing you to pay for an NFT, you can still enjoy it FOR FREE alongside everybody else. You like my music? You can have it for free."
While the Web2 world focuses on creating infinite digital copies that are priced incredibly low, RAC argues that "scarce ownership empowers artists to make WAY more income without stupid ad-based models" — and he went on to describe the business models used by the likes of Amazon, Apple and Spotify as "exploitative."
And his arguments when it comes to the economics of NFTs are pretty compelling. RAC wrote:
"I have 3.5 million unique listeners per month on Spotify, yet I made more income from five collectors."
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Speaking Out
RAC spoke out after spotting a tweet from the open indie marketplace Itch.io, which had declared:
"NFTs are a scam. If you think they are legitimately useful for anything other than the exploitation of creators, financial scams, and the destruction of the planet then we ask that you please reevaluate your life choices."
This led the artist to reveal that he made more income from one NFT drop than in his whole 15-year career as a musician — and in a not-so-subtle dig to Itch.io, he added:
"Fun fact, the same I scored that was released on @itchio made a whopping $132 over two years. Thanks guys!"
Centralized marketplaces and streaming platforms have come under scrutiny for the commissions they take from artists — and the royalties they pay out every time a song is played. Estimates have suggested that musicians only get paid $3,000 to $3,500 per one million streams on Spotify.
Overall, there's an argument that the dislike toward NFTs might be rooted in how this asset class is still very new — and as RAC puts it, "the tech is still kinda janky and some questionable projects are having success." He added:
"Claiming all NFTs are a scam is about as tone deaf and uninformed as it gets. It's pure ignorance. It's like saying all cheese is bad, or that all music sucks. Yeah, some are bad, but like anything, there are tasteful and smart and interesting ways to do anything."
