✖️ Video primer: set up your crypto wallet, buy your first NFT, and be onboarded to the Web3
And: Blockchain vs record labels; TikTok launches shoutouts; Covid outbreaks in clubs; automated ads for catalog music; inclusion riders; blockchain feminism
This year we’ve written a lot about blockchain use cases for music. From decentralised autonomous organisations, NFTs, to DeFi - the emerging Web3 is creating a new landscape with its own vision for dynamics around creation and participation.
To get more of you onboarded into the Web3, I’ve created a primer video in which we’ll set up your crypto wallet and buy your first NFT. You’ll need about 20 dollars & minutes to complete all the steps, but you can also follow along without spending anything.
There’s a short accompanying article, which you can view here. It contains tips on how to do this via Tezos, a cleaner blockchain with lower gas fees (=cheaper). There’s also a smart contract for you to interact with using your new wallets (optional).
TECH
🥊 Blockchain vs. Record labels (Omar Ismail)
“I firmly believe that blockchains will enable the disintermediation of the music industry — allowing artists to independently fundraise, create and distribute their work in the way that they choose.'“
👮♂️ People keep tokenizing other users’ art. Here’s how artists can protect their work (Nikhilesh De)
Always make sure you're buying the NFT from the actual creator - otherwise it will have next to no value. Make sure your funds end up with the creator. If it's a remix or iteration, check to see if there's some type of split set up.
🎮 Reality privilege and living your life online (Rex Woodbury)
“Virtual worlds and economies will be owned and controlled by creators and consumers. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), DeFi, social tokens, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs)—all are central components of this future.”
📣 TikTok launches Shoutouts (Fabian ‘Bern’ Ouwehand)
Looks like TikTok is bringing something that was already happening in its wider creator ecosystem directly into its own economy:
“Fans can request birthday wishes, pep talks and other messages from their favourite creators. Fans can directly pay in-app, through TikTok’s in-apps currency (also used for live-stream gifting).”
📈 Could this automated advertising platform drive $3 billion in revenue for catalog music? (Emma Griffiths)
“Westcott’s automatic system tracks daily stream data and other industry signals to determine when, who, how much, and how long to launch a campaign. Technology and automation is used to mitigate the music rights holders’ marketing budget to gain the best return, based on consumer behavior in the marketing in real-time (or within 72 hours of that moment of increased awareness).”
Kristin Westcott Grant, Westcott Multimedia CEO
X
🌐 Emerging markets may be about to change the superstar business (Mark Mulligan)
“Streaming’s cultural impact on local scenes was actually first seen at scale in Europe, with German, Dutch and French rap scenes fast emerging that found massive domestic popularity but that rarely export. In the old model, the lack of ‘exportability’ meant no record deal which meant no local scene. Streaming changed that.”
⛓ Why we need a feminist manifesta of the blockchain (Claudia Hart)
“The blockchain signals a shift in our identity formation in the 21st century… NFT identity on the blockchain inspired me because it seems to embody an evolved version of the liberation politics of my youth, when I was an idealistic “identity” artist.”
😷 165 people who attended a Dutch nightclub have tested positive for COVID-19 (Megan Townsend)
After cases dropped in The Netherlands, clubs were allowed to reopen without facemask or social distancing requirements. All people had to do was provide a negative rapid test. Now, 165 out of 600 people at one event got infected and the number may still rise.
🛸 How Hyperpop became a force capable of reaching and rearranging the mainstream (Emma Madden)
“Hyperpop is a structurally reactive phenomenon. It seeks to find new entry points into the mainstream, with the ambition to simultaneously drain experimental music of its elitism and exclusivism, while making mainstream music more challenging and boundary-pushing.”
🎛 What are inclusion riders and why are DJs talking about them? (Felicity Martin)
“In Hollywood, it means that you can ask for and/or demand at least 50 per cent diversity, not just in casting but also in the crew. In the music industry, however, they’re less common – research recently undertaken by Pirate Studios found that only seven per cent of the 700 artists they surveyed currently have an inclusion rider, while only 30 per cent knew what one was.”
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MUSIC
I’ve been listening a lot to I was gonna fight fascism, by the British band Soccer96. Prog, with jazz influences.