SotN #37: Justin 3LAU - The Frontier of NFTs ($12M drop SOLD, A Token Renaissance in Digital Art?)
Bankless
Bankless
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2021
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Justin Blau, known by his stage name 3LAU, is a DJ turned crypto-entrepreneur. At the end of February, he auctioned collectible NFTs for his 'Ultraviolet' album for a record-setting $11.7M.
We look under the hood of 3LAU's story, diving into what this means for crypto and the disruption of the music industry.
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SotN #37: 3LAU | The Frontier of NFTs
Justin Blau, known by his stage-name 3LAU, has been experimenting in the crypto space since 2014. From February 25-28, he auctioned a total of 33 NFTs commemorating his album 'Ultraviolet', originally released in 2018. 3LAU discusses how he applied his knowledge of game theory to optimize the auction mechanism. The sales totaled $11.7M.
3LAU's biggest takeaway from all this is that the music industry is ripe for disruption. NFTs can remove intermediaries and bridge the gap between fans and creators. Transparent, immutable digital goods are increasingly accessible to the public. These tools promote direct-to-consumer transactions, democratization of data, and self-distribution.
The argument here is that given the technology of distributed ledgers, record labels are now obsolete. With an investable layer, fans are able to contribute capital and hold equity in an artist's work. 3LAU is pioneering how decentralized tokens can be optimized for medium-dependent art spaces. The future of art is decentralized, allowing infinite collaborative possibilities among fans and creators of all forms of media.
Justin on Twitter
https://twitter.com/3LAU?s=20
3LAU Website
https://3lau.com/
3LAU NFT Auction
https://nft.3lau.com/#/auction
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, bankless nation, welcome to another state of the nation. |
| 0:17.7 | This is the episode we bring you weekly on Tuesdays, Wednesdays if you're listening to it |
| 0:22.4 | on the pod where we talk about what's happening and relate it to the big picture stuff and |
| 0:26.6 | drop some insights and action items for you. |
| 0:29.4 | Comes out every Tuesday on YouTube or Wednesday on the podcast, David, what are we talking about today and who's on? |
| 0:36.8 | Justin Blau, more commonly known as Blau, is a fantastic music producer, a digital music producer, |
| 0:44.2 | but he has also has experience in education with finance and that definitely came out in this interview |
| 0:50.6 | where a guy who has been watching the rise of crypto, the rise of our industry from a distance while he's been producing his music |
| 0:59.2 | has now discovered a way to integrate economics, crypto and his own music and that he has exploded onto the scene with a massive $12 million |
| 1:09.6 | NFT drop, which blasted open all records of NFT sales and Justin is doing a fantastic job |
| 1:17.4 | stewarding in new artists, new ways of cultural expression to come and be expressed using these tools that are found on Ethereum. |
| 1:26.6 | So it's a really a fantastic conversation. |
| 1:28.6 | Yeah, this is amazing. |
| 1:29.8 | You know, David, to me, Justin is really a crypto native who also just happens to be a producer and a digital artist |
| 1:36.9 | specifically in music and so he's been doing this. |
| 1:40.4 | He's been into crypto since 2014. |
| 1:42.5 | I think the Winklevoss twins actually introduced him to crypto and since 2014 until now, he's been just doing a series of experiments with crypto. |
| 1:51.2 | He does think NFTs are going to be massively disruptive to the music industry and massively empowering to creators. |
| 1:59.8 | So this is a fantastic conversation you do not want to miss. |
| 2:03.4 | David, let's talk about some other things. |
| 2:05.2 | What's going on in bankless? |
| 2:07.0 | We just had our first year anniversary. |
... |
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