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The internet killed the yellow pages. Netflix killed Blockbuster.

Will NFTs kill traditional art?

Greetings, my name is @CozomoMedici. What I'm about to share with you may make you angry. You may disagree. But it's crucial you here it.

So buckle up, and let's begin👇
1/ In the last decade, we saw a great shift in entertainment.

For almost 100 years, the studios decided which actors would be lucky or talented enough to become stars.

But then in the 2000's, everything changed.
2/ The cameras turned from focusing on actors, to every day people.

With Reality TV, soon it wasn’t a trained actor who was getting famous, but your classmate, co-worker, or next door neighbor.

For the first time, anyone could become a star. For better or for worse!

But then,
3/ 2010. Instagram. YouTube. Podcasting. Social media goes mainstream.

As people turned the cameras and microphones on themselves, the studios became powerless.
4/ Now, someone like @MrBeast could build a more sizable, much more engaged following than the biggest tv or film star

@guyraz could have more daily listens than the biggest radio stations

And those who used both social & reality tv, like Rogan & the Kardashians, built empires
5/ Brands rushed in to make deals with this new batch of stars, further cementing their standing as the "it" folks of our generation.

And before we knew it, 75% of kids want to be social stars when they grow up!
6/ Again, for better, or for worse :)

And now, in this decade, we are seeing a similarly sized shift beginning to happen in the art world.

For hundreds of years, kings, queens, and noble folk decided which art was relevant.

Those works they chose live on in importance today
7/ Then, for the first time, in the Victorian era of the 1800s, galleries, museums, and collectors began to move markets.

Fast forward to the late 1900's...
8/ By the time the public learns about Warhol or Basqiat, their work has become expensive, the best pieces gobbled up by known collectors and market makers...

The general public left only with less desired works, prints and editions... unless of course they paid up handsomely.
9/ And this is not just in the major markets - London, Paris, NYC - but globally.

I was recently chatting with a man who grew up in Morocco. As he described it, in Morocco there are 5 dealers who make up the "art mafia".

If an artist gets on the bad side of one, they are done.
10/ But around 2018, a new paradigm began.

In NFT, there are no museums.

No galleries, other than the marketplaces, and the galleries made by collectors themselves.

And thanks to tools like @oncyber_io, anyone can create a stunning metaverse gallery in about 15 minutes.
11/ Sure, there is the "stamp of approval" when an artist is approved to a top platform, such as @SuperRare, @AsyncArt @withFND @rarible or @niftygateway...
12/ But you’ll also see artists like @larvalabs snapping up multi-million dollar sales with no museums, no galleries, and no market makers in between you and the art.

Not to mention the million-dollar plus sales that take place on @opensea, every single day...
13/ And it is not just well-known projects on @opensea.

Any artist, from any where in the world, with no invitation, can mint a drop.

So now, with NFTs, for the first time ever...
14/ YOU can decide which artists will define this generation.

YOU can access their art before they get big

YOU can make them big, by voting with your wallets.

By showing them in your own galleries...
15/ Or simply displaying them as your twitter profile photo, as I've done here.

Or in your social feed, which pioneering cryptoartist @XCOPYART, who got his start on tumblr, calls,

"The digital streets"
16/ So while just a few years ago, a talented artist in a remote village could perhaps have their highest aspiration to be the most noted artist in that village...

This same artist can now build a global following, and international community around their work.
17/ Not by getting a museum show - but by producing great art, and cultivating a community using digital tools, like twitter and discord.

Now, you may be wondering... is there real size, and real provenance to be achieved this way?
18/ Well look at @justinaversano and his Twin Flames series, which regularly sell for over $1m USD a photo, and have been featured in auctions at both Christie's & Sotheby's...
19/ Or the previously mentioned @XCOPYART, a CryptoArt "OG" who has been minting art on chain perhaps as early as 2016...

And has had individual works sell for $3m, $4m, $6m, and $7m... all in the last 3 months.
20/ The game has already changed. And whether you knew the old game or not, makes no difference.

Because soon, it may not be here any more.
21/ Just as in the last decade, when the social media masters seized the star-making power from the studios...

NFT is seizing power from the institutions.
22/ We are the market makers now. We create our own museums. We decide which art defines this generation.

We are the digital renaissance.

And we are just getting started.
23/ Click below and retweet the first tweet in this thread, to spread the word to aspiring young artists that THEY have the power now:


24/ And follow me @CozomoMedici, for more on:

- The NFT revolution and who is leading it
- How traditional art and NFTs will intersect, and prosper
- What makes certain NFTs stand out and hold value

Grazie mille to @artnet for letting us explore art's future together!🍷⚔️~CdM
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