Ex-Oasis Rocker Noel Gallagher Turns to NFTs to Top Foo Fighters in UK Chart Race

This week has seen Noel Gallagher’s Excessive Flying Birds—the present band of the famed Oasis rocker—locked in a battle with the Foo Fighters in a bid to prime the Official UK Album Charts. And now Gallagher is popping to music NFTs to doubtlessly assist shut the hole between them.

Noel Gallagher launched “Council Skies,” his fourth studio album with the Excessive Flying Birds, final Friday, June 2—the identical day that the Foo Fighters dropped “However Right here We Are,” their first album because the tragic passing of drummer Taylor Hawkins.

In a midweek replace shared yesterday by the Official Charts Firm, simply 200 items—which equates to 200 precise album gross sales or roughly 200,000 album streams—separated the acts on the prime of the charts. At the moment, it was confirmed that Foo Fighters had taken the lead by lower than 500 items.

Over the previous few days, Foo Fighters have promised entry to a pre-sale for a currently-unannounced 2024 UK headline tour for anybody who purchases “However Right here We Are,” whereas Gallagher has introduced a night “In Dialog” session at document store Banquet Information, with tickets bundled along with copies of the album.

Now Gallagher has a brand new tactic to achieve an edge within the charts skirmish: he’s turning to NFTs to attempt to make up the hole, in line with a report from Music Week.

Gallagher has teamed up with Web3 startup Serenade for a limited-edition NFT urgent of “Council Skies,” which shall be made out there Thursday morning—the final day that gross sales depend in the direction of the subsequent chart rating.

House owners of the “Council Skies” NFT will be capable of unlock high-quality WAV information of the document, the primary two components of a four-part documentary monitoring the making of the document, and a digitally signed lyric sheet. The urgent can even characteristic limited-edition signed and coloured paintings.

Described by Serenade as “modern-day variations of limited-edition vinyl,” every digital urgent is backed by blockchain know-how, which the agency says additionally has environmental advantages in comparison with a bodily product. Serenade’s NFTs are minted on Ethereum scaling community, Polygon.

“You’d have to supply 1.2 million digital pressings to equal the carbon footprint of 1 common 12” document,” the agency mentioned. Customers can buy the NFT-based urgent utilizing crypto or with credit score or debit playing cards, in a bid to make the pressings as accessible as doable.

“It wraps up an exciting week within the UK charts, and a superb marketing campaign from Noel and crew,” reads an announcement saying the partnership. “This newest digital urgent launch from Serenade continues to show the price of the future-proof format, connecting fan and artist in a method like by no means earlier than.”

Final yr, rock dangerous Muse launched a digital model of their album “Will of the Individuals” through Serenade, turning into the primary ever chart-eligible NFT launch. Some 1,000 digital copies had been out there worldwide, and the album went on to prime the UK Album Charts. The Wombats, Kota Banks, and Confidence Man have additionally launched digital pressings through Serenade in latest months.