The rock band are the latest artists to send an NFT version of their track, “Time in Disguise”, into space aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket, Resilience, for the Inspiration4 mission. It’s said that the NFT travelled into orbit on an iPhone in the pocket of one of the all-civilian crew members, Hayley Arceneaux.
Kings of Leon aren’t new to the NFT marketplace, but the NFT track being played in space is a first.
Charities Benefit from NFT Sales
Back in March 2021, Kings of Leon minted their album, ‘When You See Yourself’, and raked in over $2 million from sales. $500,000 was donated to Live Nation’s Crew Nation fund to support live music crews during the coronavirus pandemic.
The NFTs trip to space is also part of a charity drive, this time with the beneficiary being St. Judes, a children’s research hospital based in Memphis, Tennessee in the United States. The aim is to raise a total of $200 million, from the auction of the KOL NFT as well as 50 other NFT art pieces, to go towards the treatment of children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Interestingly, Hayley, the ‘astronaut’ who carried the NFT, is a pediatric cancer survivor and now works for the hospital.
Kings of Leon’s Caleb Followill shared his thoughts on the hospital and historical moment.
"We have a long-standing relationship with St. Jude and they approached us after seeing what we did earlier this year releasing our album as an NFT. We are big supporters of their mission, and always happy to help support their mission, but this is the first time our music is part of the story and that makes it even more special for us. The fact that we’re also all making history together in the process is just a wild bonus."
He went on to add, “It is another positive example of how the old music industry is changing. New ideas, like NFTs, and new ways to engage and connect and give back, are crucial to the future of music and the role we play in making things better. We’ve been around a while, we are on album eight, but things like this make us feel like we are just getting started”.
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