Many years ago, before streaming music was ubiquitous and easily accessible, I decided to give my music away for free. It didn’t make sense to many people at the time. I found myself explaining to musician friends why I was doing it, how it would allow their music to spread lightning fast. It was a new way of thinking. A few were intrigued but couldn’t quite understand why it made sense. I get it. They poured themselves into their music. Countless hours, emotions. They wanted their music to pay them, not them pay it. 

Of course, the pendulum eventually swung and a waterfall of artists began giving their music away for free. 

I was not the first person to give my music away for free, and I definitely am not the first musician exploring web3, but I do feel that we are at the early stages of something that is likely to be normalized in many aspects of society and industry. This is a familiar territory/feeling for me. Just like that feeling of being on a new frontier of giving music away for free. NFTs, DAOs, and Web3 are opening my mind to what is possible, what’s next for the arts, business, people, nonprofits, and beyond.  

About a year ago, I began releasing music on Catalog.Works. To my surprise, I sold 9 of my singles as unique 1/1 NFTs. From that moment, a significant portion of my attention turned to ideas of what it meant to be a web3 musician. What would a DAO around The Polish Ambassador look like? How could it weave into live shows, album structure, album royalties, storytelling around a project, giving back to fans, friends, the planet? How could multiple web3 projects (i.e. - new music, a 15-year discography, a graphic novel, video games, concerts, etc.) link together to support its community under one umbrella DAO? I feel like every day I talk to new people about it, new neurons are firing. I see that this is just the beginning for me.    

So. Today, I’ve decided to transfer all the ETH from my Catalog.Works sales to ThePolishAmbassaDAO community treasury as the first transfer. I’ve received around 8 ETH of sales from the singles that were sold on Catalog.Works. Big ups to collectors (Blockchain Brett, Coalie Bee, Wronski, DeejFi, and Rhtkpr) who were the purchasers. Big ups to Mike and the guys at Catalog for breaking major ground and opening my eyes to so much.

Community members of ThePolishAmbassaDAO will help guide how those funds are used to continue to support the community they are a part of. It’s been rad to watch our Discord build to almost 600 members over just a couple of weeks. I trust the community that is building around this project. It’s a warm, receptive, helpful crew looking to go on a journey together… and I’m honored to be the captain of the Space Escalade ;) Lots more to come!

Thanks!

David aka Polish

PS - Just a note. When we create governance tokens for the DAO, Catalog NFT purchasers will be rewarded accordingly as will the first purchasers of The Polish Ambassador to Space Graphic Novel Trading Card Deck. It’s a trading card deck based on my recent graphic novel with JC Lacek. Check that out here.

You can pick up a copy of the graphic novel here.

PSPS - There is currently a new (1/1) track set for auction on Catalog.Works. We’re going to do all of the same with that track if anyone wants to kick off that auction. You can peep it here.