American Grammy-winning music artist Timbaland, who has over 1.72 million subscribers on Youtube, announced the launch of an entertainment brand Ape-In Productions (AIP), based around Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT’s.
Despite the growth of NFTs this year, skeptics still question what else can a URL image be used for other than viewing. Initiatives like AIP are showcasing utility for these digital assets that go beyond the value of ownership.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club was founded by Yuga Labs in April of this year and has since become one of the most successful NFT projects of all time, accumulating over $1 billion in total sales across two related projects, Bored Apes and Mutant Apes. Coingecko estimates the current market capitalization of Bored Apes at more than $2 trillion. Yuga Labs minted a total of 10,000 distinct Bored Ape characters, and the ownership of one or more NFTs gives membership to an exclusive club community of Ape collectors.
Ape-In Productions is a music label looking to work with Bored Ape talent. Its first signing, TheZoo, is a hip-hop group in the Bored Ape Yacht Club universe and already has its first single ready for release, ApeSh!t, which Timbaland produced.
The idea is to create a platform where select Bored Apes can release music and other content as NFTs. Ownership of these NFTs will grant access to other exclusive experiences in the Bored Ape universe, such as animated concerts and virtual studio sessions.
When Yuga Labs minted the NFTs it granted the rights to commercialize any given Bored Ape to its owner. This allows Ape-In Productions to use these NFTs as a cover image for content promotion and also create other works based on them. Ape-In has commissioned BRON Digital to develop animated versions of the NFTs of the group members.
Separately, Universal Music Group label 10:22pm partnered with a member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and is using four Apes from his collection in a music group called Kingship.
For Ape NFT owners, new brands centered around Ape Yacht Club promotes the project and have the potential to add value to these NFTs. As such, NFT holders will benefit from brand building, and, at least for now, finding Ape holders to participate in the project shouldn’t be an issue.
Meanwhile, music in the metaverse is becoming a trend. Animoca Brands has partnered with Cube Entertainment to use its intellectual property in the K-pop industry to launch a music metaverse platform. Warner Music contributed to a $725 million investment in blockchain games platform Forte. The CMA launched an NFT to celebrate its 55th event. And Spotify blockchain competitor Audius received backing from prominent names, including Katy Perry and Little Nas X.
