The Weeknd announces the launch of its first NFT

Canadian singer Abel Tesfaye, known as “The Weeknd”, is about to join NFT-mania. In fact, he announced that he will soon be auctioning a new song of his own, accompanied by limited edition visual art on Nifty Gateway.

On Twitter, the award-winning pop star revealed that the NFT drop would happen just today, Saturday at 2:00 pm EST.

What his followers can take home

The NFT, which will mark The Weeknd's first-ever launch, will feature a collection of new songs and visual art developed in collaboration with Los Angeles-based video production service Strangeloop Studios.

Also at Strangeloop Studios, the visual elements that characterize the tours undertaken by artists such as SZA, Kendrick Lamar and even The Weeknd himself are also attributed.

As announced, the launch will begin with an open edition flash sale to three different pieces of visual art separately accompanied by different filtered sections of the new song. This sale will include unlimited quantities of the above works, but for a limited time.

Next, there will be an exclusive 24 hour auction of a “1 of 1 piece of art” which features a complete, unfiltered version of the new song.

Anyone who purchases this piece will have sole ownership of the song as The Weeknd has revealed that it will not release the song on any platform in the future.

In a recent statement, The Weeknd said that, "Blockchain is democratizing an industry that has historically been kept closed by gatekeepers." Claiming that he had been looking for ways to move from the conventional "archaic" musical biz and the NFTs are offering the opportunity to do so.

The drop will come less than a week after a cryptic tweet it suggested to invest in NFT-mania. "A new song that lives only in the NFT space," he tweeted, further pointing out that it would be "on the way".

What is this NFT craze?

An NFT, or non-fungible token, is the claim of ownership of a piece of an object or digital work (in this case, a collection of visual art intertwined with music) recorded on a Blockchain.

NFT-mania has recently gained recognition from several celebrities, billionaires and artists. Earlier last month, Beeple sold an NFT of his artwork for $ 69 million at Christie's; Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also recently auctioned an NFT of his first tweet for $ 2,9 million; and much earlier, Canadian musician Grimes also sold $ 6 million worth of digital works as NFT.

And now we have good old Abel Tesfaye showing interest. Duncan Cock-Foster, co-founder of Nifty Gateway, a blockchain-based marketplace for NFT (or Nifties), said Weeknd's entry into the industry marks "a pivotal moment in NFT history."

The Weeknd is arguably one of the most influential artists around, and this announcement will likely bring NFTs closer to the mainstream media sooner than we expect.