One where runnings promo happens natively onchain - directly in a social feed.

Now I know what you’re thinking - oh god, ads, here we go again!

But here’s what makes them unique and how to use them to your benefit as someone building an audience onchain.

What are Boosts?

Boosts are sponsored transactions.

It’s when a creator, brand or company subsidizes the gas and platform fees to make a mint truly free.

Boosts are different from an airdrop because the end user consciously collects it - versus it being passively being placed in their wallet without them knowing.

We’ve seen boosts unfold over the last few weeks on Farcaster with the release of Frames. More on Frames here.

In short - the creator will fund a wallet to pay for the gas and platform fee associated with a transaction.

We’ve seen this tactic employed for tokens and NFTs starting with this Frame.

Coop Records Boosts

Here are a few boosts we’ve run since Frames dropped:

• Three Song Frame

• 33 Below - Jumper

• Pluko - KEEP ON DANCING

• Farcosytem

• ROHKI - Citadel

• Invest in Music - Ep 45, 46 and 47.

With each of these mints - we experimented with subtle nuances on what makes the Boost unique.

In our most recent Frames - a requirement to mint was following the /coop-recs channel - resulting in nearly 3k new followers this week.

These Boosts resulted in Coop Records having 7 of the top 10 songs on the Sound Viral Chart last week.

How it Works

Running a Boost for a song on Sound incurs the following costs:

• Sound Platform Fee - 0.000777 ETH

• Gas (on Base) - 0.00001 ETH

This means that for every mint on Sound, we must sponsor a cost of ~0.000778 ETH - or roughly $2.

The vast majority of this fee makes its way back to the creator as follows:

• 0.000555 ETH to the artist

• 0.000222 ETH to Sound

We take 10% of any onchain sales as a label.

This means that for every 0.000555 ETH (~$1.40) the song generates, we earn 0.0000555 ETH or ~$0.14.So - in the case of JUMPER  and KEEP ON DANCING - we spend ~$2 to earn $0.14.

Now this may seem like a bad business practice - but here’s where things get interesting.

Boosts as Digital Billboards

Once people have claimed their free edition - they are incentivized to consume the content with the ability to pay more if they like it.

The free claim acts as a boost to encourage collectors to pay full price.

This is best represented by my Farcosystem Landscape called the Farcosystem.

https://opensea.io/assets/0xc24A83504b4eD23bcb6052148ce6D99e13c340F8/1

I deposited 0.2 ETH into the Farcosystem which was expected to cover ~10k mints.

With 14k editions minted - the drop itself has generated 0.66 ETH in mint fees from people either minting more editions or discovering the drop outside of the free claim.

It even inspired Boost to run this promo - allowing collectors to earn 2 ARB for every edition they collected.

You can think of the free mints as an ad spend to increase awareness of the content and encourage people to consume it on their own.

Why Should I Care?

Boosts are not net new.

Platforms like Boost and Layer3 have been operating for years and have driven a tremendous amount of value to partners running onchain ads.

In fact - we’ve been running Boost campaigns on our songs on Sound with a very similar logic.

If a song costs $5 to mint on Sound - we allow collectors to redeem 1 OP for every edition, essentially acting as a $3.50 rebate.

In aggregate - the drop earns $1.50 for every edition. The collector gets a scarce collectible of music from an emerging artist and earns a desirable token (OP) in the process.

For open editions that we’re running both Frames and Boosts for - we allow collectors to claim 0.5 OP or get the song entirely for free on Farcaster.

(Pro tip: technically speaking someone who gets the song for free through a Frame *could* also claim the 0.5 OP Boost too).

nft://8453/0x0043a2C44336f4Af576df0B16bB0799E08C78088/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true

The difference is that now this can all happen directly from your social feed (like what you see above).

Here is what a Boost looked like before:

• Discover quests through platforms like Boost or Layer3

• Leave Boost/Layer3 to complete the quest on the targeted platform.

• Connect wallet on the target platform and switch networks if not currently on it.

• Make a transaction(s) on the targeted platform. (+ gas)

• Return to Boost/Layer3 and sign a message to prove you completed the campaign.

• Make a transaction to claim the reward.

Telling people where to claim rewards is confusing. For users collecting out of pure patronage - they see the following:

Here they are brought to a page where they must connect their wallet to claim the reward.

It feels weird and unintuitive to someone who is not used to airdrop farming.

But here’s how Boosts work now:

• Open Warpcast

• See a Frame for a song

• Follow /coop-recs

• Press Collect

No gas fees. No leaving the platform. All of this happens natively in the feed.

If they’re feeling inclined to listen to the song - they visit the Sound page where there is a much higher likelihood of them collecting additional editions.

But truthfully - once users get used to transacting in the feed, they will never leave.

Zoom Out

Eventually Frames will allow users to make paid transactions directly in the feed.

Now not only can sponsored mints be used to encourage people to claim a free token - they can encourage them to make a paid transaction on top.

In the case of our Sound Frames - let’s say that someone really loves the song they claimed for free.

They must currently leave Warpcast to go to Sound to listen to the song. If they like it, they must connect their wallet, sign a message, hit collect, switch networks, and then confirm the transaction (fee + gas).

That’s a lot of work to expect someone to do to spend money.

So let’s paint a utopian vision of what this can (and will) look like.

1. Open Warpcast

2. See a Frame for a song

3. Choose to either complete the required actions OR purchase

4. Press collect (free or paid)

This gives teams an infinite design space for what targeted actions a user must have to complete to earn their free edition.

Our latest Frame generated 3k followers on /coop-recs despite the fact that only ~600 editions could be claimed from sponsored transactions.

This means that more people completed the action than actually even claimed the free edition.

See a pattern here?

People will jump through hoops to get things that feel valuable.Whether that's a free edition of a good song, OP tokens or any infinite number of combinations - an onchain audience clicks first and thinks later.

So now is your chance to become an onchain marketing pro.

The design space is truly infinite.

What are you waiting for?

So you made it to the end of the article? Respond to this Cast with “Boost Boost Boost” - I’m giving the first 25 people to do it 5000 $DEGEN each.

Special thanks for Jacob Horne, Brian Flynn, Jess Sloss, Dee Goens, Justin Blau, Kevin Teng, Jesse Walden and Li Jin for their contributions to this article.

It’s an industry that thrives off volatility, and what’s allowed so many people to be successful (at least temporarily) during major upswings and bull markets.

However - the same reasons why crypto made people lots of money in short periods of time are the same reasons why the wider world has such a negative association with it.

Let’s unpack.

Too Confusing

Most people don’t understand why you would want to buy a digital object.

Physical objects have more permanence and we’re still years away from the virtual world having true significance within people’s lives.People value the convenience that social media offers - the proximity to information and entertainment.

They don’t value ownership of digital objects.

A lot of this has to do with a lack of commonly held belief that these objects are valuable.

If 99% of the world thinks something has no value, they don’t care about the 1% of people who do.They also don’t want to hear your rebuttal or argument as to why it has value.

If it had value to them - they would buy it.

Instead - most people’s interaction with NFTs is either through being preached about its merit (similar to trying to be converted to a new religion) or reading about the dozens or scams that often are the only stories which break into their algorithms.

Too Complicated

Even if someone does take the time to learn about the merit of digital objects or the intention behind them - buying them is a nightmare.

Imagine being asked to swap to a new currency to buy something in your average daily life.

When people want to buy something onchain - 99% of products direct them to download a wallet.

This immediately sends them down a path of feeling overwhelmed and uneducated, turning them off to the idea of buying it in the first place.

Now pair this with the fact that you need to buy an entirely new currency - ETH - and the drop off rate is basically 100%.

No one is going to spend 10+ minutes to onboard into something which has an unclear role in their life.

While there are solutions to make this process easier - most crypto products bury things like email sign in and credit card check-ins behind other crypto-native flows.

This is because crypto companies make 99% of their money from crypto users, so the entire product is focused on people who are already onchain.

The problem with this is it boxes out the remaining 99% of the world who could be interested in something but doesn't have the time, energy or patience to jump through all the hoops.

Too Much Hype

Crypto has a major branding problem.

From the outside - people’s exposure to crypto is from individuals who have dedicated their whole life and career to the success of crypto.

This means they are met with an onslaught of people rocking PFPs that make it hard for anyone to take them seriously.

Top this up with someone preaching them about a project they’re invested in which “is the future of ____” and it all comes across as one giant ponzi scheme.

For anyone who might be interested in dipping their toes in, they have to constantly dodge dozens of crazed Twitter accounts trying to direct their attention towards the collections and tokens they have the most invested in.

It’s like trying to buy something at the grocery store but being flagged down to sign 10 different petitions.People just want to buy frozen fruit to make smoothies - they don’t want to be pitched on the latest and greatest blender when they have one that already works fine.

Too Distant

It’s hard for people to grasp how crypto will solve real problems they don’t have in their own individual lives.

This is why crypto has been more globally accepted in developing countries as the impact for payment rails is immediately noticeable.However - this makes up a small percentage of the wider public opinion on platforms like Twitter and Instagram so its difficult for these narratives to click.

People don’t want to buy into the future belief of what something will become - they want to buy what’s right immediately in front of them and what will give them value and belonging today.

And the harsh reality is - today crypto does not give them that value.

How to Solve This

Given all the above - ask yourself:

Am I really building for new people or am I building for an existing set of highly trained and highly experienced crypto people?

If the answer is the former - you need to be extremely extremely intentional about this and realize that your focus on crypto-native audience is going to take a back seat.

For any project which has historically prioritized their onchain users, there is going to be immediate pushback. The community is going to say the project “sold out” or that they’re turning their back on their early adopters.

And while there may be some merit in this - it almost doesn’t matter.

A product that is unable to attract new users will not grow and therefore will eventually cease to exist.

So, the decision to pivot more intentionally towards reaching new users will make itself more clear as more network effects start to form.

Once there is a consistent string of new users coming onchain for the first time - the early adopters will validate this and cheer.

Because - another harsh reality - new users give crypto people exit liquidity.

The more new money that comes into the space, the more opportunity crypto-natives have to sell their positions and ride off into the sunset.

Taking this a step further - this is why it’s important to try and start reaching new users as early into your product journey as possible.

This should create a more level playing field where upside can be captured equally amongst both audiences - instead of creating the dynamic which exists today of crypto-natives getting richer at the expense of new users having a terrible first encounter and never wanting to come back again.

Crypto at Scale

Its hard to fathom a world where the entire world is onchain.

There are years of technical improvements which must be made for it to be dead simple for someone to make an onchain transcation.

Luckily - progress suggests that wallets will only get easier to use, and networks will only get cheaper (if not free) to use.

But - that doesn’t solve the issue of getting someone to care.

Giving someone the ability to sign in and checkout with a credit card is only a fraction of the battle.

There needs to be a clear reason for why they are spending money and what they hope to get out of it. Today - those reasons are as blurry as ever.

This leaves the industry in the most divided place it has ever been and the most confusing spot new users are in when they join.

Crypto at scale is seamless.

It’s a world where your wallet is baked into your smartphone and signing a message is as easy as FaceID when unlocking your iPhone.

But that world is still drastically distant and likely won’t click until it becomes all that anyone can talk about.

So - embrace the fact that people hate crypto.

See it exactly for what it is and commit to finding new ways to solve these challenges.

Because someone will - and whoever does… is going down as one of the most progressive leaders of this space.

First it was ICOs. Then DeFi. And most recently NFTs.

They all share one thing in common - connecting with an audience of regular people who have never touched crypto before.

That’s why I’m excited about the new meta forming around points.

And more specifically - points that are onchain.

What are Points?

Points are gamified rewards units with a theoretically infinite supply.

Think airline miles, credit card points, loyalty programs - systems that everyone has used in their daily lives.

They allow teams to encourage different behaviors and train users to perform key actions which drive growth.

These systems are constantly modifiable - giving founders the flexibility to tweak their formula and learn from different design loops as they test and upgrade their products.

As we’ll dive into later - points are a perfect prelude to a governance token and a core focus for consumer apps building on crypto rails.

Why Points?

Points train users to perform value generating actions for the hope of future ownership.

They create an incentive to return to an app and a dopamine boost from an ever-increasing balance.

Points are to consumer applications what governance tokens are to protocols.

Assuming the main goal of consumer apps is to reach billions of users - we need to recognize that the average intelligence and depth of knowledge a user has will likely diminish as usage increases.

CL

@CL207

points
everything

cc @marginsmall

470

8:53 PM • Jan 5, 2024

This challenges founders to create systems which are extremely easy to understand, and fun to play.

Plus - points reward actions which historically were not a focus for onchain companies like creating viral moments on Instagram and Twitter - innately reaching a net new demographic of users.

In today’s landscape - projects leveraging points represent a forward looking class of founders focused on social growth and consumer adoption.

The New Guard

The list of projects experimenting with points are growing by the day.

While each of these vary in their implementation - they have all captured the attention of crypto users thanks to the common belief that points will one day translate to tokens.

• FriendTech

• Warpcast

• EigenLayer

• Rainbow

• Mint.Fun

• SongCamp

• Blackbird

• Rabbithole

• Blast

• Blur

• Portal

• Ondo

Points started to pop up around the SocialFi narrative - and are now entering a new chapter where founders are realizing they can get most of the benefits of launching a token without having to actually launch a token.

As someone who’s worked with dozens of teams on launching a governance token - it’s no secret that the process is a nightmare.

From setting up off-shore entities to designing an airdrop, marketing that airdrop, creating governance forums, delegate committees, multisigs, treasuries and managing liquidity - it is unlikely that the next generation of crypto founders will have the patience (and legal clarity) on how to formally launch a token for their consumer app.

This is why points create an exciting middle ground - they allow founders to play around with what it feels like to launch a token in the early stage of their product in a way that is simple and digestible for mainstream consumers to understand.

Plus - if successful - they get the added bonus of those points actually being worth something.

But there’s one key distinction worth diving in on.

Are the points onchain?

The Power of Onchain Points

Points being onchain creates an opportunity for a liquid market to emerge.

Stated another way - you can sell onchain points for cash.

In a world where we all try to glorify the potential of what web3 will enable - time and time again we’ve seen crypto’s success has been allowing people to buy and sell speculative digital assets.

It’s become clear that the vast majority of users do not care about governance - and that it largely only exists to give projects with a token the guise of being decentralized.

So - onchain points create an interesting dynamic where they remove the need for a treasury and governance.

Instead - 100% of the focus can be around how an application creates and captures value. And how users place a value on the currency of that network.

More importantly - onchain points are uniquely enabled by the emergence of L2s (and soon L3s).

Onchain points were simply not possible until now. Transaction fees were too high to process millions of real-time transactions for $0.10 or less.

Now - networks like Optimism and Arbitrum have created the ability for onchain points to work at scale.

Fat Points Thesis

The next question naturally becomes - how do you price onchain points?

Instead of mapping out a total supply and token distribution - onchain points create the first situation for bonding curves to have a true moment in the sun.

By mapping points on a curve - teams remove the need for liquidity pools and crypto-native actions which create friction.

Instead of examining the marketcap and FDV of points - there is simply one price.

The price it costs to purchase points, and the price you can sell them for.

The purchase of every new point creates liquidity for someone to sell points.

To kickstart the bonding curve, teams should be prepared to invest their own capital - a dynamic which should hold them accountable for the points which are being issued and given to new users.

If the points aren’t used in an encouraging way to generate value for the network - the team may lose their contribution.

This creates an interesting opportunity for deeply engaged players to earn points with tangible value for creating value for the network.

It also creates an opportunity for whales to bet on the collective success of the application without having to play it themselves. They simply purchase a large amount of points early and sell them as the application sees adoption from mainstream users.

Or - they purchase points in bulk as power users of an application. Allowing them to trade dollars for status. A playbook as old as the time.

In the event that an app is successful - the number of inflows from users purchasing points will exceed the total outflow. Thus resulting in an increased value of each incremental point and a healthy market of trading volume.

Bull Case for Points

There is likely no one right way to create a priced point system.

However - assuming onchain points will scale to billions of users, the delta on a successful point system probably looks something like an increase of $0.01 per point to $0.05 per point. (5x) Not $0.01 to $1. (100x)

Now while this might not seem as attractive to moon boys - early users will see significant upside while new users *should* never be boxed out from being able to play.

It will create real financial opportunities for power users of a given app - and shift the focus from making 1000x off a memecoin to earning a real sustainable income for regular people.

What sounds more realistic - millions of people becoming millionaires off a $10 investment or millions of people earning $100/mo from putting consistent time, effort and energy into their new favorite app?

And best of all - it creates an immediate business model for teams building consumer applications.

Simply take a fee on the sale of points.

If people like the app - they will purchase points to boost their status within the system.

So long as people are buying points - people can sell points.

And so long as they can sell points, the business makes money.

If you’re a founder looking to build an onchain point system - I highly recommend reaching out to Stack.

Points Pitfalls

Keep in mind that points are not all sunshine and rainbows.As articulate in this article from Li Jin - points in the absence of product market fit can be very dangerous.

It’s very important for teams to design games that are worth playing in the absence of points - and to use points to layer on the gamification of that experience.

A great reference here is DuoLingo - where the core focus is to learn a new language, and points are a healthy incentive to keep studying.

Additionally - the only way in which onchain points have an active value is if they can create a system where more users are willing to keep their points in a game instead of selling them.

For crypto-native products - be mindful that points are a clear signal to your community that you intend to launch a token at some point in the future.

This means that while you buy yourself some time - the moment you launch a points system you are basically saying to the crypto world “we are launching a token”.

Search for the Meta

Everyone is always trying to figure out what the new meta will be.

What if crypto’s killer use case is selling points for cash?

In a world about creating financial accessibility - creating opportunities for users to earn a living for the value they create lands within crypto’s overall intention.

This article is meant to encourage founders building consumer applications to think deeply about integrating an onchain points system into their product.

And if you’re looking for feedback on your system or funding to bring it to life - please reach out to me at coop@cooprecords.xyz or directly on Farcaster @coopahtroopa.

Bring on the Uniswap for points.

[EDIT - ALL $POINTS HAVE BEEN CLAIMED!] PS: First 10 people to DM me “Points points points” on Warpcaster will get 1000 free $POINTS

Music is social.

It’s meant to be played live and streamed millions of times.

Naturally - this would mean you want your music to be everywhere, so everyone can hear it.

Because at the end of the day, artists want to be heard.

But what if putting your music in less places with a more focused attitude accomplished a different result?

What if instead of playing the numbers game, you played the long game?

What if being a bigger fish in a smaller pond had more upside - especially as that pond grows?

This is a thought experiment around only releasing your music onchain.

Onchain Platforms

Onchain is a net-new way to distribute music.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Onchain Music

coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz

Onchain Music

Why music belongs onchain.

165

7:26 PM • Jun 20, 2023

It primarily consists of platforms created within the last 2 years.

They are hard to use and time-consuming to get started.

They have a very select amount of music, mostly from artists the average fan has never heard of.

Realistically there are probably ~10,000 people actively using onchain music platforms today.

But maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Only Onchain

There is a wave of artists only releasing their music onchain.

Spinamp

your web3 music player

https://app.spinamp.xyz

You’ll notice that songs which are only available onchain typically have the most mints and volume.

This goes to say that artists who lean heavily into being onchain will continue to see outsized returns on onchain platforms.

RŌHKI

@ROHKI

HUGE thank you to all 642 of you for minting over 4,000 editions of horizon.

It’s so beautiful how much support you all have given us for making such experimental music. We’re having a blast and we hope it comes thru

Also we’re doing an AMA tomorrow morning in our telegram at

sound sales bot

@soundxyz_bot

Sound Swap begins for “Horizon”

Record by @ROHKI
4,005 minted
Price increases to 0.0036 ETH

sound.xyz/rohki/horizon

39

6:21 PM • Jun 21, 2023

Usage will only get easier. Wallets will get easier to set up, and transactions will be faster and easier to process.

Onchain platforms will grow exponentially more than traditional platforms, sheerly by virtue of the amount of new users it takes to 2x, 5x, 10x and so on.

There is more music being released onchain every day, and that number will only ever go up.

Artists are building a career on the back of their onchain catalog - creating a vacuum for new sounds and approaches to distribution to emerge.

If you’re a new artist, here’s why you should consider only releasing your music onchain.

Cutting Through the Noise

There are ~50,000 new songs released on streaming services every day.

Streaming is designed for the passive listener - those who want to listen to a playlist on shuffle or save a Tiktok song. And there’s power to that.

Onchain music today attracts active listeners - those who want to form a deeper relationship with the artist.

Lucas

@bloodywhxte

I'm going to change the way you listen to music.

41

8:38 PM • Jun 18, 2023

Releasing your music onchain gives you a net new playing field to compete that largely has nothing to do with how well you are doing on traditional platforms.

Collectors don’t care about your Instagram followers or if you landed New Music Friday.

Collectors care about your commitment to the next generation of music.

They care about meaningful ways to support and invest in your career and to build a collection that shows that they were there first.

Releasing onchain gives you an opportunity to cut through the noise.

Measuring Music

If you release a song on Spotify and it gets 10,000 streams - people will treat it as any other song that has 10,000 streams.

If you release a song onchain and it gets 10,000 mints - people will treat you like a legend.

There is a huge difference between what moves the needle onchain and what moves the needle on streaming.

When you compare streams, you’re competing against millions of other artists.

When you choose not to put your song somewhere, you are opting out of measuring your music using those metrics.

The catch is if it's only onchain - fans have to dig to find the music. But maybe that’s not actually a bad thing.

Sure - easy access to all the music in the world is a beautiful place to live.

But what happens when you put a flag in the sand and say “hey, my music has value”?

And the only place(s) to listen to it is onchain. Where you control the value.

Keep in mind - onchain music is free to listen. And valuable to own.

BlockchainBrett

@web3brett

The Music NFT space should move towards Listening Before Minting. Fans should listen to the music, love it, then mint it.

Historically we've expected collectors to buy the song without listening or exclusive listening to existing collector bases.

176

9:00 AM • Mar 15, 2023

Think about it. If 100 fans were to stumble on your music here’s the difference.

• 100 streams would earn ~$0.37

• 100 mints at 0.0001 ETH would earn ~$180

Granted - the conversion rate between a play and a mint is very low.

Still, if even just 1 of those 100 fans collect, you are still making ~5x of what 100 streams earns.

But at the end of the day, it’s not even about the money. And it can’t be for onchain music to matter.

Releasing onchain is a new way to value music.

Onchain Catalog

Music that exists onchain has historical significance.

In 2023, minting your music onchain cements it as a part of the earliest chapter of the next generation of music.

Your songs can stand aside one another and tell very different stories.

Maybe one is a limited edition of 25, the next an open edition with 1000 mints.

Looking at these side by side, it's easy to tell that the limited edition song is more “rare” than the one with 1000 mints.

Now - you can start to view music through a new lens. You can add a new dimension of collectibility which sets a strong foundation for new social games to emerge.

sound.xyz (🎧,🎧)

@soundxyz_

Soon, every artist will have access to these tools so they can experiment with new pricing models, rewards, and incentives.

We’re confident there’s a better model for music out there. Together with artists and fans we will keep working to unlock it.

26

11:02 AM • Jun 27, 2023

There used to be a time when curating a playlist was a social game that we all liked to play.

Those days have largely gone away.

But what if onchain music can bring that back?

Thanks to curator fees, if someone discovers and collects a song through your playlist - you earn a kickback.

Empowering curators in a transparent, direct manner allows us to reintroduce social dynamics without needing to worry about payola and repost chains (which killed Soundcloud).

Spinamp

your web3 music player

https://app.spinamp.xyz

For onchain music to succeed, there needs to be a social layer around collecting music.

Being onchain allows your music to be a part of that new conversation.

Leap of Faith

Releasing your music only onchain is a huge leap of faith.

Less than 1% of all music fans are onchain.

It directly counteracts the potential for artists to have their music heard by as many people as possible.

But - it challenges you to think differently about how you build your audience.

musicben 🎧

@musicben_eth

Can you 'make it' as a musician without Spotify or the legacy music industry?

@ZironiVioletta has proved that you can.

She's the Web3 music success story we should all be talking about ↓

125

10:22 AM • Jun 7, 2023

It’s saying that maybe it's ok if less people hear it, especially if each of those collectors have a more intimate relationship with you and your project.

What would you rather have - 1,000,000 passive fans or 1,000 active collectors?

There’s no one right answer, but the latter is something that I’m coming to appreciate more each day.

We are quickly approaching a time when new artists will be releasing their first songs ever - only onchain.

And once that flood gate opens - there is no going back.

So here’s to being only onchain.

And to all the doubt, hate and struggle that comes with it.

Shoutout to Rachel Dunham Jake Nixon and Reo Cragun for feedback on this post. And to sushi with Bloody White for inspiring it.

Onchain is the new online.

Releasing your music onchain is an acknowledgement to what’s next.

This is what music being onchain means, and why it’s important.

Onchain Music

Music released on DSPs is streamed.

Music released onchain is minted.

Mints are the new streams.

Mint a song to add it to your collection.

Being onchain creates:

• Permanent

• Culture

• Market

Onchain music is defined by having a contract address - or the origin for where a song was minted.

It will commonly look like this 0xb39b20eC770848288a847879f6Bc48a4D5e95a0D with its own title (Reflection) and symbol (REFLECT).

Think of this like an ISRC - where every onchain platform can easily read, index and showcase that song.

nft://1/0xb39b20eC770848288a847879f6Bc48a4D5e95a0D/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true

It’s easy to identify if a song is authentic or not based on the account it was uploaded, or deployed from.

With onchain music - all payouts happen instantly.

There is no delay or royalty accounting necessary. Simply enter splits when uploading and receive earnings in real time as fans collect the song.

Permanent

Onchain music will exist forever.

Even if the platform goes down, it still exists onchain.

Other platforms can read the contract address and showcase that song on their platform.

There is no permission required to show the song, and the song does not need to be reuploaded to a new platform to be collected.

Once a song is minted onchain - it will exist there forever.

This means that a song has a permanent lineage.

Once you upload a song onchain - you never have to upload it again.

Minting a song cements your place as a supporter of the artist.

Cultural

Onchain music represents a new generation of artists.

Being onchain means that you care about owning your music.

It's an acknowledgement that you value the relationship between your fans and that you are in control of your future.

LATASHÁ

@CallMeLatasha

the next generation of icons are going be onchain

55

4:42 PM • Jun 20, 2023

It’s an opportunity to be on the cutting edge - and to separate yourself from the millions of artists releasing on Spotify every week.

Being onchain is future.

It’s weird, niche and clunky. It feels retro and foreign.

It requires (for now) a new set of language, technology and currency.

Being onchain is culturally significant.

Market

Being onchain creates a market for music.

It allows fans to mint - which means they can buy and sell songs.

With iTunes, fans could buy songs. But they could never sell them.

You can buy and sell vinyls, but not in real-time.

By being onchain - you create an opportunity for fans to buy, sell and trade songs in real-time.

No two markets are the same. And there is no one way to create a market for your song.

On iTunes, a purchase is $0.99

On Spotify, a stream is ~$0.0037

Onchain, a mint is what you decide.

Creating a market for your song allows you to see who really values your music.

And - you can collect multiple copies.

Assuming a song costs $5, a fan can mint one.

But - a larger patron can collect 100. They can spend $500 and get 100 editions.

And why would they want that?

To show off. And to trade it.

Not only did they support the song early, but in the event the song is successful - they can sell a part of their collection at a profit.

This allows them to participate in your ecosystem in a largely net new manner.

Being onchain gives your fans the ability to trade your music online.

Why Now?

There will only ever be more music onchain.

The new frontier is being onchain - and more artists will start to realize this with each waking day.

$jacob

@js_horne

"Onchain" is a word that’s used widely at Zora. We’ve been using this word for so long and so often that we sometimes forget it’s a new word.

There isn't really a great definition out there for onchain. So I'm going to define it here:

jacob.energy

Onchain

Onchain is the next online.

288

9:09 AM • May 16, 2023

In the same way every song is on Spotify, every song will be onchain.

The earlier you are - the larger percentage of the market you have at your disposal.

The market for onchain music will only ever grow.

As more music comes onchain, so too will the unique number of fans and collectors.

This means that you have an unparalleled advantage.

By selling 1000 copies of your song at $10 a piece, you are making the equivalent of ~2.5M streams.

You are paid out instantly, and able to see each and every fan who collected that song.

The next time you release a song, put it onchain.

Or someone else will.

Along with Palm Tree Crew Crypto, we’re co-leading our first Artist Seed Round as Daniel brings on $1M of outside capital to support the next leg of his career.

Daniel Allan

@imdanielallan

It’s been a wild ride.

Today - I’m excited to announce that I’ve raised $1M to support the next chapter of my career.

Here’s why

559

12:12 PM • Mar 16, 2023

Here’s why.

Artist Seed Round

We believe in a world where fans can invest in the artists they know and love.

Today - that starts with deals that resemble early-stage tech investments, instead geared at creators.

Spinamp

your web3 music player

https://app.spinamp.xyz

The structure is not much different in practice.

Daniel set up a C-corp - Daniel Allan Entertainment - which owns all of his IP.

The round was done through a SAFE - in which investors receive a claim to the equity in Daniel Allan Entertainment.

Funding is non-recoupable - meaning investors are not participating in a profit-share, rather they are buying equity in Daniel’s brand as a whole.

While this is far from the end state - we believe this is an exciting model for a number of reasons.

1. Web360  - investors have exposure to all aspects of Daniel’s career

2. Ownership - Daniel retains the vast majority of ownership in his company.

3. Flexibility - Daniel can still sign a record deal - the investment only represents his share of masters, publishing and web3 income.

We also believe that artists can create value beyond their music.

Outside of the obvious value accrual mechanisms - streams, syncs, touring and selling NFTs - we see a world where artists have ownership in the platforms they create value for.

We’re excited to support Daniel as he earns equity in other businesses - thus adding to the value of his brand as a whole.

This model is one we believe can be replicated across many artists - and we’re excited to support more artists through similar models in the future.

Why Daniel?

Daniel is a perfect case study of the potential for artists to make a career using web3 as a backbone.

He’s grossed ~325 ETH in total volume from the sale of his Music NFTs to date - despite having a relatively small following on traditional platforms.

We believe that this positions him well as an independent artist with leverage as he navigates major label conversations.

His recent signing to CAA opens up a new lane of show opportunities - allowing him to develop a traditional fan base alongside his existing collector base.

Daniel has vocalized plans to build something bigger than himself - and we’re excited to watch him recreate and mold the playbook he’s created for other artists in his orbit.

The concept of hiring a team is relatively new for artists, and we’re excited to support Daniel as he explores this next chapter.

What’s Next

Coop Records has allocated $1M to Artist Seed Rounds.

We’re excited to explore more opportunities to invest in artists using similar blueprints.

This round would not have been possible without the support of his early collectors and web3 network.

The entirety of investors are web3-native and supportive of his work to date.

Over time, we’re excited to back artists who are not web3-native - and find more models to support independent artists at scale.

/criteria

On average, there are ~80,00 new songs released per week.

There are less than 1000 artists on Sound.

On average, there are ~25 new songs minted per week.

This is the race to put music on-chain.

Music is Forever

There is an infinite amount of music.

There is a finite amount of block space.

Minting music seals it in history.*

Take aside all the dialogue about making money.

About true fandom. About patronage. About access.

Minting the music is what matters most.

Mija

@hi_mija

Normalize releasing music without a marketing budget or campaign strategy

Normalize releasing music just for yourself

So that way when you die, your canon will live on forever

Because in 100 years nobody will care how many plays/views you got. They only care if it exists.

2,439

5:48 PM • Feb 8, 2023

Ethereum will be around in 1000 years.

So should your music.

*putting an .mp3 on IPFS isn’t exactly permanent. But you get the point.

The On-Chain Race

Think about how much music is out there that fans would love to collect, but have never been able to.

Think about your favorite artists. Your favorite songs. The ones you listen to at your highest highs, and your lowest lows.

I bet a fraction (if any) of those songs are on-chain.

When people ask why I collect music - I tell them it hits different. 

That hearing a song you’ve collected unlocks a deeper level of connection and intimacy with the art.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

It absolutely hits different Carl

5

12:26 AM • Feb 12, 2023

But how would they know?

If we want more fans to come into web3 - we need to give them a reason.

We need to make it easier for artists to mint, and for fans to collect.

Collecting Memories

What makes music different from other types of NFTs?

The emotional value.

When you truly experience a song, it strikes a different chord.

Whether it be a specific moment in time, a person, an idea, a feeling or a concert - there are countless memories associated with music.

It’s not about making money. It’s about collecting a feeling.

Our job is to create better pathways to immortalize those memories.

Here’s how.

Web3 Music Delta

The single biggest opportunity in web3 music today is to put music on-chain.

I define music being “on-chain” as being able to listen to it on aggregators like Spinamp.

Spinamp

your web3 music player

https://app.spinamp.xyz

These are products pulling audio from NFTs minted on platforms like Sound, Catalog, Decent and Zora.

It feels like Spotify, but you can collect every song you hear. That’s the game changer.

Whether you’re an artist, a manager, a curator or a fan - you have the same opportunity as everyone else.

Be the bridge to get the music minted.

Keep in mind that music is owned by a ton of different parties.

Today - web3 music largely stems from independent artists and songs fully owned by the creators.

So start there.

Don’t worry about the money. About the fame. Or the clout.

Be the person that makes it easy for artists to feel comfortable minting their music.

This is your opportunity to shine.

Finding the Balance

The biggest opportunity for web3 is to break new artists.

Developing a superstar who has their first song minted is without a doubt the X-factor that takes the cake.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Music NFTs breakout moment will not be when Drake drops a collection.

It will be the next Drake breaking thanks to Music NFTs.

281

6:32 PM • Jul 29, 2022

But there’s a lot more music out there.

Think about every song on Spotify. How do you collect those?

Maybe an artist isn’t ready to release new music. Maybe they don’t want their first NFT to be something new.

Work with them! Get them comfortable minting something. And then something else.

View the next 3-5 years as unsettled land.

This is your chance to build the first houses.

The Good Ol’ Days

The markets are slow these days.

Take peace in knowing that we are early.

Zagabond

@Zagabond

There’s no rush to onboard millions of people into NFTs. It’s inevitable and just a matter of time.

Instead, take the time to embrace the early community, experiment with the technology, and help shape the culture.

1,089

10:19 AM • Feb 12, 2023

That this space will get 100x crazier and more chaotic.

It’s like Andy said in the Office - I wish there was a way to know you were in the good ol’ days before you actually left them.

Well my friend - we’re in it.

Keep shining!

It influences what we wear, what we buy and what we listen to.

We’re entering a phase of society where you can invest in the culture you ascribe to.

This post is about why I believe collecting culture is the key unlock for web3.

OG Web3 Culture

The concept of collecting culture in web3 is not new.

When you look at every phase of NFTs from the past 3 years, there is one thing in common - culture.

CryptoPunks were free to mint. They now have a floor of 64 ETH.

Chromie Squiggles were unsold at 0.1 ETH for many months. They now have a floor of 14.5 ETH.

Both are valuable for one reason - culture.

They represent a specific moment in internet history and are owned by the pioneers that made that possible.

They’re a status symbol, and a way to show that you are a part of the early generation of believers in digital assets.

But they represent an existing generation.

Collectors who have poured their blood sweat and tears into the space.

Those who lived through the bear market and lived to tell the tale.

But it’s time for a new generation of collectors.

New Web3 Culture

Collecting culture needs to be synonymous with the content we experience everyday.

Whether it’s Spotify, Instagram or Tiktok - culture is presented to us every moment.

Rather than collecting a pixelated avatar or generative art, the new generation will collect content.

Now - referring to all art as content is definitely diminishing. So let me expand on that.

Content spans multiple media types.

A song that took weeks to create is much deeper than someone who just snapped a selfie and posted it with no filters.

BUT - they both end up in the hands of the same people. Fans.

Fans are the key driver of the next generation of collectors.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Biggest challenge for web3 music is turning collectors into true fans and true fans into collectors.

160

1:11 PM • Dec 15, 2022

It doesn’t matter how much time went into the input - it matters how much it resonated with the output.

So, the easiest way to define the difference between OG Web3 Culture and New Web3 Culture is a shift from art to media.

And here’s why this is important.

Collecting at Scale

The reason early NFT collections gained so much notoriety is that they made people rich.

There are countless stories of someone buying an NFT for less than 1 ETH and selling it for 100+ ETH.

This is life-changing money.

But this is not the norm.

Finding 10,000 people capable of spending tens of thousands of dollars to join a community does not scale.

So - we need to reduce the financial barrier to entry and increase the number of people capable of collecting.

And how do we do this?

By expanding what can be collected, and for how much.

BlockchainBrett

@web3brett

'The Crypto Creator Economy'

Crypto is laying down the foundation for the future of the Creator Economy.

The Crypto Creator Economy shifts the principles and industry value back to the creator.

This is the first writing of the @CreatorsGMI newsletter and a Writing NFT.

373

10:42 AM • Nov 22, 2022

Content is literally limitless. There will always be more.

So - in a world of endless content, what makes it valuable?

Paperclips.

Focus on the margins.

1 ETH to 100 ETH is a 100x return.

0.01 ETH to 1 ETH is a 100x return.

My bet is we will see many many more collections go from 0.01 ETH to 1 ETH than we will from 1 ETH to 100 ETH.

Here’s how.

Culture Markets

What does a market for a song look like?

For a TikTok? Or a Tweet? Or a podcast?

Lucas

@0x_Lucas

Podcast NFTs.

58

11:22 PM • Feb 4, 2023

The reality is - today it doesn’t really exist.

There are countless platforms that allow you to mint and collect all forms of content - but none have really made their way into mainstream in a meaningful way. 

So this is the focus.

How do you get 100,000 people to collect a song?

How do you get 1,000 people to collect a blog post?

By releasing a lot of them. By removing the need for every collection to be an incredibly rare piece of art.

Because that’s the new meta. Owning everything.

Reputation comes from the collective sum, not from one individual asset.

Your “portfolio” should have 1000s of NFTs. Not 3-5.

Instead of focusing on those NFTs worth $10,000, why not have a portfolio of 100 NFTs all worth $100. They amount to the same price.

But we need better infrastructure.

Crossing the Chasm

Vertical specific platforms allow us to better understand why we would want to collect specific types of content.

The reason Sound works for collecting music is because it is a music platform.

The reason Glass works for collecting videos is because it is a video platform.

The reason Mirror works for collecting blogs is because it is a blogging platform.

This is extremely important to highlight because today, we largely rely on generalized marketplaces.

OpenSea is home for everything. And there’s a tremendous amount of value in that.

But if you want to collect a specific type of media, you need a specialized product.

And this is the key trend to watch for.

Projects like Reservoir allow creators to create their own secondary marketplace.

RŌHKI

@ROHKI

Introducing RŌHKI Market.

Your home to collect every Episode from Season 1.

Built using @reservoir0x

market.rohki.xyz

21

4:16 PM • Jan 12, 2023

0xSplits allows creators to pay out their collaborators on-chain.

The true challenge is as much about accessibility as it is about culture.

In the absence of culture, all markets will hit a ceiling.

So - the goal is to focus on NFTs being minted for $10 or less.

Focus on the collector buying for $10 and selling for $50.

This is the margin that gets the whole world to use web3.

Wen Bull Run?

My guess is that we’ll see another bull run in web3 in 2025.

I believe that we need to see a net new pocket of creators to break with web3 at their core.

We need 1000 more Beeples. 1000 more XCOPYs.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Culture.

Music NFTs will create the next wave of breakout artists.

For those around during SoundCloud in 2013, Music NFTs have the exact same energy today.

There will be a breakout moment for web3 artists and Music NFTs will capture that value.
x.com/Cooopahtroopa/…

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Looking to buy your first Music NFT?

Spotlighting 10 rising stars leading the movement

53

10:21 PM • Mar 17, 2022

But they can’t only be about web3. They have to have fan bases that go far and wide beyond their collectors.

Collecting is a bottom of the funnel action.

To get someone to collect, they need to be a fan.

To get someone to be a fan, they need to see you. A lot.

So - collecting culture leads us somewhere new.

Yes - 1000 True Fans is great.

But why do we need to stop there? Why not have 10,000 true fans? 100,000 true fans?

https://gaby.mirror.xyz/qvnNJhylZz-w6t4ubZzHfxd5gP17zDAXa6ruwOyO7sc

This is where the world is headed. And those who realize this will be the ones who take the cake.

Collecting Culture will drive the next bull run.

Are you prepared?

It’s more about the technology than the music.

It's more about the fact that it's an NFT than the fact that it's a great song.

And that needs to change.

What Drives Culture

Music drives culture. Not technology.

I’m the first to talk about how exciting web3 is. The benefits of on-chain payments.

But the reality is - no one cares.

People want what’s cool, and Music NFTs in their current form are only cool to a very select amount of people.

They’re exciting, but they’re not cool.

I want to figure out how to change that.

Focus on the Music

We need to focus on the best songs.

Those that define and reinvent culture. 

The songs that college kids blast in their dorms and the songs that compel us to feel something deeper. 

It needs to be less about the financialization of music, and more about the fact that music has value.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

The music always comes first.

151

8:09 PM • Nov 7, 2022

It’s a fine line to walk - but here’s how this manifests.

Spinamp is a Music NFT aggregator. 

It allows you to listen to (and collect) every song that has been minted on platforms like Sound, Catalog and Decent.

Spinamp has a Trending Section. It’s not based on sales, it’s based on culture.

Focus on Spinamp Trending.

Focus on the Fans

I grew up fully immersed in the culture of artists like Pretty Lights, Griz and STS9.

Music was my identity, and my social circles were defined by the music that I liked.

We collected hat pins, we cherished setlists - we were superfans.

We need more superfans. People who strive for the Golden Egg. People who say Gm every morning. People who live and breathe for discovering new music.

How do we do that?

Frankly - I don’t know.

It’s about creating a movement. Something bigger than any one artist.

To this end, I credit groups like LNRZ, Hume, Nvak, Dreams Never Die and RŌHKI.

Collectives that are bigger than any one artist.

Focus on collectives.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

If you were on Soundcloud - you probably remember collectives.

Artists came together to create community labels around sub-genres.

They spotlighted emerging talent and amplified songs from the core group.

Now - it's time for the rise of collectives in web3

262

5:01 PM • Nov 21, 2022

Focus on the Story

Why are we here?

Why does any of this matter?

Why should someone base their identity around you?

What do you stand for, and why?

levy.eth | Blueprint | Mint Podcast

@levychain

The @ROHKI project is something we're gonna look back at in the next bull market and think damn that was so obvious.

Content worth collecting.

47

6:58 PM • Jan 28, 2023

The Culture Gap

Web3 has its pocket.

And that pocket is growing.

But it needs a breakout moment.

It needs a hero and a champion.

Early bets are in, but its far from being proven out.

https://danielallan.mirror.xyz/r_TmpzV9O7ETCr1gTAJZ4cE2PkajXjkQOSVuMs4ubaY

Most labels think web3 is a joke (but they won’t say it to your face)

Most fans think NFTs are lame (and they will say it to your face)

It’s up to us to change that.

In the search for the perfect mint format, let’s explore this new mechanism and its implications.

What are Open Editions?

Open Editions are time-based drops.

Simply define a price per edition, a start time, and a duration.

So long as you show up during that defined time period, you mint at the same price as everyone else.

There is no upper bound, meaning that theoretically millions of editions can be minted if there is enough demand.

This format made its way to Sound last week, and we saw top-tier artists like Daniel Allan, RAC, Matthew Chaim, Reo Cragun, Oshi, Bloody White, San Holo, Mija and LATASHA all take it for a spin.

sound.xyz (🎧,🎧)

@soundxyz_

Introducing Open Editions.

Mint as many editions as you want within a specified timeframe.

We’re excited to pilot this feature with @imdanielallan @rac @reocragun @matthewchaim @oshimakesmusic @bloodywhxte @sanholobeats and more.

Here’s what to know

195

11:00 AM • Jan 23, 2023

Nifty Gateway Open Editions

Open Editions have been around for years.

First popularized by Nifty Gateway, creators like Beeple, XCOPY and Pak took visual art to new heights by grossing tens of millions of dollars in a day.

At its peak, these markets were extremely active, with open editions immediately trading on the secondary market following a 5 minute mint period.

For early traders, these drops were extremely lucrative.

There were dozens of examples of buying an open edition for $1000, and the floor trading at 5-10x the price just 10 minutes later.

This soon made its way to musicians, with many A-list artists experimenting with open edition drops on Nifty Gateway as their first entry in the space.

Examples of this included The Weekend, Grimes, Madeon, Illenium, Halsey and many more.

But here’s where it started to fall apart.

After minting anywhere from $100k - $1M following a 5 minute open edition, these creators had no clue what to do.

They were met with harsh reactions from fans who expected something of value, and were seemingly not delivered.

Open editions promised nothing more than a piece of art.

In practice - collectors expected creators to engage with their holders and help bring them value.

So - around the middle of 2021 - open editions started to fizzle out.

As the market started shifting to fixed-supply, quantifiably rare collectibles in the form of PFPs, open editions took a back seat.

Zora Open Editions

That is until recently.

Within the last 3 months, we’ve started to see a rebirth of the original open edition concept with new parameters.

Instead of $1000, these editions were being priced for less than $20.

In the case of collections like Checks by Jack Butcher - what started as a 0.0066 ETH mint has now soared to a floor of 0.68 ETH.

VV Checks - Intro

This intro may or may not be notable.

https://checks.art

This is due in large part to the notion that there is no cap on supply - the audience defines the supply.

$jacob

@js_horne

Limited by time is much more interesting than limited by supply.

96

2:41 PM • Sep 5, 2022

** **This has unlocked a new mentality.

What if supply was determined by the audience, rather than the creator.

Sound Open Editions

The hardest part of being an artist on Sound is having to choose your supply and price.

Artists are constantly surveying the market - trying to gauge what a good supply is for their songs, how many to assign for a presale and how many to a free mint.

These added variables take the focus away from what matters most - the music.

So, I’m personally very excited about the introduction of open editions on Sound.

It paints an accurate picture of an artists current reach, and allows them to easily onboard new collectors in the case of high-demand creators who consistently sell out with the first minute of a drop.

Here’s a look at how some of the early drops performed.

• Daniel Allan & Kevin George - 5 STAR - 6.93 ETH

• RAC - Sonhar - 5.8 ETH

• Matthew Chaim & Reo Cragun - Wild - 4.26 ETH

Now let’s look at the floor price on these collections:

• 5 STAR - 0.09 ETH (+300%)

• Sonhar - 0.011 ETH (+40%)

• Wild - 0.14 ETH (+350%)

On paper, all of these collections are trading at a significant premium to mint, despite no supply cap.*

*Note - while the floor price may be up, there is little to no volume on these collections.

The takeaway is that despite holders having conviction in the mints, open editions have decreased secondary market volume.

In rare examples - like San Holo - Don’t Look Down - we actually saw a decent amount of sales following the open edition closing.

This is where opinions start to change.

Bear Case for Open Editions

No supply cap can lead to very large primary sales.

More primary sales makes it harder for a secondary market to emerge and sustain.

In the case of Nifty Gateway, open editions resulted in creators making millions at the expense of the collectors getting fleeced.

The lack of a defined supply makes it difficult for bigger collectors to know how to get involved, since targeting an ownership percentage is no longer intuitive.

All that goes to say - people are skeptical about Open Editions.

kmoney (mog mode)

@kmoney_69

pov: everyone is releasing an open edition nft

2,638

6:20 PM • Jan 30, 2023

Bull Case for Open Editions

Collecting needs to be simple.

Artists choosing a supply and price makes it difficult for minting to take place at scale.

Open Editions are a great way to test the waters. They remove the pressure of having to sell out while allowing the market to fairly determine the supply of a collection.

In the case of cheap mints, it's a great way to get people over the line.

RAC saw nearly 1000 editions minted in his first drop back since 2022 - a great way to incentivize him to keep dropping.

For newer creators, it's the most effective way for fans to prove that they were there first.

Rather than needing to make sure you beat someone in a gas war - simply show up anytime during the open edition and receive the same asset in return.

“In the grand scheme when you look back, it was open for 1 day. This is a very small amount of time in the history of the amount of content an artist will release over time”  - BlockchainBrett

Anything less than 1000 items of something on the internet is pretty scarce, especially in the case that a creator goes on to have a viral moment years down the line.

Open vs Fixed Editions

The best way to think about Open Editions is another tool in the tool belt.

Creators in web3 can directly influence the value of their content through scarcity.

It's perfectly fine (and in fact encouraged) to have one song minted as an open edition for 0.01 ETH for 5 days, followed by another drop of 25 editions fixed at 0.05 ETH.

The variety gives collectors a good understanding of how to think about your music, as it creates a spectrum that separates different songs based on the final supply.

What’s Next?

Open Editions are not the end all be all.

For collecting content to scale, we need always-on liquidity models.

There is no one right answer for this (yet), but it’s something to be on the lookout for.

manifold.xyz

@manifoldxyz

Music OEs.

645

4:52 PM • Jan 31, 2023

Imagine if you could come to a song and always have a liquid price to purchase it as. 

As a collector, you can always sell the song and have immediate liquidity.

This was the beauty of Uniswap and the AMM. There was always a market so long as there were liquidity providers.

The market is still search of the liquidity solution for Music NFTs.

Let’s see who cracks the code first.

While the space is still early - there are a lot of unanswered questions about how an artist grows in a nascent industry.

In this article - we’ll highlight what artists can do to take their project to the next level.

For more context on artists in web3, I recommend reading this Bankless article on finding the XCOPY of Music NFTs.

Artists in Web3

What does it mean to be an artist in web3?

An artist in web3 is one who is actively minting their music on platforms like Sound, Catalog, Decent, Zora and/or Lens.

These artists have dropped at least 3 times, and are actively building a community of collectors around their work.

My guess is there are roughly 500 artists who currently fall into this category.

While there are many artists who have minted one song, I want to focus on those who are continuously minting - but hitting a ceiling when doing so.

Collector Expectations

There are different collector mentalities.

Some collectors buy Music NFTs purely to support the artist. They enjoy a song, and they collect it to directly support the art.

If you make great music, you should never have an issue finding people to support you.

Realistically - there are more collectors looking to collect with the expectation of a higher resale than those supporting altruistically.

To easily define this, if someone collects a Music NFT for 0.01 ETH, they hope that it will be worth more, and that they can sell it if they chose to.

Given how early the market is, there isn’t much liquidity for the vast majority of artists in web3.

This means that even if you sell 35 NFTs at 0.02 ETH and the “floor price” is 0.1 ETH - it might not be real because there has never been a sale at that premium price.

So - even more important than a high floor price is volume.

Collectors like to know that a song is desirable and that new people are constantly getting involved, even if that is at roughly the same price that they purchased at.

Here’s why this is important.

Artist Development

It’s tough to be an artist in web3.

There’s an expectation to release new music, market it on Twitter, join Spaces, talk to collectors and somehow manage all the expectations of being an artist outside of web3.

Here are some suggestions to get a leg up.

Artists as Collectors

Collecting is an essential part of music in web3.

If you want to get more eyes, collect your own work or the work of artists around you.

The more you are seen doubling down, the more collectors want to double down on you.

This doesn’t mean you have to spend an egregious amount of ETH - but the more you give back the more you receive.

This can take the form of buying an edition of one of your own drops.

If you really want to go above and beyond, reward your collectors by sweeping your own floor.

Buy some of your own NFTs off the secondary market and feed the bots.

The more people win by collecting your music, the more they’re likely to come back and collect again.

Collector Chats

Many artists are setting up collector chats on Telegram using Guild.

With Guild, you can set up a token-gated chat room for those who have collected your music.

Once set up, you can add a role which allows anyone to join who has collected any of your NFTs.

This is your home base to steer conversation.

Take time to reach out to your collectors and get them in the chat. Your goal should be to have people actively checking your group because there is a consistent stream of engaging conversation from other collectors in the space.

Reward your chat with airdrops, exclusive music and giveaways.

If you’re an artist on Sound - check out this step by step guide by Mija on how to airdrop Music NFTs to your collectors.

The collectors active in your chat are your most valuable members. Prove that they are being rewarded beyond someone who collects passively but doesn’t make the effort to jump in the chat.

Collabs

Take time to make music with other active artists in web3.

The more you cross pollinate your audience, the more likely it is that you’re going to gain new collectors.

Be a vessel for getting your colleagues into the space, and build a brand for yourself as someone who’s across many different projects.

As you do - you’ll notice that your 0xSplits account will grow, and so will your sales.

Tell Your Story

There are a lot of artists in web3, and there are only going to be more in the future.

Let people know how they should think about your project.

https://danielallan.mirror.xyz/r_TmpzV9O7ETCr1gTAJZ4cE2PkajXjkQOSVuMs4ubaY

Are you an artist going for accessibility?

Are you an artist treating your music as fine art?

Should people expect you to be releasing demos on a frequent basis, or should they expect bigger hallmark projects over time?

Giving your collectors a compass of how to think about your project is a great way to set expectations.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help or guidance - ask your collectors what stands out the most about your music and what they’d like to see more.

The more you ask for feedback, the more involved your collectors will feel, and the more they will collect in turn.

Credibility in Web3

Now let’s assume you’ve done all the above.

This is the real trough that I want to dive in.

I see a lot of artists who are minting their songs and doing well. They have a collector chat and have told their story.

They’re grossing ~1 ETH per single and being consistent in their relationships with their collectors.

The next step is to show that you are an active member of the web3 community at large - beyond your individual project.

Composability is the idea that different platforms can plug into one another and create a larger pie.

With relation to web3 music, think about how your music exists in the wider landscape.

Here are some examples.

• Make a custom theme on Spinamp.

• Put your stems on Arpeggi.

• Set up your artist website on Bonfire.

• Order an IYK Disc to give out POAPs at events.

• Participate in a HedsTAPE contest.

• Set up a secondary market on Reservoir.

• Join the LNRZ collector chat.

• Contribute to Water & Music Research

The list goes on and the reality is there is no one right answer for how to build credibility.

It’s the consistency of being present across all these platforms that starts to add up.

Build a Team

As your project starts to grow - your overhead is going to become a lot higher.

Who else is involved beyond you?

What are the key elements of your project that you can delegate to a member of your community?

The more people you have putting their full attention on your project, the more likely you are to come up with new and creative ideas.

And when you have creative ideas, your team can help you establish and execute these campaigns so you can focus on what you do best - making great music.

I recently started the Web3 Manager Launchpad to source candidates for artists looking to expand their team.

If you’re interested in connecting with web3 managers - DM me to learn more about the individuals in the cohort!

Hallmark Projects

What separates you from everyone else?

For artists releasing consistency, there comes a time to separate yourself from the pack.

Instead of releasing a new single every week, think about how you can package a couple songs together to tell a larger story.

For most collectors, being a part of your growth is a core driver of their continued support.

They want to support you as you expand your audience and prove that they were there from the beginning.

Don’t be afraid to bring other artists in on the process - as the collective sum is always greater than the individual.

Remember - collectors share a ton of overlap.

Don’t live on an island.

If you’re looking at your next hallmark project and trying to find a home for it - reach out and ask some of your closest friends what you can do together to uplift one another.

And keep in mind - the process of doing it is more important than the outcome.

Criteria Case Study

Let’s examine the rollout of Criteria - an 8-track project from Daniel Allan and Reo Cragun.

Daniel Allan

@imdanielallan

I’m excited to announce Criteria - an 8-track EP with @ReoCragun

It's our largest mint, dropping this Friday - Dec 16th.

The collection features 2500 editions with activations across @soundxyz_ @bonfire_tweets @oncyber @spin_amp and @arpeggi_labs

Here's what to know

157

11:56 AM • Dec 12, 2022

Prior to the announcement, Daniel and Reo each teased the project with a prequel on Sound.

They offered 100 editions as a free mint, with a free airdrop to everyone active in their collector chats.

Then, they launched a Criteria collector chat for anyone who held one of their NFTs. This became the source of communication for the week leading up to the release.

Come announcement time - they had everything dialed in.

• Album mint on Sound

• Virtual concert on OnCyber

• Artist website on Bonfire

• Custom skin on Spinamp

• Sample pack on Arpeggi

All of these activations were planned weeks in advance, giving partners a chance to create custom assets and showcase their support in a way that felt native to them.

Each activation was accompanied by its own individual Tweet Storm - shining light on each partner and what made it unique.

Reo Cragun

@ReoCragun

Criteria x @oncyber ️

Mint Criteria directly after a virtual concert starting on Friday at 230 PST.

Hand-curated with historic NFTs from @imdanielallan and myself.

Here's what's in store

110

6:38 PM • Dec 13, 2022

Daniel played a show in LA the week of the drop and they hosted an IRL listening party the night of the release.

The result? 2500 editions on Sound. The most in one project to date.

It was a full-scale effort. It separated them and moved them up to 2nd and 3rd on the all-time Sound charts respectively.

If you’re reading this - challenge yourself to have your Criteria moment.

Honorable Mentions

There are multiple artists who have shown similar trajectories.

A few notable projects and collections to study include, but are not limited to:

• HeadlessCHAOS by SongCamp

• Eternal Garden by TK

• Danger Zone by Ibn Inglor

• Frameworks by Reo Cragun

• Acoustic Album by Mija

• ASTRO by TWERL

• Glass House by Daniel Allan

• Moonshot by Violetta Zironi

There’s something to learn from each of them - please take the time to deep dive!

What Collectors Say

These are merely my personal opinions.

I asked some top collectors - what distinguishes the caliber of artists in the space?

Here were some of their responses.

“I’d probably give a “Rick Rubin” answer here haha. For me, it’s entirely subjective, and I appreciate a wide variety of styles. It’s entirely based on the music, how interesting or impactful I think it is, and not based on social factors or metrics.” - STVDIO NOUVEAU

“Uniqueness in their music, the way they're releasing music. and they way they engage and grow with the community. And how often they Gm.” - BlockchainBrett

“I view Reo as the gold standard. He’s an active collector, community builder, and artist collaborator. Plus I’m always looking forward to his next drop no matter what’s going on. He never misses as an artist or curator.” - Crittie

“Music first and foremost. But I would probably also add consistency and commitment to the space. I like to know they’re going to be here in 12 months - as much as you can guess” - MusicBen

“Releasing music or projects that grow the music NFT community as a whole (creating a strong collector base, releasing music as a collective, onboarding new artists, experimenting with new things like Astro introducing the burn mechanism, etc.) Extra plus if they reflect on their web3 music journey and share it (Dot and Verite have done this for example).” - 0xZao

“Quality of music, overall presence in the space, willingness to experiment & embrace web3 ethos, community building” - BrokeInvstr

“As simple as it sounds, the mix is a dead giveaway to distinguish caliber and you can hear it right away. other than that I feel like a good gauge is people going after it on multiple fronts. from what I can see those that are all/only web3 generally don't stack up as well to those that just use web3 as a tool” - JarrodT

“Aside from a connection to the music itself, off-the-cuff for me it’s “inclusiveness”, in regards to both 1. the artist being open to experimenting with new tech and other artists and 2. the artist including fans in their success that deserve it.” - Jason Meinzer

“Music comes first. But one aspect of web3 artists that differs from traditional artists is their ability to tap into creativity on the business side. When I see an artist being creative and forward-thinking with their drop dynamics, partnerships, leverage of IP, etc. - that's what sets an artist apart in the web3 space.” - DJake

So - with that in mind, here’s to the next generation of artists in web3.

Those giving the space their all and learning every step of the way.

Hopefully this article provided some guidance on how to continue developing your brand in an unknown world.

And until then - I’ll keep collecting.

Managing artists is even harder.

As someone who spent the better half of 3 years managing emerging artists out of college - artist management is no easy task.

On the back of the Music NFT Launchpad, we were able to bring 12 new artists into web3 by helping them mint their first Music NFTs.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Music NFT Launchpad Freshman Class

@caye
@Itsrudecat
@EvaMyraMay
@karijaydotcom
@SeventhAngelo
@itskevingeorge
@yunicemusic
@kondeoko
@MiaLailani
@LxviMusic
@curtistootrill

Thank you to all 200+ artists who applied.

Sessions start next week!

125

2:29 PM • Aug 19, 2022

Now - we’re ready to run it back with a new twist.

This next cohort will be for 10 emerging web3 managers - all tasked with the goal of finding one web3 artist to call a client.

As with the last cohort, the Launchpad features:

• A month-long education program

• Weekly workshops

• Guest lectures

• Private chat group

• Application support

The program will continue to prioritize underrepresented managers, and will favor managers looking to make a name for themselves over those with an established roster of clients.

The Launchpad is a free opportunity designed to prepare managers for success in web3.

If you’re interested in joining, please apply here - or read below to learn more.

What is the Manager Launchpad?

Managers are the backbone behind artist’s careers.

They are often tasked with the administrative work that keeps the train moving, and keeps artists aligned with their vision.

With web3, we’re starting to see the emergence of a new class of service work - all of which requires a new set of skills.

The Web3 Manager Launchpad is a program to bring 10 new managers into web3, all with the intent to help find a client actively releasing Music NFTs.

The Mission

Educate managers on how to best serve artists in web3 with their Music NFT releases.

Inspire managers to challenge traditional commission structures in favor of more forward thinking models.

Identity emerging artists and give them a roster of managers eager and prepared to embrace their path ahead.

Onboarding

The Web3 Manager Launchpad will meet over the course of a month.

Each participant is expected to engage in four, one-hour long sessions to be scheduled in accordance with the availability of the group.

Beyond the hour-long sessions, all async communications will take place on Telegram.

Applicants will be nominated by the Music NFT community and selected by a curated committee of benefactors.

• David Beiner - CEO of Hume Collective

• Chad Hillard - CEO of Dreams Never Die

• Ladidai - Web3 Talent Manager for TK

• Pinder - Artist Manager and Director Web3 Strategy & Partnerships at Venice Music

• Henry Chatfield - Head of web3 Artist Strategy, HIFI Labs

The goal is to give managers a thorough understanding of the Music NFT community and the platforms that enable them.

They will have an opportunity to be introduced to a new ocean of potential clients, and start to shape a name for themselves in a growing new sector.

By the end of the program, each manager should feel confident about communicating Music NFTs to their network, and finding their first client in web3.

The Curriculum

Over the course of a month, participants will engage in weekly workshops with the following curriculum.

Week 1: NFT Fundamentals

• The ethos of NFTs.

• Risks of web3.

• Understanding fungibility.

• Non-custodial wallets

• Explaining gas and nonce.

• Setting up an ENS.

• How to export holder csv

• Web3 terminology and acronyms.

Week 2: Music NFT Landscape

• Why Music NFTs?

• Sound Protocol

• 0xSplits

• Collector Chats using Guild

• Artist Sites using Bonfire

• Snapshot Voting

• Web3 Collectives

Week 3: Collector Mindset

• Price + Supply + Rarity

• How to speak to collectors

• How to prepare a rollout

• Collector DAOs

Week 4: Web3 Artist Expectations

• Best practices.

• List of independent artists.

• Future of Artist Equity

• Final Report

Communication will take place via a private, invite-only Telegram channel.

Closing Thoughts

With the new wave of artists in web3, we need a new wave of managers.

For established managers, web3 is nothing more than a playground.

For emerging managers, web3 is where you will make your career.

This program is meant to inspire the next generation of managers.

Ones who track the Sound calendar more than New Music Friday.

Ones who can talk floor prices, Golden Eggs, Genesis Passes and everything between.

This is a new era, and the Web3 Manager Launchpad is here to kickstart it.

See you inside.

My first ever concert was Avicii - shortly after “Levels” came out in 2012.

I became obsessed with going to shows in Philly - quickly making it a core part of my identity.

This is why I went to school in Colorado, to be closer to venues like Red Rocks and attend hundreds of shows a year.

During this time I met Jordan Chaffin, Jake Nixon and Cece Palmquist - three fellow music lovers and curators.

While we didn’t know it at the time, we’d link back up together in LA more than 5 years later to start what we’re calling Rising Tide.

Rising Tide is an event series to discover emerging artists.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Introducing Rising Tide

An event series for emerging artists.

Wed, Dec 14th from 9PM - 12AM.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in LA.

Be Hear Now

176

4:17 PM • Dec 9, 2022

Here’s why we’re doing it.

Rising Tide Inception

Since moving to LA 2 years ago, I’ve felt like there was a void in electronic music.

It’s the genre I grew up on, and one I’ve been an active fan of for close to a decade.

However - despite LA being the home of many of the most talented artists in the world, I’ve found it difficult to discover emerging acts outside your typical headline ticketed show.

On any given weekend, you’ll see 3-5 headline DJs and producers playing all around town.

But where do these artists go in their free time?

What I noticed is that many industry professionals despise going to shows because it’s what they do for a living.

But what if there was a way to create a community about the love for discovering new music - and go back to the roots of why I would go to shows in the first place?

Rising Tide was started for that exact reason - to uplift those passionate about live music and put a spotlight on the artists of tomorrow.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

The music always comes first.

151

8:09 PM • Nov 7, 2022

We want to create a space entirely focused on the music, and let these artists show why we’re so excited about them.

1UP Wednesdays

Back in Denver - there was an event series at the 1UP on Colfax called REUP Wednedsays.

It featured $5 tickets and artists like Griz, FKJ, San Holo, Klingande, Jai Wolf, G Jones, Mija and many other well known acts today.

I would find myself in the audience every single week, and loved watching these artists grow to sell out major venues all around the world.

The beauty was that the event series had a built in audience.

Regardless of who was playing, you could always expect many of the same faces to show up - and it became a great way to get cemented in the culture of going to shows.

REUP Wednesdays were a huge inspiration for Rising Tide - and largely why we chose Wednesday for our first event.

Artists in Web3

My entire life is spent at the intersection of music and web3.

The reality is, although some of the most talented artists in the world are actively releasing music in web3 - the music often comes second to the tech.

People know of these artists because they drop NFTs, not because they have great music.

It’s very important to me to show that this movement is about the music, not the technology.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Every time I go to a concert Music NFTs become that much more obvious.

116

3:05 AM • Oct 1, 2022

To this end - Rising Tide offers a place for artists in web3 to tell their stories and connect with fans who have never collected an NFT before.

While Rising Tide will include many artists who are not in web3 (yet), this first event features three artists I’m extremely excited about - all of which happen to be active champions of Music NFTs.

Over time, my personal goal is to subtly integrate elements of web3 into the event experience, slowly shifting the stigma around collecting NFTs to be more akin to the hat pin and ticket stub culture I grew up on over the last decade.

What to Expect

Rising Tide shows are about the music.

The goal is to put great people into a room together, but the intent is not for guests to focus on networking.

We’re looking to create an intimate experience heavily focused on the music experience, and have curated a lineup that we believe will make it very hard to miss.

Guests will be instructed to claim a POAP using an IYK disc at the door.

These POAPs will help us keep track of who attended, and enter guests into allowlists and giveaways for the next event.

This is the first of many events - but we’re taking it one step at a time.

I’m a big believer in trying something to see what does (and doesn’t work) and we’re going to learn a lot along the way.

Be Hear Now

The mantra for Rising Tide is Be Hear Now.

It’s meant to highlight the beauty of being present in the moment. Fully immersed in a show and on a wavelength you can largely only reach at a concert.

We hope this mantra can be a driving force behind what to expect when you walk in the door, and as a means to encourage artists that people are coming for the show first, and the people second.

If you made it this far, I encourage you to RSVP for tomorrow’s show.

A Rising Tide lifts all boats.

See you inside.

Special shoutout to OWSLA, Brownies & Lemonade, Next Wave and many other event series which have inspired Rising Tide.

Brands like OWSLA, Mad Decent, Foreign Family, FutureClassic, Deadbeats, bitbird and Sable Valley.

These were groups of artists who banded together to create communities around certain styles and genres.

Collectives were a great way to discover emerging talent - and an even better way to amplify songs from the core group of artists.

This article highlights the rise of Web3 Collectives.

What are Collectives?

Collectives are artist-lead communities of creators outputting songs under one unified brand.

They are commonly orchestrated by one major artist, for example:

• OWSLA - Skrillex

• Mad Decent - Diplo

• Foreign Family - ODESZA

• Future Classic - Flume

• Deadbeats - Zeds Dead

• Bitbird - San Holo

• Sable Valley - RL Grime

This trend was very common during the development of electronic music on Soundcloud, but has existed across many different genres prior.

Collective typically release music on a song by song basis, though there are many instances or collectives releasing “compilations” or groups of 10-20 songs from artists on the roster.

Repost Networks

The power of collectives came from network effects.

If you were an artist in the collective, you could expect 10+ other artists to instantly support your song - reposting to a network of millions of potential listeners.

These releases would then see support from other artists looking to be a part of the community, further amplifying their position in the market.

Reposts were the key feature that drove vitality on Soundcloud.

Getting a repost by your favorite artist was a huge deal.

But getting a repost from all your favorite artists at once? That’s what created the staying power.

Until it got commoditized.

Eventually - people starting selling their reposts, quickly diminishing their impact.

A repost was no longer a co-sign, it was a way to monetize your audience.

However - the best collectives never sold out.

You could never buy a repost. You could only earn it.

Web3 Collectives

We’re starting to witness a new generation of collectives.

In the same way leading artists drove the success of collective on Soundcloud, we’re now seeing a similar development from leading artists on platforms like Sound.

Here are some key collectives to keep an eye on, along with their respective champion(s).

• LNRZ - Reo Cragun

• SongCamp - Matthew Chaim

• Zoratopia - LATASHA

• Hume Collective - Angelbaby

• Nvak Collective - Annika Rose

While all these collectives have their own unique focus, they have a few elements in common.

1. They all support emerging artists in web3

2. They are all founded by artists who have seen success in web3

3. They continue to onboard and amplify artists who are a part of the collective

Let’s explore what makes these collective unique.

Case Study: LNRZ DAO

Founded by Reo Cragun, LNRZ is a “creative incubator and producer of groundbreaking music and visual NFTs.”

https://mirror.xyz/reocragun.eth/crowdfunds/0x2a4114bF4Bc5F4C7D548F612Fcd77bBb6D428B68

It was launched through a Mirror Crowdfund (similar to how SongCamp started) and has since gone on to become a trending project on Sound.

Since its launch, LNRZ has issued released 8 collections.

These drops have included artists DLG, Lyrah, Bloody White, Vaarwell, Mija, Mark Evans, Kevin George and Glasstempo - alongside founders Reo Cragun and Clear Eyes.

Now - while these numbers might not be too staggering - here are the key highlights to zoom in on.

• Cadence - LNRZ is releasing at least one track per week, making it easy to keep up with the momentum of the collective and support artists along the way.

• Treasury - 20% of every LNRZ drop is allocated towards a community treasury.

• Curation - The LNRZ team is hand-selecting drops to drive momentum.

Each LNRZ drop has sold out within the first 10 seconds of launch, actively creating secondary demand beyond the initial collection.

To get a sense for the music - you can listen to LNRZ drops on Spinamp.

Here’s where these collectives get interesting.

Collect is the new Repost

Collecting creates a unique relationship native to web3.

It creates shared incentive to succeed - debatably as powerful as the early reposts on Soundcloud.

The existence of a Treasury takes these dynamics even further.

The underlying influx of capital gives the collective operating capital to bring on creative directors, community managers and add extra layers to the drops.

And when you layer in a governance token - all of this is amplified.

What you can then have is a system where collectors can stake their Music NFTs to earn governance over the treasury and proposals.

While we’ve yet to see it yet - I expect to see many more instances of collectives in web3 in the months to come.

Collective Fundraises

Beyond the releases themselves, we’re now seeing collectives bring on additional capital from outside investors.

Projects like RELICS, HedsDAO, Hume, Dreams Never Die and StemsDAO are examples of companies operating like a collective with a strong focus on product.

They all raised capital to hire a team, and develop an ecosystem around their collective.

heds

@hedsdotworld

Heds represent the future of collaborative curation and artist discovery.

We’ve released 9 HedsTAPES featuring:

54 artists
85 ETH
684 tapes
183 wallets.

Today - we’re excited to announce heds inc has raised a $2.5M seed round.

mirror.xyz

Heds Raises $2.5M to Foster Collaborative Curation

What started as a shared vision has led to the creation of the company Heds inc, AKA heds, which we are proud to announce has closed its seed round.

112

2:13 PM • Nov 15, 2022

Under the hood, they’re all establishing a unique demographic of artists representing each brand.

While these projects do not have the same “artist champion” dynamic - they represent a unique class of collectives new to web3.

Key Takeaways

When collecting Music NFTs - focus on the artists underpinning new collectives.

https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/txEEGL6xzKWWvvEE9Am7bG_q4wlsg2MeTNISyveZctk

These artists are strong bets as they continue to drive growth within their unique pocket, and within the ecosystem at large.

Furthermore, be on the lookout for:

• Genesis Drops from new collectives

• Early collections from artists who start collectives.

• Ways to stake NFTs from collectives to earn governance tokens

For those creating a collective - keep the following in mind:

• Simplicity and consistency are key

• You don’t need to create a product or site to create a collective

• One song each week is more than enough

Tying it all together - I am extremely bullish on collectives in web3.

It was a huge driver of success on Soundcloud, and I believe a similar model will play out in web3.

Get Involved

We referenced a couple collectives to follow.

Here are some ways to get involved with each.

• LNRZ - Collect their weekly drops on Sound

• SongCamp - Join the Weekly Heartbeat call on Mondays at 1 PST

• Zoratopia - Attend the festival at Art Basel!

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out my latest piece on Finding the XCOPY of Music NFTs.

I write a weekly newsletter to keep track of all these projects and more.

Shoutout to Adam Levy for inspiring this piece as a part of the Vault.

Here’s to many more collectives to come!

There’s never been a way to bet on the songs (and artists) I love - until now.

Over the past year, I’ve dedicated the majority of my time to collecting Music NFTs - or collectible songs.

I’m proud to be the leading collector on Sound.xyz - with 600 NFTs from more than 200 artists.

Throughout this time, I’ve developed a collecting strategy.

Support emerging artists using web3 to meaningfully impact their career.

In September, I announced Coop Records - a $10M early-stage fund investing in the next generation of music.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Proud to announce Coop Records Fund I

A $10M early-stage fund investing in the next generation of music.

Here's what you need to know

2,500

11:46 AM • Sep 8, 2022

5% of the fund - or $500k - is set aside for purchase Music NFTs.

In this post, we’ll highlight how it will be allocated - expanding on how I think about collecting Music NFTs personally, and hopefully creating a framework for those to come.

But first - let’s start with the basics.

Defining Music NFTs

A “Music NFT” is an NFT containing a song (i.e. an .mp3 or .wav.) and a cover art.

Music NFTs are most commonly grouped in a “collection” or a set of NFTs all representing the same song - however they can also be sold as 1/1s.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Music NFTs are very simple.

- Song
- Cover art

Don't overcomplicate it.

308

4:43 PM • Oct 18, 2022

This is important to define as it helps narrow down they types of NFT we look to collect.

As a good rule of thumb - if you can play it on Spinamp, it’s a Music NFT.

Why Collect Music NFTs?

Coop Records aims to hold valuable Music NFTs in our portfolio.

Music NFTs allow the fund to invest in collections with historical relevance that reflect the taste and preference of the brand.

Music is subjective, and collecting is a good way to showcase the songs, artists and genre(s) Coop Records finds particularly interesting.

When announcing the fund - we received an influx of requests from artists to “sign” their next single, EP or album.

This made me wonder - what do deals look like where you only participate in the NFTs, not the masters or publishing?

The initial thought was to provide an advance (i.e. $50k) in exchange for primary and secondary sales (say 25%) on future Music NFT collections (i.e. 10 songs).

After trying to reverse engineer the economics, I landed on a much simpler view.

Coop Records purchases Music NFTs.

This prevents the need for the NFTs to gross a certain amount of ETH to breakeven while ensuring that the artist is still properly allocating time and resources into their collections.

We retain exposure in the most native format possible.

So the next logical question became - what NFTs do we collect?

Music NFT Thesis

Coop Records will purchase Music NFTs using the following framework:

1. Artist

2. Collection

3. Ownership

4. Blue Chip

Artist

Identify an artist which has cultural relevance with the Music NFT community.

Target emerging artists that get their roots from the use of web3, done by:

• Releasing Music NFTs every time a song comes out on Spotify.

• Releasing songs exclusively as Music NFTs.

• Onboarding and collaborating with other web3 artists.

• Collecting Music NFTs from other web3 artists.

The target artist is one who has web3 at the front and center of their release strategy and is actively looking to bring other artists into the space.

We believe more value will accrue to Music NFTs from emerging artists than existing superstars.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

The next generation of artists will be born through web3 and Music NFTs.

328

4:32 PM • Sep 12, 2022

However - Coop Records also has an interest in artists who have seen commercial success and have recently left a major record deal.

We believe these artists are in search of a new chapter for their career, and find their earliest Music NFTs to be the best way to capture this pivot in their journey.

Collection

Zoom in on the collection(s) with historical relevance to an artist’s web3 career.

Genesis collections can be thought of as rookie cards.

Coop Records collects artist’s rookie cards.

Beyond genesis collections, we identify collections which have a unique edge or story that gives it historical credence.

Collaborations, newly independent releases and collections that experiment with rarity and ownership fit this bucket.

For many established web3 artists, their genesis collections are either illiquid or command a high price premium.

In these scenarios, Coop Records looks to participate in the primary market for their follow-on collections.

Ownership

Coop Records looks to acquire 5% of the total supply for a given collection.

This is done through the primary market, and then on the secondary if unable to acquire at inception.

We prioritize single digit editions (#1-5) IF on or near floor, followed by sweeping the cheapest listed NFTs.

Blue Chips

Beyond ownership, we look to acquire the rarest asset(s) in a collection.

This includes Golden Eggs, Legendary Editions and other “1/1” like traits.

The goal is to target a minimum 10x resale on what they are acquired for.

Fund Strategy

Coop Records will look to collect from many web3 artists over the course of the next year.

There are no immediate plans to trade these Music NFTs, more so to participate in their development and demonstrate day-to-day awareness of the cultural movements of the space.

We expect the average holding period to be at least a year, though much of this is dependent on the growth of the market as a whole.

While there’s a strong development around royalty-backed NFTs, Coop Records is not acquiring these assets at this time. This is a much larger topic - and one we will expand on in future articles.

We’re most excited about supporting emerging artists selling Music NFTs as editions, and to date - the vast majority of that is happening on Sound.

We’re eager and excited to collect Music NFTs on other platforms, but believe Sound has developed the strongest market for Music NFTs that fit the criteria above to date.

We want artists to be proud to have Coop Records as a collector - and to show portfolio companies that we have direct connections with (and exposure to) the most exciting acts in web3.

Coop Records Collection

Using this thesis, Coop Records has acquired NFTs from:

• Daniel Allan

• Reo Cragun

• LATASHA

• Bloody White

• Grady

• Angelbaby

• Hume Collective

• LNRZ DAO

• RŌHKI

• PrettyMuch

• Iman Europe

• Mija

• San Holo

• Lyrah

• Annika Rose

• Deffie

• Thomas Jack

In aggregate, Coop Records has spent ~34 ETH or $54,000 on Music NFTs to date.

You can find a full breakdown of these purchases here.

For an up-to-date look at the collection, visit the Coop Records OpenSea profile.

Selling Music NFTs

While Coop Records is acquiring Music NFTs - it’s important to highlight that selling Music NFTs is natural for the growth of the space.

While it’s optimistic to expect every collector to be in it to support the love of the art - it’s far more likely that people will get excited about buying a sold-out drop and reselling it for a profit.

This behavior is what drove momentum for Crypto Art, PFPs and DeFi tokens.

In the same way that XCOPY’s early 1/1s were sold for ~1 ETH and resold for 500 ETH+, we expect the same trends to play out with music.

The more we can prove that Music NFTs allow fans to make money trading their favorite songs, the larger these markets will grow.

We actively welcome and invite collectors to make private offers to Coop Records.

Next Steps

We will continue to refine our thesis and share updates.

We encourage other collectors to share their thesis and help us update our thinking.

In the meantime - you can stay up with the latest stories, drops and community chatter through my free newsletter This Week in Music NFTs.

It’s shaping up to be an exciting next couple months.

We can’t wait to see you out there.

Special thanks to Brett Shear, Craig, Spinz808, Adam D’augelli, Ben Brown, Studio Nouveau, Steve Hall Reo Cragun, Mija and John Itzler for feedback on this post.

Make a living by supporting great music.

Today - I’m proud to announce Coop Records Fund I - a $10M early-stage fund investing in the next generation of music.

Here’s what you need to know.

The Thesis

Music is a difficult industry to invest in.

As someone who’s consumed music their whole life, there have been very few opportunities to participate in the growth of the artists that I love the most.

What if you could be an early investor in SoundCloud or Spotify? Universal Music Group or Roc Nation? Drake, Post Malone or Illenium?

Web3 gives us that opportunity - and that’s why I’m starting a fund to invest in music.

Why Now

Web3 creates new monetization models for music.

There’s a common misconception that NFTs are meant to replace streaming - I believe this is incorrect.

Streaming is a growing industry, and it will continue to grow in the coming years.

But what about markets for patronage? For those who want to go deeper than adding a new release to their playlist?

That’s where Music NFTs come in.

Music NFTs are a net new revenue stream - the first of many offered by web3.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Selling 25 Music NFTs at 0.1 ETH pays more than a million streams on Spotify.

Let that sink in.

3,920

4:44 PM • Jun 4, 2022

We’re already starting to see it with a growing class of web3 artists - many of which are making multiples more income off of NFT sales than streaming.

The best part? These worlds will continue to co-exist. Music is only getting more valuable. And you have a chance to own it.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

There are ~8,000,000 artists on Spotify.

There are ~2,000 artists who have minted a Music NFT.

Zoom out.

269

9:49 PM • Aug 23, 2022

And how is that done you might ask?

Enter the Music NFT Landscape.

This ecosystem will continue to grow as we start to see composability help platforms better coexist and work together.

Introducing Coop Records

Coop Records is a $10m early-stage fund investing in the next generation of music.

We invest in platforms, protocols, artists and tokens uniquely enabled by web3.

Think of Coop Records as a hybrid between a web3 venture fund, a record label, and an incubator.

We work directly with founders and artists to build products which create new revenue streams.

And here’s why.

The Big Picture

We should be able to invest in our favorite artists.

Web3 makes that a reality, and Coop Records will fund those opportunities.

I believe that artists can be CEOs if they choose to be. CEOs run companies, and companies have investors.

Why should artists be any different?

What if instead of selling your songs to a label, you sold part of the company that made the songs to investors?

This is the focus of what Coop Records is calling “Artist Seed Rounds”.

What if artists raised capital to build an ecosystem for their fans?

What if they didn’t need to sell their masters, and instead maintained majority ownership while getting capital from long-term partners?

What if they sold equity in their company instead of the rights to their catalog?

It would allow them to experiment more freely. To build a team and build products.

Coop Records is excited to explore these opportunities.

We’re looking to invest in artists.

Artists as Investors

Now you may be thinking - most artists would be terrible to invest in.

But what if there was more education and culture around investing?

What if instead of artists only spending money on making music, they started to invest in the companies they work with?

It makes sense that the biggest artists on Spotify should have equity in the company - right? This is the Ownership Economy at its finest.

This is why Coop Records is bringing on a select batch of trusted artists as investors in the fund.

To show successful artists that there are ground-floor opportunities, and that they have the ability to own parts of them at the earliest stages.

Again - this profile is not for everyone. Many artists just want to make beats, and that’s totally fine.

Coop Records exists to take investing in music companies easy and exciting.

Angel Investing

Over the past 18 months, I’ve been fortunate to invest in incredible companies including but not limited to:

• Sound

• Zora

• Mirror

• Royal

• Seed Club

• NFT Now

• POAP

• 0xSplits

• Catalog

• SongCamp

• Bonfire

• Medallion

• Koop

• Hume Collective

• Variant Fund II

I believe that all of these investments are building key infrastructure that will power the adoption of web3.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Web3 music is bigger than just Music NFTs.

- Streaming
- Royalties
- Ticketing
- Fan Clubs
- Stems
- Merch

NFTs are the core building block.

311

1:01 PM • Jun 30, 2022

While not all of them will pan out, it was a great way to build relationships with founders and learn what it means to be a value-added investor.

Now - I’m ready to take it to the next level.

Disclaimer: This is a potentially non-representative selection of 15 angel investments made over an 18 month period. For other important disclosures and information about Coop Records, please visit cooprecords.xyz.

Why Coop?

I’ve worked in music for 10 years, and web3 for 5.

I was a curator for ThisSongIsSick, went to school for Music Business, was a DJ, an artist manager and have developed a growing network within the music industry - including some of my favorite artists and operators.

I was a co-founder of Friends with Benefits (shoutout Trevor and the early FWB crew), a former venture partner at Variant (special thanks to Jesse Walden and Li Jin for encouraging me to start Coop Records) and an active advisor across leading web3 music projects like Audius (wouldn’t be here without Roneil being such an amazing mentor).

Thanks to my colleagues at Fire Eyes DAO (gg to James, Callum and Lucas), I’ve been lucky to contribute to the token launches for ENS, Optimism, Gitcoin, SuperRare, Seed Club, Forefront and many more.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

I'm going full-time DAOs.

Here's how - and how you can too.

2,210

12:06 PM • Sep 10, 2021

Tie it all up, and I feel equipped to put web3 music on the map.

Get Involved

Coop Records is a small company. I’m a Solo GP and we’re keeping things lean and efficient.

We’re on the lookout for new projects, and to help artists new to web3 find their footing.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Pay attention to Music NFTs.

You won't regret it.

5,039

5:21 PM • Jan 3, 2022

To stay up with the latest - subscribe to my newsletter This Week in Music NFTs.

To share new projects and discuss new investment opportunities - reach out via email at coop@cooprecords.xyz.

Lastly - I’d like to thank everyone who’s helped me on my journey thus far.

Most people think I’m crazy for doubling down on a niche that feels so small today.

But truthfully - I’ve never felt closer to my purpose, and that triumphs any amount of likes, money or status.

To the next generation of music - let’s jam.

Whether it’s the terminology, curation or cost - artists need support to become acclimated with the web3 community.

I have learned first hand the importance of moving with intentionality as we build a more diverse and inclusive space for creators new to web3.

To this notion, I’m excited to launch the Music NFT Launchpad  - a cohort of 10 artists brought together to learn about web3 and mint their first Music NFT.

The Launchpad features:

• A month-long education program

• Weekly workshops

• Guest lectures

• Private chat group

• Application support

• Gas reimbursements

All with the single goal to help musicians mint and sell their first Music NFT.

The program will prioritize underrepresented creators, and was created with no barriers to entry. The Launchpad is a free opportunity designed as a way to prepare creators for success in web3.

If you’re interested in joining, please apply here - or read below to learn more.

What is the Music NFT Launchpad?

The Launchpad is meant to provide a safe space for creators to join web3 and create open dialog for artists new to Music NFTs.

It will feature guest lectures from those with experience in the space, along with an opportunity to meet and grow with other creators cultivating new relationships within web3.

The program will cover everything from web3 fundamentals to the ever-evolving Music NFT platforms, community and culture.

https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/8OrpDmu5wboGX36-vXIt3gBMQMoihY0k_kV4XowlMMo

The Mission

The Music NFT Launchpad attempts to create opportunities to succeed in web3.

As someone dedicated to building equality and accessibility, this is my intention to make an impact in the Music NFT community.

Introducing the Music NFT Launchpad

Minting your first Music NFT can be confusing, costly and overwhelming.

This cohort offers a focused course on the current landscape, and the means to mint your first Music NFT.

It will break down web3 language and culture, providing context to terms and norms used daily within the space.

Participants are encouraged to engage in relevant dialog and discussion as we shape the Music NFT community that we want to exist in.

The cohort will meet over one month. Each participant is expected to engage in four, one-hour long sessions to be scheduled in accordance with the availability of the group.

Applicants will be nominated by the Music NFT community and selected by a curated committee of benefactors including:

• Reo Cragun - Leading web3 artist and founder of the LNRZ DAO.

• Austin Hurwitz - Senior Vice President of the Venice Music Collective

• Charm Taylor - Multidisciplinary Artist, Curator, Educator, &  Advocate Founder of Future South & Rising Sun MindBodySpirit Wellness. 😉

• Mija - International superstar DJ and niche internet microcelebrity.

• Cece Palmquist - Events and operations at Catalog

The goal is to give participants a thorough understanding of the Music NFT community and the platforms that enable them.

Artists will be able to mint their first NFT at no cost, and provide them with channels to distribute in a meaningful fashion.

By the end of the program, each creator should feel confident about communicating Music NFTs to their network, and selling their first piece.

The Curriculum

Over the course of a month, participants will engage in weekly workshops with the following curriculum.

Week 1: NFTs and the Fundamentals

• Panel on the ethos and importance of NFTs.

• Expectations and risks of web3.

• Understanding the concept of fungibility.

• Setting up a non-custodial wallet.

• Explaining gas costs and transaction nonce.

• Setting up an ENS.

• Web3 terminology and acronyms.

Week 2: Music NFT Landscape

• Why Music NFTs?

• What a “Music NFT” entails

• Key platforms with pros/cons

• Key resources

• Custom Smart Contracts

• Evolution of Music NFTs

• Community Members

• Collector DAOs

• Web3 Labels

Week 3: Getting Started with Music NFTs

• Platform applications

• Venice Music Group (Free membership)

• Apply for FWB Local (+5 FWB when accepted)

• Community Events (SongCamp heartbeat)

• Water & Music Research Reports

• Case Studies

Week 4: Music NFT Distribution

• Best practices on distribution and communication.

• How to price your Music NFT.

• How to market your NFT.

• Do’s and don’ts.

All participants will be reimbursed the cost of their Music NFT along with membership tokens to eligible web3 communities if accepted.

Communication will take place via a private, invite-only Telegram channel.

Closing Thoughts

The Music NFT Launchpad looks to set a precedent for how creators should be onboarded to web3.

While web3 is a fast moving space, this program aims to provide creators with the tools they need to succeed.

Throughout the process, members of the cohort are encouraged to engage with one another with the goal of creating a family and culture around each other’s work.

In doing so, we hope to inspire participants to go from student to teacher in just one month.

To apply, please feel out this application.

If you have questions about the program or how to get involved, please DM me on Twitter!

To learn more about Music NFTs - subscribe to my free newsletter.

Let’s mint!

Whether it's Spotify or TikTok - strategic partners share one goal: more fans.

When it comes to music, record labels are the strategic partner that every aspiring artist strives to work with. 

There are three major labels in the music industry today: Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Group (SMG) and Warner Music Group (WMG).

In this post, we’ll explore the role of labels today, and how web3 labels are working their way into the picture.

If you found this article helpful, subscribe to my newsletter to stay up with more regular content on web3 music.

The Role of a Label

Labels exist to develop artists. 

The mission is to grow an artist’s career by providing them with the resources they need to scale. 

Their services can be summarized into three categories:

• Capital - Money to make records. 

• Distribution - Humans to handle administrative work and get more plays.

• A&R - Connections to platforms and mentors to develop the artist.

Typically, an artist will “sign” - or partner with - a label through a record deal.

Once signed, the artist is added to a roster of other artists working with the label, starting their official working relationship.

A Typical Record Deal in 2022

Let’s explore a developing act that has over 1,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and a TikTok song with some buzz.

When creating an album, the artist (and their team) will either pitch (or be approached by) a label with:

• $500,000 budget + advance

• 80/20 master royalty split (in favor of the label) 

• 3 project (or 30 song) option

• 10-15 year reversion clause

In layman’s terms, the artist will receive $500,000 for 80% of the master royalties on their next 3 albums (or 30 songs) over a 10-15 year period before they can request ownership back.

The $500,000 is an advance, meaning that it must be fully recouped (or repaid) before the artist starts to earn their 20% of royalties.

The advance is usually split 50% as an up front payment and 50% upon the delivery of the album - subject to label approval. This means they get $250k today, and the other $250k once the label agrees upon the project they want to put out.

In exchange, the artist receives a:

• $500,000 budget.

• Label representative(s) responsible for handling their requests and needs.

• Personalized marketing plan, an exclusive network of playlist opportunities and potential partners.

All sounds great right?

Let’s unpack.

How Deals Unfold

Not all artists are treated equally. 

Every label has “priority” artists, or those who are expected to make the most money.

Priority artists receive the most capital, time and resources.

If you’re a priority artist at a major label - life is good.

You’ve got a fantastic credit line, a team fully dedicated to your success and a network of ever expanding connections.

Unfortunately, most signed artists are not priority artists.

Oftentimes, the A&R who signed the artist has left to another company, moved up the chain or got canned.

More times than not, the artist is unable to recoup their initial advance, leaving them in debt and in a tight spot with their label.

This leaves the relationship in a weird place where the artist has no trusted connection at their label and little to no leverage until their tracks perform well financially.

This is why you tend to hear about more artists wanting out of their deal than being stoked to be in one.

Let me be clear: labels are not intentionally malicious. They are a business looking to make a profit.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

The most common misconception about Music NFTs:

It’s not fuck the labels.

It’s help the artists.

722

5:43 PM • Feb 12, 2022

If a signed artist does not perform well or changes the direction from what was originally promised, it makes sense that tensions arise as both parties look to find a middle ground.

So - where do artists turn when the existing system is not working in their favor?

Community ownership.

Enter web3.

Quality over Quantity

Web3 has worked best for creators who focus on the quality of individual fans over the quantity of total fans.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Web3 shows that the quality of a community is exponentially more valuable than the quantity of its followers.

453

1:37 PM • Oct 26, 2021

Instead of optimizing for play count, web3 encourages artists to optimize for superfans.

This model is best exemplified by the concept of 100 True Fans - or the thesis that a creator only needs 100 fans willing to pay $1000 per year to make six figures.

With the rise of platforms like Sound, Catalog and Decent - Music NFTs are creating a new mechanism to identify superfans.

The thesis is simple - find 25 fans willing to buy a collectible version of your song.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Selling 25 Music NFTs at 0.1 ETH pays more than a million streams on Spotify.

Let that sink in.

3,920

4:44 PM • Jun 4, 2022

In the case of Royal - you can even sell royalties of your song directly to fans!

Seems easy enough?

Not quite.

It’s not only about web3. Artists also need to leverage platforms like Spotify for distribution and discovery.

The winning formula is somewhere in the middle - balancing web3 superfans with a strong distribution funnel in web2.

This is where web3 labels come in.

Web3 Labels

The existing market of Music NFT collectors is tiny in comparison to those with a Spotify account.

I’d guess there are ~10,000 unique Music NFT collectors in the world, compared to more than 182 million premium subscribers worldwide on Spotify.

While the number may seem laughable, here’s where web3 labels start to develop their edge.

On top of growing an artist’s career, web3 labels zoom in to find and build relationships with superfans.

This can broadly be categorized into three areas:

• Community - Deeper social engagement among fans

• Treasury -  New on-chain revenue streams and strategic fund allocation.

• Governance - Transparent decision making to incentivize contributions.

Realistically, web3 labels (today) do not have endless capital. In fact, they are very capital constrained.

Instead, their value-add comes by offering grassroots operational services to find and retain those 100 True Fans.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Music NFTs favor independent artists.

Web3 is the new record label.

1,383

6:01 PM • Jan 7, 2022

Areas where web3 labels shine include but are not limited to:

• Setting up and managing a Discord.

• Creating relationships with Music NFT platforms.

• Structuring the total supply, pricing and rarity for releases.

• Handling on-chain splits (using 0xSplits) and royalty allocations.

• Coordinating Twitter Spaces to create awareness.

• Writing governance proposals for Snapshot votes.

• Booking live performances at web3 events.

Instead of offering a huge cash advance, many web3 labels will work in exchange for a percentage of future profits - leveling the playing field and creating equal incentives for both parties to benefit from one another’s success.

Seeing as this might lead to web3 labels also prioritizing artists that are performing the best financially, new ownership structures can create more autonomy and less reliance on a label to succeed. More on this in a later post.

Web3 Labels

While still early, there are a couple web3 labels leading the charge.

Hume Collective

As the creators of Angelbaby, the Hume Collective is creating a playbook for the rise of Metastars - or digital artists who are born out of web3.

https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/jaCObLqSO0S7O7UB5RR9BJkXSWrro2EeX_ODH3CAqA0

Aside from recurring Twitter Spaces, the Hume Discord serves as the homebase for community discussions, votes and exclusive alpha.

Dreams Never Die

As long-time curators who discovered acts like Billie Eilish, Dreams Never Die is helping artists tackle web3 through relationships with platforms like Sound and Catalog.

The early-stage DAO was recently backed by Polychain, giving the rising label runway to hire full-time contributors and expand their ability to fuel artists careers, both in web2 and in web3.

https://mirror.xyz/dreamsneverdie.eth/HMumx6VrRiIZSI5UQ88l4h0W_dKCQ9wU4VzFg0qXjCA

Venice

The rising web3 music collective Venice acts as both a distributor and a community hub - offering membership passes which grant holders access to a growing network of artists, collectors and operators.

Spearheaded by Troy Carter, the Venice team brings decades of industry experience paired with a deep understanding of the Music NFT landscape to help artists take their first steps in the space.

Venice Music

@venicemusic

Plenty of s from @justcallmetroy in his interview with @musicbizworld.

"Right now, my bet is on the future. Blockchain is here to stay and it’s going to be transformational to the world: Music NFTs specifically."

musicbusinessworldwide.com/troy-carters-v…

32

4:10 PM • May 23, 2022

Good Karma Records

As one of the earliest web3 labels, Good Karma Records was funded through Mirror, and has since gone on to host a number of events in LA along with signing their first artist - Daz Merchant.

https://mirror.xyz/goodkarmagrady.eth/crowdfunds/0xf669F717AB2980A86078f4196dcAAFcBE4AF8577

Web3 Collectives

This goes in tandem with a growing wave of collectives, or communities which offer label-like services in a more grassroots fashion.

SongCamp

The collective behind Headless Chaos holds weekly Heartbeat calls every Monday at 1 PST.

If you’re an artist looking to make waves in web3, SongCamp is your home.

CHAOS

@headless_chaos

Well if it isn't us breaking into the "regular" world of music.

Thanks for shining a light on us @billboard and showing all artists what is possible in the world of web3.

billboard

@billboard

The project from artists collective Songcamp wants to rewrite the rules of collaborative songwriting, using NFTs to get paid. blbrd.cm/6wYzvZI

35

9:33 AM • Jul 1, 2022

The Park

Started long before web3, The Park consists of leading minds in Friends with Benefits - spotlighting up and coming talent and curating spaces to bring new artists into the space.

thepark.eth

@thepark

Made with friends on a Friday. Coming to you thiiiis Friday 6/17 @gflipmusic @soundxyz_ What’s your favorite PB&J? sound.xyz/thepark/pbandj

28

2:10 PM • Jun 15, 2022

LNRZ

Incubated by Reo Cragun, LNRZ DAO (pronounced “Loners”) recently announced their Freshman Class of artists set to debut the collective's first mixtape.

LNRZ

@lnrzxyz

We’d like to Welcome @itsmarkjohns to the LNRZ freshman class. Undeniably talented, she was the first solo vocalist signed to Skrillex's OWSLA label. Born to Moroccan parents in Canada and raised in Singapore, she started performing covers while attending college in Miami.

59

3:12 PM • May 12, 2022

Key Takeaways

If you’re an artist new to web3, familiarize yourself with these key players.

If you’re a collector or operator looking to add leverage to your brand, web3 labels are a fantastic place to chip in.

Almost every web3 label is in search of additional talent, and the experience you’ll gain from working closely with artists on their rollouts is invaluable.

While web3 labels are nowhere near the size of the major labels of today - these projects should shine light on the role labels can play when it comes to artists taking advantage of new monetization models for music.

Web3 Challenges

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

20 problems with Music NFTs today

856

3:21 PM • Mar 29, 2022

As web3 labels mature, it’s important to recognize some of their current shortcomings.

• Scaling - Newer labels will need to scale to meet growing demand. 

• Experience - Very few operators have ever broken an act or worked with A-list talent.

• Copyrights - Songs have many contributors. Ensuring everyone is properly accounted for while copyrights are enforced is a huge challenge for Music NFTs.

However - challenges create opportunities.

While we’re far from any web3 label remotely rivaling a major, many of these challenges are a completely unique design space.

These are the edges worth zooming in on.

Closing Thoughts

There’s a generation of artists eager to fully own their music and to explore new mediums for distribution.

Web3 is purely one of those verticals, and one that seems to be working well for those who are consistent.

While we’re still a long way away from finding the perfect model for web3 music, the above projects offer a strong complement to the existing label system we’ve all come to know so well.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

Music NFTs. Q2 2022.

2,203

12:38 PM • Apr 27, 2022

If you’re an artist, manager, collector, builder or investor looking to expand your roots in web3, look no further. 

To keep up with the day to day movements of the sector subscribe to my newsletter - This Week in Music NFTs.

Until then, keep a close eye on web3 labels.

A new path is closer than you may think.

Special thanks to Andre Benz, Reo Cragun, Li Jin, Justin Blau, David Greenstein, David Edmondz, Braedon Alexander, Brett Shear and Chad Hillard for their feedback on this post.

They’re born from web3 and are creating deeper fan relationships through collectible, community-owned experiences.

We’re talking about metastars - or web3-native artists releasing Music NFTs.

What are Metastars?

We’ve seen fictitious avatars like the Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and Marshmello. However, we’ve yet to see what a truly web3-native artist is capable of when armed with NFTs.

Thanks to the advent of projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and FLUF World, we’re seeing a rise of avatar-based acts that extend the lore and narrative of the underlying community. 

“Metastars” are a new class of musicians defined by the artist existing solely in the metaverse.

Instead of a physical person, metastars consist of entirely digital identities, grounded and backed by web3-native primitives like NFTs and DAOs.

Metastars can play multiple sets in multiple cities at once. Their story can be direct by their fans.

The playbook teases what web3 music releases could look like - including mint passes, rarity traits, airdrops, governance, and much more. 

We’ve all seen the narrative around 1000 True Fans mature.

Now, we get to watch it happen from day one with a few key acts.

Angelbaby

Incubated by the Hume Collective - Angelbaby is the first metastar under the rising web3 record label.

The metastar “Angelbaby” features the FLUF World avatar angelbaby3045 - the centrepiece of a hip-hop electronic crossover who’s performed at Art Basel and SXSW.

angelbaby3045.eth 🌐

@angelbaby

humies. this isnt a normal performance. this is about my fxckin life.

204

5:20 PM • Mar 11, 2022

With a couple NFT releases under their belt, angelbaby has been taking to Twitter to share insights into the world being cultivated through the release of an upcoming EP.

the hume collective 🌐

@wearehume

do you want to see whats on the otherside?

106

4:02 PM • May 23, 2022

As a collective, Hume works with different avatar projects - in this case FLUF World - to create artist identities around an emerging NFT series.

We can expect fans to collect through a multitude of vehicles, enjoying airdrops and governance rights for being active members of the community.

RŌHKI

RŌHKI is a duo from two eternal beings - IO and HACHI.

The pseudo-anonymous artist project recently premiered their debut single - Desperado.

RŌHKI

@ROHKI

Think it's high time to head west and lay low, hunting me down like I'm never gonna change at all

67

8:51 PM • May 18, 2022

After selling out their Genesis Key just an hour after a stealth launch, collectors were able to access a limited pre-mint a day in advance of a public sale.

The playbook for RŌHKI looks like this:

• Release a Mint Pass in the form of Genesis Keys

• Grant holders priority access to mint each Episode

• Collect all Episodes in Season One for a special reward

Unlike other Music NFTs, RŌHKI has placed extra emphasis on the visual presentation, debuting each Episode with a 4k animated music video and three different rarity tiers to bat.

The public mint sold out within an hour, granting collectors a pre-reveal vial.

RŌHKI

@ROHKI

44

12:37 PM • May 16, 2022

A week later, the vials morphed with the debut of the music video - creating a rarity game around the different tiers (Immersive, Dynamic and Static) of the Episode.

As found on rohki.xyz and a series of Mirror posts, each RŌHKI release is custom-tailored to match each experience.

While the act is not native to any existing avatar project, the lore suggests that an entire world will be created around Season 1 and beyond.

Bored Brothers

The star-studded side project of Kygo and Ryan Tedder took to Sound.xyz this month with the release of a debut single “DRIP”.

With Kygo boasting 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify, his pairing with Ryan Tedder - the lead singer of OneRepublic and debatably the greatest songwriter of all-time - makes for a smash duo unlike anything web3 has seen before.

The Bored Brothers featured both platinum-selling artists pairing up their Bored Apes to release music under a new alias native to web3.

officialboredbrothers

@boredbrothers_

Thank you!!!! BAYC always shows up. Incredibly grateful can’t wait for what’s next @KygoMusic @RyanTedder @soundxyz_

sound.xyz (🎧,🎧)

@soundxyz_

DRIP by @boredbrothers_ (@RyanTedder x @KygoMusic) sold out

300 unique collectors, 30 ETH.

Secondary market: opensea.io/collection/bor…

85

4:16 PM • Apr 22, 2022

With a pre-sale page made exclusive to BAYC holders, the Bored Brothers created an outlet for two artists who are normally subject to major label restrictions to experiment in the world of web3 with full autonomy.

Ryan Tedder teased a feature from a well-known rapper in their upcoming music video - another character who’s IRL tattoo is expected to make their web3 music debut through the next Bored Brothers release.

Metastars created an outlet for two major artists to explor eweb3, and in the process, test the waters for what a community-owned project could look like when built from scratch.

What’s Next?

We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with Music NFTs.

https://coopahtroopa.mirror.xyz/8OrpDmu5wboGX36-vXIt3gBMQMoihY0k_kV4XowlMMo

Metastars are gearing up to release their first full projects - all of which are set to debut with Music NFTs as the way the song(s) premier.

Expect this summer to be full of Music NFT debuts.

These are the first of many ways to get involved. And - it case its not obvious - there will be many more to come.

To stay up with it all, subscribe to my newsletter - This Week in Music NFTs.

See you out there!

These are all terms tossed around every group chat in the past year.

While it’s exciting to talk about, many creators today lack a reliable guide to offer a smooth onboarding journey to web3.

Whether it’s a lack of confidence on where to spend time, who to partner with or simply how to get started - this article looks to serve as a resource for creators new to web3.

Here’s why.

Creator Influence

Unlike the vast majority of the population, creators tend to enter new technology with an existing following.

Whether it’s followers on Instagram, TikTok, Spotify or Youtube - there have never been more ways to build an audience online.

This leverage point makes onboarding much different from someone fresh out of college with virtually no social capital at risk, and only the world to gain (me in 2017).

The more followers a creator has, the bigger target they have on their back.

Naysayers are eagerly waiting for you to slip up, and there’s far more ways for things to go wrong than there is for them to go right.

Despite this, web3 companies are eagerly looking to partner with creators - oftentimes providing early access, spotlights and in rare cases, ownership, to their partners.

So - where does this leave us?

Reputation is Everything

Before you accept an offer from an NFT project to post on their behalf - think through the trickle down effects.

Whereas brand sponsorships have historically led followers to purchase a small product or service, the stakes are much higher in web3.

Every social post you make is a financial endorsement of the affiliated project.

As a rule of thumb - operate as if your post will directly influence someone to invest their life savings into the project you are speaking about.

While this is a clear exaggeration, there are millions of people completely new to web3 - and their reference point on what to buy and where to spend their time is a direct reflection of where they believe their favorite creators are spending theirs.

The next time you’re offered money to make a post about a project - stop right there.

No web3 project worth endorsing will ever spend money asking you to post on their behalf.

In fact, projects that approach you with a financial incentive to post, speak or represent them are often a great representation of what to avoid.

That project is betting that your endorsement will net in more sales than what they're paying you to post.

Think through that - someone you barely know is banking on the fact that your followers will convert to direct sales with no preexisting knowledge of who they are, what they like, or what their financial standing is.

Treat every co-sign as if it’s a part of your permanent record.

Your track record for endorsement directly correlates to your reputation in web3, and the more you are seen affiliated with projects that are unable to execute, the less weight your reputation carries.

Your reputation is more valuable than any amount of money. Protect it at all costs.

Invest with Time

The biggest leverage creators have is brand power.

What you say directly impacts what people consume.

Before you start gambling on NFTs, spend time understanding base primitives and what makes one project more desirable than another.

Operating from a place of confidence with an educated view on web3 is an extremely valuable skill. The more you learn, the more you can sift through the bullshit and focus on projects with genuine, long-term impact.

While there is no concrete grading rubric to say one project is better than another, some general rules of thumb:

• Do the founders look reliable?

• Have they executed on their promises?

• Is there a clear communication channel between the community and the team?

Over time - you’ll start to notice there is a clear pattern among the projects performing best.

OhhShiny

@ohhshiny

HOW TO JUDGE AN NFT PROJECT TEAM

Since the beginning of the NFT space, there have been stand-out winners, low life grifters, and everyone in between. Here’s how you make sure that who you buy from is legit, high quality, and investment worthy…

2,314

11:06 AM • Feb 7, 2022

You’ll notice that successful teams fully focus on delivering what they committed to building - with zero talk about the price of their token.

If you notice that a project is focused on growth campaigns to get followers, retweets about price performance or vague statements about pie in the sky ideas - it’s best to avoid it all together.

There are a number of media brands worth keeping up with, as they’ll often serve as a litmus test for whether or not a project is worth paying attention to:

• Metav3rse

• NFT Now

• The First Mint

• Bankless

• The Defiant

• The Block

• Decrypt

• Forefront

• Water & Music

• Seed Club

• Messari

Ownership Over Dollars

If you’re offered an opportunity to partner with an NFT project, ask to be paid in ownership.

Coop 💿

@Cooopahtroopa

I'm going full-time DAOs.

Here's how - and how you can too.

2,210

12:06 PM • Sep 10, 2021

This can take the form of NFTs, equity in the parent company or governance tokens.

Reliable teams will generally implement the same vesting schedules with partners as they have themselves. Vesting schedules are pre-defined lock-up periods which ensure that core contributors are aligned over a longer time horizon.

The most common vesting period is 4 years, though it's common to see vesting periods as short as one year.

Projects that don’t utilize vesting for the core team or their partners are the most likely to act maliciously if things go wrong.

If you are approached by a team looking to pay you in dollars, ask them to be paid in ownership and see where the conversation lands.

This way, your success is directly affiliated with the success of the project - allowing you to operate with a clear mind and shared vested interest in it’s ambitions.

Protect Your Key

There are countless examples of highly intelligent people losing their entire web3 holdings by exposing their private key.

Your private key is that 12 letter set of words that acts as your master password.

This is the digital key to your house and checking account, and if you give it to someone else, they will break in and steal everything.

Here are some best practices when it comes to wallet security:

richerd.eth

@richerd

On Securing your NFTs

This week I have looked at 5 different cases of wallets being compromised and NFTs being stolen from their owners.

It breaks my heart every time this happens, but the patterns are always the same.

1/ Below are some rules to live by to stay safe

7,084

10:45 PM • Feb 1, 2022

Circle of Trust

You are the result of the five people you spend the most time with.

The more successful creators become, the smaller their inner circle grows in tandem.

Unfortunately, this means once someone pierces that veil, creators are more likely to blindly trust those opinions.

It’s extremely extremely important that you conduct a thorough vibe check on the next person coming to you as the “web3 guru”.

Most people are full of shit, and very few have had a reliable track record in web3 outside of a few lucky mints here and there.

More broadly, those coming to you with “quick flips” are actually counterproductive.

The winning recipe for web3 is longevity, not degeneracy.

Ignore the noise and focus on building long-term trust. It will take you 100x further.

Getting Started

For creators ready to dive into web3, here are some places to start.

Experiment

Conduct small, isolated experiments with low financial stakes. Learn how to use the technology without putting your whole brand on the line. Give out free POAPs and let your fans claim them without paying a dime.

Identity

Establish a web3 footprint by setting up a .eth address using ENS or by filling out your OpenSea profile. Make a Telegram and a Discord account. Start using Twitter.

Presence

Listen to the conversation. Join Twitter spaces like the OhhShiny Show. Start operating from an educated foundation so you can translate the same to your community.

Most importantly - recognize that you will almost definitely fail a few times before you win.

Losing all your investment in a project is a rite of passage - don’t be afraid to try because of what might go wrong. Expect everything to go wrong and prepare to learn from those mistakes to better inform your next shot on goal.

Imposter Syndrome

Everyone starts from square one in web3.

No one knows what they’re doing during their first few months.

Embrace the fact that the best way to learn is through trial and error, and that early on there will likely be a lot more errors than there will wins.

To this - be wise about how you step into the space.

Try and focus on everything aside from making money. Give NFTs away for free. Build a superfan community. Make relationships with industry leaders.

Soon enough, you’ll find yourself in a high leverage position to influence the direction of the Creator Economy at large.

But - it all comes back to one core principle:

No amount of money is worth a shattered reputation.