Will Of The People  becomes the first UK chart-topper ever to include NFT components, the release included a limited edition “Digital Pressing”, produced in collaboration between Warner Music UK and green music web3 marketplace Serenade. After Aitch’s Close To Home became the first NFT project to enter the UK’s Official Chart last week, Will Of The People made history today reaching Number 1.

Congratulations to Muse – The world’s first chart eligible music NFT format, sold out in 25 minutes. pic.twitter.com/vWbZwbaYAX

— Warner Records UK (@warnerrecordsuk) September 1, 2022

The NFT release was limited to 1,000 copies worldwide and sold out in a blinding twenty-five minutes. It had a different album sleeve and came as a downloadable high-res FLAC file that the band signed digitally, and each of the buyers had their name logged on the ledger providing them with verifiable ownership and the ability to trade on secondary markets. Digital Pressings will also render accurate, perpetual royalties for musicians, whoever owns the content and copyright holders.

What number did everyone get? pic.twitter.com/39ThOKfUil

— Serenade (@serenade__co) August 26, 2022

The Official Charts Company reported on their website their Chief Executive, Martin Talbot, thoughts on the adoption of NFT technology, “Over their seven decades, the Official Charts have always strived to move with the times, reflecting consumption of new formats and all new ways of distributing music, as they have evolved. Just as vinyl, 8-track, cassette tapes, CDs and even MiniDisc, DCC and DAT have been welcomed into the charts, we will also welcome Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) – and we will be delighted when the first album delivered as an NFT contributes to the chart, with Serenade and Muse leading the way this summer. NFTs are a new, exciting format, the potential for which is only just beginning to be explored and I am sure will play a part in the Official Charts for years to come.”

Taking about Muse’s adoption of NFTs for their new album, Sebastian Simone, Vice President, Audience & Strategy of Warner Records UK, added, “Muse have always been at the forefront of technological innovation and were one of the first music artists to pioneer in Web3 back in 2020. Their fans have an appetite for collectable rarities, and this format brings them closer to Muse than ever before, propelling them into a new space and offering an entirely unique experience.”

Serenade Founder Max Shand, adds, “As a simple, standardised and chart eligible format, Digital Pressings will be a game changer on the global stage,” he continued, “I have always been a huge fan of Muse, so I am beyond excited that they will be the first artist to release a Digital Pressing with Serenade.”

Official ticket resale for the #WillOfThePeople 2023 UK Tour is strictly limited to @Twickets, a fan-to-fan resale platform. Learn more here: https://t.co/lNuPIQLVGS pic.twitter.com/RiTN2qOiQ2 — muse (@muse) August 26, 2022

Muse will be touring the UK in 2023 dates are below, and click here to see ticket availability.

27/05/2023 – Home Park – Plymouth
20/06 – John Smith’s Stadium – Huddersfield
23/06 – Bellahouston Park – Glasgow
25/06 – The National Bowl – Milton Keynes

The energetic, rousing tune harkens back to the attitude-smothered, politically charged music of Muse’s “Uprising” era, accompanied by a music video portraying a people’s revolt against an oppressive authoritarian regime.

Speaking on the concept of their forthcoming record, frontman Matt Bellamy said: “Will Of The People’ is [a] fictional story set in a fictional metaverse on a fictional planet ruled by a fictional authoritarian state run by a fictional algorithm manifested by a fictional data centre running a fictional bank printing a fictional currency controlling a fictional population occupying a fictional city containing a fictional apartment where a fictional man woke up one day and thought ‘fuck this’ ”.

Bellamy went on to say: “We were reaching that point where there was talk about maybe doing a greatest hits album, and we weren’t really in favour of doing that…“So it’s almost like we’ve made a record that is a greatest hits album – of new songs. That means this album might have a metal track on it – and it’s like, the best metal track we’ve ever done. Or there’s a sort of soft ballad, love song and it’s probably the best ballad love song we’ve ever done, and so on…It’s a montage of the best of Muse. It’s a new take on all of those types of genres that we’ve touched on in the past.”

You can pre-order Muse’s forthcoming ninth record Will of the People here, including physical media.

For EU and US fans, Muse have announced a short albeit intimate tour, consisting of dates in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, New York City, Amsterdam, Paris and Milan. The band said in regard to this small tour: “We had such a good time at our recent charity shows at the Apollo in London last month we wanted to play some of these types of smaller theatres that we hadn’t played for a long time in the U.S and Europe before we head out on tour in 2023”.

More information regarding the forthcoming tour, including tickets, can be viewed here.

Simulation Theory – out November 9th

Muse are releasing the album in three main formats: a Standard edition with 11 tracks, Deluxe with 16 and Super Deluxe with 21 tracks. The extended LPs will feature an ‘expanded gospel version’ of ‘Dig Down’, a version of ‘Pressure’ with the UCLA Bruin Marching Band and a live version of ‘Contagion’, as well as an assortment of alternate acoustic takes.

The eleven-track release was mainly produced by the band itself, but they received production help from LA-based Rich Costey (known for his work with Sigur Rós and Foster The People), Mike Elizondo (Nelly Furtado and Pink), Swedish-born Shellback (Pink, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears) and hip-hop luminary Timbaland, who’s credited for work with the likes of Jay-Z, Ludacris and Madonna.

The LP also features some striking retro-’80s artwork thanks to Kyle Lambert, who did the posters for Stranger Things and Jurassic Park. See the tracklist below:

1.    Algorithm
2.    The Dark Side
3.    Pressure
4.    Propaganda
5.    Break It To Me
6.    Something Human
7.    Thought Contagion
8.    Get Up and Fight
9.    Blockades
10.    Dig Down
11.    The Void

In support of the announcement, the Devon band today released second track ‘The Dark Side’ as a single. Accompanied by a striking Tron-style music video, the ’80s vibe is everywhere with this track: cycling drums and compressed drums combine to create a dramatic video-game-style backing, and Matt Bellamy’s emotive wails hark back to singers like Annie Lennox and Midge Ure.

The new album will be Muse’s first since 2015’s Drones, a concept album centred on a soldier’s 1984-style escape from government indoctrination.