India’s music label T-Series is set to dabble in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse.
NFTs took the world of music by storm in 2021 and caught the attention of many independent musicians the world over. Many artists shared their music directly with their fans through NFTs and made money that otherwise would involve cuts to middlemen. Since NFTs are sold at extremely high prices, many musicians like Kings of Leon and Steve Aoki, have sold NFTs for millions of dollars.
Now, Asia’s largest music label is ready to swoop into Metaverse with Hefty Entertainment, a Web 3.0 division of the digital media entertainment company Hungama Digital, to create NFTs from its vast catalogue of new and existing content, it said in a press release.
Unlike cryptocurrency, NFTs are non-interchangeable digital assets transacted on blockchain technology on special platforms.
Metaverse is a fully functional virtual world, of which NFTs, when integrated, will be an important element for virtual experience.
“Having set the ball rolling, we look forward to expanding and enhancing the value of our content that leads to a further and rapid expansion of the global digital entertainment industry,” said Bhushan Kumar, chairman and managing director of T-Series. “Offering a future full of potential, interactivity, and collaboration for our communities around the globe.”
The Hefty metaverse will be supported by Polygon blockchain, which also backs ethereum transactions and infrastructure development.
The increasing craze for NFTs and the metaverse among Indians is a recent phenomenon.
Several Bollywood stars, including Amitabh Bachchan, Sunny Leone, and Salman Khan, have ventured into the space with their offerings and associations.
With this move, Hungama Digital Media and T-Series aim to leverage their extensive global distribution network and a vast archive of two lakh songs, 65,000 music videos, and more than 150 films across Indian languages.
“We look forward to redefining content consumption with this Web 3.0 initiative as we find new ways to collaborate and engage with fans…promise to give billions of fans of Bollywood globally an experience that will see value accrue to them on our platform,” said Neeraj Roy, founder of Hungama.