✖️ A music service based on collective bids on NFTs (aka fractional NFT ownership)
And: Music blockchain initiative map; Afrofuturism; Music industry x climate change; Bangladeshi songs of climate disaster; Songkick founder's carbon offsetting startup
The past week saw people using a new tool called PartyBid to collectively bid on NFTs. When the bid was won, everyone received tokens proportional to their commitment to the bidding pool.
What if groups of fans participated in similar dynamics to buy music NFTs?
What types of services might emerge to cater to them?
In today’s piece I explore the intersection of Bandcamp-like music services, NFTs, and fan communities.
TECH
🗺 Music Blockchain Initiatives v0.6 (Mighty33)
“This board is an extended resource to document the early and ongoing initiatives converging between music and blockchain technology in general from 2015.”
🚪 We Made A Door: the evolution of Endlesss (Endlesss)
I was having dinner with a few folks late one evening during the Midem conference in Cannes a few years ago when someone (was it Stuart Dredge, was it James Martin? Sorry, blurry memories!) mentioned I should hear about this new app by musician Tim Exile who was having dinner a few tables down the terrace. One or two sentences into our conversation and my attention was caught — I’ve long been interested in people moving beyond static music & this app, which was still in alpha or maybe beta, would make that more accessible.
A few years later, after the product had rolled out and built up a sizeable community around it, I wrote Music’s non-static future as seen through music making app Endlesss. By then, it had become more than an app: it was a community of music makers and a social digital audio workstation that functioned both on mobile and on desktop.
Now, the team tells the story of Endlesss and its evolution from a personal instrument to what it has become - and the 30-year history behind it.
🔭 How Afrofuturism can help the world mend (C. Brandon Ogbunu)
“Afrofuturism reminds us that Black culture in much of the world is a remix culture, and liberation emerges from the recombination between our artistic and political ambitions, and whatever tools are at our disposal. Afrofuturism predicts that the events of 2020 will breed new techno-political movements (as it already has), new artistic forms, means of expression, discoveries, and philosophies.”
💸 The subscription buffet may be over (Shira Ovide)
“Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime typically charge one fee for access to a collection of goodies. There are signs, however, that the all-you-can-eat digital subscriptions are becoming more nuanced. Spotify and YouTube are experimenting with subscriptions that cost less but come with compromises.”
🐒 Status Monkeys: analyzing NFTs as social networks using the Status-as-a-Service framework (Packy McCormick)
Both my co-editor Maarten Walraven and I have been writing about the importance of social context & status for NFTs (e.g. drawing the parallel with vanity goods in games and status in fandom). This piece by Packy McCormick dives a little (ok—a lot) deeper into the topic starting from the collective bid of 478 collectors using PartyBid and then laying out the cultural aspects about this emerging social web(3).
“When I wrote that, “crypto is kind of the native token for the Great Online Game,” it’s that portability that I was referring to. You can earn status in one place, own it without platform risk, and carry it with you across the internet. The same holds for NFTs, no matter which platforms rise and fall. Any social network that has profile pictures (read: all social networks) are fertile ground for NFTs to spread.”
This also mirrors what I wrote in last week’s piece about data autonomy and the creator economy.
x GREEN
In light of yesterday’s IPCC report (Greta Thunberg calls for “brave action” against climate change in wake of damning UN report), I’m dedicating this section to sustainability today.
🚒 No Music On A Dead Planet – why the music industry must address climate change now (Sarah Lavigne)
“Whether you are a touring production, an arena, whether you’re a festival, the biggest impacts can be made by reducing energy and transport emission and food impact.”
- Claire O’Neill, co-founder & director of A Greener Festival
🌊 Songkick co-founder launches a carbon-offsetting startup (Stuart Dredge)
““Our software enables you to measure, reduce, and offset your climate impact in weeks without the need for a sustainability team,” is the promise. “We only sell high-quality carbon removal because it’s the only legitimate route to net zero.” The idea being to help companies get up and running as quickly as possible, given the accelerating state of emergency.”
🏟 It's not easy being green: podcast with Reverb's Adam Gardner (Climate Control Projects)
“When Reverb first started up in the early aughts, "green was just a color," but now the organization can boast great strides in the endeavor of concert and event greening, the spearheading of multiple programs to reduce concert and tour footprints and engaging fans at shows to take action.”
🎻 Classical Music Green Guide launched by the Scottish Classical Sustainability Group (Musicians’ Union)
“Aimed at changing behaviours not only in organisations, but in individual musicians and audiences across the country, and for both professional and leisure-time ensembles, the guide is the culmination of discussions around how the sector can best address the Climate Emergency as we aim for a Net Zero society.”
🇧🇩 Loss, longing and rivers – songs of Bangladesh (The Third Pole)
“The Third Pole travelled to different regions of Bangladesh to record how local musicians capture environmental and climate change impacts on their lives and livelihoods.”
MUSIC
No music on a dead planet. Go read about what action you can take.
