Amongst a plethora of exciting new web3-meets-music startups – Royal and OneOf amongst them – Opulous has been steadily making a name for itself over the past year.
The platform – founded by Ditto Music CEO, Lee Parsons – has been using its decentralized financing platform (built on the Algorand blockchain) to fuel interesting fan-funding projects.
For example, Opulous recently teamed with NFT platform Republic to enable music fans to invest in artist’s music rights via so-called S-NFTs (Security NFTs).
That combination led to Lil Pump raising $500,000 in just two hours in November for his then-unreleased single Mona Lisa (feat. Soulja Boy), with fans effectively buying fractional shares in the track’s future income.
Another interesting announcement from Opulous came in June last year, when the company said in a press release that it was teaming with crypto platform Binance to create and sell “exclusive NFTs” from artists including Lil Yachty and Kyle.
Last week, that “exclusive NFTs” announcement landed Opulous in hot water with Lil Yachty: the rapper filed a lawsuit in the US against the company claiming that it had used his name and likeness without permission.
Two weeks after the “exclusive NFT” announcement was issued last summer, Opulous founder Lee Parsons revealed to MBW in an interview that Opulous had recently raised USD $6.5 million in investment to help fuel his company’s growth.
In his lawsuit, Lil Yachty claims that Opulous leaned on his name and likeness to raise this money – although it is currently unclear whether Opulous actually closed on its $6.5 million raise before or after the “exclusive NFTs” announcement.
Today (February 2), Opulous has issued a short statement in response to Lil Yachty’s lawsuit – and it’s fighting its corner.
“Contrary to the assertions in the Complaint filed by Lil Yachty, Opulous’s uses of Lil Yachty’s name and likeness were all authorized by Lil Yachty and his representatives. We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these meritless claims.”
Opulous statement in response to Lil Yachty lawsuit
The company claims that the rapper and his representatives gave the green light to Opulous to make the “exclusive NFTs” announcement bearing the artist’s name.
It reads: “Contrary to the assertions in the Complaint filed by Lil Yachty, Opulous’s uses of Lil Yachty’s name and likeness were all authorized by Lil Yachty and his representatives.
“We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against these meritless claims.”
MBW will be keeping a close eye on this story as it develops.Music Business Worldwide