Photo Credit: Jordon Conner
Live Nation is exploring NFTs as a way to capture moments from concerts – like NBA Top Shots.
During the Live Nation quarterly earnings call last week, CEO Michael Rapino shared the details. He answered several questions relating to blockchain tech and how it might be used for ticketing in the future.
“We’ve all learned from Top Shots at the NBA,” says Rapino during the call. “We envision Live Nation with the marketplace and looking at some of its concert moments as magic moments that we could mint and attach to our ongoing ticket festivals and special moments.”
Michael Rapino says Live Nation is “deep in exploration” of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
“We have a great team that’s been working on this and working with the Mark Cubans of the world and others who are smart in this space,” Rapino continues. Live Nation will likely come up with an NFT solution for its concerts in the future.
“We think it’s a great way for us to engage with our fans,” Rapino says. The excitement over NFTs may also change how Ticketmaster handles its ticketing business. The Kings of Leon have already experimented with this by selling a golden ticket NFT that offers exclusive backstage perks once per tour.
“They’re working already with sports teams and festivals and everyone else about how they can layer an NFT on a ticket,” Rapino says about exploring NFTs with Ticketmaster. “You can mint a ticket and mint an NFT right on top of a Ticketmaster platform and deliver it how you want.”
NFTs dominated the music industry news cycle during the first half of 2021, no wonder Live Nation wants a piece of the pie.
They racked up over $2 billion in sales in Q1 2021 alone, though the crazy demand seems to be slowing down. The NBA Top Shots that Rapino is referencing capture special moments during basketball games – and have generated $32 million in sales in one day.
Mark Cuban recognizes the potential to use non-fungible tokens as a ticketing mechanism. He has announced plans for the Dallas Mavericks to use blockchain tech to sell tickets to their games. All of these applications will advance how ticketing is handled in the future.
The Kings of Leon experiment is the most interesting since NFTs can be resold. Theoretically, the person who purchased the golden ticket perk could sell it off to a new person – who will enjoy those same perks at the next Kings of Leon tour.