It’s regarded as one of the most expensive and rarest albums ever produced. But now you might be able to hear it. Maybe.
Only one copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” was made back in 2014. It was eventually bought for $2 million by disgraced “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli. An online art collective known as PleasrDAO then bought the album for $4 million in 2021.
That collective has now “digitized and encrypted” the album into a non-fungible token or NFT and started selling access to it on Thursday, according to Pitchfork, the New York Times and other news sites.
For $1 (plus fees) you can access this online version of the “Shaolin,” but only a five-minute sampler is available right now.
The original contract said that the album could not be released to the general public until October 2103, but PleasrDAO said that each $1 purchase will bump up the album’s release by 88 seconds.
“Mass replication has fundamentally changed the way we view a piece of recorded music, while digital universality and vanishing physicality have broken our emotional bond with a piece of music as an artwork and a deeply personal treasure,” producers RZA and Cilvaringz said in a statement.
“This album sale is more than just about the music; it’s about redefining how we think about ownership of music and fan collaboration in the digital age,” Matt Matkov, a PleasrDAO representative, said,
Shkreli was sued by PleasrDAO earlier this month, saying that he copied the album and played it for online audiences without permission.
There is another way to listen to the album without having to buy an NFT. It will be played publicly as part of an exhibition at Australia’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) from June 15-24.
