Dallas choral group Verdigris Ensemble has sold a unique digital recording for $375,000 on the blockchain.
The final sale price more than doubles what artistic director Sam Brukhman was hoping “Betty’s Notebook,” commissioned from Texas composer Nicholas Reeves, would fetch at auction. During an early recording session in January, Brukhman said he was hoping to bring in $150,000 for the piece.
The 20-minute recording was sold this weekend at a digital auction organized by Async Art, a digital art auction blockchain platform. Verdigris worked with the platform to create and sell the programmable recording, which includes a master track and four distinct layers, or stems. Each of the five elements was sold as separate NFTs at auction.
“The owner of every stem can now change and customize the piece as was intended by the composer,” Brukhman said.
The master and three of the stems were bought by Metapurse, the same crypto-fund that last year paid a record-setting $69 million dollars for a digital painting made by artist Winkelmann, who goes by Beeple.
Brukhman says the sale of “Betty’s Notebook” has opened up new revenue models for the choral group.
“This sale supports everyone that’s involved in the process,” Brukhman said. “The composer, the artists, the singers, the producer, everyone that participated in the creation of the work is benefitting from the sale.”
Brukhman said Verdigris is already planning its next foray into the world of NFTs.
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