Paradigm and Founders Fund Invest in DJ 3LAU’s NFT Platform

DJ Justin Blau, better known as 3LAU, has raised $16 million to launch the NFT-platform Royal. It lets participants jointly own the intellectual property rights to music and receive royalties.

I’m excited to announce today that Royal raised a $16M seed round co-led by @rabois at Founders Fund and @FEhrsam at Paradigm, was well as Atomic and an incredible collection of angel investors — we’re grateful for the support and pumped

— JD Ross (@justindross) August 26, 2021

The project is backed by Paradigm, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, and the Coinbase co-founder’s investment firm Fred Ehrsam. Blau launched Royal with his college friend — Atomic’s managing partner JD Ross. The San Francisco–based venture studio also joined the financing.

The platform will allow music creators to interact directly with fans, cutting out intermediaries such as record labels. NFT investors in Royal will be offered not only royalties on ownership of intellectual property but also \”special privileges,\” including concert tickets and backstage access.

In an interview with Forbes, Blau noted that Royal would roll out the platform gradually. It is currently operating in limited access; in six months the company plans to launch a beta version of the product, and about a year later to unveil the final release.

The team is already in talks with several popular artists it hopes to attract to the platform. Their names have not yet been disclosed. In the short term, Royal will charge musicians a 10% commission on NFT sales.

Blau stressed that he and Ross are paying particular attention to legal compliance. The company \”works with experts and former regulators to ensure compliance in the regions where the platform will be available.\”

Earlier, the company behind the NFT protocol Alethea AI closed a private token sale of $16 million.

Read ForkLog’s Bitcoin news on our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.