iHeartMedia plans NFT giveaway ahead of major music festival

Published at: Aug. 31, 2021

Mass media holding company iHeartMedia is planning to distribute free nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, in partnership with sustainable NFT platform OneOf — a campaign that could introduce more music lovers to digital collectibles.

The campaign is intended to promote the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas, which will take place Sept. 17 to 18. Beginning on Tuesday, users can claim one free NFT “poker chip” on the OneOf platform. Up to 1 million tokens are claimable through Sept. 14. Users who collect an entire set are eligible to receive a limited edition NFT by artist Cory Van Lew. As Cointelegraph reported, Van Lew is the digital artist behind Mike Tyson’s NFT collection.

Lew’s NFT drop will take place on Sept. 14 and will reflect OneOf’s ethos of “Artist First,” “For All Fans'' and “Eco-Responsible.” The companies said collectibles in the higher NFT tiers include digital autographs from artists who will perform at the festival. Fans can obtain these NFTs by making a donation, with 100% of the proceeds going toward climate change initiatives endorsed by the United Nations.

Although the companies didn’t specify which artists included their signatures in the NFT collection, the festival includes performances from Billie Eilish, Coldplay, J. Cole, Khalid, Maroon 5 and many others.

As Cointelegraph reported in May, OneOf raised $63 million in support of its so-called green NFT platform, which targets musicians and other artists. The Tezos-powered platform serves as a marketplace for artists and fans to mint, purchase and share digital collectibles.

The iHeartRadio Music Festival will shine the spotlight on the NFT market, which continues to attract influencers, megacorporations and high-profile investors. NFT sales reached $2.5 billion in the first half of 2021. If recent trends are any indication, the market could easily surpass that total in the second half of 2021. As a case in point, NFT sales approached $900 million in August, more than tripling the previous monthly high set in May at $255 million.

Although the CryptoPunks collection has dominated the spotlight in recent months, digital collectibles in other niches are also attracting serious capital. Pet rock NFTs centered around Ethereum have generated millions in sales, with the most expensive item in the collection going for a resale price of $1.9 billion.