The young and on-the-rise Hungarian singer-songwriter, NAGYEDi released her second single, Out of This World, as an NFT. NFTs are non-fungible tokens taking the world by storm on the digital market. Celebrating her child’s birth and her experience with motherhood, the single dropped on Mother’s Day. She explained how releasing the single as an NFT was a first on many levels; not only because she hadn’t created an NFT before, but because she also assisted in the production, mixing, and mastering of the piece. 

NAGYEDi considers her music to be experimental, alternative pop, taking references from trip hop, jazz, and electronica. Her lyrics, sung in both Hungarian and English, encapsulate the transformative experience of romance, birth, and self-discovery.

Nearly one year later since the original release, the indie pop musician and digital artist has expanded her NFT collection. As a matter of fact, she has done an excellent job of synthesizing her digital art with her music, featuring mesmerizing swirling colors synchronized to the rhythm of her songs.

Hungarian Artists Take to the Digital Marketplace

Since NAGYEDi’s release of Out of This World, several Hungarian artists have followed in her footsteps to create daring, new art. Artist and CEO of Dating Central Europe, Peter Weiler, created an NFT displaying Budapest’s bronze-plated Satoshi Nakamoto statue with an energy bill wrapped around its neck.

Wieler’s intention for the piece was to comment on the exorbitant cost cryptomining places on the environment. While Wieler’s piece is somewhat ironic due to the fact that NFTs are intrinsically bound to cryptocurrency, Weiler stated that his piece is meant to raise awareness about the situation and call for change in the digital art scene while there is still time. Weiler plans to donate his earnings from the controversial NFT to a homeless shelter in Budapest as a means to give back to the community.

Besides NAGYEDi and Weiler, more and more Hungarian artists have taken to NFTs to connect with their audiences. While some are still skeptical towards the new format, the role of the NFT played a crucial role for artists struggling with global circumstances. In fact, NFTs have allowed artists to be well resourced when figuring out how to their work out to their fans, providing them with some breathing room during unprecedented global events.

NFTs Are Here to Stay

While NFTs might be a lofty idea for some, there’s no arguing that there’s high value in the new, thriving market. In fact, when the digital artist known as Beeple sold his NFT titled Everydays: The First 5000 Days last spring, his work became the third most valuable artwork by a living artist. Of course, Beeple had a starting price for the image, but after an exciting auction, the price soared through the roof.

The concept of NFTs is still quite difficult for people of all ages to grasp. Essentially, the process between content creator and buyer is similar to traditional artist and buyer, except NFTs prove ownership with blockchain technology, which is similar to the documents fine art owners refer to for their collections. So the buyer has the rights and ownership of that artwork, whether it’s an image, a video, an animation, or a piece of music.

Often, people ask: but how is that any different from just downloading it or experiencing it for free? The long, technical answer is the novelty of ownership is what gives the NFT its value. Millions of people can see the same piece of art and download it, print it, manipulate it, or destroy it. But that doesn’t mean they own the original.

The Mona Lisa, for example, is a painting owned by the French government and put on display at the Louvre museum of art. Everyone has seen the Mona Lisa, inside or outside of the Louvre, but that doesn’t mean everybody owns the Mona Lisa, just a copy of it. In that sense, the owner of an NFT is the only person that has the original piece, which gives a certain authority and prestige to them.

Whether NFTs seem like a silly concept to some, or this generation’s best invention to others, there’s no arguing that they are here to stay. Due to the fact that the market for NFTs and crypto at large is so new, there’s an incredible range of possibilities both creators and investors can take advantage of as experts learn more and more about the nature of the digital art market.