Musician Raine Maida discusses NFT’s and its impact on the arts

Collision Conference 2022

NFT’s is far from just a buzz word that gets thrown around. With millions of dollars in transactions, non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) are creating a widely accessible and lucrative space within digital art, amplifying what creatives can do to reach the masses while getting a sizable return.

Musician Raine Maida – from rock band Our Lady Peace – has dived right into the NFT space with Drrops, an app that presents a new way in which artists can engage directly with their community by delivering everything from physical merch to VIP experiences, and of course, NFTs. Creating unique fan exclusives is a major highlight of the platform, creating another major point of connection with artists and their fans.

The tech world has neatly collided with the arts to create new found opportunities within sectors that have greatly required innovation. The arts has fundamentally been stagnant, with the streaming and digital shift being the last major change as Maida mentions in the interview.

The fact is, interacting with fans has still always been limited to special merchandise and in-person events. With NFTs and other technological tools, artists can engage with fans year round while reaping the benefits to help them grow and expand. Fearing new technology is something Maida mentions as something artists shouldn’t do, especially with growing developments of Web3 and blockchain applications.

We are excited to share our very impromptu chat with Maida after his panel discussion at Collision Conference 2022. Its remarkable to see artists innovate to find new opportunities not just for themselves and other artists, but also for fans to have better more robust engagement with the talent they love.

Cover Photo: Steve Murakami. © The Arts Guild Inc.