✖️ Autonomy on a human scale: cooperatives to DAOs
And: Apple spatial audio headset; Parasocial marketing; Kanye's Donda Stemplayer; Top30 metaverse influencers; Rocking against climate change; Bright Moments DAO; Virtual is here to stay
DAOs are hot right now. In the world of blockchains if you bring together a couple of people who share profits, voting rights, or create some form of community it’s almost impossible not to be called a DAO. But the idea of a decentralized autonomous organization has a long history. Around 160 years ago the concept of the cooperative took shape in Britain. In a country industrialising at a rapid pace, workers came together to form groups that shared responsibility and found ways to match industrialists who turned their businesses (mostly factory-work related businesses) into corporations. Of course, this long history of the DAO isn’t a new framework, but I will have a look at the what the purposes, struggles and general history of the cooperative movement can teach DAOs and those thinking of setting up a DAO.
TECH
👩 The top 30 most influential people in the metaverse (Joel Comm)
“3. Cathy Hackl is a globally recognized tech futurist and business executive with deep experience working in metaverse-related fields with companies like HTC VIVE, Magic Leap, and Amazon Web Services. She’s the founder of the Futures Intelligence Group where she advises Fortune 1000 and top luxury fashion brands on metaverse growth strategies, NFTs, and how to extend their brands into virtual worlds. She’s a sought-after consultant, speaker, and media personality. Hackl was recently featured in 60 Minutes+, Bloomberg and Cheddar’s coverage of the metaverse and is a contributor to Forbes. She’s writing an anticipated book on the business opportunities of the metaverse that will be published by Bloomsbury Publishing.”
🪙 Some Filipino merchants prefer payment in Axie’s SLP (Leah Callon-Butler)
If you’ve been following us around Web3 in recent months you will have heard of Axie Infinity as an example of how in-game revenue can replace ‘real-world’ income for some people, mostly in the Philippines. What’s interesting is how this shifts people’s understanding of currency:
“Living in the Philippines, I’ve seen this tendency to value SLP [ed. note: Smooth Love Potion is the token currency in Axie Infinity] in relation to real-world items, too. It seems the player community cares less about how much SLP is worth in terms of PHP or USD. A friend of mine, on his first day of playing Axie, excitedly told me he had earned three Chicken Joys in just a few hours. If you already know that Chicken Joy is a popular item on the menu at the much-loved fast food store in the Philippines called Jollibee, you’ll also know that this is a highly relatable and culturally relevant unit of account, understood instantly by Filipinos everywhere.”
🔆 Bright Moments DAO (Fred Wilson)
At the height of the NFT hype Bright Moments provided a gallery space for people to showcase their NFTs. In doing so, they created a bridge between the crypto-world and the real world. I have to admit that when this happened I thought it was more a gimmick than anything else and that the story of setting up a gallery DAO, which accompanied the news reports around the gallery, was far-fetched. Now, the Bright Moments DAO has bridged to the real world again with Union Square Ventures investing. Their reason:
“We are interested in and excited by the intersection of the real world and the virtual world and we think Bright Moments has found an interesting model to bring new people into crypto in a fun and entertaining way.”
👓 Apple wins a patent relating to spatial audio in context with augmented reality and a future HMD (Jack Purcher)
“Apple's patent FIG. 1 below represents a flowchart of a method of augmenting spatial audio rendition; FIG. 2 is a pictorial view of a user handling an audio system.”
📐 Fans can customise songs from Kanye West’s ‘DONDA’ album with new stem player (Charlotte Krol)
I recently wrote about merch and Bas has written about non-static music. Who other than Kanye West to brings those two things together.
“The silicone-cased stem player, which comes with a carry case and USB cable, has specs including 8GB storage, a 97db speaker and four touch-sensitive light sliders among much more. Its tools include real-time loop/speed controls as well as live sampling and one hits.”
X
💰 The G20 lauded culture as our path to recovery: It now needs to invest in it (Shain Shapiro)
“As such, it presents a unique opportunity. Investing in culture - and the sectors and disciplines that make up the creative economy - can accelerate recovery and drive economic growth not only in the G20 nations, but also to all nations. And this is one of the most globally accepted blueprints to help guide this. However, this juxtaposition - stating culture is important in a formal declaration despite often lacking policies, processes and budgets to invest in and realise the value of artists and culture - remains a challenge.”
🎞️ Virtual is here to stay: 'Without technology, the business wouldn't have survived' (Gideon Gottfried)
“35% of respondents consider the ease of access and thus potentially higher attendance the main benefit of virtual events. 53.2% saw growth in their worldwide audience, while 53.4% saw the number of international attendees rise. Meanwhile, 17.5% believe virtual is less demanding on the team, and costs less overall.”
🪕 Trust me, you want this: Host-read ads and rise of parasocial marketing (Camilla Cannon)
Advertising in music and music-related services involves big data and big money. In podcasts, it’s more personal and more like a brand partnership than an advertising deal.
“By leveraging the emotional investments of listeners in their podcast communities and the seeming honesty and authenticity of hosts, marketers can overcome some of the skepticism and resentment consumers have toward advertising. Ads appear instead as a key and welcome aspect of a podcast’s community building. The infusion of a signature sense of humor and personalization in host-read ads exemplifies how readily the cognitive barriers between marketer and consumer, banter and persuasion, spokesperson and friend, profit and community participation, are dissolved.”
😷 Covid: 85-90% of the U.S. must be vaccinated ‘if we’re going to get past this,’ warns Dr. Peter Hotez (Emily DeCiccio)
“If you are in crowded conditions outside, this is pretty highly transmissible, so certainly, any kind of sporting event, music event -- you would not want to go in there without a mask.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital
🤘 Rocking against climate change (Amber Healy)
Earlier this year, the Canadian chapter of Music Declares Emergency (MDE) kicked off, featuring more than 200 artists including Tegan & Sara, LAL, Sarah Harmer, Caribou and members of both Broken Social Scene and Tokyo Police Club. That group specifically is working for a carbon-neutral future. This is a local-ish chapter of an international group that includes Radiohead, Billie Eilish and the xx in addition to others. Musicians in MDE pledge support to efforts including calling on governments to be transparent about the urgent emergency of climate change, the need to act now to protect biodiversity and obtain net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and to urge the music industry in particular to take action to fight climate change.”
MUSIC
This music can be qualified as a lot of things, which is probably why the artist talks about genre-less music. Mostly, it’s a wonderful listen that showcases what it means to brings electronics and composed music together today. And there’s a good dose of dub involved.