Last week, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda became the first major-label artist to launch a single via NFT auction. A 75-second clip of 'Happy Endings' was sold in an edition of 10 on the online marketplace Zora (number 10 went for 4 WETH, around $6,600). Shinoda explains to Input: "If you buy an MP3 of a song as an NFT, you don’t own the song. It’s the equivalent of buying a print of a piece of artwork or buying an original piece of artwork... It’s not about the physical item. It’s about the concept of ownership. It’s the concept of what is valuable to a collector". Matty Karas of MusicREDEF has put it quite simply - “You’re basically getting a digitally autographed MP3”.

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda becomes the first major label artist to launch a single via NFT - non-fungible token auction, according to Loudwire. 'Happy Endings' is a collaboration featuring rising vocalist Upsahl and alt-pop star Iann Dior, and he is using the cryptocurrency as a new avenue to promote his music. Shinoda gave his fans the opportunity to bid for a chance to win an original print of the single artwork signed by him and contemporary artist Cain Caser at a cryptocurrency auction.

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda has made his new album 'Dropped Frames, Vol. 1' entirely on Twitch, with the album featuring 12 tracks that were all created with input from fans, Spin reports. Viewers participated in the creation of these songs by communicating through live chats and giving feedback. As fans continued to give feedback, they earned points called “ShinodaBucks” which they could spend on various musical genres including mariachi, “Bollywood hip hop” and more. Shinoda would then mash all of the selected genres together during the streams to form one track. The album’s opening track 'Open Door' is the only song to feature vocals.