Who is 3LAU? NFT artist who was the first ever tokenized his music album

12.08.2022

When it comes to NFTs, everyone represents only visual art, such as the famous work of the artist Beeple or the famous CryptoPunks. However, few people still consider the musical direction in this industry as a promising direction. But in vain. And this is not only about selling music in the form of tokens, but also selling copyrights for streaming music broadcasts. Sounds out of the ordinary, right? But it was from this side that the famous DJ Justin David Blau, known under the pseudonym 3LAU, saw the sphere. It was his desire to share with all fans not only his work, but also the opportunity to earn money on it, which made him famous in the blockchain environment.

Who is 3LAU?

3LAU (pronunciation “Blau”), Justin David Blau, is a world-renowned American DJ and producer of electronic dance music. The bulk of 3LAU’s musical work is related to electro house, dubstep, deep house and progressive house. 3LAU is the producer of tracks: “Fire”, “Is it Love”, “On my Mind”, “Hot Water”, remixes for world stars such as Katy Perry, Shawn Mendes and Ariana Grande.

3LAU nft dj — *The world-famous DJ has thousands of fans and until 2020 he collected huge stadiums in which a full full sold out*

To date, it has amassed over 1 billion music streams on Spotify, Soundcloud, YouTube and other platforms. Over 300 million plays of his album Ultraviolet. And the number of listeners at the moment reaches 1.8 million per month.

But he is known not only for his musical records. 3LAU was the first in the world to tokenize his album, as a result of which he earned more than 11.6 million dollars. And musician also created the Royal platform, which allows, through the acquisition of the NFT, to invest in musicians and their tracks, and in the future receive a percentage of all income from the investment.

3LAU Official Links

Official website 3lau.com
Instagram @3lau – more than 326k subscribers,
YouTube @3LAU – more than 282k subscribers,
Twitter @3LAU – over 260k followers,
Tik-Tok @3lau – over 8k followers.

Creative path of 3LAU: from DJing to NFT

3LAU’s musical career began in 2011 when he was 20 years old. His first works were mashups, in the same year he took the pseudonym “3LAU” and uploaded them to YouTube. Participated in a remix competition with a remix of Tiesto’s “Work Hard, Play Hard”, which brought him the victory.

In 2012, 3LAU went on their first 3LAU Your Mind Tour. He released an album with tracks, the album was called “Dance Floor Flith”. That same year, he was named one of the fastest growing DJ-producers by the Las Vegas Review Journal.
In 2014, his famous track “How You Love Me” was released, which over the years has gained more than 26 million views.

Then in 2014 he had a fateful acquaintance. While opening for an Avicii concert in Mexico in 2014, he met Cameron and Tyler Winkvoss, classmates of Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard. It was then that from their conversations he learned about the existence of cryptocurrencies and became deeply interested in this topic in parallel with his musical career.
Further in 2015, the musician made his first European tour.

3LAU nft Steve Aoki — *3LAU during a US show*

In 2016, he launched his label Blume Records, which uses streaming to raise money for charity. Thus, raised more than 200.000 USD for “Pencils of Promise”. Then the money was used to build schools in Guatemala.
In 2018, the debut album “Ultraviolet” is released on February 16, released on its label. The album took first place on the site in iTunes.
Then came the global Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, which put all of the artist’s tours and performances on pause. So, he was left without a main source of income. But by that time, he already had an understanding about the field of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. And it was in this area that he directed all his knowledge, experience and desire to develop.

3LAU in the NFT world

Musician began studying cryptocurrencies and the world of blockchain technologies back in 2014, when non-fungible tokens did not yet exist as a technology. The interim result was that in 2017 he decided to raise funds and hold a festival through the initial offering of tokens, the so-called ICO. 3LAU later decided to abandon the idea of an ICO, fearing that the placement would raise questions from the authorities. However, he continued to work on the festival, allowing guests to pay with cryptocurrencies for tickets, souvenirs, food, drinks and other goods.

But until 2020, the entire blockchain industry was more of a leisure activity for the musician, exactly until the Covid-19 pandemic stopped all performances, depriving the DJ of his income. It was then that he began his powerful entry into the world of the NFT.

3LAU nft art — *The musician initially saw in the field of music tokens more than just the resale of works*

Justin is known in the NFT world as the first person to tokenize his Ultraviolet album. Justin collaborates with various NFT artists, and with the provocative artist and longtime friend SlimeSunday even created a joint project SSX3LAU, which also found a huge response among fans.

And in 2021, he created the Royal platform, the first of its kind, which offers all buyers of tokens of various music tracks to become at the same time partially owners of copyrights and receive profit from all income from this.

3LAU nft music artist — The musician sees the role of his project Royal globally

To date, Royal remains unique in its kind, and all the world’s music labels want to cooperate with her. The reason for this is simple – in fact, Royal is a much more profitable alternative to curating for a musician instead of label companies that take the lion’s share of artists’ income.

Imagine an NFT, which is 100% ownership of the master recording of a song or album. The artist can then issue a DAO token that shares ownership of the song or album while maintaining 51 percent ownership of the total volume.This is how the artist describes the unique phenomenon of copyright sharing

Features of NFT Music Works by 3LAU

Justin releases his musical works in electronic style, which become hits among hundreds of thousands of fans. He is not an artist in his purest form, he is simultaneously a musician, producer, entrepreneur, crypto-pioneer.

Music is invisible so it doesn’t make sense to apply NFT to music in the same way as to fine art. This is not a standard asset type. Previously, the only way to collect music was CDs and vinyl, but now it’s a streaming service. Everyone’s music collection is theoretically the same, right? By paying a subscription, you get access to everything. So, I decided to apply NFT to song copyrights. Song copyright is a scarcity, not the sound itself, which any user can stream. 3LAU said

The most famous NFT works of 3LAU

The musician made history as the first artist to sell his music album in the form of 33 tokens. But not only this case is the most famous in his portfolio.

Worst Case NFT Collection

The composition Worst Case by 3LAU – royal was sold in the form of 333 NFTs, the owners of which also receive 50% of royalties on all streaming revenues. Such a move allowed the musician to earn more than 336 ETH (more than $1.1 million at the time of release).

Ultraviolet NFT Album

3LAU sold 33 copies of their Ultraviolet album, with each copy including unique extras. It was this album that the DJ was the first in the world to tokenize and sold it for $11.6 million. The most expensive of which cost $3.6 million at the end of the auction. It included a track written at the request of the buyer.

The auction itself was held on his own website, where it is still possible to see the winners who bid higher than others.

WAVEFORM NFT track

In 2021, the musician also made blockchain history as the first artist to sell a musical NFT through the world-renowned auction house Christie’s. Auctioning the rights to the new WAVEFORM song in the form of a token was up for grabs in addition to the accompanying physical piece, a 3D waveform sculpture of the song. As a result, the sale brought the artist 127 ETH (more than 547k dollars at the time of sale).

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXH4gO-JyWX/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=ba2b1302-fa2e-4458-ac80-f63f82a8d4a6

Where can you buy NFT tracks by 3LAU?

You can purchase the main platform for purchasing musical NFTs with the possibility of receiving royalties from streaming on the official website of the Royal platform, the founder of which is 3LAU himself. In addition, tokens are presented on the secondary market on such sites as OpenSea, Nifty Gateway.

Opinion of NFTMetria

3LAU has really brought a big impact to the NFT music scene. Moreover, this is not just about selling an audio file, but about fully acquiring the copyright of the composition and receiving part of the income from streaming. And no one else can offer such a format today. The musician created a very big name for himself, having entered the blockchain history, among other things, thanks to the sale of his album in the form of tokens, which no one had done before either. And the development of his label brings new musicians into this niche in addition to those who enter it on the example of Justin himself.

Given his unique taste in music, subtle entrepreneurial flair, and strategic view of the entire NFT space, he is definitely worth keeping an eye on for all NFT investors.