The hype surrounding cryptocurrencies has sparked a wave of new media companies vying for market share. With interest in cryptocurrencies at all-time highs, several media companies are looking to seize this golden opportunity, and they’re doing it with NFTs.  

NFTs have been in rage in the crypto space for quite some time now. For the uninitiated, an NFT (non-fungible tokens) is a non-interchangeable data unit stored on a blockchain. The various types of data units associated with NFTs include digital files such as photos, videos, audio, and more. 

NFTs are significant because they are a first-of-its-kind verifiable, portable, and immutable method of proving the ownership of a unique digital asset. The owner of a digital content NFT can be validated using the blockchain ledger since NFTs authenticate the authenticity of digital content. Music, art, images, videos, television shows, movies, sporting events, ads, and social media posts are all examples of digital content that can be owned and tracked.

A new age of crypto media companies

With digital collectibles becoming increasingly popular, media companies are certainly capitalizing on this exciting new opportunity, which involves the sale of high-value authentic content via NFTs, which serve as a digital certificate of authenticity. Media companies typically have access to a wide range of content, including films and television series, sports, music, commercials, etc. Ownership and rights are fluid concepts in the modern world, and unbundling property rights is quite common in the media sector. Just because you own something does not mean that you get all rights to it. For instance, even if you own a music CD of your favorite musician, you can only listen to it. You are not allowed to copy, exhibit, or sell it.

This is where NFTs come into play. NFTs do not have limited rights by design; rather, they have nearly limitless flexibility in unbundling and allocating property rights. In fact, the very concept behind digital collectibles is that ownership does not preclude others from viewing or sharing a specific file.

Thanks to NFTs, media companies can now benefit by generating cash flow through a new channel while leveraging content they already own. NFTs are also a means for the creator class to be empowered, allowing them to break free from the shackles of centralized platforms that extract enormous fees and regulate the relationship between artists and fans. The entire NFT concept is novel because creating scarcity in the digital arena has always been a major technical challenge. Indeed, the digital world allows you to copy and share information easily, but this is fundamentally altered by NFT technology, resulting in the creation of a new value system. 

As the NFT fever continues to capture the attention of crypto enthusiasts around the world, major media are turning to transform their legacy brands into one-of-a-kind digital assets. There is no doubt that NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and DAOs have led to countless new business models and revenue streams, and Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the biggest NFT projects, is one such crypto media company that has taken the world by storm. 

Crypto media companies: The BAYC success story

Source: The New Yorker

Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club is a top-selling collection of NFTs that includes 10,000 original Bored Ape NFTs, each with a unique combination of elements such as fur color, background color, clothes, and accessories. These attributes assign a value to each ape based on how many other apes share the same traits.

Each Bored Ape also grants its owner membership in the club, granting them access to specific benefits reserved for a select number of members. Additionally, members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club community may receive additional NFT airdrops and can also use a Copyright license to monetize their Bored Ape NFT and build a brand around it.

Several well-known celebrities own BAYC NFTs, including basketball legend Steph Curry, musicians Post Malone, Justin Bieber, American TV host Jimmy Fallon, Eminem, Neymar Jr., Serena Williams, and others.

Yuga Labs has also expanded on the popularity of Bored Ape Yacht Club with a newer series named Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which was released in August 2021. Each sale of Bored Ape earns Yuga Labs a 2.5 percent royalty. Some Bored Apes have even fetched millions of dollars; Bored Ape #232 was sold in January 2022 for 1,080.69 Ether tokens, which was nearly $2.85 million at the time. In fact, Bored Apes and their spinoffs have grossed about $2 billion to date.

And very recently, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s founders also acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits. This is considered to be a major consolidation of the NFT space. No doubt, this is likely to lead the company to higher revenues.

Certainly, NFTs are causing a huge wave around the world, and media companies looking to capitalize on this have some exciting new opportunities ahead.