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Artists Are Furious After They Discovered NFTs Of Their Songs Were Being Sold Without Their Consent

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NFTs have become very popular in the music industry with a number of artists like Nas, Eminem, Doja Cat, The Weeknd, Mick Jagger, and more jumping on the wave. While the concept of an NFT may still be confusing to some, things have been smooth sailing for the time being. Unfortunately, all of that changed on Tuesday when the NFT platform HitPiece was exposed and accused of selling NFTs of numerous artists’ songs with their consent. The platform claims to sell “one of one NFTs of all your favorite songs,” but according to the many complaints from artists, this is far from the case.

One of the complaints against HitPiece came from the Nashville-based record company Needlejuice, who shared a statement on Twitter condemning the platform’s actions. “Neither us nor our artists have consented to @joinhitpiece selling NFTs of our music,” they wrote in a tweet. “Crypto grifters prove once again that they do not care about artists or ethics- just their dystopian end goal of turning every facet of life into a stock market pump & dump scheme.” In an interview with Newsweek, Needlejuice’s co-founder Brandon Brown added that “NFTs are fundamentally antithetical to our core values as a company.”

Many users of social media have concluded that HitPiece scraped Spotify’s API and used the streaming platform’s data to “auction” NFTs of songs without being completely clear about what is being sold in the NFT. After a few hours of being attacked by artists all over, HitPiece shared a statement about the matter on their Twitter page.

“Clearly we have struck a nerve and are very eager to create the ideal experience for music fans,” they wrote. “To be clear, artists get paid when digital goods are sold on HitPiece. Like all beta products, we are continuing to listen to all user feedback and are committed to evolving the product to fit the needs of the artists, labels, and fans alike.”

You can view more reactions from artists below.