Photo Credit: OneOf
In 2021, the Recording Academy struck up a partnership with NFT platform OneOf to distribute three NFT collections to commemorate the 64th, 65th, and 66th Grammy Awards. So what happened?
Details for the NFT partnership with the Quincy Jones-backed NFT platform were revealed November 2021. Both the 64th and 65th Grammy Awards received their NFT tie-ins as part of that planned partnership, but the 66th Grammy Awards NFTs are nowhere to be found on the OneOf website. So what happened to that partnership?
“In considering an NFT partner, we were committed to working with a like-minded organization that had an artist-first approach and we undoubtedly found that in OneOf,” Recording Academy Co-President Panos A. Panay said in the initial announcement of the partnership.
“As an Academy, we are always looking for ways to help artists discover new forms of creative expression, while also creating new ways of income generation and ways for fans to interact with the artists that they love. OneOf shares that vision, and we are proud to work with a sustainable NFT company.”
But as funding for music web3 projects dried up in 2023, OneOf has seemingly disappeared from the conversation. Digital Music News covered the platforms’ first new drop in more than six months in January 2024—a Music Hall of Fame NFT collection featuring art prints and vintage slides of popular music figures including KISS, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie Elvis Presley, Notorious B.I.G., and more.
Those NFTs are available for sale on the OneOf website for $395, though a peek at the transaction records show the sales have been few and far between.
OneOf seems have run afoul of the hardcore NFT buyers who feel as though the platform is now a joke. “Most of us won’t spend another dime until they follow through with promises of past drops,” one investor told Digital Music News. “When I bring them up on NFT groups, it is as a joke or [people] have never heard of OneOf.”
The Recording Academy seems to have given up on the partnership as NFTs were not a part of the discussion for the 66th Grammy Awards at all—especially as funding in the space has dried up. Crunchbase reports total web3 funding fell 74% in 2023 compared to 2022’s funding figures—from $26.6 billion down to just $7 billion.
