Universal Music Group buys Bored Ape NFT for its new Virtual Music Group

As NFTs continue to thrive, the Universal Music Group (UMG.AS) has acquired the Bored Ape Yacht Club token, Bored Ape #5537. Last Friday, the label purchased the token for $360,817 which features a female character known as Manager Noët All. UMG.AS purchased to showcase the NFT as it is the flagship token for their new group, Kingship.

Kingship is an online music group found mainly on the social messaging platform, Discord. Interestingly, the group’s band members are all NFT characters on loan from the collector Jim McNeils. According to UMG, the group will eventually be able to produce music and offer virtual performances in the Metaverse.

“For it [NFT bands] to become part of [the] culture, I think that would be an amazing thing,” said McNelis.

While the idea may seem novel, there have been musicians and music groups comprised of virtual characters in the past. Namely, the alt-rock band Gorillaz, founded in 1998, and Hatsune Miku, a holographic artist in Japan.

To create Kingship, Universal sought out the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs as they are one of the most widely recognized tokens on the market. The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection features 10,000 anthropomorphic apes with distinct clothing, fur, and expressions. Bored Apes have quickly become a sort of status symbol for celebrities as high profile figures such as Justin Bieber, NBA superstar Steph Curry and billionaire investor Mark Cuban, have invested in the project.

According to Universal Music Kingship will present artists the opportunity to learn how to create characters and stories for the metaverses’ development.

“It’s about understanding the ethos of the space,” said founder Celine Joshua, whose label serves as a laboratory for experimenting with new forms of entertainment.

Source: Reuters