The Royalty Policy: Ensuring Enduring Benefits for Artists in the Digital Era

In the dynamic world of digital art, creators are continuously exploring new avenues to express their creativity and capitalize on their work. The Royalty Policy is a powerful policy ensuring that these artists enjoy benefits from their creations far beyond the initial sale.

Imagine being a digital artist. You've poured your heart into creating a unique digital asset – a one-of-a-kind piece of art. The relationship with your work, however, does not end with its first sale. The Royalty Policy is like an invisible tether that connects you with your creation, assuring you a portion of the profits every time it is sold.

The Royalty Policy is essentially an agreement that entitles you, the creator, to a cut from any future sales of your artwork. This mechanism ensures you reap continuous rewards from your creative work, even after it has been sold to a new owner. A predetermined fraction of each sale, known as the royalty, is automatically transferred to you every time your work is purchased by a new owner.

To put this into context, let's walk through a simplified journey of an artwork – from creation to sale – in the digital art space. And let's use a sample royalty specification as an example:

    "royalty_spec": {
      "fungible": "coin",
      "creator": "k:creator",
      "creator-guard": {"keys": ["creator"], "pred": "keys-all"},
      "royalty-rate": 0.05
    }

    "royalty_spec": {
      "fungible": "coin",
      "creator": "k:creator",
      "creator-guard": {"keys": ["creator"], "pred": "keys-all"},
      "royalty-rate": 0.05
    }

Creation of Artwork: As an artist, your creative journey commences with the creation of a unique piece of digital art, materialising as an NFT (Non-Fungible Token). Part of this creative process is defining your royalty terms. To do this, you add the Royalty Policy to the policies field at token creation and provide the royalty specification. The royalty specification should indicate a royalty rate of 5% (0.05), ensuring that you, as the creator, will receive 5% of all future sales. It also stipulates in what fungible form these royalties will be compensated. This ensures that with every resale, a portion of the proceeds finds its way back to you, recognising your enduring contribution.

2. Listing Artwork for Sale: Once your artwork has been created, you list it for sale, much like displaying your work in a gallery. You include details of the sale such as price and duration.

3. Artwork Purchase: An interested buyer purchases your artwork, akin to a collector acquiring your piece from a gallery.

4. Royalty Application: After the sale is completed, the royalty kicks in. The smart contract (think of it as the digital contract between the buyer and the seller) automatically calculates your 5% royalty from the sale and transfers it to you.

While the mechanics of this process may sound technical, they are handled seamlessly in the background by the digital platform where you create and sell your NFT. As an artist, you only need to set your preferred royalty percentage, and the platform takes care of the rest.

To sum it up, the Royalty Policy is a game changer in how artists interact with their work in the digital realm. It acknowledges the enduring value of your artistic endeavour and rewards you with each subsequent sale of your creation. Remember, your artwork is not a one-off transaction; it's an enduring asset echoing your creativity, continually rewarding you through the Royalty Policy. In the world of digital art, your creation keeps reverberating with each transaction, continually singing the tune of royalties.