Historic Beatles audio interviews to be auctioned as NFTs

Historic audio interviews with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr of The Beatles are being auctioned as digital NFTs this week.

The auction represents the first time that rockstar interviews are being sold as NFTs, according to the Voices of Classic Rock Archive (VOCR), which is minting and auctioning the NFTs.

The four Beatles NFT Interviews, which VOCR says have not been heard in decades, are entitled: John Lennon on “A Day in the Life”; Paul McCartney on “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard”; George Harrison on “Abbey Road”; and Ringo Starr on “His Lost Medallion.”

The VOCR Archive is home to 650 historic interviews and radio shows featuring what it says is “virtually every major rock music icon during the period of 1964 to 2008”, including The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and more.

Each VOCR/Beatles NFT will include unique artwork and a WAV file of the interview.

The NFTs will be minted on the Ethereum blockchain and bidders can only use Ethereum (ETH) to make a bid.

Each NFT carries a minimum bid of 1.25 Ethereum (approximately $4,200).

VOCR says that it acquired its programming archive from late radio legend Kathleen Wittbold and that it is “the result of more than three decades of continuous accumulation, creation, and production” by her.

Wittbold’s career in the music industry began in 1982, when she became one of the original interviewers and producers at MTV.

She later created, wrote and produced the weekly The Classics radio program, which, VOCR says, aired on more than 250 stations in the US and abroad from May 1999 through May 2009.

“The owners of VOCR acquired this remarkable archive from its creator, Kathleen Wittbold, because they understood that there would always be future growth in the value of audio content for all things related to classic rock music.”

Jonathan Firstenberg, VOCR

Jonathan Firstenberg, VOCR Managing Director, said: “The extensive variety of Beatles interviews that we have in our collection are, perhaps, our most comprehensive and valuable assets – that is why we wanted to launch with John, Paul, George and Ringo – the ultimate Classic Rock Stars!

“The owners of VOCR acquired this remarkable archive from its creator, Kathleen Wittbold, because they understood that there would always be future growth in the value of audio content for all things related to classic rock music. All of the interviews contained with VOCR are unique, and, like any other important and unique object or artwork, they will continue to grow in rarity and value over time.”

Firstenberg continued: “While we considered many ways by which to introduce this archive to the public, we chose to start with NFTs because the current market demand for unique NFT properties comprised of original content seems to be growing at a rapidly accelerating pace. Also, NFT auctions are a remarkably simple and efficient way by which to market audio interviews.

“We believe there will be great demand for single interview auctions and that single NFTs represent a strong case for the notion that the sum of the parts of our overall archive will be much, much greater than the whole.

“We are confident that NFTs as a new medium are here to stay, and we are very interested to see how this new medium will evolve. In particular, we are going to be studying how the market determines what rights to a property need to be embedded within an NFT itself for it to have real intrinsic value.”

“The VOCR owners and I would also like to thank Ben Kopec and his company OnChain Music for helping us with integrating the technology by which we are offering this auction to the general public. Ben has quite literally been ‘the glue’ that has melded this entire, and truly massive, project together.”Music Business Worldwide