An acclaimed Hollywood composer is auctioning off the chance for somebody to get a custom soundtrack score based on their life story.
Tom Holkenborg (a.k.a. Junkie XL), the Grammy-nominated composer behind Mad Max: Fury Road, Deadpool and Zack Snyder’s Justice League is offering to create a 20-minute score based on one fan’s life. This “Soundtrack Of Your Life” will be delivered in the form of an NFT, making it exclusive to the owner.
Here’s how it works: Holkenborg will interview the winner of the auction and then make a soundtrack “that encapsulates the unique victories, heartbreaks, memories and emotions that make up [the winner’s life] … it’s a chance to have one of Hollywood’s singular composers write your own audio odyssey.”
“This is my first real exploration of the blockchain, I am definitely curious to experiment more, drawn to its transparency and decentralized approach,” Holkenborg said. “Beneath the hype it still feels quite punk rock and DIY, and I believe that major possibilities exist within the blockchain to help empower creators. It’s always good to think about expanding the limits of how and where music can go, and to collaborate with artists in other mediums. I’m certainly not first in the NFT space, but I thought the Soundtrack Of Your Life was my chance to add something different and make something totally unique. It’s going to be fun!”
The NFT auction will include other packages related to Holkenborg’s work, such as dropping his first non-film-related single since 2012, titled “Despite All That Was,” and original artwork.
Here’s one of Holkenborg’s most popular tracks, the rousing “Brothers in Arms” from the Fury Road soundtrack (presumably, the winning fan’s life score will be rather unlike that of an apocalyptic wasteland action hero, but who knows?):
The auction will be held on the platform AmplifyX, which is built on the Tezos blockchain, which is billed as a more energy efficient system vs. industry market share leaders like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Ten percent of the auction gross will be donated to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Earth Alliance charity.
An NFT is a digital asset that represents art, music, videos and other real-world items. They’re typically bought and sold with cryptocurrency. Each is considered one-of-a-kind even if it can be copied (for instance: The “disaster girl” meme has been reproduced countless times online, but the woman in the photo recently auctioned off an NFT of her meme for $500,000).
The appeal of NFTs is that the owner holds what might be considered a definitive digital “official” version of an item that can then increase in value and be traded with others – like electronic baseball cards.
Holkenborg’s NFT auction will open for bidding at 12 p.m. ET on June 16 on AmplifyX.