Lessons from 50 Cent's Adoption of Bitcoin for Album Sales 10 Years Ago

[Alphakilo]

June 2024 makes it exactly 10 years since 50cent told the public that he was going to accept bitcoin as payment for his new album, "stay with the times". This was in June 2014. According to news reports, he made 700 bitcoins. His bitcoin holding is worth more than $7.5 million.

Rapper 50 Cent has said he is accepting bitcoins as payment for his new album to "stay with the times". The In Da Club singer, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, is promoting his first album in five years, Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win. In a Reddit AMA the singer said: "Technology is what's changing the business gotta get with it. I take money no matter if it's coins or dollars." It is thought Jackson is one of the first artists to accept the digital currency. Bitcoin magazine said: "There could not be a better combination of innovation in music and payment. We look forward to seeing which other musicians follow suit." Jackson has been unable to live up to the success of his first album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin's, success.This ultimately led to his departure from Interscope Records and Eminem's Shady/Aftermath. He has since found a new home with Caroline, the independent label at Capitol Music Group. But Jackson has sold more than 30 million albums and has starred in a number of films. Animal Ambition can be bought at shop.50cent.com using BitPay, a payment service which handles bitcoin transactions. One bitcoin is currently worth around £430.

What are some lessons to learn from this.

• If you want to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry, DYOR and  don't be afraid to accept new technologies.
• Do not restrict yourself to only one payment option when you can offer diverse payment options and then attract a broader audience thereby meeting the preferences of different customers.
• As an artist or business person, take advantage of innovative trends and align yourself and brand with it which can enhance your brand's image as forward-thinking, modern and progressive.
• This is almost similar with the first point but different. One of the strategies to repositioning yourself in the market is to adopt new financial technologies especially after significant career changes.
• If your brand and business is innovative, it can generate media attention and serve as effective marketing tools.
• Bitcoin is gaining global recognition and acceptance worldwide in various sectors indicating its potential future role in mainstream finance.

You can add more lessons you think can be learned from this story.

[Z-tight]

According to news reports, he made 700 bitcoins. His bitcoin holding is worth more than $7.5 million.

You can talk about how much coins he made when he accepted BTC for the purchase of his album in 2014, but you can't really talk about what his holdings is now, because you are not sure if he is still holding his coins. If i also remember correctly, 50 Cent filed for bankruptcy in 2015, just months after he accepted BTC for his album.

Do not restrict yourself to only one payment option when you can offer diverse payment options and then attract a broader audience thereby meeting the preferences of different customers.

It is great to accept BTC as a payment option, but so many merchants would not consider it necessary and i believe most of the merchants that accept BTC are bitcoiners themselves. There are certain limitations why people won't accept BTC in their business, like high tx fees, regulations & laws in their location, etc.

[EL MOHA]

For me I will say 50 cent took the risk and he is definitely up there having his investment growing everyday if at all he hasn’t sold all. 50 cent might have gotten it better with the new financial revolution (bitcoin) it doesn’t mean that one should just dive into any trend like that without proper research though.
But one thing we need to learn also is don’t go for money all the time as a payment go for assets or even shares it gives you investments diversification.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

50-cent successful story looks to be very tiny risk but massive success now but such opportunities are not too popular for everyone.

Altcoin scammers abuse this and shill their scam coins with like chances to get rich if you missed Bitcoin, missed Ethereum, missed BNB, Dogecoin or Shiba Inu.

If you believe in their words, buy meme tokens, most of your money will be lost by scammers and their scam projects. Another risk to fall to scam traps is people usually don't have proper capital management. When they hear such stories, be convinced, they will use all or most of their money to invest in meme tokens.

Similar attractive stories like Pizza, stimulus check.
Bitcoin Pizza Index
https://www.bitcoinstimulus.net/totalstimulus

[adaseb]

Since he used Bitpay, I am pretty sure he didn’t get actually paid in bitcoin but someone sent Bitcoin to Bitpay, it automatically converted it to fiat and he was paid in fiat.

This is similar to coinbase merchant payment processor. Many sites can accept Bitcoin but it’s basically sold immediately on the open market and converted to fiat and sent to the merchant. They don’t hold any bitcoins due to its volatility.

[lixer]

50-cent successful story looks to be very tiny risk but massive success now but such opportunities are not too popular for everyone.

Altcoin scammers abuse this and shill their scam coins with like chances to get rich if you missed Bitcoin, missed Ethereum, missed BNB, Dogecoin or Shiba Inu.

If you believe in their words, buy meme tokens, most of your money will be lost by scammers and their scam projects. Another risk to fall to scam traps is people usually don't have proper capital management. When they hear such stories, be convinced, they will use all or most of their money to invest in meme tokens.

Similar attractive stories like Pizza, stimulus check.
Bitcoin Pizza Index
https://www.bitcoinstimulus.net/totalstimulus

IMO, it isn't, because BTC is still pretty new that time and what if it didn't became a hit? That's also going to be a big loss for the rapper himself. We can't compare this to the alt devs who are desperate to market their coins because one is selling an item (a physical one and functional) while the other still has a blurry future and will likely stay like that, as a mere plan. BTC and other old coins are still there, so we don't missed them yet.

The potential to earn huge will also depend on us and not mostly in the coin. We can still utilize the ups and downs in the price if we want to make more profit. We can do this in the coins I said earlier because they have a stronger foundation. It can give us a peace of mind, while we are doing our thing.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

IMO, it isn't, because BTC is still pretty new that time and what if it didn't became a hit? That's also going to be a big loss for the rapper himself. We can't compare this to the alt devs who are desperate to market their coins because one is selling an item (a physical one and functional) while the other still has a blurry future and will likely stay like that, as a mere plan. BTC and other old coins are still there, so we don't missed them yet.

The potential to earn huge will also depend on us and not mostly in the coin. We can still utilize the ups and downs in the price if we want to make more profit. We can do this in the coins I said earlier because they have a stronger foundation. It can give us a peace of mind, while we are doing our thing.

My post and examples is to say about risk with investment in Bitcoin in 2009 or 2010. Back in those years, Bitcoin is nothing and can die any time, risk is very big. No matter how much you invest in Bitcoin in early years, you have risk to lose it all if Bitcoin dies.

Fortunately over time Bitcoin is not dead, it's here with us and now we can say it will continue its existence.

https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/bitcoin-is-dead/
https://99bitcoins.com/bitcoin-obituaries/

It is easy to look back now but when people lived in those past years, a lot of uncertainty, fear existed in their minds.

Risk with Bitcoin is different than risk with meme tokens, because Bitcoin is designed and created with potentially good utility but meme tokens lack of utility.

[Casdinyard]

June 2024 makes it exactly 10 years since 50cent told the public that he was going to accept bitcoin as payment for his new album, "stay with the times". This was in June 2014. According to news reports, he made 700 bitcoins. His bitcoin holding is worth more than $7.5 million.

Rapper 50 Cent has said he is accepting bitcoins as payment for his new album to "stay with the times". The In Da Club singer, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, is promoting his first album in five years, Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win. In a Reddit AMA the singer said: "Technology is what's changing the business gotta get with it. I take money no matter if it's coins or dollars." It is thought Jackson is one of the first artists to accept the digital currency. Bitcoin magazine said: "There could not be a better combination of innovation in music and payment. We look forward to seeing which other musicians follow suit." Jackson has been unable to live up to the success of his first album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin's, success.This ultimately led to his departure from Interscope Records and Eminem's Shady/Aftermath. He has since found a new home with Caroline, the independent label at Capitol Music Group. But Jackson has sold more than 30 million albums and has starred in a number of films. Animal Ambition can be bought at shop.50cent.com using BitPay, a payment service which handles bitcoin transactions. One bitcoin is currently worth around £430.

What are some lessons to learn from this.

• If you want to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry, DYOR and  don't be afraid to accept new technologies.
• Do not restrict yourself to only one payment option when you can offer diverse payment options and then attract a broader audience thereby meeting the preferences of different customers.
• As an artist or business person, take advantage of innovative trends and align yourself and brand with it which can enhance your brand's image as forward-thinking, modern and progressive.
• This is almost similar with the first point but different. One of the strategies to repositioning yourself in the market is to adopt new financial technologies especially after significant career changes.
• If your brand and business is innovative, it can generate media attention and serve as effective marketing tools.
• Bitcoin is gaining global recognition and acceptance worldwide in various sectors indicating its potential future role in mainstream finance.

You can add more lessons you think can be learned from this story.

Has he been putting his finger in the crypto industry since 2014? As much as I want to think he is, I believe this is all because he saw bitcoin as either an avenue to make a quick buck, or because he saw bitcoin as a legitimate way to pay for shit over the internet, back when Paypal's still cutthroat and inaccessible in most countries back in 2014. And while he is definitely a treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge about money making and making your money work for you, I think his bitcoin encounter's just one of those things that happened at the right place and at the right time, not coincidental per se, but just something that aligned perfectly.

In any case, whether timed coincidental or not, as I said the guy's a treasure trove of knowledges in the real hustle culture, not the red-pilled movement that most of these clowns on the internet like Andrew Tate is moving to pursue. If you wanna know a lot more about how shit works in the financial landscape, and how to deal with people who only see you as a fat goose to feed upon when Thanksgiving's in, something that a lot of us who got successful with bitcoin holding and trading is dealing with every day, specifically those that were known to their families and friends to have gone rich off of it at least.

[0t3p0t]

It is great to accept BTC as a payment option, but so many merchants would not consider it necessary and i believe most of the merchants that accept BTC are bitcoiners themselves. There are certain limitations why people won't accept BTC in their business, like high tx fees, regulations & laws in their location, etc.

Exactly. I will do the same if I am a customer as well since high fees isn't worth the transaction for me I can't afford it especially I am just having small amount of Bitcoins with me but if I am really a die hard fan I'll think twice maybe. But if I am a merchant I will probably accept Bitcoin payment and Altcoins because know the potential of it and that is tge perfect opportunity to earn more crypto but the only question is that I don't think people here are using crypto and willing to spend their crypto as well.

[Maus0728]

For me I will say 50 cent took the risk and he is definitely up there having his investment growing everyday if at all he hasn’t sold all. 50 cent might have gotten it better with the new financial revolution (bitcoin) it doesn’t mean that one should just dive into any trend like that without proper research though.
But one thing we need to learn also is don’t go for money all the time as a payment go for assets or even shares it gives you investments diversification.

For me, I don't think that 50 Cent didn't really took the risk, after all, what he said was that he will accept but he didn't specify only which means that he's probably still got a lot of cold hard cash out of that album besides the 700 bitcoins. It's easy for us to say to not go for the money but if you're in the position where there's a choice of taking the risky way versus the big easy money, maybe that's the time that you're allowed to say something like that, can't argue with your logic about diversification though I have some reservations about this one, you're going to be making sure that you're still invested in the best cryptocurrency and not just continue wasting money on cryptocurrencies that doesn't really matter.

[Kelward]

I think that 50 cent, took a risk 10 years ago when he accepted Bitcoin, that hasn't gained much reputation then as payment for his album, we're saying that he did the right thing today because the price has increased over many 1000x since then. If Bitcoin, didn't live up to expectations and probably died before now like most of the shitcoins that never made it, we wouldn't be talking about it now.

Now that Bitcoin, has proven that it's a store of value, I wonder why some people are still skeptical about it today, instead of adopting it, buy, hodl and become very rich in the next 10 years. If 50 cent, is still holding his Bitcoin, till today, even if it's a part of it, he'll surely be worth a lot more in his assets today.

[tread93]

June 2024 makes it exactly 10 years since 50cent told the public that he was going to accept bitcoin as payment for his new album, "stay with the times". This was in June 2014. According to news reports, he made 700 bitcoins. His bitcoin holding is worth more than $7.5 million.

Rapper 50 Cent has said he is accepting bitcoins as payment for his new album to "stay with the times". The In Da Club singer, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, is promoting his first album in five years, Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win. In a Reddit AMA the singer said: "Technology is what's changing the business gotta get with it. I take money no matter if it's coins or dollars." It is thought Jackson is one of the first artists to accept the digital currency. Bitcoin magazine said: "There could not be a better combination of innovation in music and payment. We look forward to seeing which other musicians follow suit." Jackson has been unable to live up to the success of his first album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin's, success.This ultimately led to his departure from Interscope Records and Eminem's Shady/Aftermath. He has since found a new home with Caroline, the independent label at Capitol Music Group. But Jackson has sold more than 30 million albums and has starred in a number of films. Animal Ambition can be bought at shop.50cent.com using BitPay, a payment service which handles bitcoin transactions. One bitcoin is currently worth around £430.

What are some lessons to learn from this.

• If you want to stay relevant in a rapidly changing industry, DYOR and  don't be afraid to accept new technologies.
• Do not restrict yourself to only one payment option when you can offer diverse payment options and then attract a broader audience thereby meeting the preferences of different customers.
• As an artist or business person, take advantage of innovative trends and align yourself and brand with it which can enhance your brand's image as forward-thinking, modern and progressive.
• This is almost similar with the first point but different. One of the strategies to repositioning yourself in the market is to adopt new financial technologies especially after significant career changes.
• If your brand and business is innovative, it can generate media attention and serve as effective marketing tools.
• Bitcoin is gaining global recognition and acceptance worldwide in various sectors indicating its potential future role in mainstream finance.

You can add more lessons you think can be learned from this story.

Honestly great quote and way to keep track of this anniversary. I think the same can be said for AI and despite all the criticism using it to help you somehow prop yourself up for future gain. I keep seeing all these AI trading bots and stuff and I’m still trying to figure out The Who what when and where to get this set up so I can get myself out of this fucking rat race man, I’m so fucking over it and I want out. I want my time and my day back, AI could be the way! DYOR is what I have been focusing on finishing to figure this out. If I figure it out I’ll make a post but if someone already has this insight please let me know

[Hewlet]

I think that 50 cent, took a risk 10 years ago when he accepted Bitcoin, that hasn't gained much reputation then as payment for his album, we're saying that he did the right thing today because the price has increased over many 1000x since then. If Bitcoin, didn't live up to expectations and probably died before now like most of the shitcoins that never made it, we wouldn't be talking about it now.

Now that Bitcoin, has proven that it's a store of value, I wonder why some people are still skeptical about it today, instead of adopting it, buy, hodl and become very rich in the next 10 years. If 50 cent, is still holding his Bitcoin, till today, even if it's a part of it, he'll surely be worth a lot more in his assets today.

the mix of thought in the minds of somany folks out there as to if it's necessary to buy Bitcoin even at this time isn't different from what was in the minds of the peope in the past that decided not to buy at the time. And what 50 cent did in the past ten years isn't different from what Micheal sailor and micro strategy is currently doing now. We've seen Bitcoin do very well for this number of year it has existed but we don't really know how well it will do in the next couple of years to come and so whoever is buying at this time is almost buying at the same risk level that earlier adopters like 50 cent bought.

We're not sure that he has HODL his Bitcoin till this moment as most earlier Bitcoin holders sold off thier Bitcoin not long after they were in profit. Wether he is still holding on to it or he has sold it isn't really an issue here but the lesson we can easily derive from it is that long term holding of asset would always be better than selling your holding at any slight profit you've realized from investing into an asset.

[peter0425]

Now that Bitcoin, has proven that it's a store of value, I wonder why some people are still skeptical about it today, instead of adopting it, buy, hodl and become very rich in the next 10 years. If 50 cent, is still holding his Bitcoin, till today, even if it's a part of it, he'll surely be worth a lot more in his assets today.

Bitcoin has proved itself to be a successful venture but let us not forget that it is still a very volatile and risky investment. It is not easily predictable and there are a lot of uncertainties associated with it which scares a lot of people despite the many benefits it offers.

[iBaba]

For me I will say 50 cent took the risk and he is definitely up there having his investment growing everyday if at all he hasn’t sold all. 50 cent might have gotten it better with the new financial revolution (bitcoin) it doesn’t mean that one should just dive into any trend like that without proper research though.
But one thing we need to learn also is don’t go for money all the time as a payment go for assets or even shares it gives you investments diversification.

Like the first reply suggested that 50 Cent went bankrupt in 2015 barely 1 year after he accepted bitcoin payments for his album. If really that was true for his situation he probably have sold all the bitcoin he had instead of leaving it for Investment. While some people believed in the new technology not everyone was ready to really invest in it as many would instead take their bitcoin assets to the real estate business and other physical businesses.

Else, if he hadn't sell his bitcoins till now, then having up to 700 bitcoin today would have amounted to so much of funds right now. If he also have the knowledge of the bull run and decide to reinvest his money into other prospective altcoins, he's probably going to make more money from the cryptocurrencies.