5 classic brands making a comeback with NFTs
Undoubtedly, NFTs have provided a route for countless young, up-and-coming artists and musicians to finally make a living from their passion and craft. Even legacy brands have gotten in on the fun by using this revolutionary new technology to engage their market in a deeper and more meaningful way. Through the use of smart contracts – one of the distinguishing features of NFTs – brands can even enable a number of unique tools for their buyers on the go.
A recurring story we’ve seen in the short history of NFTs in the public spotlight is how classic, sometimes long-defunct brands have seen this new technology as a way back into the public conversation. Here’s a quick overview of recent NFT launches that have evoked the biggest nostalgia trips in society.
The music industry’s transition from radio and CD to on-demand streaming was not immediate. Before platforms like Spotify became synonymous with listening to music, consumers found themselves drawn to an easier and more cost-effective way to curate their personal music libraries: peer-to-peer file-sharing platforms. And everyone’s platform of choice? Lime wire. The file-sharing client was reportedly installed on over a third of all computers worldwide during its peak in 2007.
Of course, given the legal gray areas these platforms inhabited, LimeWire’s time in the sun didn’t last long. After the release of the final update in 2010, the site began to disappear from public consciousness as quickly as it entered.
That’s what made LimeWire Announcement in July 2022 such a trip. The brand was back, but in a slightly different form. Now it is a NFT marketplace, with an emphasis on distribution of music NFT. Since that announcement, it has maintained an active presence in the music NFT space, even curating a series of virtual events on platforms like Decentraland.
Although Nickelodeon still exists, with its revenue largely borne by an optimistic aquatic sponge, its cultural divisiveness pales in comparison to what it was in the 1990s. Throughout the decade, some of the greatest cartoons ever created premiered, giving an entire generation of children and teenagers fond memories to look back on. Hi Arnold! talked about the ups and downs of living a childhood in the inner city, The wild thorn berries spoke to every child’s fantasy of being able to talk to animals, and Ren and Stimpy gave everyone nightmares.
In collaboration with RECUR, Nickelodeon sought to preserve the most valuable parts of its legacy on the blockchain through the launch of its first NFT collection in July. The first public drop consisted of 10,000 packs, each containing different one-of-one PFP NFTs featuring characters from two of Nickelodeon’s most beloved ’90s shows: Rugrats and Hi Arnold!
The Netflix hit Stranger Things demonstrated a simple condition very, very well: the resilience of ’80s nostalgia. To celebrate its legacy of shaping the gaming experiences of youth around the world throughout the 1980s, former gaming giant Atari released the 50 Years of Atari NFT Collection in September 2022.
In collaboration with Brazilian artist Butcher BillyAtari created a collection of 2,600 generative NFT posters that evoked the brand’s promotional material for its vast library of classic games during its cultural peak.
Yes, Winamp. It still exists. Despite its heyday in the computing era from Windows ME to XP, the media player has been quietly pushing updates for the past 25 years and counting. Winamp’s last big update? Support for music NFTs. Now collectors can place their collection of music NFTs on the player to go along with all the Sublime CDs they’ve been tearing in their dorm rooms.
In early 2022, Winamp opened its Foundation as a way to support musicians worldwide in pursuing their sonic passions. To help raise funds for this initiative, Winamp put its original skin up for sale as an NFT on OpenSea. Moving on, the NFT initiative has now made its way into the player’s code as well, as evidenced by its newfound support for music NFTs.
In one of the most bizarre twists of 2022, defunct US tech retailer Radioshack rose from the dead, reawakening as a Web3-focused brand claiming well-known NFT collector fxnction’s signature snark. The move was reportedly several years in the making and began when investors Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez bought out the former tech giant after it declared bankruptcy in 2020.
Now, apart from the practice of selling customers consumer electronics and hardware cheaply, it has also taken to social media to push all sorts of crypto coins and NFT projects onto its followers. Since the shift in June 2022, Radioshack has gradually settled into one of the NFT community’s most valuable social media presences.
