Laura Dergal, Head of Marketing & Content Development at The Latin Recording Academy, joins Cheddar News to discuss the NFT partnership at the 2022 Latin GRAMMY Awards, this year's artwork and mural, and plans to continue the trend past this year's Awards.

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Latin Grammy Awards Venture Into NFT Space

we are just a few short weeks away from the 23rd annual Latin Grammy awards. And some things will be new and different this year as the event is dipping into the Blockchain to produce its first ever exclusive N. F. T. So I caught up with Laura Durga, head of marketing and content development for the Latin Recording Academy. For more on this exciting offer. Take a look. It's loosely tied to the Land Grammy Awards because we you know we have a long standing commitment to to art and creators of all kinds and that extends to visual art but what we really believe in is you know giving artists a platform to create and then you know helping get the word out about their art elevated promote it. And and um that's our mission with with music is you know elevating um Latin music creators around the world and and we're doing the same now with with visual artists. Um and it only made sense to extend that to visual art this year for the first time. So we have a collection of six N. F. T. S. Um that are created by artists from around the world. We have him in a in a vida who's Colombian, we have a spanish artist. We have J. And Silva who's Venezuelan, we have a Puerto Rican artist and Nicaraguan artist representing all different kinds of media. And is it true that people watching the Latin Grammy awards will actually have a chance to go purchase or acquire N. F. T. Why they're live watching this show and why do you think people would be interested in doing that? You know I think people would be interested for the reason they're interested in collecting anything. Um You know N. F. T. S. By nature of what they are. It's a non fungible token which just basically means it's unique and irreplaceable. It lives as you know in block change. So it's identified by it. It's it's unique metadata. And um and FTS are collectibles. So some people collect them because they love the art and they want to be close to it and own it and have a piece of it. And in this particular case it's kind of like owning a piece of of latin. Grammy history since it's the first time we're doing this. Um And and and other people just like to collect things for the possibility that you know the scarcity of them makes them valuable one day. And that's kind of the fun in it. Is that you you never really know um You know what what what N. F. T. Is going to be worth something one day. You can trade it, you can you know share them with your friends, you can keep your collection in the vault, our collection is gonna be gonna be there and we're gonna be dropping some exclusive photo and behind the scene videos and things into it to kind of you know create a collector's experience that we hope will be really fun. It sounds like it's gonna be amazing? So why did the latin Recording Academy decide to create the N. F. T. In the first place? Would they just say oh it's gonna be fun, it's gonna make history or is there something more? Well you know like I said we do have a longstanding commitment to visual art um and we we do try to evolve and stay current with everything that's happening in the creator space. And you know since the Latin Grammys began we've always had a um you know an official piece of visual art that represented each year's show. Um And then talking about how to remain current, it just seemed logical to us that that you know it was time for us to take that commitment to the digital realm. And an extended invitation for you know visual artists to create something um in the digital realm that that kind of represents what what latin music means to them. And can you tell us a little bit more about some of the other artists involved? And also is this the official Latin Grammy artwork? Well the first token is the official Latin Grammy artwork and it was created by a young muralist who lives in Michoacan Morelia named um Forte. And we love him because he is as committed to public art and art being accessible to everyone as as we are. We selected him for the first N. F. T. The free N. F. T. Because he is from the same city and town in Mexico as our person of the year this year, which is marco Antonio solis. Uh So we thought that was a lovely tie in and and and we really liked his his commitment to making art available to everyone. So in keeping with that commitment, his N. F. T. Is the free N. F. T. That you can go on to to one of the slash latin Grammys right now and claim. Um and in keeping with his philosophy about art, anyone can own that. Um And then moving on from there, we have additional five other tokens that will be dropped in the next several days. And thanks again to Laura de Gaulle from the Latin Recording Academy and be sure to tune in to the 23rd annual Latin Grammy Awards. Live from Las Vegas on thursday november the 17th at seven p.m. Eastern time. Right on Univision.