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The Weeknd hints he may release new song as an NFT

The tweet is cryptic, but stay tuned. The performer is up to something.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read
weeknd

Is The Weeknd getting in on the NFT craze? 

 Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Singer The Weeknd, who performed at halftime of the 2021 Super Bowl, says he'll release an upcoming song as an NFT. At least that's what a cryptic tweet seems to indicate.

"New song living in NFT space. Coming soon…" the singer wrote on Friday.

"NFT" stands for nonfungible token, and as we explain here, NFTs are a bit complicated. They offer a blockchain-created certificate of authenticity for a digital asset such as an artwork, video, or in this case, a piece of music. They are recorded in a digital ledger in the same way as cryptocurrency, so there's a listing of who owns each one, and the digital asset tied to the token makes each NFT unique.

The person buying a song as an NFT does not, though, own the intellectual or creative rights to the music. That stays with the artist. And NFTs can be pricey: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold the first-ever tweet as an NFT, for $2.9 million.

Music publication NME points out that the tweet is vague enough that it's possible The Weeknd could release a song titled Living In NFT Space, rather than releasing a song as an NFT itself. A representative for The Weeknd did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More on NFTs

The Weeknd hasn't provided many details yet on the upcoming song, whether it's an NFT. But in two following tweets, he seemed to suggest the song would still be related to his After Hours album, writing, "P.S. this chapter isn't quite done yet," and then adding, "still tying some loose ends."

The Weeknd's halftime show produced at least one meme that's still making the rounds: a clip of the singer finding his way through a mirror-filled set proved the perfect image for a variety of snarky captions.