Muse’s album comes as a NFT; Will these sales count against the chart?

There has been no shortage of musicians getting involved in the growing NFT (non-fungible token) arena. But Muse’s “Will of the People” album, out this Friday, still looks to be the first of its kind, as far as adding a pretty decent, affordable NFT edition of the release, day and date with default -The CD, vinyl and digital download editions of the release. In the UK, Muse’s NFT version of the album has even been deemed “chart compatible”.

So how will “Will of the People” sales in NFT format count against the band’s chart totals?

Well, in the US they won’t. America’s chart arbiters, Luminate and Billboard, aren’t as ready as their European counterparts to add NFTs to the cocktail of sales and streaming that add up to unit numbers, so whatever numbers are sold in the US won’t be part of Muse’s opening numbers , domestically.

Luminate said in a statement Variety: “Billboard and Luminate do not currently include NFT sales as part of our chart calculations as we observe the growth and variations of this new platform and how it may eventually fit into our current charts or contribute to new charts where NFT sales activity would be more applicable.”

That’s in contrast to the UK’s Official Charts Company, which oversees the album charts in both the UK and Australia, which previously declared that “Will of the People” would be the first NFT-packaged album to count towards a release’s overall figures. The qualification is a result of the vendor selling the Muse NFTs, Serenade, being approved as an official digital retailer for album releases by the Official Charts.

Ultimately, this is mostly theoretical, anyway, and including the format or not including it wouldn’t have much of a practical impact on Muse’s chart position here or abroad. Because only 1,000 of the Muse NFTs are being made available worldwide, even that modest amount will be split between the US, UK and other territories.

Although only 1,000 NFTs are being made available for the Muse album, they are being sold at an unusually populist price, compared to the popular perception of NFTs as the kind of rare collectibles that only sell at auction for thousands or tens. thousands of dollars. The cost of a “Will of the People” NFT, for anyone who can get one, is a reasonable £20, or about $24 — less than the price of a deluxe vinyl edition. If these were put on the market in far greater bulk, the map effect would not be so insignificant.

Of course, at roughly $24, this edition doesn’t come with many of the bells and whistles associated with more expensive NFTs. Serenade founder Max Shand has described the NFT albums his company intends to release as editions that “provide full-length audio and unique artwork, along with unlockable rewards and a list of first owners that publicly connect fans to the artists and releases they love … It’s premium vinyl for the web.” The Muse release isn’t particularly bonus-filled, as NFTs go. It is described as including the NFT token and a high-resolution download with digital signatures from the band members. Buyers will have their names listed on an affiliate list of buyers in perpetuity.

Variety spoke with Muse frontman Matt Bellamy in a recent interview about the idea of ​​albums coming in NFT form, and he seemed most excited about it for artists who don’t have the high touring potential of Muse.

“That’s interesting,” Bellamy said. “I mean, it’s not a big deal for us personally, as far as ‘this week’s imminent release,’ but I support what I think the technology can be. It’s a potential way to create the concept of originality in something that can’t be duplicated in a digital format. If people embrace it and believe in it, it can be something that can be good — I think more for, let’s say, smaller artists who don’t really have any other way to make a living, and especially for digital artists. It’s still a bit of a novelty at this point, but I think the technology has the potential to be very good for smaller acts.”

In terms of unit numbers and chart numbers, what remains unexplored at this point is whether NFT sales will always be counted as a single unit – in the UK, where the media is now allowed to take into account, and in America, where it may be in the future. What Billboard and Luminate may weigh going forward, if they allow NFTs to become part of the formula, is whether any adjustments should come into play if these are sold in some form of bulk, but price points rise into the hundreds or thousands. dollars beyond the modest amount Muse NFT is offered for.