Success of first token-gated festival drives expansion of country-wide events lineup
Afterparty, the NFT platform empowering creators with the tools and community to directly monetize and manage their fan relationships, has closed a $4 million funding round to bring total capital raised to $7 million. The strategic community round accelerates platform growth as Afterparty introduces the world’s first NFT ticketing platform for artists, answering a multi-billion dollar unmet need in the music industry for transparent, verifiable and artist-first ticketing.
Afterparty is putting control back into the hands of the artists — who, for the first time, will also receive a cut of secondary sales — and cash back into the fans’ pockets, all for the price of a conventional VIP festival pass.
Over 25 entrepreneurs, creators, and VCs participated in the round, including Paris Hilton, Zillow’s Spencer Rascoff, NBA’s Andre Iguodala, and others. Blockchange Ventures, a leading early-stage crypto fund, in addition to Acrew Capital and TenOneTen Ventures, venture capital groups who co-led Afterparty’s seed raise, also participated.
“When we launched Afterparty, we knew we were creating a new model for NFTs based on lifetime ‘membership’ access and IRL experiences,” shares David Fields, CEO at Afterparty. “What we didn’t know was just how much and how fast the idea of ‘Coachella meets Art Basel’ would resonate with our dynamic community of investors, artists, creators and fans. Now, we are using that valuable support to create something that gives back to the entire music ecosystem.”
Afterparty empowers creators to use NFTs as a tool to unlock interactive, real-world experiences. Far from being inactive art pieces decorating a virtual wallet or Twitter profile picture, these tokens represent dynamic, creative festivals, artist events and deeper artist-fan connections.
Afterparty’s first token-gated festival provided a large-scale proof of concept. Now, the platform is developing tokens into the artist-first alternative to conventional ticketing platforms. Ticketing services collect fees that average about 30% but can spike to over 70%. The secondary market buys up tickets before fans can get them–and then resells them at inflated prices on sites such as StubHub, and artists receive nothing from these sales. NFT-based ticketing promises to put control of the sector back in the hands of artists and fans.
Last month, Afterparty proved that NFTs unlock experiences on a massive scale with its first NFT-gated music and art festival in Las Vegas. Headliners The Chainsmokers and The Kid LAROI played to over 6,000 attendees. Heidi Klum and Nick Carter live minted NFTs on the Las Vegas Strip.
This fall, Afterparty is taking the festival to Los Angeles. Access will be through its second-generation Guardian NFT collection, dropping soon. Ten thousand of these unique NFTs will be minted to serve as VIP access to the Los Angeles Festival and a “lifetime festival membership,” priority access to buy a VIP ticket to every subsequent year – all for the price of a conventional VIP festival pass. So far, Afterparty NFT holders have been treated to live-minting parties at a secret location in the Hollywood Hills and once-in-a-lifetime performance experiences featuring unplugged shows and star-studded collaborations.
Afterparty also serves as a partner in the live-minting process and as an educator for artists and creators looking for a deeper understanding and first step into the NFT space. For choreographer, producer, entrepreneur, and early NFT adopter Matt Steffanina, Afterparty’s community, promises equal footing for all creatives.
Afterparty has been driving a new Web3 era for the creator economy since launching in 2021, which quickly attracted influential creators and investors for a fast-closing seed round. The company has since scaled its community to include hundreds of chart-topping musical artists, such as Sia, Nile Rogers and Echosmith, actors and icons like Josh Duhamel and Heidi Klum, and creators like Loren Gray, King Bach, Vinnie Hacker and Teala Dunn.