Money Man’s $ 1 Million Bitcoin Advance Is Just The Start Of EMPIRE’s Blockchain Moves

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Money Man Blockchain’s New Album Cover

EMPIRE

First comes an advance of $ 1 million fully paid in Bitcoin. Next is the revolution in the way the music industry pays and engages artists.

The Atlanta rapper Money Man, who released his new Blockchain album last month, made headlines when he became the first musician to receive his seven-figure advance for his upcoming cryptocurrency project, du independent label EMPIRE and its founder and CEO, Ghazi.

Around the time the first two crypto investors spoke at the Bitcoin 2021 conference, alongside NFL players Russell Okung and Sean Culkin, Ghazi began connecting with companies that were using crypto solutions. blockchain for mass payments. “I was with Money Man one day and I said brother, I think we could break the internet if we made your lead while in crypto,” Ghazi says. “Ad he said, let’s do it.” They used Cash App for the transaction.

But the implications go beyond a one-off promotion. The rise and fall of NFT that accompanied the album is more about cultural evolution, Ghazi says. “It wasn’t about making a lot of money. Money Man earns a lot of money. It was a culture change ”, both for consumers and businesses.

A second NFT drop is scheduled for Christmas. “We’re still figuring out how useful the utility is, but we’re definitely doing a Christmas Empire / Black Circle / Money Man NFT drop for the holidays,” Money Man teases.

Meanwhile, Ghazi is building a division of EMPIRE solely dedicated to blockchain initiatives, and the company will launch its blockchain payment solution by the end of the year. The move comes as other music companies begin to embrace crypto. Prescription Songs now offers a Bitcoin royalty payment option and Beatport recently announced that it will accept Bitcoin payments, to name just two.

“The main thing I had in mind was that I’ve always known that in the recording business we have the challenge of finding simple ways to pay people,” says Ghazi. “It was just hard, especially as we start signing artists in places like Jamaica, Nigeria, Indonesia, China. It is difficult to get the information about the wires correctly; there is no rhyme or reason for it.

He compares what’s happening with crypto to the transition of music distribution and consumption from download to streaming – “We’ve had a format change in music, and now we have a format change in payments.” – and says it’s already changing the dynamic among Empire and its roster of current artists and potential signers.

“It’s a continuation in an area where we’ve always been a progressive company,” notes Ghazi, who says Empire was making ACH payments to artists early on using a system that would send them email notifications. “The next phase is to find a way to put money directly into people’s wallets through crypto. When artists see us doing this stuff, the relationship is so much more passionate and empowered. “

The music industry is just starting to count the ways blockchain and crypto can change business, he adds. “It diversifies the product, it diversifies the payment systems. You can reach people better on a global scale and if you can, you can engage creators on a whole new level. It adds a lot of marketing and communications resources and utility, where you can use your NFTs to go to a Grammy party, access merch.

From the artist’s point of view, “It is a time of renaissance for artists. Let’s be clear, once you get into the Metaverse and the Metaverse fully evolves, it will be much easier to reach a large number of people and target fan bases, ”Money Man says.

“It’s easier to get investments and crowdfunding with your fans if you can create some kind of blockchain technology awareness. Cryptocurrency right now is all about the community. You have to be in a certain type of community, that’s what makes it work. Artists should look for unique ways to advance their music in the crypto space. “

The 500 NFT drop in movement, including three iterations with unique colourways, that accompanied the Money Man blockchain release, sold out in 24 hours for $ 0.3, or roughly $ 150. The first 100 buyers got a free hoodie, the other 400 got 25% off the merchandise store, and the fixed price for all was very intentional.

“A lot of people saw NFTs as a lick, just to make a big bag of money and didn’t really understand the utility and where it was heading,” Ghazi said. “We felt like if we created an NFT that had a use, you could build trust. “

The creation and management of the NFT were handled internally by the EMPIRE team. “We didn’t outsource it like a lot of artists and companies do. We did it ourselves, in our own company, we build the whole framework so that as we evolve any artist or EMPIRE label partner who wants to do an NFT can make one and we can do it. launch and scale it correctly and message it correctly. “

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