(Transcription)

Ann Rea (00:00):

Hey everyone. This is Ann Rea from the Making Art Making Money program. And I am coming to you today, live from San Francisco, and I’m going to talk to you guys about NFTs. That’s the hot topic for a lot of artists. And I just want to kind of give a basic seven point things you need to know. And some of you might already be familiar with NFTs. Some of them don’t even know what I’m talking about right now. So I’m here to fill you in. So NFT. NF stands for Non Fungible. I’m going to look down at my notes so you guys know what I’m doing. And it just more or less means that it can’t be replaced by something else. So for example, a Bitcoin is fungible. So you can trade one Bitcoin for another Bitcoin, but you can’t trade one NFT creation for a creation.

Ann Rea (00:59):
So it is unique, and — but if you trade one, one Bitcoin for another Bitcoin, you basically have the same thing, right. And the same value. So kind of like one of a kind of trading card. It’s just that it’s one of a kind. It’s non fungible. So that’s point number one. Point number two is that NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain. So Ethereum is actually a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. There’s a number of cryptocurrencies. And Ethereum and Bitcoin are some of the leaders. So that’s number two, it’s part of the Ethereum blockchain. Number three, NFTs can be anything digital, anything at all. So it could be drawings. It could be music, whatever, you know. Anything that you create, where you are the original author. That can be converted into a digital asset, but a lot of it is headed towards digital art.

Ann Rea (02:14):
So this is why I’m having a conversation with you because Making Art Making Money program is all about serving independent fine artists. So that’s number three. Number four, Bitcoins are designed to give you something that cannot be copied which is a huge issue for a lot of artists and a lot of musicians actually. So the ownership of the work of the original work of authorship, right? Although you as an artist, you still retain the copyright, the right to reproduce it. The ownership of the work can be transferred. So think about it this way. If you think about an original work of art, when you–when an artist, hope you’re doing this, but when you sell an original work of art, you want to make sure that you transfer the title, just like the title to your car, to the owner, right?

Ann Rea (03:13):
When you transfer the title of the original work of art, you are not at all transferring any rights to reproduce. So those are very separate things. So it’s sort of NFTs kind of fall in line there. So number five NFTs have a feature that can enable that to pay you the owner, the creator, a certain percentage over time, a little as that NFT changes hands. Kind of like a royalty, sort of. So that’s number five. Number six, there are several marketplaces where you can sell NFTs. And some of them include OpenSea, some are wearable grimes, Nifty Gateway, and there’s a bunch of others. So just to get– you can go check those out if you like. That’s number six. Number seven, part of the bigger lore of blockchain is that it stores the record of each, each and every time a transaction takes place, right?

Ann Rea (04:22):
And every time the ownership changes hands and it makes it harder for your creative property to be stolen, although it has happened. It’s actually, you know, it’s actually easier to steal an original work of art in a museum. So it’s got a lot more security that said, it’s, there still have been, uh, theft with NFTS. So I guess a number, this is, I said, I was going to give seven, but it’s actually eight things you want to take into consideration. So NFTs are tied to cryptocurrency and Ethereum and the problem or the downside. The big downside with cryptocurrency is that there’s takes a lot of computing power, like a ton of computing power. And that has the repercussions of that are pretty significant greenhouse emissions. So if the environment is really important and preserving the environment is a very important value to you,

Ann Rea (05:30):
you want to go into this with your eyes wide open and understand that participating in this market space does have an environmental impact. And I think the other thing is like these NFTs have made great headlines, but what you need to know is those huge, huge sales of NFTs have a lot of them have been facilitated by auction houses like Christie’s and what’s happening there within the art-establishment. And that is very different. It’s a different market space, different circumstances, and very different rules. Most of what’s happening there is a lot of tax sheltering and money laundering. If you don’t believe me, what I would recommend is that you google a YouTube video which is called “Adam Ruins Everything” in the art-establishment. It’s funny, but it’s pretty accurate, and we are not about that. So I am not about helping artists find representation.

Ann Rea (06:34):
I am about helping independent artists sell more of their art without having to do a bunch of art shows, if any, at all, and without having any representation using luxury marketing. So that’s what the Making Art Making Money program is all about. And if you’d like to apply, we have a private Master Class that you can apply to. It takes like– it’s just basically two questions. I think assistant Joie’s going to put the link in the chat for the private Master Class. I don’t see the link, Joie. I just see an invitation. So we need to share the link with people so that they can join the private Master Class and I actually review each and every application. If it looks like I can help you, I absolutely will. We’ll let you into the private Master Class and, which is free. And there’s no obligation.

Ann Rea (07:28):
During that class, you’ll learn a lot about the strategies and principles that I teach and you’ll learn the details about the Making Art Making Money program. Now, if I get your application and I review it and it doesn’t look like it can help you, I will be honest with you, but I will still try to point you in the right direction and offer you other resources that are appropriate based upon your application. So, you know, fill out this application, knowing I’m reading it and knowing that, you know, based on your application, I’m going to give you direction and help. So take your time. Uh, it shouldn’t, you know, don’t paint over it, but make sure that you do take a minute to look through it carefully. All right. So, that’s it for today. I just wanted to share about NFTs.

Ann Rea (08:15):
I think that they’re absolutely worth, you know, learning about, but I, wouldn’t just, just like, you’re not gonna– I wouldn’t advise that you sell your house since and pull all the money out of the stock market and put it all into cryptocurrency. Same thing here, you know, learn what you want to learn about it and take, you know, and educate yourself. But don’t, don’t rely on NFTs to be the magic pill for your future success as an artist, because let’s keep this real, there is no magic pill, you know. Like an overnight success after 20 years, right? This is, this is — there is no magic pill. There is no easy route, but there’s certainly an easier route than what you’ve been told in art school. And what we’re told in art school is that we need to get permission from the scarcity and permission-based art establishment.

Ann Rea (09:13):
Not only give them half our money and sales commissions, but literally, quite literally walk away from 79% more sales on average, where we could have kept a hundred percent of the money. That’s the big downside in working with art galleries and representatives. And you want to be well aware of that. There is no one coming to save you. No one’s going to discover you. You alone are responsible for your success. And so given that you are responsible for your success as an artist, probably a good idea to educate yourself about how to sell and market your art, to the affluent, with luxury sales and marketing. And here’s the thing as an artist, I will tell you that it was so much easier to learn luxury sales and marketing than it ever was to learn how to make art. And they’re both still ongoing things, right?

Ann Rea (10:12):
You never — you’re always a student. But I want to assure you that most artists that I know are pretty smart and they’re pretty disciplined and they absolutely can do this. So if you want to find out if you can do it, go ahead and apply to our private Master Class and let’s see if I can help you. All right then. Nemo said all my galleries closed down. Yeah. So that’s true. I hear, I’m sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, I hear I’m hearing this from so many artists who are joining the making art, making money program. Their artists have closed. There are galleries have closed down, or they temporary closed down, have gone out of business. And so it’s going to be very similar to the great economic recession of 2007-2008. I got to tell you though, I fired all my art galleries and because I studied luxury marketing and sales, which is what I teach in the making art making money program, even though art galleries were closing, I was making money selling my art directly to affluent collectors.

Ann Rea (11:18):
So I know it feels bad, but there’s absolutely, there’s absolutely a solution for you. And here’s the good news. The affluent are actually buying more art since the pandemic hit, because number one, they’re remodeling their homes, looking for art. Number two, they’re buying more real estate as an investment, and they’re also not lavishing on travel. So they’ve got more money to spend and interest in nesting. And so there’s lots of opportunities there, but there’s no magic wand and there’s no magic bullet. So you got to educate yourself. So apply for the private Master Class. If it looks like we can help. We’ll absolutely do it. Thank you for listening. I hope this was helpful.