The Weeknd has announced a collection of new music and limited edition art that he is selling in a non-fungible token (NFT) ‘drop’ this weekend.

Sales of the cryptocurrency asset, which proves ownership of a piece of digital content, have taken the music industry by storm this year, with the likes of Kings of Leon, Aphex Twin and Gorillaz all selling NFTs recently.

After teasing an NFT ‘drop’ last week, The Weeknd has now announced that his first NFT sale will take place on Saturday (April 3) at 2pm EST (7pm UK time).

Set to be available exclusively on the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway, the collection includes new music and limited edition art that The Weeknd has developed in collaboration with the media production company Strange Loop Studios.

The sale will kick off with three different visual artworks, each featuring a filtered segment of a new Weeknd song. There will be an unlimited amount of these artworks available to purchase, albeit for a limited time.

Excited to announce that my first NFT drop is taking place on Saturday at 2:00 pm EST on @niftygateway. The collection will feature new music and limited edition art. I developed the artwork with Strange Loop Studios pic.twitter.com/627BO4JekK

— The Weeknd (@theweeknd) March 31, 2021

Following that, there will be a 24-hour auction for “an exclusive 1-of-1 piece of art” featuring the new song in full and unfiltered. The winner of this auction will be the sole owner of the song, as The Weeknd does not intend to release the track in the future.

“Blockchain is democratising an industry that has historically been kept shut by the gatekeepers,” The Weeknd said in a statement. “I’ve always been looking for ways to innovate for fans and shift this archaic music biz and seeing NFTs allowing creators to be seen and heard more than ever before on their terms is profoundly exciting.

“I intend to contribute to this movement and can see that very soon it will be weaved into the music industry’s mechanics.”

Speaking recently about the NFT craze, Calvin Harris said that the cryptocurrency form has the potential to “completely revolutionise the music industry”.