Summer 2023: August 30

So here we are, about a year and a half after my first NFT collab was released. In that time, I’ve worked with photographers, animators, my family, and a bunch of new music friends. I’ve reawakened my love for drawing, animation, shooting music videos, released art of all kinds on multiple blockchains, and mostly had a ton of fun utilizing my varied skills in this creative playhouse called Web3.

So…now what? What’s my plan? OK, I have a confession. My entire life, I’ve stumbled through my successes and failures, my getting married, having kids, moving around the country, and pretty much everything else with basically zero plan. I (and now we) have just been doing whatever feels right, flying by the proverbial seat of our pants. It’s been fun and exciting and rewarding and stressful - and I wouldn’t change a thing. This life philosophy doesn’t lend itself well to coming up with a blueprint moving forward, but I feel like after 18 months of experimenting and throwing stuff at the wall, it’s time. Hence, PLAN ZERO RECORDS.

The one constant in my artist-life is my love of music. Don’t get me wrong, all the visual arts I work in are a close second, but when it comes down to it, making music with people has been my north star. So this is what I’m gonna do. I’m starting a Curator label with Tokentraxx called, PLAN ZERO RECORDS, and henceforth will be dropping the majority of my music NFTs and music videos (both animated and traditional) there. Why “Plan Zero”? Well, beyond the jokey reason above, here is the company ethos:

“In art and life, you can always reinvent yourself. It's never too late to go back to Zero…and then crank it up. Web3 is the new frontier for the music business, and Plan Zero Records is here to help artists at any point in their journey dive in. After more than 30 years in the music business, countless recordings, hit songs, multi-platinum success, multiple Grammy nominations, and a Latin Grammy win, Gen ‘Genzo’ Rubin has discovered the world of Web3 and wants to share the creative freedom and excitement he’s found with his friends, his family, and new artists just starting their careers.”

As I’ve said many times before, Web3 was a new start for me, right at a time when I was thinking about giving up on music. Honestly, even my 30+ years in the music biz felt like a bunch of disjointed moments of starting from scratch. One year I have a hit song, and the next I’m figuring out how to do it all again. One year I’m working on R&B and Pop, the next I’m neck deep in the Latin market, figuring out what Cumbia is. Plan Zero will provide a fresh start for friends and collaborators. Some of them were lucky enough to have record deals with major labels, only to have them fall apart due to politics or bad timing. Some of them are great talents who never got their shot for one reason or another. Plan Zero will be a launchpad for new artists, trying to forge a path in an unforgiving business. PLAN ZERO RECORDS is a place for all of us to start building a community of friends, supporters, and fans of great music.

So the plan is…fine! I still don’t know where we’re headed! Do any of us? What I can tell you is being a holder of PLAN ZERO NFTs will get you access to me and to the knowledge I’ve accumulated over 30+ years in the trenches. There will be a private chat group of all the artists and collectors where we can hang out and build a community of people who truly love music and art, where we can support each other and where you’ll be able to ask me whatever you want (yes, that includes specific music and Web3 advice). Hopefully this becomes a place where we share knowledge, foster new collabs and relationships, and build a fun little corner in Web3 that one day can grow into something bigger. Holders will also get token-gated access to future online events, possible educational livestrea -- wait, lemme stop myself there. I don’t wanna over-promise when I don’t know how technically feasible some of the thing I’m pondering are. But I can promise you that I’ll be thinking of ways to give back to the community, things I was never able to do while in the traditional biz, when I had no connection to the sometimes millions of people listening to my stuff. We are starting with small, exclusive drops so I’m not preoccupied with trying to manage a big community or having to constantly think about floor prices. This is truly going to be about the music and the people.

For fun, before we get to the good stuff, here’s a limited free mint of an animated version of the Plan Zero logo. It’ll be worth something somewhere down the road in conjunction with something else. We’ll figure it out when we get there. And it’s kinda cool, too.

COME ALONG FOR THE RIDE

Join me on my journey by subscribing here on Mirror and following my X accounts, @genzomusic and @planzerorecords, and if you see or hear anything you like along the way, help support me and my collaborators as we all build together. You can also subscribe (minus the ability to collect) on Substack. Thanks for reading!