✖️ Instagram & Shopify NFTs; TikTok algorithm changes; Music NFT fan sentiment; Web3 onboarding strategies; Creator subscription economy; Indie publishing rights' market share
Happy holidays from MUSIC x 🎅🏻🎄🎅🏻
Hi everyone,
A shorter edition this week without a featured article from my hand, since I’m tying up some loose ends before the holidays. If you’re looking for some great reads that dive deeper into culture, I highly recommend checking the Brazil editorial series my colleagues at COLORS have been working on.
Happy holidays. Don’t forget to switch off for a while.
TECH
📷 Instagram Is "Actively Exploring" NFTs, According to CEO Adam Mosseri (Dylan Kelly)
Over the course of the past year I’ve repeatedly mused about the giants of web2 entering the web3 space. If, or when, companies like PayPal, Block (Square, Tidal, Cash App) and Instagram make a push into this space, it could mean a lot for bringing the tech into a UX layer that’s actually approachable for most consumers. I wonder if that means that for most people, the web3 will end up meaning interoperable walled gardens with some data autonomy, rather than the dreams of decentralization that most people currently in the web3 space have.
🛍 Sell NFTs on Shopify (Shopify)
Another web2 giant to watch, that is just entering the space, is Shopify. It allows sellers to mint to blockchains like Ethereum and Polygon, as well as Near, and Flow (US-only for now).
I like that they’re mindful of adding context to NFTs, by considering airdrops and membership tiers.
🚢 Behind the headlines: Analyzing Web3 onboarding strategies for music fans (Water & Music)
“Beyond the financial freedom and opportunity for the artist — which are both obviously valid parts of the equation — why will Web3 infrastructure make the fan’s experience better?”
🙂 Analyzing fan sentiment of music NFT drops (Water & Music)
“It’s possible to be mindful of externalities primarily outside of our control, such as the environmental cost of blockchain technology, while still prioritizing levers within our control (authentic creation, community building, intention and value), making those the primary focus around a release.”
📱 TikTok tackles filter bubbles (Sara Fischer)
“The company is testing ways to avoid recommending content that, viewed sparingly, isn't harmful, but viewed sequentially could be problematic, like extreme dieting videos.”
X
💭 DEATHGUILD COMPENDIUM— ISSUE #18 (Travis Wyche)
“Can it still be considered a commons if it’s constantly changing, if it can’t be kept in common? How is it accessible, if that can be used as an analogy? Can I just walk in there? What’s a commons?”
🕸 The Future of Work is Not Corporate — It’s DAOs and Crypto Networks (Ben Schecter)
“People’s income will be a mix of things we already currently do in our lives (e.g., play games), things we think of as traditional work (e.g., bounties / contracts), and things that are currently accessible to only a small percentage of the population (e.g., investing, passive income). To think of it another way, DAOs will expand the type and quantity of opportunities that are open to several types of participants, including token holders, bounty hunters, and core contributors.”
🫂 What’s Next for Friends With Benefits? (Will Gottsegen)
“As it has grown, Friends With Benefits has also become an incubator for new crypto projects. David Greenstein, a longtime FWB member, co-founded a company [Sound.xyz] with a musician and coder he met in the Discord server earlier this year; yesterday, their company announced a $5 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz.”
🎹 Are we witnessing the rise of the $9.99 creator subscription economy? (Murray Stassen)
“That infamous $9.99 monthly price point is now also becoming a fixture of another important – and fast-growing – segment of the modern music industry: that offering artists tools and instruments with which to create music and sell creations.”
🌐 IMPF launches Independent Music Publishing Global Market View 2021 (IMPF)
“On average, 46.8% of songs in Spotify’s Top 50 involve indie music publishers. Data provided by BMAT to IMPF shows that, in key markets such as Canada and Germany, indie publishers control shares on 36% of the tracks in the charts. In France this percentage goes up to 52%, in the UK it’s 40% and in the US 32%. In Brazil and Japan, this percentage is even higher with indie publishers controlling shares on 56% and 76% of tracks respectively.”
MUSIC
This remix release by drum & bass OGs Noisia filled up multiple slots in my Spotify Release Radar, due to some of the remixing artists having their tracks drop as singles on the same release date. Some of the more exciting sounds in this space. Can’t leave this without a web3-twist: you should follow Thys, who is part of Noisia, on Twitter and check out his music NFTs.