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Steve Aoki said royalties from his music in the past decade don’t even compare to the money he made from selling digital collectibles known as nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

Aoki, a musician and one of the highest-paid DJs globally spoke about his involvement in the digital space at a private Gala Music event on February 10 in Inglewood, California, according to a report by Decrypt. In the event, Aoki said that his performance as a DJ makes up the majority of his earnings. But, music royalties from his recording don’t  "amount to very much." 

"If I was to really break down, OK in the 10 years I've been making music, six albums, and you culminate all those advances, what I did in one drop last year in NFTs I made more money," he said. 

Meanwhile, in the NFT space, Aoki is famous for selling his “hairy” collectibles for  $888,888.88 on Nifty Gateway last year — one of the most expensive digital pieces of art sold to date. He also owns several NFTs from the iconic Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, Decrypt reported.

According to a video recording of the event, Aoki said NFTs are transforming the music world by adding "scarcity" and a "collectible mindset," similar to Pokemon cards.

"As music NFTs become more of a part of how we integrate and support artists, the labels will have to do more than just add the song on a playlist," Aoki said at the forum.

Crypto enthusiasts argued that NFTs could be the basis for the blockchain-based successor to Web 2.0, known as Web3, and the virtual world known as the metaverse.