Counting Bitcoins: OneRepublic First Major Artist Paid in Bitcoin for Vienna Show

The “Counting Stars” band OneRepublic performed last week just outside of Vienna and was paid entirely in bitcoin, the first American major artist to accept cryptocurrency, according to multiple reports Monday (Nov. 22).

The Grammy-nominated band handled the cryptocurrency transactions using the Strike peer-to-peer bitcoin payment app.

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“My band and I are so happy to be a part of something that we believe is, without question, the future of how payments are transacted for unlimited amounts of assets, performances, services, purchases, music, etc. around the world,” frontman Ryan Tedder said in a statement.

“Whether it’s artists using NFTs to fund albums with their fans or bands being paid for concerts in crypto, music and tech go hand in hand. With that in mind, it only made sense for us to take the next logical step,” Tedder said.

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OneRepublic’s Vienna show sold out in minutes and followed the band’s performance at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Budapest the weekend prior. Tedder also said that he will be paid in bitcoin for a private concert in December.

Tedder has become an enthusiast for evolving technology and has his own non-fungible token (NFT) collection, titled Cartoon Collection Series One, from a collaboration with Swiss Graffitipop artist Bustart.

Tedder says the work is meant to depict a “celebration of the joy found as a child watching Saturday morning cartoons,” according to collection’s website.

Tedder is the winner of three Grammys, has sold over 420 million records worldwide and has also written several number one hits, including “Counting Stars” and “Apologize” with OneRepublic.

Bustart paints large-scale murals across Europe and his work features “cartoon characters and iconic imagery from the past and present” taken out of context.

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