Content creators introducing a new paradigm with NFTs

Artists and content creators are expanding the creator economy past the $100 billion mark by taking control of their brands through NFTs.

Nonfungible tokens (NFT) have created an environment where artists can take control of their work and finances. Experts agree that artists and creators that tokenize their work and issue it as NFTs no longer have to deal with third-party intermediaries.

Although galleries have traditionally done the leg work in attracting buyers, they are seeing their utility diminish as cheaper decentralized apps (DApps) make it easy for investors to connect directly with their favorite artists. This is creating a new paradigm in the creator economy driven by NFTs.

As the creator economy has topped $100 billion with plenty of upsides, and NFT marketplaces OpenSea and LooksRare doing over $100 million in daily volume according to market tracker DappRadar, it makes a lot of sense for creators to figure out how they can extract as much value for the work they produce.

Australian NFT artist Danielle Weber feels that more artists should be tokenizing their work and taking control of their personal branding. In an email to Cointelegraph, the 10-year artist outlined the many shortcomings she perceives in the traditional art industry and how NFTs have helped her get around them. She is a strong proponent of NFTs as a new tool for creators.

“I definitely encourage all artists to tokenize their works. What really attracted me to the prospect of entering the NFT art scene is that it made art more accessible to everyone.”

Accessibility is an important aspect for artists as they increase their chances to make a sale when more people see their work. The NFT space facilitates direct interaction between artists and fans without the need for intermediaries. This has created what Weber called a “beautiful cycle.”

Former lead engineer at blogging website Medium Julien Genestoux agrees that artists and content creators should be taking control of their products through NFTs, including the interaction with fans. He told Cointelegraph in an April 6 interview that the NFT space helps “remove arbitrary moats” between artists and fans.

Genestoux believes that creators have the opportunity to promote themselves as they wish, but that there is an extra burden in doing so. He said that before creators act as their own managers on their platform, “they should ask what relationship they want with their fans and what special thing they can offer themselves.”

“After finding out what you can offer on your own, use the NFTs as a contract that you still control.”

He acknowledges that traditional platforms like YouTube and Facebook are easy for people to use and have huge distribution advantages over smaller platforms, but that direct connectedness with fans is more important.

“I think you should be your own platform. That’s one of the values of having your own relationship with your fans.”

Genestoux added that NFTs by creators do not need to be limited to artists. Entertainers on the Only Fans social networking app can display NFT profile pictures as of this February. CEO Amrapali Gan said the new feature was just the “first step in exploring the role that NFT’s can play in our platform.”

<div>How NFTs create a 'beautiful cycle' between artists and fans</div>

Australia Blockchain Week

Panelists at an Australia Blockchain Week discussion talked about the favorable way the NFT industry has grown through close interactions between artists and fans.

The nonfungible token art industry has developed into a “beautiful cycle” thanks to the connection artists have with their fans according to artist Danielle Weber who spoke at the Australia Blockchain Week conference.

Weber spoke on a March 23 panel discussion titled “Pushing the boundaries of NFT utility and art - Homegrown spotlight” about the benefits of the nonfungible token (NFT) ecosystem bringing artists closer together with their fans. She highlighted the fact that such closeness provides mutual advantages for both artists and fans:

“It’s a beautiful cycle that we’re seeing in this space. We are closely connected to our fans… so we know what they want, and they motivate us to create work that is true to ourselves and true to our craft.”

That connection with fans is apparent the moment one enters the NFT space. A collector may join a Discord channel from an NFT project or begin following an artist or a collection’s account. Through those media, collectors can voice their opinions and get real-time updates directly from the content creators about the direction they are taking with their art. As Weber stated, such an arrangement allows artists to “think more widely about how we can give back to our supporters.”

She believes that this two-way street of communication between artists and fans “has taken out the middlemen and the galleries” which “pushes you to stand up as an artist” and be “at the forefront of your project.”

The process that generated the apparent give-and-take cycle in the NFT space took time to develop, as noted by another panelist and founder of the Metakey NFT collection, “Matty”. He said that when he started his foray into the NFT space about four years ago, “every Discord had like 200 people, and if it had 1,000, it was a big project.”

However, sales in the NFT industry currently outweigh those from the traditional art auction industry. Last year, NFT sales totaled about $23.1 billion according to DappRadar while traditional non-NFT art auction sales topped $16.8 billion according to news outlet International Business Times.

Matty attributes the growth of the NFT space to a small number of catalysts such as Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot NFT collection that “built something that was really easy to understand, and it clicked.” In his view, there will be more catalysts in the gaming and creative industries that begin to integrate NFTs.

As of the time of writing, the NBA Top Shot discord channel had nearly 224,000 members.

Danielle Weber