What are music artists doing in NFTs? Well, instead of using the technology to their advantage and becoming independent artists like you see so many movies about, you see them scamming people for thousands, or even hundreds of dollars, and for what? That was my logic when I first bought into a project that was promoted by people like DJ Khaled and French Montana. What do they have to gain other than some money? Which by the looks of their Instagram posts and their luscious lifestyles they seemed to have plenty of. It never made sense to me, it still doesn’t to this day, but here we are, still talking about how Soulja Boy used fans as exit liquidity, again.

After spending the past year and a half trying to educate myself on the space, more specifically “the culture”, it’s still something that I’m trying to understand myself. When first learning about Ethereum I was the person that was saying “This can go with anything!”. Uber, Ticketmaster, a new world currency, you name it, I’ve probably daydreamed about it. My imagination wasted no time, but the one that really stuck with me to this day is the Ticketmaster concept. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve been scammed a few times trying to buy tickets on Craigslist, the most recent one being the 2020 World Series where the Dodgers won in Game 6. Ya, Game 6, when they won it, I was supposed to be at that game. Instead, my dad and I were scammed for $1,700. We bought, or we thought we bought two tickets on the first baseline, but when the tickets never came through, my heart sank, and I knew we wouldn’t be attending. Instead, we watched the Dodgers Win the World Series at home, all because we (more so me) decided to trust a random human on craigslist. It’s the sad world we live in where people can buy tickets and mark them up 10 times what they bought them for, and where others can scam people using fake tickets because there’s no flawless way to verify who owns each one. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way, and the music artists, athletes, all these people that you see using the technology to scam you, could be using it to benefit not only themselves, but the fan as well.  

Prime example is earlier this year I saw Taylor Swift post about her terrible experience with Ticketmaster, the site ultimately failing, leaving a lot of fans without tickets. While writing this article, I found this great episode from the podcast Slate where they discuss not only the Ticketmaster meltdown, but also talk about the history of Ticketmaster and how it’s monopolized over time. I highly recommend listening to it so you can have a better understanding of the past 30+ years that Ticketmaster has dominated the ticket selling game, but you don’t have to. The fact of the matter is the fans aren’t happy about how tickets are being sold and haven’t been for decades, and it doesn’t seem like the music artists who are paying attention are happy with it either. Luckily, the technology is here for us to be able to fix that. For us to be able to go see our favorite artist for the cost that’s on the face of the ticket, or should I say, NFT, and not the price that some scalper deems worthy. The way I look at it is like this, there’s two entities that should be receiving compensation for the sale of a ticket, the venue where the concert will be held, and the artist(s) who will be performing. That’s it. Some random third party shouldn’t be receiving any “fees” just for creating a website that sells the tickets to you, and they sure as hell shouldn’t be the market maker, ultimately telling the artist(s) what their tickets are going to sell for. What happens currently is criminal, what happens currently is pure greed, and what happens currently is taking away the opportunity for people see their favorite artist sing their favorite song live at legendary music venues (and not so legendary ones).

Growing up in Colorado I was lucky to have the beautiful Red Rock Amphitheater in my backyard. From attending the first ever Winter On The Rocks with Atmosphere, to Marylin Manson and Alice Cooper, and then my all-time favorite Pretty Lights multiple times over, I’ve had the best experiences of my life attending those concerts. The experience of buying the tickets, however, was always the worst. Most of the time I would be forced to buy them off StubHub for 3-4 times the cost they were sold at 10 minutes prior. The reason I bring this up is because I’m not just a person wanting change with the current experience a fan goes through when buying a ticket, but I’m a fan myself.

Earlier this week I was in the midst of researching QR Codes trying to understand how they worked, but more importantly I was trying to find a way to implement these into a smart contract so they could be scanned as a ticket to get into a concert. My mind went from how to randomize the QR codes, to how to scan them at point of entry, to how can these not be replicated? Then I realized after having a couple conversations with ChatGPT, that we don’t need QR codes, we just need a new way to verify the person holding an NFT at the point of entry. While I’m not sure how to do this yet, it made me realize the main problem has already been solved, that is, getting rid of the greedy middlemen that control the industry.  While there’s multiple ways to skin this cat, I believe the most logical would be to deploy a dApp on the Polygon Network.

What is a dApp?

: A dApp is a decentralized application, meaning that there’s not a central entity that would be able to shut it down or control it in any way. To start, this dApp would need to start as a regular App, but overtime it will shift into a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). I’m referring specifically to this ticket exchange concept in this instance, but dApps are controlled by DAO’s because otherwise it would be controlled by no one. If it is (controlled by someone) and it’s referred to as a dApp, it’s not, it’s just an App or it’s in the App stage with intentions to become decentralized.

Who is Polygon?

                : for this, I asked ChatGPT to explain it in 3 sentences to someone that’s 5, here is what it said “The Polygon Network is like a big playground where different computer programs can come and play together. These programs are called "smart contracts" and they help people trade, play games, and do many other fun things without needing a grown-up, like a bank or a company, to help them. Polygon makes it easier and cheaper for these programs to play together by creating a special space, kind of like a super playground, where everything is faster and costs less.”

As you can see, ChatGPT pointed out the fact that the programs being used are called “Smart Contracts”, so just think of it as a regular contract. Let’s say I’m the smart contract and I’m selling tickets to the Taylor Swift Concert. You want a ticket, so you open your wallet and pay for one, then I deposit a ticket into your wallet after you’ve paid however much the cost was. The beautiful thing is, a new Smart Contract can be deployed every time there’s a Taylor Swift Concert. It’s cost effective, since it’s on the Polygon Network, but it also has the security of Ethereum which is the second largest Crypto Currency Network in the world. With the Smart Contract it makes all the difference, because not only are they easy and cheap to deploy, but you can also make special parameters within the contract. The most important of which will help impose the rule that will eliminate scalpers and brokers from the ticket selling business completely, it’s called resellPrice. For those that are new to Web3, with a Smart Contract, we can set variables in the code that act as parameters that buyers have to live by. Bye bye scalpers (if this is what the artist decides to do within their smart contract). Ultimately, we could set the “resellPrice” at the sell price, so if a person can’t make the show, they can list it on a marketplace and someone else can buy it at the original cost, only paying the network fees (minimal amount paid to regular people like you and me securing the network, think of it like tax, but astronomically less than what you’re used to, and it’s not being used on bombs to kill innocent people).  

With that problem being solved, the rest of the process would be just as easy. The artist could set up a list that acts as their “fans list” which would consist of wallet addresses. Let’s say that Ms. Swift was doing a show at Red Rocks and there were 5k fans that she needed a ticket for, she could set that parameter in the Smart Contract, and 5k tickets would only be able to be “minted” (sold) to those 5k wallets she set up within the smart contract. Fans could earn “reputation” with artists over time, maybe even earning special benefits based on how many shows they attend. It’s a great way to track, and also keep track of your ticket stubs. Back when the Rockies made it to the World Series against the Red Sox in 2007, Game 4 was on my dads Birthday and we went to see the movie Saw in theaters, when we got home there was a message on the voicemail machine that there were tickets waiting for us at the box office. The Rockies got swept that night and we were able to sell the ticket stubs for hundreds of dollars on Ebay. People collect everything, and NFTs just made ticket stubs that much easier for collectors to collect.

Then we have the Venues where they would just need to set up a wallet like a Safe, which is a process that might sound scary at first, but can be easily explained and walked through. Then the rest of the smart contract is built out with sell price, ticket quantity, wallet addresses for the funds to be sent, etc. All the groundwork has been set, it’s just putting the pieces together and building a platform for it to all function in unison. One hiccup that might arise is the fact that Ticketmaster and the like also cover the utilities surrounding the event. While I’ve put little thought into that, my mind instantly goes to a dApp that allows the companies to make bids on the events, and the venue being able to choose who that business goes to. This would make it a competitive environment allowing security companies, concession crews, and whoever else to make their best offer to get this business. Like I said, little thought, but I’m assuming Ticketmaster is using a third party as is, so to me it seems like another opportunity to cut out an unnecessary middleman.

This article was meant to be about how music artists have used ERC721’s (NFTs) as a scam opportunity on their fans and how they could be using it to take power into their own hands when it comes to their ticket sales. The technology is here, and not only that, but they can also use this as an opportunity to give undiscovered artists a chance to display their art, then the tickets turn into lifelong collectibles. Using the NFT as an image or even a video, or better yet an animated song. We’re living in a different time. We don’t have to buy tickets the same way we did 30 years ago. Ticketmaster doesn’t get to decide who sells tickets and how much they’re sold for. Let’s stop acting like they do.

Until next time,

Ling

What are music artists doing in NFTs? Well, instead of using the technology to their advantage and becoming independent artists like you see so many movies about, you see them scamming people for thousands, or even hundreds of dollars, and for what? That was my logic when I first bought into a project that was promoted by people like DJ Khaled and French Montana. What do they have to gain other than some money? Which by the looks of their Instagram posts and their luscious lifestyles they seemed to have plenty of. It never made sense to me, it still doesn’t to this day, but here we are, still talking about how Soulja Boy used fans as exit liquidity, again.

After spending the past year and a half trying to educate myself on the space, more specifically “the culture”, it’s still something that I’m trying to understand myself. When first learning about Ethereum I was the person that was saying “This can go with anything!”. Uber, Ticketmaster, a new world currency, you name it, I’ve probably daydreamed about it. My imagination wasted no time, but the one that really stuck with me to this day is the Ticketmaster concept. I’m not sure about you, but I’ve been scammed a few times trying to buy tickets on Craigslist, the most recent one being the 2020 World Series where the Dodgers won in Game 6. Ya, Game 6, when they won it, I was supposed to be at that game. Instead, my dad and I were scammed for $1,700. We bought, or we thought we bought two tickets on the first baseline, but when the tickets never came through, my heart sank, and I knew we wouldn’t be attending. Instead, we watched the Dodgers Win the World Series at home, all because we (more so me) decided to trust a random human on craigslist. It’s the sad world we live in where people can buy tickets and mark them up 10 times what they bought them for, and where others can scam people using fake tickets because there’s no flawless way to verify who owns each one. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way, and the music artists, athletes, all these people that you see using the technology to scam you, could be using it to benefit not only themselves, but the fan as well.  

Prime example is earlier this year I saw Taylor Swift post about her terrible experience with Ticketmaster, the site ultimately failing, leaving a lot of fans without tickets. While writing this article, I found this great episode from the podcast Slate where they discuss not only the Ticketmaster meltdown, but also talk about the history of Ticketmaster and how it’s monopolized over time. I highly recommend listening to it so you can have a better understanding of the past 30+ years that Ticketmaster has dominated the ticket selling game, but you don’t have to. The fact of the matter is the fans aren’t happy about how tickets are being sold and haven’t been for decades, and it doesn’t seem like the music artists who are paying attention are happy with it either. Luckily, the technology is here for us to be able to fix that. For us to be able to go see our favorite artist for the cost that’s on the face of the ticket, or should I say, NFT, and not the price that some scalper deems worthy. The way I look at it is like this, there’s two entities that should be receiving compensation for the sale of a ticket, the venue where the concert will be held, and the artist(s) who will be performing. That’s it. Some random third party shouldn’t be receiving any “fees” just for creating a website that sells the tickets to you, and they sure as hell shouldn’t be the market maker, ultimately telling the artist(s) what their tickets are going to sell for. What happens currently is criminal, what happens currently is pure greed, and what happens currently is taking away the opportunity for people see their favorite artist sing their favorite song live at legendary music venues (and not so legendary ones).

Growing up in Colorado I was lucky to have the beautiful Red Rock Amphitheater in my backyard. From attending the first ever Winter On The Rocks with Atmosphere, to Marylin Manson and Alice Cooper, and then my all-time favorite Pretty Lights multiple times over, I’ve had the best experiences of my life attending those concerts. The experience of buying the tickets, however, was always the worst. Most of the time I would be forced to buy them off StubHub for 3-4 times the cost they were sold at 10 minutes prior. The reason I bring this up is because I’m not just a person wanting change with the current experience a fan goes through when buying a ticket, but I’m a fan myself.

Earlier this week I was in the midst of researching QR Codes trying to understand how they worked, but more importantly I was trying to find a way to implement these into a smart contract so they could be scanned as a ticket to get into a concert. My mind went from how to randomize the QR codes, to how to scan them at point of entry, to how can these not be replicated? Then I realized after having a couple conversations with ChatGPT, that we don’t need QR codes, we just need a new way to verify the person holding an NFT at the point of entry. While I’m not sure how to do this yet, it made me realize the main problem has already been solved, that is, getting rid of the greedy middlemen that control the industry.  While there’s multiple ways to skin this cat, I believe the most logical would be to deploy a dApp on the Polygon Network.

What is a dApp?

: A dApp is a decentralized application, meaning that there’s not a central entity that would be able to shut it down or control it in any way. To start, this dApp would need to start as a regular App, but overtime it will shift into a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). I’m referring specifically to this ticket exchange concept in this instance, but dApps are controlled by DAO’s because otherwise it would be controlled by no one. If it is (controlled by someone) and it’s referred to as a dApp, it’s not, it’s just an App or it’s in the App stage with intentions to become decentralized.

Who is Polygon?

                : for this, I asked ChatGPT to explain it in 3 sentences to someone that’s 5, here is what it said “The Polygon Network is like a big playground where different computer programs can come and play together. These programs are called "smart contracts" and they help people trade, play games, and do many other fun things without needing a grown-up, like a bank or a company, to help them. Polygon makes it easier and cheaper for these programs to play together by creating a special space, kind of like a super playground, where everything is faster and costs less.”

As you can see, ChatGPT pointed out the fact that the programs being used are called “Smart Contracts”, so just think of it as a regular contract. Let’s say I’m the smart contract and I’m selling tickets to the Taylor Swift Concert. You want a ticket, so you open your wallet and pay for one, then I deposit a ticket into your wallet after you’ve paid however much the cost was. The beautiful thing is, a new Smart Contract can be deployed every time there’s a Taylor Swift Concert. It’s cost effective, since it’s on the Polygon Network, but it also has the security of Ethereum which is the second largest Crypto Currency Network in the world. With the Smart Contract it makes all the difference, because not only are they easy and cheap to deploy, but you can also make special parameters within the contract. The most important of which will help impose the rule that will eliminate scalpers and brokers from the ticket selling business completely, it’s called resellPrice. For those that are new to Web3, with a Smart Contract, we can set variables in the code that act as parameters that buyers have to live by. Bye bye scalpers (if this is what the artist decides to do within their smart contract). Ultimately, we could set the “resellPrice” at the sell price, so if a person can’t make the show, they can list it on a marketplace and someone else can buy it at the original cost, only paying the network fees (minimal amount paid to regular people like you and me securing the network, think of it like tax, but astronomically less than what you’re used to, and it’s not being used on bombs to kill innocent people).  

With that problem being solved, the rest of the process would be just as easy. The artist could set up a list that acts as their “fans list” which would consist of wallet addresses. Let’s say that Ms. Swift was doing a show at Red Rocks and there were 5k fans that she needed a ticket for, she could set that parameter in the Smart Contract, and 5k tickets would only be able to be “minted” (sold) to those 5k wallets she set up within the smart contract. Fans could earn “reputation” with artists over time, maybe even earning special benefits based on how many shows they attend. It’s a great way to track, and also keep track of your ticket stubs. Back when the Rockies made it to the World Series against the Red Sox in 2007, Game 4 was on my dads Birthday and we went to see the movie Saw in theaters, when we got home there was a message on the voicemail machine that there were tickets waiting for us at the box office. The Rockies got swept that night and we were able to sell the ticket stubs for hundreds of dollars on Ebay. People collect everything, and NFTs just made ticket stubs that much easier for collectors to collect.

Then we have the Venues where they would just need to set up a wallet like a Safe, which is a process that might sound scary at first, but can be easily explained and walked through. Then the rest of the smart contract is built out with sell price, ticket quantity, wallet addresses for the funds to be sent, etc. All the groundwork has been set, it’s just putting the pieces together and building a platform for it to all function in unison. One hiccup that might arise is the fact that Ticketmaster and the like also cover the utilities surrounding the event. While I’ve put little thought into that, my mind instantly goes to a dApp that allows the companies to make bids on the events, and the venue being able to choose who that business goes to. This would make it a competitive environment allowing security companies, concession crews, and whoever else to make their best offer to get this business. Like I said, little thought, but I’m assuming Ticketmaster is using a third party as is, so to me it seems like another opportunity to cut out an unnecessary middleman.

This article was meant to be about how music artists have used ERC721’s (NFTs) as a scam opportunity on their fans and how they could be using it to take power into their own hands when it comes to their ticket sales. The technology is here, and not only that, but they can also use this as an opportunity to give undiscovered artists a chance to display their art, then the tickets turn into lifelong collectibles. Using the NFT as an image or even a video, or better yet an animated song. We’re living in a different time. We don’t have to buy tickets the same way we did 30 years ago. Ticketmaster doesn’t get to decide who sells tickets and how much they’re sold for. Let’s stop acting like they do.

Until next time,

Ling