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Headlines 📰

• Solana Spaces Shutting Down Retail Locations in New York City and Miami
• Ubisoft Dives Deeper into Web3 with Rabbids NFTs on The Sandbox Platform
• Next-Gen Music Curation: Spotify Dabbles with NFTs for Personalized Playlists

Solana Spaces Shutting Down Retail Locations in New York City and Miami

Solana Spaces, the Solana-themed retail chain, has made the tough decision to close its company-owned and operated stores in New York City and Miami by the end of February. This move is due to the prolonged crypto winter affecting their ambitious plans.

The Solana Spaces Twitter account announced that the company will now focus on its digital products, such as DRiP, a free NFT product with over 100,000 sign-ups, to continue its Solana onboarding efforts.

Last summer, Solana Spaces opened its first physical store in New York's Hudson Yards, aiming to act as a Web3 onboarding space for newcomers and allowing Solana fans to purchase their favorite branded merch.

The Solana stores joined a growing list of IRL projects, including Bored & Hungry, a Bored Ape Yacht Club-themed fast food restaurant in Los Angeles.

Solana Spaces founder Vibhu Norby acknowledged that the closure was a difficult decision to make, stating that "Realistically, we were a startup that was chasing a path. Obviously, like many founders had to make difficult decisions sometimes, and this was one of them."

Ubisoft Dives Deeper into Web3 with Rabbids NFTs on The Sandbox Platform

Ubisoft, a major video game publisher, has continued its foray into the world of Web3 with the release of Rabbids NFT avatars for the Ethereum metaverse game, The Sandbox. This move follows Ubisoft's initial announcement one year ago that it planned to bring its popular Rabbids characters to The Sandbox.

Ubisoft has released 2,066 of the Rabbids avatars via the Polygon Ethereum scaling network, with each NFT selling for 100 SAND (approximately $78). The drop is themed after the Lunar New Year, in honor of the year of the rabbit in 2023, and the Rabbids will feature various designs that will be revealed to buyers on Friday.

The Sandbox will launch a Rabbids game world on February 28 as part of the current open alpha test, which houses a limited number of playable experiences. The avatars are considered a "key to future utility" in The Sandbox, with access to potential future drops. Ubisoft continues to make waves in the Web3 world after being the first major video game publisher to release in-game NFT items with Ghost Recon Breakpoint in December 2021.

Next-Gen Music Curation: Spotify Dabbles with NFTs for Personalized Playlists

According to a recent tweet by Kingship, a metaverse band under Universal Music Group, Spotify is collaborating with NFT-based communities to offer exclusive content through token-gated playlists. The pilot project is currently limited to certain regions and available only to Android users in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. Unfortunately, iPhone users will not have access to this feature due to Apple's restriction on NFT functionalities.

Kingship has launched a special playlist that can only be accessed by Kingship key card NFT holders.

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The playlists are unlocked through NFTs, and users need to link their crypto wallet, such as Metamask, Trust Wallet, Rainbow, Ledger Live, or Zerion, to authenticate the NFT that unlocks the playlist. This innovative collaboration between Spotify and NFT-based communities is set to provide users with exclusive content and pave the way for new forms of music distribution.