Stories

Spottie Wifi Creator Story: The World’s First Cryptopunk Rapper

All you need is 700 fans

In Miami, we found the world’s first Cryptopunk rapper: Spottie Wifi. He made nearly 200k in 60 SECONDS from selling his album…and he’s not even a real person!

Now, you’re probably wondering: what the heck is a Cryptopunk rapper?

If you follow the NFT and crypto industry at all, you’re probably familiar with the famous NFT collection: Cryptopunks.

In short: Spottie Wifi is a Cryptopunk NFT that launched a rap album. Still not following? 

Let’s go back to the beginning.

It all started with a rapper based in Miami: Miguel. He grew up loving music, and even started writing some songs of his own in high school. He would rap with his friends on the bus as they went to play their basketball games. As he got older, Miguel got more and more serious about his music career. 

His best friend became his producer, and they created a band. The group landed some pretty sweet gigs. They opened for the famous rapper Nas, and even Snoop Dog!

But, reality quickly started to sink in for Miguel – the music industry was TOUGH. Even after opening for some of the world’s top rappers and creating record after record (which were completely funded through student loans) they still didn’t make enough money to pay the bills. Soon enough, the band broke up. 

Miguel tried getting in with another band – but after a publishing deal went wrong, he left that one too. Miguel tried his last resort: building a solo career.

He recorded some songs, aired on radios, was supported by blog posts but still – none of it was paying the hydro bill on his kitchen table. So, after a long hard journey of being dragged through the music industry, Miguel finally gave in.

He quit music, and he went to live his worst nightmare: a corporate desk job. 

While this new career paid the bills, it didn’t quite fulfill Miguel in the way music did. 

And then, years later, he discovered the world of NFTs. 

After a friend introduced him to NBA topshots, he eventually started seeing the rise of Cryptopunks, and invested into one of his own. He chose one that had spots on its face. This was often an unpopular feature for Cryptopunk investors to want, but Miguel thought it was what made it unique, which is the whole idea of NFTs in the first place.

And – it ended up paying off.

You may have noticed that over the past couple of years NFTs and cryptocurrency have become all the rage. And since Cryptopunks were one of the first NFT collections out there, having one almost meant you were an “OG” in the space. 

People were quickly using these little NFT images of Cryptopunks as their profile pictures all over the internet – it almost became their personal brand. And they were selling for millions.

This gave Miguel an idea.

If any digital file could become an NFT, why couldn’t he turn his music into NFTs? So that’s what he did. And just as other artists use stage names or pseudonyms for their work – he decided to use his Cryptopunk NFT as his brand, or “avatar” that “performs” his music.

He named him “Spottie Wifi”, to pay homage to his unique and characterizing feature of a spotted face. And then, over the course of the next 6 months, Miguel worked with his music producer to flesh out the character of Spottie Wifi. 

They designed his entire body, created his personality and built an entire brand around this NFT. And then, they finally dropped Spottie Wifi’s very first rap album. 

They made 2000 copies of the record, and sold it as an exclusive NFT collection.

And it was a success. They SOLD EACH ONE to a group of just 700 people – in 1 minute. He made nearly $200,000 in 60 seconds! As a musician on Spotify, you would need 50 million streams to make that much money. All Spottie needed was 700 loyal fans, and an incentive to make more than he ever did selling his own music before.

So why did Spottie Wifi’s album sell so well? Why is it that making it an NFT made people want to buy it more?

Having a cryptopunk instantly gave him a built-in audience, and credibility in the space. Because it functioned just like any other NFT or rare, limited edition item in the physical world – it created exclusivity. 

Instead of selling normal mp3s, he sold NFT VERSIONS of the mp3s, so that fans could actually be OWNERS of the song, rather than just having a downloaded copy off of YouTube. 

And owning this music, meant they ALSO owned the copyrights to it.

They could use it in their content without needing Miguel’s permission, and they could also sell it to someone else without needing his permission. All of these things give extra benefits to the owner, and it ALSO gives Miguel’s work exposure – and lets him make royalties on secondary sales of his music. 

Owning one of his NFTs also gave his fans more than just a song. When they bought their NFT mp3, they also got a physical record, direct access to Miguel himself, special access to his merch store, discounts, and more! It made them part of a community. 

But – Spottie Wifi wanted to do something to make his music EVEN MORE exclusive. So, Miguel took the concept from NFTs of generating different characteristics for the digital artworks that make them unique, like the spots on Spottie Wifi’s face, and he applied it to his music.

He made variations of each song on the album, and generated them with different musical elements to make them unique. Some of these variations were more rare than others, and you didn’t know which one you were going to get when you bought your NFT. Some of them were just normal rap mixes, some of them were orchestral versions – and some of them were recreated entirely using Nintendo sound effects.

Minting songs as NFTs generated Miguel a community of loyal and ENGAGED fans and it generated MONEY. But it also revived his music career in ways he never thought possible. It gave him a sense of creative freedom as an artist that the old music industry wouldn’t necessarily allow. 

He could say things through Spottie that he normally wouldn’t say. And it removed the middleman of needing record companies – making it less about the business and more about the music and fans. This format of music production could pave the way for artists to give their fans something more valuable than just a simple mp3. It can give them an experience, a community, a role to play in the musicians brand – and a connection to their favorite artists from around the world.

Miguel has shown us that blockchain and NFTs can let musicians take back control of their content, build a career with just 700 fans, and even perform during COVID lockdowns through the Metaverse! 

But best of all: it’s a way for artists to finally make the money their work deserves.

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