There are many digital wallet options, but some of the most popular are Coinbase, MetaMask and Rainbow. You need to buy Ether to cover the cost of the last step: ‘Minting’, a process that involves uploading the NFT to a market and setting the rules in a smart contract. Minting requires you to pay ‘gas’, the fluctuating price of writing data on a blockchain. Right now, it costs about 0.022 to 0.056 Ether ($ 40 to $ 100) to hit an NFT, but that’s changing minute by minute.
At this point, you should have chosen a market where you will connect your digital wallet and decorate your NFT. There are more than a dozen NFT markets, but so far OpenSea, NiftyGateway, SuperRare and Zora are the most popular among musicians.
Launched in 2017, OpenSea is the earliest established NFT market. It describes itself as the “eBay” of NFTs, as the platform is open to all kinds of tokens, from domain names to art, and anyone can sell on the platform, which so far includes superstars like Kings of Leon and Shawn Mendes. As of December, OpenSea has promoted itself as the first market to allow creators to make and sell NFTs for free (read more about this).
Then there is Nifty Gateway, a composite market acquired in 2019 by early crypto-investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. So far, new artists have to apply to place their work on Nifty, which has worked with Deadmau5, Grimes and Steve. Aoki. It is one of the only NFT markets that accepts payment by credit card (which allows even fans with limited knowledge of cryptocurrency to raise their toes).
The fast-growing Zora was founded last May with the emphasis on giving creators ownership of their works, and has since made headlines in the music space. In February, the platform partnered with record label and management firm IAMSOUND on an NFT art exhibition featuring original work by artists such as Mura Masa, Toro y Moi and Yaeji (including the digital pet fish, which sold for more than $ 27,000). On March 10, Zora (where now minted open to the public) worked with a group of 20 emerging artists, including VÉRITÉ, to launch Catalog, a music-specific NFT market that allows artists to sell songs as NFTs and receive 100% of their initial sales.
The three-year-old SuperRare – home to works by 3LAU, RAC, Lil Miqeula and more – is another strong composite platform featuring a small number of artists each month via an online application form. And there are even more marketplaces to explore: Check out Origin, Foundation, Blockparty, Emanate, Rarible and Brave Labs to get started.