Rapper Pip has become a “self-taught expert” in crypto, and has begun leveraging digital assets to promote his music career

Hip-hop artist Thomas Pipolo has leveraged digital assets to promote his music while also putting some serious cash in his pocket in the process. Pipolo, who goes by Pip, has launched a crypto-crowdfund titled Cotton Candy Skies that netted him 6.8eth ($20,000) on its opening day, after launching a successful membership club-esque NFT promotion prior.

“I genuinely want to show other independent artists that it is possible to give your fans meaningful access to you and your music, and the opportunity to invest in your brand,” said Pipolo. “Through blockchain technology, it’s possible for artists of any caliber to maintain ownership rights of their work, establish a fruitful career in the music industry, and get their music heard.”

Pipolo has been a crypto-native rapper for some time. His NFT collection gives their owners exclusive backstage passes to his events, access to studio recording sessions, exclusive meetups and more. His NFTs are currently supported by mirror.xyz.

His NFT’s include tiers like the Platinum Pass, Gold Pass and the Silver Pass. Fans and investors can collect one or multiple NFT’s up until the allotted cap, allowing them to gain immediate access to an exclusive members-only platform.

These NFT ‘backstage passes’ as they’re called can give holders lifetime concert tickets, unreleased music, access to live studio sessions, merchandise, meet-ups and more. The first exclusive content includes early access to the first single of the Cotton Candy Skies EP titled MONACO, which drops March 25 to the public.

“The fans and supporters investing in these Backstage Passes are giving me and my team a chance to make our dreams come true. That’s why I’m so excited to launch our upcoming record label Cotton Candy Records on the blockchain, which will allow us to help other artists with their projects,” Pipolo said.

He continued on the outlook of his embracement of blockchain technology in music. Besides the idea of artists leveraging NFTs for representation of their music or concert ticketing, Pipolo believes that this is just the beginning. According to him, blockchain technology is going to change the way consumers interact with their favorite artists.

In his future plans, Pipolo plans to roll out the first “on chain” record company. Dubbed Cotton Candy Records, this will be one of the first record labels on the blockchain according to him. 

“This will be revolutionary in the Web3 space and in the music industry as a whole,” said Pipolo.

deCashed’s President Sean Murray officially announces his newest media venture in Miami last week

For the past three months, deCashed has begun covering relevant topics to a sophisticated crypto-inspired reader. Our team has been slowly creating content, graphics and logos to accompany the deCashed name. With deBanked CONNECT taking precedent over the hard launch of the website, deCashed‘s President Sean Murray officially announced the brand’s launch upon the completion of deBanked CONNECT’s preparation, in his opening remarks at the event.

The announcement came as a surprise to many of the attendees of deBanked’s Miami event. As Miami’s vibrancy attracts a younger audience, it was not surprising to see a younger deBanked reader taking an interest in digital assets. Murray even hinted at the event already having interest in sponsorships, with one legitimate sponsorship deal in the works as of now.

“Everything with the deBanked brand and business will remain the same,” said Murray. “I’ve been using and following cryptocurrency for eight years at this point. [This] will finally provide us with the journalistic runway to expand our horizons into a market we already know [with] so much untapped opportunity.”

deCashed will slowly roll out its inaugural event, taking place in the Spring.

As independent media, deCashed is still in its early days,” Murray said. “It’s live already but stay tuned. We’ve been talking about doing this for a really long time.”

Everyrealm, a company with holdings throughout the metaverse in real estate, NFTs, and gaming has announced that a host of well-known celebrities are among the latest investors in the ten-month-old company. Venture Capitalists Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase are also major players in the company’s original funding.

Everyrealm’s latest investors include The Weeknd, Will Smith, Marc Anthony, Nas, Paris Hilton, Gunna, Baby Keem, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Gene Simmons, Lil Baby, Mario Götze, Hannah Bronfman, Fara Leff, Ebonie Ward, Miye Oni, Belly, Pro Logic, NAV, and more, according to a press release from the company.

A $60 million Series A financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz was the initial influx of funds back in February for the company. Everyrealm noted that this latest round gives them access to “hundreds of millions” in capital, but declined to reveal the exact valuation.

“Having such an accomplished roster of people on our cap table is an honor and a testament to the allure of the metaverse opportunity, one where artists and entertainers can foster direct connections with their communities,” said Janine Yorio, CEO of Everyrealm.

The company used help from its Series A investors to recruit the big names to bring some cash to the table. Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund team facilitated introductions to The Weeknd, Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Belly, Pro Logic, NAV, Hannah Bronfman, Wassim “SAL” Slaiby and Amir “Cash” Esmailian — leading to their investment. Electric Feel Ventures, the investment firm led by Post Malone’s management team, worked with Lil Baby to lead a music industry investment syndicate.

Everyrealm is known for its numerous metaverse real estate holdings and developments in leading metaverse platforms including The Sandbox and Decentraland. Everyrealm’s metaverse real estate development projects include Fantasy Islands, an ultra-luxury master planned community in the Sandbox. According to the company, Fantasy Island sold an “associated NFT” megayacht for 150 ETH ($650,000).

With hundreds of millions of dollars at their apparent disposal, Everyrealm just became a major player in the construction of the initial stages of the metaverse.

NFTs have projected themselves into gaming, possibly changing the economics behind the gaming industry and the incentive of players.

“The intersection of NFT and gaming is this, it’s about enabling individuals in these ecosystems to be able to use the things that they were already getting, whether that be skins in Counter-Strike or swords and armor in World of Warcraft, or cards in Hearthstone.” According to Patrick White, CEO of Bitwave, whose also hosting the Enterprise Digital Asset Summit this coming June.

With NFTs the gamer will be able to actually own the items that they earn, sell it and buy cards that they want. Gamers can have an ecosystem and make money through it.

White explained that the idea of monetizing video games with charging a fee of $60 to purchase a game, paying a monthly subscription fee, or paying extra to unlock special features is going to change over time.

Current subscription games such as World of Warcraft and the next generation of subscription gaming services will be free. The gamer will find NFTs within the game, sell it and the gaming company will receive part of the commission on the sale.

“Instead of charging you $12 a month, what they’re gonna do is once a month they’ll have a drop where you can buy a new sword or a new piece of armor or whatever it is, and that will be direct money back to the gaming company. NFTs are going to lead to a total rethinking of the economics of subscription gaming,” White stated.

Not only will it be free to play but NFTs will provide a great motive for players. The time spent playing a video game will become more valuable. NFTs will create a structure where gamers will be getting paid to play in a sense. This is what digital assets are about, creating incentives.

“It’s more about this idea of a totally new business model that relies on incentive structures and economic structures to reward players,” White pointed out.

It makes you wonder if this new monetization in gaming could seep into social media platforms, to keep users engaged. When addressed White explained, “Microtransactions came from the gaming world in many, many different ways. And now they’ve sort of seeped into other parts of the world. I think that what you’re going to see is that gaming will be sort of the leading indicator of creating these attention economies where you get rewarded and the people who will follow that will be the Facebook’s, Twitter’s and Instagram’s of the world.”

Over the next three to five years White discussed that NFTs and digital assets are going to lead to more companies being able to offer better games that are essentially free to play. They will be monetized by either the player simply giving their attention or earning money by finding artifacts and selling them which the company will then get some reward on.