Animoca Brands unveils plans for K-pop NFT metaverse

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) continue to disrupt the mainstream entertainment industries, with NFT gaming firm Animoca Brands partnering with Korean record label, talent agency and music production company, Cube Entertainment, to build a “K-pop music metaverse.”

Announced on Nov. 15, the partnership will see Animoca and Cube work together to create multimedia NFTs celebrating popular actors and K-pop musicians on Cube’s roster. The NFTs will feature images such as artist portraits and album art, and also include digital sound sources such as full-length albums.

Yat Siu, the chief executive of Animoca Brands, stated that he cannot wait to begin working with Cube to “make the open metaverse a reality.” Animoca described the partnership as enabling “true digital property rights and other blockchain benefits” for both the artists on Cube’s roster and their fans.

Ahn Woo Hyung, CEO of Cube, said that the collaboration will be “an important beginning for leading the global digital culture market and advancing the digital content industry.”

Cube manages roughly 50 K-pop artists, including BtoB, Pentagon, (G)I-DLE and Lightsum.

Related: NFTs offer a new way for society to ‘store culture’ says Animoca Brands CEO

Siu has long emphasized the disruptive form of ownership enabled by NFTs, previously likening the impact of nonfungible tokens on the advancement of property rights to the Renaissance in early-modern Europe in July 2020.

Animoca has been closely linked to many key milestones in the growth of NFTs, having invested in Dapper Labs after witnessing the firm bring the Ethereum network to its knees as a result of the rampant success of CryptoKitties in 2017 from a neighboring office.

In 2020, Animoca secured a global licensing agreement with Formula 1 for the launch of its F1 Delta Time game, before selling $3 million worth of virtual land NFTs for its metaverse subsidiary The Sandbox in an initial exchange offering hosted by Binance at the end of the year.

At the start of November 2021, The Sandbox raised a further $93 million to expand its NFT metaverse.