Winamp is doing NFTs now, because you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Announced to widespread derision on Wednesday, Winamp will auction off the media player’s original skin as a one-of-one NFT on OpenSea, with bidding to start on May 16 and run until May 22. It then intends to sell 20 more artworks starting from May 23, all of them duplicated around 100 times to create 1997 NFTs in total (a nod to the year the program launched). Each will cost 0.08 ETH, which is approximately $225 at the current conversion rate, so if all 1997 NFTs are sold it would total almost $450,000.
These 20 designs will be derived from the original Winamp skin, and chosen from public submissions.
« Send over your derivatives to us, » reads Winamp’s website. « Our team of Winamp scientists will examine every cryptoArt that comes its way and 20 derivatives will be selected to be sold as Winamp’s NFTs. »
If a submission isn’t selected, the competition’s terms and conditions still grant Winamp « a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, copy and display the Art. »
If it is selected, the artist waives all rights to their work and irrevocably hands over the copyright to Winamp. And while they will be allowed to post it on social media, it will be on the condition that they add a notice declaring the copyright and all rights belong to Winamp.
To be fair, the endeavour is supposedly for a good cause. The Winamp NFT Initiative is in support of the Winamp Foundation, which funds charities such as Music Fund that help musicians. Still, it is possible to support charity without also turning to widely loathed blockchain technology.