Prior to the release of his sophomore extended playlist (EP) Bad Since ‘97, Daniel “BNXN Fka Buju” Benson had earlier in January, 2022 released an NFT project named “HeadsByBuju”.
The artist launched the project as an opportunity to build a community around his fans, to reward them as well as to connect with them.
“I feel like it is something that people are going to enjoy. I’m always working on a lot of recordings. I feel like it is the best way I could reward people that enjoy my music”, he said in a conversation with TechCabal.
His NFT project served a pass at his virtual listening party on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
About the NFT Project
HeadsByBuju was co-launched alongside music video director Iyobosa Rehoboth, also known as Prodigeezy.
The project had 10,001 unique NFTs of the artist’s face during its launch in January. Holders of these NFTs would get perk-like access to physical and virtual concerts hosted by BNXN, merch items, and a part of the revenue made from specific music projects.
As explained during its launch, BNXN stated that he’d be dropping more songs, mixtapes, and refixes. He added that he’d be dropping snippets to his music to owners of the NFTs who would be able to claim ownership of them when they drop.
The roadmap for the project, whose Discord channel has up to 7,626 members, is divided into 3 quarters for this year. More plans will be provided in Q1 of 2023.
In the first quarter of this year, “HeadsByBuju” was minted publicly and sold. Its perks included access to PlaySpace, an AR filter for Snapchat and Instagram that takes users through Buju’s career and also offers access to special events and interaction with Buju.
The project had a smooth run but changed to HeadsByBnxn following the change of his stage name in February, 2022.
Currently the collection to BNXN’s NFTs is averaged at $55 and has 377 owners with a total supply of 966 tokens according to statistics.
Exploring the Metaverse
BNXN had taken this up a notch with his art; this was visible during his debut on the metaverse, hosting fans to an all exclusive private listening party. The listening party was hosted by Spatial – a holographic collaboration platform for extended reality.
With this, fans of BNXN all over the globe could interact with him as he performed three songs from the new EP.
Also, the party ushered in the HeadsByBnxn avatar. The avatar would soon be on the Monaverse – a metaverse world-building platform.
“With the NFT collection, all my fans can have a lifetime access to my art, just like how Coachella used its Coachella Keys Collection to grant holders lifetime access to the music festival”, BNXN said.
He added, “My decision to host a metaverse listening party was inspired by Chisom Njoku – my communication lead and project lead – alongside Prodigeezy. The duo had advised me to host a metaverse listening party, to bring me closer to my fans using virtual and augmented reality”.
Music Beyond Streaming Walls
Following the use of technology in today’s generation and audiences, there has been a break of music beyond the walls of mere streaming.
Most key artists such as South African Anatii had announced in June that he’d be taking his music off streaming as means of having “control”. While Mavins artist Divine Ikubor, popularly known by his stage name Rema debuted his album “Raves and Roses” first as NFTs before it became mainstream.
As African music becomes a worldwide phenomenon; BNXN, Anatii, and Rema’s move to using this technology to reach a wider audience is highly commendable.
