Why did we buy an Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT? Great question.
The word NFT is stirring up a range of emotions and opinions in and outside of the metal world. A quick scan of the social media comments for Slipknot and Ozzy Osbourne’s recent NFT projects are, well, not so positive (Clown from Slipknot turned his Instagram comments off due to the initial backlash).
The distrust and negative sentiment from metal fans right now is pretty palpable.
Before we jumped on the NFT hating bandwagon, we wanted to better understand this technology for ourselves.
So… we bought an Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT.
Is this actually the dumbest thing ever? Or is it the future of the artist and fan relationship? Let’s dive in…
What the hell is an NFT anyways
NFT stands for non-fungible token. It’s essentially a piece of digital content that can be uniquely owned by one human. It can also unlock other digital content (like an mp3) and/or real-world experiences (like access to a concert ticket).
NFT’s “live” on a blockchain, which is basically like a big fancy digital ledger in the sky that keeps a public record of who owns what NFT’s and what they were sold for.
Sort of like if you were buying a used pickup truck – you could easily go look up a record of the sales history of the car title on the internet to understand what the selling price of say, the three purchases previous to you were.
A lot of NFT’s (like the Deathbats Club NFT) are part of a specific blockchain called Ethereum blockchain (Ethereum is also a form of digital money aka a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin), but we’ll get back to that one in a minute.
What is the Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT?
The Deathbats Club NFT is a unique piece of digital art limited to 10,000 pieces. Each specific Deathbats Club NFT is visually unique in that no two Deathbats look exactly alike, e.g.:
The band’s vision is that this all serves as a modern day exclusive fan club community with a hell of a lot of interesting perks and access to the band themselves.
The Deathbats NFT itself is a “token” that grants you access to a private Discord community (think modern day message board) – and a bunch of different community member perks which we’ll get into shortly.
Avenged Sevenfold want it to constantly evolve in congruence with the community, too.
So, if a Deathbats Club NFT member has a cool idea that can benefit the broader fan club community, the band very well might do it.
Per an interview with Forbes, lead singer M. Shadows explains that the idea for the new Avenged Sevenfold TRAX podcast (powered by the Deathbats Club), actually came from a journalist who was a Deathbats Club NFT owner/ community member.
Where can you buy an Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT?
All 10,000 Deathbat Club NFT’s technically sold out already. However, there are plenty for resale here on OpenSea, which is where we purchased ours.
You can think of OpenSea like an eBay for NFT’s – it’s an online marketplace where owners can list and sell their NFT’s. You can make an offer that the seller can accept, counter or reject.
What’s the price of an Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT?
Like any marketplace, the price is going to fluctuate based on demand.
At the moment, though, the lowest price of a Deathbats Club NFT is about $200. Fair warning that OpenSea takes a not-so-small percentage of the sale on top of that, so you’re probably looking at a final price closer to $250.
If you want a Deathbats Club NFT with special perks baked in like free Avenged Sevenfold tickets for life, that’s going to break your piggy bank a bit – this one, for example, has a current buy it now price of over $8,000.
How do you buy an Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT?
- Purchase the cryptocurrency Ethereum. You can do that at cryptocurrency exchange sites like Coinbase or Gemini. Remember, the amount of Ethereum you’ll need to purchase depends on the cost of the exact Deathbats Club NFT you want to buy from OpenSea.
- Set up up a digital “wallet” (Coinbase provides one here) – and transfer your Ethereum to it in order to buy the Deathbats Club NFT from OpenSea.
- After you purchase the NFT from OpenSea, you’ll go to the official Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT website and connect your digital wallet to it.
That’s it! You’ll now be able to unlock access to the private Discord community and all of the perks of your NFT.
Can you use the Avenged Sevenfold NFT to hear new music?
If the band has their way, all signs point to yes.
The band has teased that they’d like to let Deathbats Club members get the first listen to songs from their long-delayed & much anticipated forthcoming album.
What are all the benefits of owning an Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT?
Like any collectible or rarity, part of the value of owning one of these things is that if value and demand increases over time, you might be able to flip it and make a profit.
Beyond that, in the short term, the best way to think about its true value is the utility that it provides to its owners.
Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT owners get:
- Access to the band (they’ll typically drop in to the private Discord chat room to talk with members).
- The chance to get special prizes now and in the future (some of the Deathbats Club NFT’s have lifelong ticket or meet and greet access hidden within the NFT along with guitar & drum lessons from band members, coffee dates, the chance to play golf with M. Shadows & much more). The band can also virtually surprise “airdrop” gifts into the Deathbats Club NFT’s – think waking up to finding a brand new song in your digital wallet.
- Money! Yes, money: The band has ambitions to share some of their streaming royalties with all Deathbats Club owners. They plan to do the same with royalties from their TRAX podcast. They’ve also set this up so that you as a Deathbats Club NFT owner fully own the rights to the art of your NFT and can monetize it how you wish – e.g. you can go print up t-shirts with your Deathbat on it, sell $10,000 worth of merch and keep every cent of the profits.
Why wouldn’t any fan want this from their favorite band or artist?
Final thoughts
Do we think all NFT’s are great? Certainly not.
But what’s exciting here is that when done right, they have the potential to create an incredible amount of value for the music fan.
The Avenged Sevenfold Deathbats Club NFT on its own isn’t particularly special – it’s the benefits that it unlocks for owners/fans that is.
If NFT’s are really here to stay, metal artists would be wise to pay close attention to what Avenged Sevenfold is doing. It very well just might be the future of music fandom.
If you want a deeper dive on Avenged Sevenfold’s Deathbats Club NFT strategy, check out this recent interview with M. Shadows and the band’s explanation launch video below.
Not ready to invest in an NFT yet? You can check out related Avenged Sevenfold merch here.
— The Pit staff