Deadmau5 and Portugal The Man release single as 1M NFTs in bid to go platinum

Dance music star Deadmau5 and Grammy award-winning indie rock band Portugal The Man (PTM) have teamed up to release one million copies of their new single “This is Fine” as nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

The single was released on Deadmau5’s (whose real name is Joel Zimmerman) label, Mau5trap with the aim to have the single be the first NFT to go platinum.

The artists minted one million units on the NEAR protocol blockchain and released them on marketplace Mintbase. A quarter of a million units were available for purchase during Art Basel’s “Miami Beach” art show on Dec. 2.

We are excited to welcome @deadmau5 @portugaltheman to Miami for #ArtBasel and the exciting launch of their “platinum” #NFT music project on @Mintbase with @nearprotocol

— Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) December 2, 2021

The remaining singles will be sold as a mix of single units and bundled units, each with unique attributes. The bundled unit prices are still yet to be determined.

The announcement promised “multiple metaverse integrations and rewards coming for collectors of this NFT,” but provided no additional details.

mau5 x @portugaltheman “this is fine” now available at @mintbase 😀 https://t.co/qvfGeLAWVC pic.twitter.com/EXPXIONcbl

— Goat lord (@deadmau5) December 2, 2021

According to guidelines from The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a certified platinum sale is one million units. It remains unclear whether the song will go platinum even if all one million copies are sold due to its unconventional method of release.

Each NFT is being sold for 0.25 NEAR per piece, or around $2.20 – similar to the price of an iTunes download in the pre-stream years.

In addition to the single, each NFT also features unique artwork by Wooden Cyclops, the art director of PTM. He collaborated on the artwork with Smearballs, the artist behind the Deadmau5’s characters in his music videos “Monophobia,” “Drama Free” and “Pomegranate.”

NFT + Poster To celebrate the NFT song collab drop from @portugaltheman x @deadmau5 get instructions to get an 18×24 poster signed by John Gourley from Portugal the Man and myself #woodencyclops #portugaltheman #deadmau5 #OpenSeaNFT https://t.co/P7RsWBGT14 pic.twitter.com/gNFw0LnIlh

— Wooden Cyclops (@WoodenCyclops) December 2, 2021

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DeadMau5 is not new to the NFT game. In Dec 2020, Zimmerman partnered with augmented reality artist Sutu create NFT In Titan’s Light — a 30-second audio-reactive artwork loop paired with a section of the deadmau5 track SATRN.

A month later in Jan 2021, he partnered with digital artist Mad Dog Jones to release two NFT art collections on the Winklevoss-owned Nifty Gateway.

In the same month, PTM launched its crypto token “PTM Coin” on the ETH-based Rally Network. The token grants fans exclusive access to events and perks.