This week’s Web3 Wrap includes PleasrDAO’s monumental purchase of the one-of-one Wu-Tang album, Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, Barbadian artist Haleek Maul’s record-breaking sales on Catalog, The Weeknd joining Tom Brady’s NFT platform, HERSTORY founder Latasha, Jonathan Zawada, and more.
Dive in below and join EDMjunkies’s Discord server for any questions regarding Web3 and music.
PleasrDAO Buys Wu-Tang Album From Federal Government for $4 Million
Leading collector DAO PleasrDAO has purchased the one-of-one Wu-Tang album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
The album first gained notoriety back in 2015 when cringe-inducing pharma-bro Martin Shkreli purchased the only copy of the album, which is the seventh album by the Wu-Tang Clan. The album was seized by the federal government in 2018 when Shkreli was sent to prison for fraud and was held until July this year when it was purchased by an unknown entity, now announced to be PleasrDAO, who bought it for $4 million.
Interestingly, the contract for the initial sale of the album “prevented the buyer from releasing the music commercially for 88 years,” according to Coindesk, which isn’t great news for fans that hoped the sale would mean the album would be released; however, this may not be as concrete as it seems considering a DAO purchased the album. Speaking to Coindesk, Jesse Grushack, the co-founder of 6, the agency that brokered the deal between the government and PleaserDAO, alluded to this, stating that “theoretically, [PleasrDAO] could have 5,000 owners of the album and make a private listening party for those owners.” If that ends up being the case, it would be a brilliant way to showcase the power of fractional ownership and community-owned products and intellectual property.
To close, the fact that a DAO purchased something from the US government is undoubtedly bullish for NFTs, DAOs, and the wider adoption of the Web3 space.
Haleek Maul Sells Track for 10 ETH on Catalog
With every week, Catalog seems to go from strength to strength, hitting new highs and launching new features.
This week was no different with Barbadian artist Haleek Maul selling one of his records, “BURDEN,” for 10 ETH, which at the time of writing is worth $39,880. The winning bid was secured by a consortium of collectors using PartyBid, a product for collective bidding using the Zora protocol. “BURDEN” is the first track to be released from Haleek’s new EP, with three more currently available for purchase on Catalog.
At the time of writing, the second track, “TOUCH,” had hit its reverse price of 10 ETH, with the current winning bid again coming via a PartyBid. The third track, “VERIFIED,” also has a little over 2.3 ETH in the bidding pool, with 8.7 ETH to go before it hits the reserve price and kicks off the auction. Anyone with an Ethereum wallet can join in on PartyBids, and you can read more about it here.
You can check out the full release via Haleek’s Spaces playlist.
The Weeknd Joins Tom Brady-Affiliated NFT Platform Autograph
Tom Brady’s NFT platform, Autograph, has announced it’s adding music to its offerings, with The Weeknd and FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, joining the board.
The platform launched its first offerings in August, focused solely on sport-based collectibles. According to Decrypt, music collectibles are next, with The Weeknd helping to guide its direction. “I was eager to join [Autograph] in launching a new vertical in the music space that explores what the metaverse could be,” The Weeknd noted. It’s still unclear whether The Weeknd will be releasing NFTs to kick things off, and any further details of what artists will be involved are still under wraps.
Latashá Sells Music Video for $19k
Rapper, artist, Zora Community Lead, and HERSTORY founding member Latashá this week sold her latest music video for 5 ETH ($19,880 at the time of writing).
The music video was for Latashá’s track, “Who Am I,” which was released last year via Sugaroo! Records. The clip was sold as an NFT via Zora, with the winning bid of 5 ETH going to collector C.Y. Lee. 10% of the sale went to HERSTORY, which is an art collective and DAO “dedicated to preserving and incubating the stories of marginalized crypto creators.”
This sale continues what has been an inspired year for Latashá, who has successfully minted and sold 18 NFTs via Zora, providing a beautifully produced blueprint for artists looking to have success in the space.
Friends With benefits Announces NYC Event
Friends With benefits today announced its latest member event, taking place in NYC for NFT.NYC on November 1 at Good Room.
The event will run from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. and will feature DJ sets by Caroline Polachek, Doss, and Pussy Riot, with more artists to be announced next week. The event flows from FWB’s latest season, Locals Only, which invites anyone holding five $FWB tokens to participate in localized city DAOs and events (FWB has established three cities: London, New York, and Los Angeles). Members holding five $FWB can RSVP and attend the NYC event, while global members holding 75 $FWB get a +1.
FWB and member Raihan will also be auctioning off a 1/1 NFT in conjuction with the event, with all proceeds going towards Good Room.
You can find more information on the event here and RSVP here.
What to Join and Who to Follow:
Forefront: Forefront provides content, market insights, and learning modules on social tokens and DAOs.
Latashá: leading Web3 creator, artist, Zora Community Lead, and HERSTORY DAO founding member.
Haleek Maul: Barbadian artist and producer.
PleasrDAO: leading NFT collector DAO.
Jonathan Zawada: renowned visual artist creating daily psychedelic mushrooms on Hic Et Nunc.
HERSTORY: art collective supporting marginalized crypto creators.
XNFT Artist Spotlight: Alejandro Mosso
Alejandro Mosso is an Argentinian electronic music composer and producer with over 20 years in the industry. He’s appeared on labels such as Cocoon, Hivern Discs, Third Ear, Sushitech, and collaborated with Ricardo Villalobos, Burnt Friedman, amongst others. This year, Mosso has been exploring and experimenting in the NFT space, minting and selling works on XNFT, Catalog, and Opensea.
His latest NFT, “MORIYAMA,” is a beautiful audio-visual piece centered around a hypnotic minimal house track. Only 20 of these unique NFTs have been minted and are for sale, for 50 xDAI ($50)—note, at the time of writing, only 17 are left. You can find “MORIYAMA” on XNFT (make sure to click the xDai tab in the top right).
