Tamil musician sells song demo as NFT to crypto-collector who bought Beeple work

The craze for non-fungible tokens—unique digital versions of a commodity or work of art that are registered on the blockchain—continues unabated. The latest to benefit is Tamilian musician Kaber Vasuki, who sold an early demo recording of his song “Vasanam” to the collector who shelled out a record $69 million for an NFT of a Beeple artwork a few months back.

Vasuki sold his song to the Singapore based Indian-origin blockchain entrepreneur Vignesh Sundaresan AKA Metakovan for 50 ETH, equivalent to nearly Rs 1.5 crore as of writing, according to a Moneycontrol report.

In its Open Sea listing, Vasuki describes the recording as an “unreleased mp3, recorded sometime between 2010 and 2013 in Chennai”.

“This is the earliest available phone demo of Kaber vasuki’s “Vasanam”—recorded during the process of writing the track. This also marks Kaber Vasuki’s first-ever NFT”.

However, while Metakovan acquired Beeple’s “Everydays” via an auction, he took a more personal route with Vasuki, who he has known for several years according to the report. Metakovan purchased the song demo directly from Vasuki.

Metakovan tweeted earlier saying he felt Kaber’s verses “at every turn of my adult life. They are my moral compass, mirror, and succour in the real world.”