Royalties from singer Rihanna's smash hit "Bitch better have my money" are being sold as non-fungible tokens, with the collection selling out within minutes of its announcement.
The song’s producer, Jamil “Deputy” Pierre, partnered with European crypto startup AnotherBlock to sell a fraction of his own streaming rights to the song via 300 NFTs.
Each NFT sells for $210, and each collector owns 0.0033% of the song’s streaming royalties. Etherscan data showing token transfers.
AnotherBlock made $63,000 immediately as all NFTs sold quickly. Holders will receive their first royalties on February 16, the company tweeted Thursday. AnotherBlock's head of community and development, Andreas Bigert, said he owns some of the streaming rights to Rihanna's songs and will receive royalties for "lifetime" streams.
“Bitch better have my money” will be the startup’s biggest NFT drop, just six months after it first appeared in August, according to a press release. The value of AnotherBlock's music rights catalog has jumped about 16 percent since it first launched.
The song has been streamed more than 673 million times on Spotify, and collectors can expect to earn between 6.1 percent and 6.8 percent in its first year, according to data on the AnotherBlock website.
The drop comes ahead of Rihanna's performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show this Sunday. She reportedly told a news conference that she hadn't been on stage in seven years.
NFTs have become very popular in the music industry, as royalties are one of the best use cases for digital collectibles. Several artists are now making their own NFT collections. Chainsmokers and Diplo are among the musicians who have tokenized their music.
