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Business News Digital
Serenade and Warner to put out chart eligible NFT release of new Muse album
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 1 August 2022
Music NFT start-up Serenade has announced a partnership with Warner Music – and the official music chart compilers in the UK and Australia – which will see a special NFT-based digital release of the new Muse album – ‘Will Of The People’ – made available later this month, sales of which will count towards the new record’s overall chart position.
Serenade refers to the chart-eligible NFT-enabled release as a ‘digital pressing’, and says that the standalone digital product aims “to cater for a superfan’s appetite for scarcity, exclusive content and community recognition”. And, in case you wondered, yes, the digital pressing will “live on the blockchain and offer Web3 capabilities such as verifiable ownership and the ability to trade on secondary markets”.
Following the alliance with Warner on the ‘Will Of The People’ digital pressing, the NFT firm says it will “set out to support and empower any artist” that likewise wants to put out a standalone chart-eligible NFT-based release, adding: “Unlike vinyl production that demands significant overheads and a current six to nine month lead time, there is no cost associated with creating a digital pressing and the turnaround time can be less than two weeks”.
Commenting on the new NFT format, Serenade founder Max Shand says: “As a simple, standardised and chart eligible format, digital pressings will be a game changer on the global stage, and we wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without the support of the visionary teams at Warner Records, the [UK] Official Charts Company and Australian Recording Industry Association, who all want to give artists every opportunity to bring creativity and innovation into their campaigns”.
On the first release utilising that format, he goes on: “I have always been a huge fan of Muse, so I am beyond excited that they will be the first artist to release a digital pressing with Serenade”.
Sebastian Simone, VP of Audience & Strategy at Warner Records UK, adds: “We’re THRILLED to be partnering with Serenade and the Official Charts Company on the first chart accredited NFT album format. Muse have always been at the forefront of technological innovation and were one of the first music artists to pioneer in Web3 back in 2020. Their fans have an appetite for collectible rarities and this format brings them closer to Muse than ever before, propelling them into a new space and offering an entirely unique experience”.
And Official Charts Company boss Martin Talbot chips in: “Over their seven decades, the Official Charts have always strived to move with the times, reflecting consumption of new formats and all new ways of distributing music, as they have evolved”.
“Just as vinyl, 8-track, cassette tapes, CDs and even MiniDisc, DCC and DAT have been welcomed into the charts”, he continues, “we will also welcome non-fungible tokens – and we will be delighted when the first album delivered as an NFT contributes to the chart, with Serenade and Muse leading the way this summer”.
