Photo Credit: Thesupermat / CC by 4.0
Portugal The Man is launching a new crypto token to support the band.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the live music industry in untold ways. Musicians and bands are left reeling with how to deal with being unable to tour or perform. While some indie artists are turning to live streaming on Twitch and Instagram, others are turning to blockchain technology.
Today, Portugal The Man launched their own cryptocurrency. The crypto tokens are called PTM coins, and they can be spent on merch, unreleased footage from the band’s past gigs, a live stream party, video chats, and text chats. The band is hoping the crypto token will facilitate a direct connection with its ultra-fans.
“We’ve always favored direct connections with our audiences,” says lead singer John Gourley. “COVID has taken a lot of this interaction online, so we’ve been looking for new ways to engage with our audience in entirely digital settings. Crypto gives us the opportunity to do just that.”
The PTM tokens will launch on Rally, a social token network that utilizes an Ethereum sidechain. Fans can exchange and trade the tokens through Discord, a social chat program. So how does the PTM token differ from some of the previous tokens in the space?
Rally is different from other platforms like Fyooz, which paid for rapper Lil Yachty to mint Yachty Token. Rally is governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), and Rally’s token prices are determined by an algorithm. That’s different than services that offer ERC-20 tokens whose value is determined by secondary markets, not the issuer.
Portugal the Man crypto coins are destroyed whenever anyone cashes them in to buy something. The price of the coins reflects the liquidity available on the Rally market. At launch, the tokens will cost about $1. Gourley says the band chose Rally as its partner for the venture based on feedback from fans.
Portugal. The Man inherited 50,000 tokens at the start of the project. The tokens are designed to be held by the band long-term. Gourley says he’s excited about the new revenue possibility and bringing his fans along for the ride. The band has gifted thousands of coins to some of its biggest supporters and says it will continue to do so.
With Yachty Coin and PTM token here to support their respective artists, is the crypto bubble back? Seems like it. These projects are intended to support artists and to give hardcore fans access to new unreleased content. It’s a new, experimental revenue stream that may or may not pan out.