Winamp adds NFT support, Atari gets physical and more
NFT Music on Winamp
Old school classic PC-friendly media player Winamp has rolled out support for Ethereum and Polygon-based music non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the latest update to its desktop player.
Winamp has been around since 1997 and was one of the most popular media players for PC users, but has since been overtaken by Windows Media Player and Apple’s dominant iTunes.
It has a reputation for supporting a wide range of media files, and in the latest update announcement on December 7th, the Winamp team noted that NFT support is officially live and ready to go.
Users can now connect to their Metamask wallets from a variety of browsers, and upload the music embedded in ERC-721 and ERC-1155 tokens minted on Ethereum and Polygon.
“The origins of Winamp have always been about accessibility and innovation, and today we are proud to launch the very first standalone player that reads audio NFTs as well as all other existing formats,” said Winamp CEO Alexandre Saboundjian in a statement.
There may soon be many polygon-based music NFTs to choose from as well. The team behind the Ethereum scaling solution also announced on December 7 that it had partnered with Warner Music and LGND Music to build a “collaborative, digital collectible” music platform.
The platform, called LGND Music, is set to launch in January 2023 and will provide users with a user-friendly on-ramp to buy and hold music NFTs.
Investopedia: NFT Taxes Explained, Hire an Accountant
Financial media website Investopedia has published a detailed overview of NFT tax laws in the US and emphasizes that people should probably hire a tax professional if they don’t want the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on their tail.
The site offers a comprehensive Wikipedia-style explanation of the various complicated terms in finance and finally added an NFT tax guide on December 5.
An important part of this is that the IRS has yet to issue “specific guidance” on how to report gains and losses from NFT sales on tax returns, indicating that there is a large gray area for taxpayers to navigate.
Some NFTs are likely to be classified as collectibles if they are purely art-focused, while others are used for utilitarian purposes, particularly in relation to business use “may qualify for capital gains treatment.”
“The taxation of NFTs will fall somewhere between cryptocurrencies, which are taxed as property and have a long-term capital gains rate of 0-20% depending on income, and collectibles, which have a higher maximum capital gains rate of 28%,” the guide reads.
Crypto.com and Coca Cola’s World Cup NFTs
Crypto exchange Crypto.com and beverage giant Coca-Cola have teamed up to launch a unique set of NFTs showing players’ heatmaps from matches during the FIFA World Cup 2022.
According to a December 5 announcement, the artwork for the collection of 10,000 NFTs will be designed by digital artist GMUNK, who worked on popular sci-fi films Tron: Legacy and Oblivion. However, a specific launch date was not detailed.
Heat maps in football are usually used to show how a player performed during a match, as they indicate how much of the pitch they cover and which specific areas they spent the most time in.
Using in-game data to create artwork could be a new way to create collectibles from major sporting events.
Atari’s New Concept: Physical Art
Japanese video game giant Atari has teamed up with print-on-demand company Pixels.com to roll out a revolutionary concept that revolves around printed NFT artwork.
While some may be happy to look at their Atari NFT art digitally, others like physical artwork.
To that end, according to a Dec. 6 announcement, Atari NFT holders can now connect Ethereum-based wallets to Pixels and turn them into framed prints or posters.
Those who don’t own Atari NFTs can also just right-click and save the images of the specific NFTs, then print them via pixels anyway.
Other good news
Digital entertainment, blockchain and gamification company Animoca Brands has secured a majority stake in Los Angeles-based music metaverse gaming platform Pixelynx.
A Chinese court in the city of Hangzhou has said that NFT collections are online virtual property that should be protected under Chinese law.
