innovation
New NFT Marketplace For Artists From Creative Studio Behind Designs For Olivia Rodrigo, Shawn Mendes, Drake, Travis Scott & More Launched
New NFT Marketplace For Artists From Creative Studio Behind Designs For Olivia Rodrigo, Shawn Mendes, Drake, Travis Scott & More Launched
Earlier this year, multi-hyphenate creative studio and production company STURDY. announced exclusively via Rolling Stone that it was developing an NFT Marketplace for artists. With STURDY.’s Tyler Henry and Matthew Goulet working alongside Shawn Mendes’ manager Andrew Gertler, STURDY.exchange officially launches today with their genesis drop, a 5000-piece generative art project in collaboration with Visual Artist SomeHoodlum.
STURDY.exchange offers a singular experience to artists and fans alike, as STURDY.’s production and creative branches are behind the tour designs for artists including Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, and Shawn Mendes, as well as the artwork and merch for Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” Rosalia’s GRAMMY performance in 2020, as well as projects for Kid Cudi, Bad Bunny, PARTYNEXTDOOR and more.
This news comes on the heels of STURDY.exchange securing $4.3 million in Series Seed funding. The round was led by Ali Saheli from Hex Capital with participation from Appworks, Coinbase Ventures, Dapper Labs, Bronco Ventures, TheVentureCity & Andrew Gertler. With conservation of energy at the core of STURDY.’s values, the exchange platform was built on Flow, which uses 8000x less energy than other blockchains to minimize environmental impact. STURDY.exchange offers one of the simplest and user-friendly purchase experiences in the NFT space by accepting a wide variety of payment options all in one user account (credit card, wire, BTC & ETH).
STURDY.exchange knows the pain points artists face in a variety of industries, and the exchange was built to solve these. Each drop partner that STURDY.exchange works with hosts a week-long stadium-style experience on the site, with drops available in the primary marketplace every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. These collections are in partnership with a variety of visual artists and musicians. Daily drops will be curated alongside each artist and have limited edition digital collectibles that are unique to the series. In addition, STURDY.exchange will focus on NFT’s that have utility which bridges the digital and physical worlds – unlocking fan experiences, acting as a ticket, pairing with a piece of merchandise, and more. Once a collection’s initial drop time has passed, original NFTs are closed for sale but can be sold between users in perpetuity on the STURDY.exchange secondary marketplace.
STURDY.exchange’s initial drop is released today with SomeHoodlum. From music videos to album cover art (and the many viral memes in-between) Somehoodlum’s art spans across the rap genre with colorful and punny cartoon illustrations, and his quintessential pastel works have been seen everywhere from on Drake’s instagram feed to 21 Savage’s Spotify playlists. The collection will feature 5000 hoodlums, that have different traits and levels of rarity. Ten of the digital collectibles, or Hidden Hoodlums, will have a higher level of rarity and it is up to the community of collectors to decipher the code on what makes up a “rare” Hoodlum before they are revealed at a later date. Purchases will initially be a dormant silhouette, before its avatar/PFP is revealed. Obtaining a Hoodlum NFT will also give collectors early-access to future SomeHoodlum project’s hosted on the STURDY.exchange, as well as future drops, which will roll out on a weekly basis moving forward.
“We’ve been looking to unlock ‘digital’ for the last ten years. We’ve seen platforms like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram, TikTok succeed for users, but never have we seen rights holders & creators access the full potential of the IP they possess,” commented STURDY.exchange CEO, Matthew Goulet. “STURDY.co was founded to represent visual artists in the same way other artists were—we’re extending that philosophy with STURDY.exchange, letting artists and fans alike truly be incentivized for a long term relationship.”
Stay tuned for more exciting drops from STURDY.exchange, and news on a forthcoming project in partnership with Bacardi & Boi-1Da.
About STURDY.
In 2018, Tyler Henry, Kevin Henry, Connor Moy and Adrian Martinez co-founded the multi-hyphenated creative company, STURDY. It includes a music division (now Range Music), creative studio, production company, and newly announced NFT Marketplace. STURDY. leadership team includes Co-founder & CEO Matthew Goulet, STURDY Co-Founder & Head of Creative Connor Moy, Co-Founder & Head of Strategy Sandro Tolentino, Founder of STURDY. Co & Co-Founder of STURDY.exchange Tyler Henry and Founding Advisor Andrew Gertler
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