In March 2014, the Wu-Tang Clan, through producer and leader, Robert Diggs, announced that they will be releasing an album with only one copy. The price of the one-of-kind album, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," will depend on how much the highest bidder will be willing to pay for the album that is literally the only one of its kind.
In an interview with Forbes, RZA says, "We're about to put out a piece of art like nobody else has done in the history of music." The group was very confident that this album would blow up in price since it was the only one of its kind. RZA even describes that the ownership if the album can be likened to owning the scepter of an Egyptian king.
The buyer will be given total freedom about what he wants to do with the album. An initial rule forbids the buyer to release the album publicly for 88 years but was soon scratched out. Now the buyer can do whatever he wants to the album except for selling it commercially.
Bloomberg says that "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" offers a chance to own something truly unique amidst this era of online streaming.
The bidding pushed the album's value to 2 million dollars, making the buyer so controversial. After revealing that the buyer's identity as Martin Shkreli, pharmaceutical entrepreneur, things got more interesting.
Shkreli has been recently on the news for increasing the price of an AIDS medication from $13.50 to $750 per pill which led to him being dubbed as a morally bankrupt sociopath.
"I was a little worried that they were going to walk out of the deal, but by then we'd closed," Shkreli says. The price increase happened after he sealed the deal with the Wu Tang Clan in his alleged fear that the price increase on the AIDS pill would make the Clan cancel the agreement.
Shkreli seems to have found a new way of spending his money as he seems to be looking forward to buying exclusive tracks from other artists as well. "Do your best work, however much time it takes and never compromise anything for me," he says, "I just want to hear what you've got."