Opulous just raised $6.5 million. Now it wants more artists to sell NFTs through its platform.
Summary
The Opulous platform, devised and launched by the founders of DIY music service Ditto, has caused ripples through the music business since it arrived earlier this year.A blockchain-powered financial platform for artists, in April Opulous then operating as Bluebox hosted the first ever split music copyright sale by artists via NFTs.British rapper Big Zuu and US artist Taylor Bennett each successfully sold a collection of 1% stakes in unreleased recordings via the blockchain.All 125 of these items sold out in under 30 seconds with over 10,000 people trying to get into the sale. (Buyers of these 1% stakes acquired a worldwide exclusive fractional license to these sound recordings, with ownership in perpetuity).Now, having completed a successful multi-million-dollar financing round to fund the next stage of its growth, Opulous is welcoming a wider range of artists onto its platform to host similar split copyright NFT sales.Obviously, we want the biggest artists out there to start selling NFTs through the Opulous platform, says Opulous founder, Lee Parsons. But when it comes to the split-copyright NFTs, we see a real sweet spot here for artists who have, say, 3 million-plus followers on Spotify artists with the kind of solid fan-base that will actively want to help promote their music to others, and will really value owning a stake, and getting a return, from that musics success.What Parsons is describing is, in essence, a future of dedicated global fanbases operating with a shared determination to fuel their favorite artists success a la BTSs online ARMY.This determination, though, will come not just from fans loving the act in question, but also because theyre directly invested in their prosperity.Thanks to a recent partnership with Binance, artists can also now sell non-copyright NFTs via Opulous, including VIP fan experiences giving super-fans a chance to spend big on scarce items from their favourite artists.Meanwhile, Opulous this month closed a $6.5 million funding round from a list of backers soon to be announced.Parsons is keeping tight-lipped on the names of Opulouss new backers for now, but does confirm that some of my favorite artists are investors in the platform.A million dollars of the $6.5 million was raised via a crowd-raise. And as it builds, its going to become a big threat to the major labels.Our software can even track who amongst your army is the most engaged and increase their rewards.Earlier this month, Opulous inked its partnership with Binance in order to allow artists to sell additional, different types of NFTs not related to copyrights via the Binance NFT platform.Parsons says that Opulous plans to launch a series of these exclusive music NFT drops with major artists led by Lil Yachty and Kyle on Binance NFT, with others to be announced soon. [UPDATE: In January 2022, Lil Yachty filed a lawsuit against Opulous in the US accusing the company of using his name and likeness without permission.