Luminate’s 2023 report defines a superfan as someone aged 13+ who interacts with their favourite artists in at least five different ways, from streaming music to attending live shows. This deep engagement offers significant insights into the psychology of superfandom, yet the industry still lacks comprehensive data to fully understand these superfans.

Today’s superfans are not just passive consumers; they actively participate in the artist’s creative journey. Also, superfans are willing to spend significantly more than the average listener, driving higher revenues and deeper artist-fan connections. They account for a substantial portion of streaming activity and merchandise sales, highlighting their economic value and impact. Public Pressure’s innovative use of Web3 technology allows for detailed fan data analysis, enabling artists to tailor their interactions and content more effectively. This shift towards co-creative fan experiences is transforming the traditional fan engagement model, offering fans a more intimate and participatory role in the music ecosystem.

Web3 technologies in this regard are revolutionising fan engagement, offering fans ownership stakes in their favourite artist’s work and a voice in their creative processes. This allows artists to create personalised experiences for their superfans, strengthening the artist-fan bond. Communities play a vital role in nurturing superfans, providing the support and engagement necessary for emerging artists to thrive. By leveraging both Web2 and Web3 technologies, the music industry can bridge communities and convert casual listeners into passionate advocates and collaborators.

Superfans are reshaping the music landscape, driving deeper, more interactive relationships between artists and their audiences. To dive deeper into this transformative shift, read the full report and explore how superfans could become the lifeblood of the music industry. Read the full member-exclusive report here.

Brought to you by the Web3 Music Association ("W3M") – a non-profit entity with the goal of orchestrating innovation in the music industry. Its mission is to educate music industry professionals, support their digital transformation, and bring them together to collaboratively develop innovative use cases. Created from an extensive three-year collaboration, the association is a lead contributor to the Music Protocol – a dedicated blockchain for intellectual property registration, management and monetisation.

To learn more about the rise of the consumer-creator and the bifurcation theory, please refer to our member-only report on the greater potential of generative AI, available in the member section here.

Brought to you by the Web3 Music Association ("W3M") – a non-profit entity with the goal of orchestrating innovation in the music industry. Its mission is to educate music industry professionals, support their digital transformation, and bring them together to collaboratively develop innovative use cases. Created from an extensive three-year collaboration, the association is a lead contributor to the Music Protocol – a dedicated blockchain for intellectual property registration, management and monetisation. To learn more about the Web3 Music Association, click here.

Paul also provides consultancy services to major music labels and artists through another company he founded – Visionary Sapiens. He has facilitated significant collaborations, including one between Quavo and Sfera Ebbasta, and arranged for Timbaland to produce Tiziano Ferro’s album.

In this conversation, Paul Sears discusses his unexpected journey into the music industry, highlighting his extensive career abroad in Italy. He explains the complexities of music rights and the industry's challenges with the current rights system, emphasising the need for improvements. Paul acknowledges the philosophical and practical challenges of AI's impact on the music industry, especially regarding copyright and the authenticity of music creation. Despite these challenges, he remains optimistic about the future, excited by the continuous evolution of music and the business around it. The constant changes and technological advancements in the industry keep him motivated and engaged.

Paul Sears on Managing DJ Benny Benassi, Music Rights, and the Future of AI in Music

Tim Soens: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your work, and the areas you're involved in, particularly for those who aren't as familiar with the music industry?

Paul Sears: When I was doing my university degree in French and Italian language and literature, I went abroad for a year in Italy. This was in the very early 80s, and I'm still in that year abroad. So, it's one of the longest year-outs, I think, in the history of British university degrees. I'm still here in Italy, where I initially got involved in dance music and music in general. I built a niche business for myself as an artist manager, a music publisher and a consultant. My oldest client is DJ Benny Benassi, whom I've managed for 22 years. I currently run a management and publishing company, Visionary Sapiens, with my partner, Francesco Gaudesi. We also do a lot of consulting work for major labels in Italy, helping them with their international relationships when they want to put international tracks together.

Tim: What pivotal moments or projects have significantly shaped your career?

Paul: It's an interesting question because I think it would be honest to say that I fell into music management almost by chance. In the early eighties, I was a kind of post-punk, New Wave type of person—a Joy Division kid. But where I was living in Italy, there were a lot of cottage industries making so-called Spaghetti House or Italo dance records. I used to hang out with the producers, help them make tracks, and organise tours for the artists. I wasn't that into the music itself, but it was fun, the people were great, and I was making good money. At the same time, I was playing in indie bands and then in a blues band, which is where my musical heart was.

The pivotal moment and turning point came when Benny Benassi's track "Satisfaction," a house music classic, started doing well in 2002 in France. It was the first country where it took off. Benny approached me and said, "I want you to be my manager." I famously responded, "You're just a DJ. You go to clubs, put records on, take the money, and go home. What do you need a manager for?" He explained that it was more complicated than that and introduced me to his world. I didn't know much about techno or house music; I was focused more on mainstream and commercial dance music but saw an affinity between underground club music in my indie rock background.

As I got into his world, the rest is history. Benny is still touring globally, headlining massive festivals. We’ve produced tracks for major artists like Madonna and Chris Brown. We've even won a couple of Grammys. Yet, we still don't have a signed contract. It’s all done on a handshake. Our relationship is built on transparency, sharing information, plans, and goals. We face problems and hurdles as a team because we trust each other. It's a very special relationship within a broader working field, which includes other managers, writers, and publishers.

Tim: It's admirable that you have had such a trusted relationship with someone for so many years, even to this day!

To return to your various roles and positions throughout your career, tell us a bit about your time at Off Limits. What was your role there?

Paul: Off Limits started as a music production company. They produced disco music, which we started calling club or dance music. Their first big hit was "Saturday Night" by a Danish artist called Whigfield in the early nineties, number one in the UK charts for four weeks. The company was owned and run by Larry Pignagnoli, a good friend of mine. He had various studios and producers and produced many Italian dance songs in the nineties and 2000s.

Larry and I collaborated and set up a collection society for secondary rights or neighbouring rights. He also started signing some artists for management, and I helped with that. Today, Off Limits is mainly a service company. Larry is retired, and his nephew and niece run it. It’s no longer a production company; it manages rights.

Tim: So, for people who might not be as familiar with collecting societies, what do they do? Could you elaborate on the industry's problems with the current rights system?

Paul: If you have seven days and seven nights, I can run you through all the details; it’s complicated! In the first instance, musical recordings are complex and involve many rights. The entity licensed the recording for certain uses, the musicians who performed on the recording, the main artist or singer, the writers, and their publishers—all of them have rights. Hip-hop tracks, for example, can have as many as 15 writers and 20 publishers on one track. Each entity has rights for different types of usage, such as radio airplay, streaming, digital downloads, physical sales, synchronisation rights for advertising, soundtracks, etc. Agreements can be extremely complex and may differ in different territories with different terms. Making this process automatic is a huge challenge, but we need it.

To address and manage these rights, the music industry has a broad set of entities that deal with this. Collecting societies license copyrighted works on behalf of the copyright owners.

A major issue with the licensing and rights system is the status of writers and music publishers in the "streamosphere"—the land of streaming. While it has recently improved due to US legislation, it’s still heavily weighted in favour of the master recording. This disproportion needs to be rectified. Personally,  I have interests on both sides, but objectively, it needs to be more balanced. Performance rights from airplay on FM radio worldwide and how those rights are collected and distributed involve big pipelines with many leaks and holes along the way. There's room for improvement, and the technology exists to make these improvements, but it would be very disruptive. Collection societies like PRS or SIAE in Italy, GEMA in Germany, and others employ tens of thousands of people. Significantly reducing their staff due to technological advancements would be challenging. With metadata, it wouldn't be that difficult, in my opinion, to trace who plays what, when, and where the money should go.

Transferring rights onto the blockchain as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is an ongoing conversation. It's an interesting challenge that has engaged me a lot, but there are many hurdles to overcome before everything ends on the blockchain. One philosophical hurdle is that blockchain is regarded as a technology that decentralises a network, ecosystem, or business, whereas rights collection needs further centralisation in many ways. This contradiction is difficult for the music industry to understand. Ideally, there would be one central place where all information is stored, and every time anything is used, it gets registered. Money gets automatically credited where it needs to go. There’s a clash and misunderstanding between decentralisation and centralisation that needs to be addressed.

Another issue with our rights system is that although a substantial amount of revenue is generated by platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, it's complicated to understand how master rights are accounted for by digital streaming platforms. If you have a track streamed a hundred million times on Spotify, you will earn something between X and Z, but it's unclear how much exactly. The calculation methods are complex and depend on various factors. It depends on whether the streams are from premium or freemium users, the country, and various other factors and deals. A little more clarity wouldn’t do any harm.

Tim: Speaking about the complex rights landscape, how do you think AI will further complicate this?

Paul: If you look at it relatively, if people enjoy music made by robots, it’s not the end of the world. However, AI used in military or strategic contexts could be catastrophic. AI is the biggest challenge for humanity right now, but at least the upheaval it’s about to cause in the music industry isn’t an existential threat to our species. So, let’s keep it real.

Yuval Noah Harari said that artificial intelligence has cracked mankind's operating system. This also applies to our specific industry—the music business. It will be a cat-and-mouse game because the question is: How much of my work have you used to train your AI to create new copyrighted songs and music? Will you pay me for it? How will I find out if my work has been used at all?

Music made by artificial intelligence is complicated. For example, AI is being trained on music made by humans, but it’s already being trained on music made by AI itself. It may be too late even if you say AI can't use your catalogue. From a songwriter's perspective, not much changes. If you record a song that sounds like a famous track, such as "Yesterday" by The Beatles, and register it as your own, the original publishers will claim copyright infringement. This happens every day with recognisable segments of lyrics, melodies, and chord progressions. Whether a song is created by AI or a human, the same rules apply. If you’ve copied my music, I can claim copyright infringement as if you had played it on your guitar.

For recordings, it’s a bit more complex and harder to reverse-engineer. For instance, if you use my bassline or something similar, technology might identify that it’s a similar recording. However, if the sound has been manipulated, it’s different. Art is art, and anything can be material for new art. A famous Italian artist, Mimmo Rotella, made collages using newspaper clippings. Some people argued he needed to acquire rights from the newspapers, but he claimed it was art because the newspapers were public.

The border between intellectual property and the right to use material is philosophical. If you're repurposing something, it should be allowed. For example, if I make a sculpture out of dustbins, I don't think the patent holder for the dustbins should be able to sue me. Copying and selling a musical idea as your own is an infringement. There’s a grey area between repurposing and stealing, but using AI to create music can inspire new ways of making music.

Another aspect to consider is what happens when music separates from the artist. Imagine a brand producing 20 tracks a second using AI with no human artists credited, creating fantastic playlists that go viral on TikTok. This makes people nervous because it challenges the idea that music is a human creative process. People fear being emotionally deceived by machine-made music. The real issue is not that machines are making music but that people can be deeply moved by it. Nick Cave wrote a letter against AI-generated music, arguing it deprives human beings of the emotional labour of the creative process. I agree with him, but what does that mean if people are as moved by an AI-created song as by one made by Nick Cave? It’s similar to how advertising uses beautiful people and images to sell products, even though the images are not real. Our brains process these images as attractive, and AI might similarly affect our music perception.

Tim: To close off on a positive note, what excites you about the current state of the industry?

Paul: What excites me about the music industry is more about the creative process and music in general. The exciting part is the music that hasn’t been written yet will move me and fill me up when I hear it. How many wonderful pieces of music made by people or machines will we hear before we die that hasn’t been created yet? The music archive is ever-expanding; we can store it all digitally without losing it.

Something else that excites me is the challenges technology presents to people like me who make a living from music. The music itself is evident, but organising the business around music is a challenge that constantly stimulates me. Wouldn't it be boring if we knew exactly what would happen?

Brought to you by Music Protocol — a layer 1 blockchain serving as the infrastructure for music intellectual property (IP) tokenisation. By future-proofing the music industry’s foundations, Music Protocol unlocks its full creative and economic potential, paving the way for growth. To learn more, click here.

Renowned for his groundbreaking work as an A&R executive and independent record producer, Charlie and his business partner Marco Sabiu played a pivotal role in launching ‘Take That’ to stardom, contributing to numerous worldwide pop hits during the vibrant music scene of the 90s. Having held executive positions at major players such as Sony Music International and Decca Records, Charlie’s expertise extends across various facets of the industry. He has also provided advisory services to esteemed figures such as the legendary maestro Ennio Morricone.

In this conversation, Charlie Rapino discusses the evolution of the music industry, highlighting how music has transformed from art into a commodity. Charlie further emphasises the need for collaboration between the tech and music sectors to foster innovation and creativity. He underscores the importance of curiosity and adaptability for the music industry to keep pace with technological advancements. Charlie warns that failing to innovate could lead to losing relevance to other entertainment forms like gaming. Finally, he advises both the industry and emerging artists to stay adaptable, continuously learn, and embrace new technologies and methodologies to thrive in the music business.

What’s changed in the music industry?

Safina Dahou: Charlie, your journey through music production, including collaborations with renowned artists like Take That and Kylie Minogue, has given you a firsthand view of the music industry's evolution. What significant shifts have you witnessed over the years?

Charlie Rapino: It's no longer the same old music industry; it's transformed into a streaming business. The focus has shifted from music as an art form to music as a commodity. When I started in the early 1980s, the industry was dominated by physical sales—vinyl records, cassettes and later, CDs. Each release was more of an event, and the relationship between artists and fans was primarily mediated through record stores and radio play.

When streaming platforms came onto the scene, the landscape drastically changed. Music is now consumed in a more fragmented and instantaneous way. The digitalisation of music has given way to playlists, which only emphasise individual tracks. This shift has affected how music is produced and released and how it is marketed and monetised.

Safina: How has this digitalisation affected artists and labels?

Charlie: Digitalisation opened up new avenues for artists to create, distribute, and promote their music, allowing them to reach a global audience and engage directly with fans. However, artists build their work around what will perform well rather than what truly represents their vision. They are increasingly conforming to algorithms. This stifles originality, as they follow consensus rather than define it.

The shift from album sales to streaming revenue has changed labels' business models. With shorter and more frequent releases, the financial dynamics have shifted, too.

Safina: Do you think streaming and digitalisation limit artists' creativity? What can the music industry do to embrace new technology?

Charlie: The music industry must adopt new platforms and technologies to cultivate better art and originality rather than focusing on trends and data. This means encouraging artists to experiment and take risks and providing them with the resources to explore new creative territories. By supporting artists in this way, the industry can ensure that technology enhances, rather than limits, artistic expression.

Safina: With this in mind, do you think the music industry is open to new technology?

Charlie: Unfortunately, no. In the past, many tech companies have tried to disrupt the music industry without their collaboration or involvement. That has created tension between the two sectors. Also, any new technology always comes with opportunities and risks. In the music industry, unless the opportunities greatly outweigh the risks, they would instead stick with the old ways of doing things. Early innovation always comes with uncertainty, and it's only natural to continue doing what feels familiar and safe. This uncertainty, I think, stems from the complexity of collaborating, sharing data, and finding alignment on things that span the entire value chain. As a result, the music industry has a culture of reacting and adapting to industry-wide disruption only when necessary.

I think we need an environment where different stakeholders can collaborate, experiment, try new things, and assess what works and what doesn’t. Something that allows the industry to make more proactive choices together, an environment where the tech industry and music industry can work together.

Safina: With new technology comes new ways of building fandoms; how has building a loyal fan base changed?

Charlie: The core dynamics remain the same. Fans form deep connections with artists just as they did in previous eras. Think about Frank Sinatra in the 50s, Mick Jagger in the 60s, Robert Plant in the 70s, Robbie Williams in the 90s, and Harry Styles now. The relationship is precisely the same, but the medium through which it happens is different. Technology has undoubtedly changed how these connections are made and maintained, offering more direct and immediate access, but the essence of fandom—an emotional connection with the artist—remains unchanged.

In fact, social media has amplified artists' ability to connect with their audience on a more personal level. Artists can now share their day-to-day lives, creative process, and thoughts in real-time, fostering a sense of intimacy and immediacy that was previously unattainable.

The real magic happens when an artist reaches out to the technology and uses it as a tool to bring their vision to the people.

Safina: What's needed for the music industry to keep pace with technological advancements?

Charlie: Curiosity. We must be open to exploring new technologies and methodologies to stay relevant in a rapidly changing landscape.

Safina: Could the industry's reluctance to innovate jeopardise its future?

Charlie: Firstly, content owners control the markets like never before, look at what happened with Lucian Grainge, Universal Music and TikTok. So as technology evolves, so do consumer preferences. If the industry fails to adapt, it risks losing relevance to other forms of entertainment, like gaming. We're in an age where technology shapes how music is made and consumed and how it's experienced.

There's also a bright side - technology has democratised music production, allowing anyone with a laptop and a creative spark to produce and share music. This has led to new talent and diversity in the music scene that we’ve never seen before. Artists are no longer at the mercy of major labels to get their music heard; they can build their audiences through social media and streaming platforms.

Safina: What advice would you offer to the music industry and emerging artists navigating this era of limitless technological possibilities?

Charlie: I recommend reading Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message." It offers profound insights into how technology shapes our perception and expression. This is especially relevant today, as technology continuously redefines the boundaries of music creation, distribution, and consumption.

It's also essential for both the industry and artists to remain adaptable and open-minded. The landscape is changing rapidly, and what works today might not work tomorrow. Continuous learning and agility will be key to thriving in this dynamic environment. Networking with tech innovators and staying updated on the latest trends can provide a competitive edge.

SZN1 is all about ‘Badges’

Badges are the representation of your engagement with the Music Protocol community.

Support the ecosystem, participate in quests, or perform specific onchain actions to receive a badge. Currently, there are 2 types of badges – community badges and task badges.

Community badges are earned either by participating in an event or by holding a community token.

• ‘Onchain Music’ badge: own a Public Pressure NFT

• More coming soon…

Task badges are earned by completing specific tasks as listed on the Drop Page.

• ‘Manifesto’ badge: mint the Music Protocol manifesto on Public Pressure

• ‘Ambassador’ badge: become approved as a Music Protocol ambassador

• ‘Galxe’ badge: earn a score of 1000 or greater on the Music Protocol Galxe campaign

• ‘QuestN’ badge: earn a score of 2000 or greater on the Music Protocol QuestN campaign

• ‘Referral’ badge: refer 10 or more people

In SZN1, participants can significantly increase their leaderboard ranking through referrals. Every new user you bring on helps you out. Your total score grows with the scores of your referrals. The more badges you and your referrals collect, the larger the airdrop you receive. The $RECORD tokens will be airdropped directly to the wallet used to collect the badges.

The badges are updated regularly and new additions are introduced weekly. To stay updated on the latest badge additions, follow our socials and check the official Music Protocol Drop platform to determine your eligibility.

Join our SZN1 campaign now and secure your share of $RECORD while you can – https://airdrop.musicprotocol.io/dashboard.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1zPcnc4h36FesZBC4zYNzR?si=9d8447f37ae943dd&nd=1&dlsi=7fba2a36214a4aad

To learn more about 152 Records, you can find their website at:

Brought to you by the Web3 Music Association ("W3M") – a non-profit entity with the goal of orchestrating innovation in the music industry. Its mission is to educate music industry professionals, support their digital transformation, and bring them together to collaboratively develop innovative use cases. Created from an extensive three-year collaboration, the association is a lead contributor to the Music Protocol – a dedicated blockchain for intellectual property registration, management and monetisation.

In our conversation with Andy, we discuss his journey through the music industry, starting from humble beginnings working in a warehouse to becoming a prominent figure in PR and corporate communications. He recounts memorable moments working with iconic bands like Oasis and travelling the world during this time. Andy goes on to share his experiences through the challenges of piracy and the transformation of the Internet, as well as the current issues surrounding generative AI and the dilution of music’s ‘soul’. Andy also highlights the potential of blockchain technology to align the industry and serve as a collaborative framework to work on industry innovation proactively. Looking ahead, Andy remains optimistic about the industry's ability to adapt and thrive, driven by a deep understanding of audience engagement and the importance of preserving the essence of music.

Navigating the music industry’s transformation with Andy Saunders

Tim Soens: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, your work, and the areas you're involved in, particularly for those who aren't as familiar with the music industry?

Andy Saunders: Sure, of course. I started in the music industry in 1987, straight out of college, working in a warehouse. This was back when physical products, mainly CDs and vinyl, were the norm. My job was packing them in boxes and sending them off to record shops.

It was winter, it was cold, and it was reasonably miserable. But the money was okay. Then, someone came downstairs and said they had a sales position open. I put my hand up and asked if it meant I didn’t have to sit in the cold warehouse anymore, and when they said yes, I would be working in the centrally heated office, I immediately took the job. I became a salesperson for about a year and a half, initially taking orders from record shops over the phone and selling directly to them.

After that, I got an opportunity to work as an export salesperson, which in those days, pre-internet meant getting on a plane, arriving in a foreign city, finding record shops from the telephone directory, and straight up selling them records. I travelled to places like Amsterdam, Berlin, and elsewhere doing this. It was a lot of fun, and I got to see the world, but it was stressful.

Later, at a music industry conference in the south of France called MIDEM, I met a guy named Cees Wessels, who ran a company called Roadrunner, a famous rock and heavy metal company based in Amsterdam. We got on well, and he offered me a job running an independent label called Emergo in their London office, which I did for a few years. It ultimately didn’t work out, and we parted ways. This was tough as my wife was nine months pregnant and mortgage interest rates were 15%, and I had no income, so it was really hard for a while – crazy times.

After a few months of that financial struggle, a friend told me about a job in the PR department at Creation Records. Despite feeling it was a bit of a step-down, I took it out of necessity. Creation Records was a very cool independent label with amazing bands like Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Teenage Fanclub. I was there for almost ten years, and during that time, we discovered Oasis. Oasis became pretty much the biggest and most influential band of the mid-90s so it was wild to be in the middle of it. There were only 15 or so of us at the company, but there was a hurricane of attention globally, and we were selling millions and millions of records. It was an incredible experience.

When the company was sold to Sony in 2000, I was once again unemployed and started my own company, Velocity Communications. I built it up into a reasonably big agency and then transitioned to being a consultant about 14 years ago. Now, it's just me, a mobile phone, and an office at the bottom of my garden.

Over the years, I've worked with many artists, especially during a time when we had only three major weekly music magazines in the UK: NME, Melody Maker, and Sounds. These were iconic titles, and there were many opportunities to place stories. However, all that print media has largely disappeared, and we've shifted to an online-focused approach. This resulted in a shift from working with artists to engaging more with companies and the music industry trade media. I pivoted to working exclusively with publications like Music Business Worldwide, Music Week and Billboard, which cater to the music industry rather than consumers. This allowed me to carve out a niche as a corporate PR specialist. I'm primarily known for this role, focusing on stories about the music industry rather than working directly with bands or artists. I also do a fair amount of crisis work, helping people and companies navigate the worst times of their lives.

Tim: Could you share some memorable moments or stories from your time working in PR?

Andy: I’m saving those for my book, haha. No, I'm just kidding. I have spent a lot of time away from home, travelling with artists and visiting foreign countries. In the '90s, when we were selling a lot of records, we used one strategy to get media coverage: offering journalists crazy experiences; we would basically bribe them with cool stuff. If they were hesitant to write about an artist, I'd say, "I know you haven't heard of him, but trust me, he's amazing and the next big thing. Oh, and we’ll fly you to New York to take pictures on top of the Empire State Building and party ‘til the sun comes up". They really only needed to hear that last part, and that was it. I spent a lot of time on these trips, whether to mainland Europe, the US, or even further abroad, creating opportunities for journalists to write about these artists, especially when they were on tour. It was a fairly decadent lifestyle, filled with many stories that my family don’t ever need to know! I've been clean and sober for 28 years now, which gives you an idea of how excessive those times were.

Tim: You touched on the industry's transition with the emergence of the Internet. How has the industry changed during this evolution, particularly from a PR perspective?

Andy: So a fundamental change in PR is the death of the ‘long read’, the opportunity to have a six-page feature in a magazine, for example. It moved to a digital, news-based culture. The long-form, in-depth features have given way to bite-sized content for short attention spans. Social media and visual content have become crucial. The shift to a news-based culture in PR, driven by the internet and social media, has changed how we promote and protect our clients.

Somebody said that the audience these days is very promiscuous. which I think is a very good expression. Audiences today scroll through Instagram and TikTok or whatever social media and are bombarded with a seemingly infinite amount of music. The all-consuming, fragmented nature of music today makes it hard for anyone to navigate it. For many people, music has become overwhelming. With so many options, where do you start? Do you rely on an algorithm for everything? Platforms like Spotify suggest music based on your preferences, and while some algorithms are quite good, they're not the same as a trusted human curator.

Tim: Like social media, everything has pros and cons. What are some of the current challenges in digital transformation in the music industry?

Andy: The obvious one is the absolute fear of what generative AI can do to the industry. There's a lot of concern about how AI will affect copyright, royalties, and the value of music. If generative AI can train itself on our existing copyrights, it poses significant challenges for us.

Breaking it down by sector, the music industry faces various issues, not always directly related to the digital transformation of the industry but often a collateral consequence. For example, supporting grassroots music is critical in the live music sector. The UK is losing two grassroots music venues a week, jeopardising the development of artists who can eventually play in arenas and headline festivals. To address this, there's a proposal to put a £1 levy on every concert ticket for events with over 5,000 capacity. This has been and remains a contentious issue, but progress is being made, and we should see that come into effect later this year.

Additionally, cutting or scrapping VAT on tickets could help the live music industry, which faces a disparity between large operators like LiveNation, reporting their best results for years, and grassroots venues struggling to stay afloat. This disparity mirrors the situation between major and independent record companies. Major labels benefit from enormous catalogues generating passive income from streaming, while independent labels struggle to promote and monetise their music.

In music publishing, there's the phenomenon of large-scale catalogue acquisitions, with companies spending millions or billions on buying up music rights. The future of these acquisitions remains uncertain, as seen with the current situation at Hipgnosis. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how we can influence and democratise this investment landscape with some of the initiatives that the Web3 Music Association are exploring.

Tim: When we return to the AI topic, how are companies addressing these challenges right now?

Andy: The three major music corporations—Sony, Warner, and Universal—often take litigation as their default approach, but that's unlikely to work in this situation. It never really has. Litigating against the quickly evolving world of AI and online systems will be very challenging. Instead, we need to look into other solutions, such as finding proper IP protection and licensing frameworks.

The launch of the previously mentioned Web3 Music Association is a big step in the right direction. The organisation aims to bring people together to discuss these issues, examine them, and develop collaborative and coherent solutions for the industry. But it's a very good question, and one I don't have a definitive answer to at the moment—nobody does. We're just at the beginning of these conversations. That's why a collaborative effort is key.

Tim: How have you seen the industry react to past disruptions, and do you see similarities in the current situation?

Andy: The industry has experienced several major disruptions. The first major shift I witnessed firsthand was the transition from vinyl to CD. We essentially told music enthusiasts, "Hey, buy your entire record collection again in a new format," which many thought wouldn't work. Major labels were sceptical, thinking it was unnecessary since vinyl was profitable and popular. However, they eventually embraced CDs, built pressing plants, and succeeded significantly. That was a major revolution in the industry.

The next big challenge I experienced was industrial piracy facilitated by companies like Napster. Some people felt the music industry had been overcharging them, so they turned to piracy and started using platforms and tools that made it easy to download music for free. It’s easy to forget that this almost destroyed the entire industry.

It wasn't until Steve Jobs came along and introduced the iPod and iTunes that things began to change. He offered music fans a cool device and an easy way to purchase music legally, which helped steer people away from illegal downloads; it was an excellent legal alternative. For a while, this solution worked very well for the music industry. However, as an industry, we were naive in handing everything over to Apple and Steve Jobs. The music industry tends to go, "Thank God someone has come along to fix this! Now go ahead and take care of everything." And so, a couple of years later, the same thing happened with Daniel Ek from Spotify. He introduced an elegant and user-friendly streaming interface, and once again, the industry eagerly accepted it. They could have built their own system or encouraged more competition in the marketplace but didn't, instead putting most of their eggs in the Spotify and Apple Music baskets.

This historical lack of collaboration stems from the adversarial nature of the music industry, where competition overrides cooperation. This has been the case throughout those three seismic revolutions I've experienced. Ultimately, the industry has always managed to adapt reactively rather than proactively. We're not good at getting ahead of problems because we operate on the basis that our business is all about market share and beating the competition. However, once a challenge arises, we react well and adapt our industry.

This is why blockchain is so interesting and why the work of the Web3 Music Association is very promising. They propose creating a protocol that we can own and develop as an industry together, not as competitors. A framework that incentivises stakeholders to find alignment around things that benefit the entire industry. Something which has not been possible in the past. In this way, the industry can be more proactive, building upon a foundation that protects rights, allows for innovation, and offers industry ownership. This way, we don't have to rely on figures and companies like Steve Jobs or Spotify. We can build and own these solutions, without being forced to adopt something because we have no other choice.

Tim: With your “helicopter view”, where do you see the future of the music industry going?

Andy: It's difficult to predict due to the many variables, but understanding the audience, fans, and their preferences will always be crucial. Algorithms and playlisting will continue to serve the masses. Algorithms create "best of the 90s" playlists and similar content, maintaining the audience for established artists. However, the focus on developing new artists has waned in recent years, with more attention given to catalogue music since it's a safer investment. But eventually, the industry will need to shift back to artist development. To do this effectively, they'll need to understand data—how artists perform online, how fans engage with artists, and who the superfans are. Nowadays, an artist’s strategy often focuses on billions of streams, ticket sales, and sync opportunities. Still, it's also crucial to drill down into how to super-serve fans with unique experiences and charge a premium for it. This detailed understanding of fan engagement will be key to successfully developing and breaking new artists. Again, this is a promising avenue for blockchain technology.

In this sense, there's a clear shift in the industry towards targeting superfans willing to spend more on tailored experiences. The focus is moving from mass marketing to engaging deeply with dedicated fans. I think the industry will continue to be very data-driven. Still, the industry must balance the data-driven approach with maintaining the soul and creativity that make music special. While data can help understand trends and behaviours, the essence of music should not be lost. However, it’s important to say that the independent sector is still doing great work, promoting challenging and innovative music and staying true to the art. The key is to keep music exciting and central to people's lives, not just another commodity.

Tim: To close off on a positive note, what excites you about the current state of the industry?

Andy: The campaigning for grassroots music venues has been particularly exciting. If we lose our grassroots music venues, they are gone for good. These spaces will be converted into flats or restaurants and won't return. Making music fans understand that these venues must be saved and supported is crucial. Over the last two years, seeing small organisations like Music Venue Trust take on global corporations and effect real change through smart, relentless campaigning is inspiring. It highlights the importance of preserving cultural spaces vital for developing new talent. This ability to still mobilise support and make a difference despite lacking the scale and resources of the big corporations is what has excited me the most.

Brought to you by the Web3 Music Association ("W3M") – a non-profit entity with the goal of orchestrating innovation in the music industry. Its mission is to educate music industry professionals, support their digital transformation, and bring them together to collaboratively develop innovative use cases. Created from an extensive three-year collaboration, the association is a lead contributor to the Music Protocol – a dedicated blockchain for intellectual property registration, management and monetisation. To learn more about the Web3 Music Association, click here.

While numerous initiatives have attempted to reform modern music ownership, the latest blockchain-based IP repositories go beyond that of a traditional database. They establish the essential infrastructure required to reshape the interactions among creators, users, and IP within the digital environments of tomorrow.

Future-proof infrastructure for the music industry

The transparent, decentralised, and immutable nature of blockchains allows artists and rightsholders to establish undisputed digital ownership of their intellectual property – without the reliance on a central authority. This implies that all relevant IP data – including who created what, who owns what, and where it is used – is universally available without relying on an intermediary for data management or security. The “IP tokenisation” process is a key differentiator to Web2 data management practices – converting traditional IP and its associated rights into programmable tokens on the blockchain. This allows smart contracts and specialised IP modules to perform certain automated processes, such as transferring ownership, managing royalty distribution, or licensing the rights for AI model training. These IP modules can be interpreted as "APIs" that automatically enforce pre-set terms and conditions for its use on the Internet. Embedding the rights and licensing agreements directly within the digital IP asset enables the widespread use and exploitation of IP. This turns music IP from a static to a dynamic asset, facilitating efficient rights management, streamlined licensing, and appropriate compensation for rights holders.

Mirroring general purpose platforms to the music industry

A general purpose technology is a type of technology that has broad effects across an economy, impacting multiple different industries and spurring further innovations. These technologies are characterised by their versatility, pervasiveness, and potential to improve productivity and economic growth. Electricity is a great example of a general-purpose technology. Electricity powers homes, businesses, and virtually all of our electronic devices – it powers the economy and serves as infrastructure to spur further innovation. We can plug devices into electrical sockets and use power without considering the complex energy processes occurring behind the scenes. With Music Protocol, we are reiterating on this idea, specifically designing a general-purpose platform for the music industry.

Just as electricity fueled societal progress and transformation across multiple dimensions, Music Protocol is designed to transform the complex industry operations and IP management processes in the music industry. It enables artists, labels, DSPs, and other stakeholders to seamlessly connect to its infrastructure and manage ownership, rights, and financial distribution efficiently – without needing to grasp the technical underpinnings of the system.

Like electricity spurred further innovations and led to economic growth, Music Protocol intends to grow and future-proof the music industry. It does this by serving as a data layer for global ownership and control of musical works while fostering IP evolvability and scalability through its programmable IP layer. By facilitating the adaptation and evolution of IP, it sets the stage for novel IP exploitation and further innovation.

Looking ahead with Music Protocol

Suppose the music industry wants to keep up with innovation and address the needs of tomorrow’s digital consumers. In that case, it will require a more agile and future-facing approach to IP management. With the vision of an open, transparent, and flexible blockchain-based framework for music IP management, the Web3 Music Association is developing a programmable IP layer with Music Protocol. The protocol is designed to power network economics while serving as a pervasive general-purpose platform. It lays the groundwork for dynamic IP assets, enhancing the IP's value as it evolves alongside emerging technologies such as AI and the Metaverse. By future-proofing the industry’s foundations, the music industry can unlock its full creative and economic potential, paving the way for growth.

In our conversation with Nicholas, we discuss his journey in music, sound design, and technology. We explore how these aspects have transformed his work and led to a diverse range of creative and immersive sound experiences throughout the years. Nicholas also reflects on the evolution of music consumption and the role of new technologies like binaural sound and Dolby Atmos in making high-quality audio experiences widely available. He further emphasises the importance of collaboration and the excitement of working with professionals from various disciplines across projects. Read on to learn more about his innovative approach to sound that has led him to embrace the future of music.

Pushing the boundaries of sensory-storytelling with Nicholas Phillips

Tim Soens: Hey Nick, please tell us a bit about yourself, your work and other areas you're involved in, particularly for those who might be unfamiliar with these fields.

Nicholas Phillips: Sure. So to briefly go back to the beginning, as a child I learned classical piano, Spanish classical guitar, and played timpani drums in an orchestra. Whether playing music, or listening to music with my friends, it’s always been of major importance in my life. In my late teens/early 20’s, while going out with friends to nightclubs, I was fascinated by the music we were listening to - funk, soul, R&B, hip-hop, electro and early house music. Despite my classical training, I had zero concept or understanding of how to make this music I was hearing, or how to collaborate and ‘jam’ with other musicians.

I dedicated weekends to studio work, and after a year, a friend and I completed a piece of music that we felt was quite good. We decided to release it, setting up a record label to launch it into the world. That marked my initial steps into making my music publicly available.

One of the defining moments for me came when I first heard my track played on the radio by one of my favourite DJs. It became single of the week in a highly regarded music magazine and a whole host of other press. It was an incredible feeling. This was a pivotal experience in being inquisitive about something, creating it and putting it out into the world without any expectations. It also taught me the importance of pursuing ideas you’re passionate about and to follow them to their logical conclusion. That experience significantly propelled the process forward, and it shaped my perspective on music as a career.

During this time, I started to build up my own home studio and teach myself music production, how to mix and write music, using computers and samplers and outboard equipment. A friend of mine was making short films on his Super 8 camera and I would put music collages together - a mixture of mine and other people's music - which we would play at small indie film evenings, syncing up the portable DAT player with his Super 8 from opposite ends of the room so the picture and music would match - very high tech!

One particular evening that left an impression on me was a master class with Evan Parker, a British tenor and sax player, who, whilst improvising and circular breathing, would play his sax through a NeXTcube computer system ‘played’ by two sound engineers from IRCAM - the French sound institute. This fascinated me - the mixture of music, live playing, improvisation with the technology being the ‘front end’ of the chain (the games Doom and Quake, plus Tim Berners-Lee's WorldWideWeb were developed on NeXTcube).

I then started to collaborate and produce other artists and musicians, writing music for tv adverts and composing music for scenes in films that friends of mine were writing the scores for. This was the start of my learning in how to commercially write to-picture, both short and long-form, with briefs, deadlines and budgets.

Tim:* Beyond film scoring, your work often merges music with visual or other sensory elements. I think the “Into the Frame” collaboration is a great example of this. Could you describe how you approached this project and how those elements fit together?*

Nick: Having been offered an opportunity to pitch a project to the Science and Tech Department at Middlesex University, I brainstormed and collaborated with a multi-disciplined designer on merging the elements of sound, music, design and interactivity into a unique experience.

The idea was to be able to feel and hear in 3D what you can see in front of you in a 2D painting, using haptics/robotics and 3D sound, as if you’re actually in the painting. We used the album cover for MIke Oldfield’s - Tubular Bells as the initial inspiration. At the time there wasn’t anything like this, so we didn’t have any reference points to build on.

The university loved the idea and what proceeded was a 4 year journey of discovery, building a team inside and outside the university, working with professors, neuroscientists, a robotics programmer, bringing in an Artist / Designer to collaborate, and hiring a 3D sound programmer to build our software.

We held usability studies and attempted to create a ‘musical instrument’ you could play in the air via the haptic device; to create the ability to actually ‘push-air’ with your hands, but also using the ‘instrument’ as a tool for mindfulness and meditation.

With the final installation, it was important there were no moving images, just a spotlight on the picture in a dark room, and the only way to decipher your location in the painting was by using 3D sound which you controlled with your hand attached to a haptic arm. There were alot of different perception shifts to get this to work.

We did a controlled usability study with 8 autistic children, who responded exceptionally well to the detail in the 3D sound, and it was so rewarding seeing the children, not only interacting with each other, but also how they were playing with the 3D sound - I’m definitely interested to explore this further.

Tim: Where has your interest in 3D and Spatial sound come from?

Nick: I don’t know exactly where my interest in 3D sound has come from, but it’s always there, bubbling in the background. Early in my career I did spend some time in Ghana, West Africa (with my field recorder), and specifically went to find the drumming village of master drummer Mustapha Tettey Addy. I didn’t find his drumming village until the final day, but I did stay in another drumming village along the Accra coast, where I learnt alot about West African rhythms, and the way drums are used as a communication method to send messages from village to village, using the wind to transport the sound - I suppose in a way this is 3D sound.

Also, for a short while I studied Civil and Structural Engineering, and for a summer worked for an architect firm building the 3D architectural models they had designed. I love going to see the architectural models at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition - especially from companies like Zaha Hadid. So it was a pleasure to design the spatial sound for a Zaha Hadid building a few years later as part of a design exhibition - which then led onto being asked to talk at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects). For the exhibition, I created sound from marble, and also incorporated the design ethos of Zaha Hadid into my creation process.

Making music and working in sound has allowed me to collaborate with a diverse group of professionals—not just musicians but also other creative and technical specialists. Because of that, and being inquisitive, everything naturally leads to new projects.

Tim: How has technology changed the way you work on projects or collaborate with people from different industries and backgrounds?

Nick: So there's a project I’m working on now, which I can get into more later, which was actually developed a while ago. The initial concept involves using 3D sound to present music in a spherical sound dome, complemented by holograms as a storytelling tool. This idea of spatialisation and 3D sound has been a long-standing interest of mine, and now, with technological advancements, it’s finally feasible. This project reflects the current state of the world, where the possibilities for creation are nearly limitless, allowing anyone to bring their ideas to life.

Tim: It sounds like the project you're working on aims to create an immersive experience that goes beyond just listening to sound. It seems you're integrating various elements like holograms and spatial audio to elevate the sensory experience. How have you observed the evolution of music consumption with the introduction of new technologies?

Nick: Indeed, the development of binaural sound and technologies like Dolby Atmos has been pivotal. From a cinematic perspective, the use of Dolby Atmos alongside IMAX and surround sound formats like 7.1 and 5.1 has been well-established and hasn’t really changed over the years. However, what’s changed is the ability to create the 3D sound experience; you don’t need an extensive setup or listening room anymore. You can just buy some Apple headphones or any equivalent and experience spatial sound as easily as that. It has become more accessible for everyone to create, consume, and listen to high-quality audio.

Tim: With your extensive experience experimenting with “sensory storytelling” across various domains, including art, design, and technology, where do you see the future of music experiences heading?

Nick: That’s a big question. It ties into the broader industry trends, particularly how we are experiencing music and the rapid advancements in AI, which are greatly impacting certain aspects of music creation. On one hand, I believe community and human interaction will become more vital as technology advances. Smaller scenes, more intimate gigs, and tight communities will thrive, even as digital and VR experiences grow.

Just yesterday, I was discussing with Katy (from the Web3 Music Association), about the challenges faced by Gen Z, who are growing up in a digital world but are missing out on in-person community interactions. This gap is partially being bridged by virtual reality and mixed reality, which are reintegrating these communal experiences in new, innovative ways. Music is likely to play a central role in these developments, not just as an isolated art form but as an integrated sensory experience.

On the other hand, what I'm really interested in is the creation of music, alongside film, animation and gaming, built around the Unreal Engine or equivalent games engine, to create story worlds, live or static, which can then easily be delivered to different mediums.

I like the idea of being able to bridge the gap between physical and digital worlds, and also seeing how this can be monetised in a fair and equitable way, integrating Web3 solutions.

Tim: When we talk about immersive and interactive experiences, gaming has set the precedent for more immersive digital experiences such as the Metaverse. Have you done any gaming collaborations or projects in the past?

Nick: Actually, my experience with the gaming space is somewhat limited, but I am currently speaking to a studio about writing for a new game. The first game I contributed to was “LA Noire”. I was assisting Andrew Hale, the composer for the game, (who introduced me to Katy from the W3M Association). My role involved developing additional in-game music based on Andrew’s themes and co-writing one of the pieces for the soundtrack. We recorded the score at Abbey Road Studios with a 43 piece jazz-classical orchestra. This experience was amazing and was my first taste in composing a piece of music and having it brought to life with a full orchestra. I was fortunate to revisit Abbey Road late last year to mix a feature film I’ve just been working on at their relatively new dubstage.

That was my first touchpoint with developing music for games. However, my work with Dynamo the magician has many similarities in the composition process to that of a game score. This collaboration stemmed from film scores I had written, and also the ‘Into the Frame’ project.

The initial goal was to create an illusion where the Fiat 500x would appear from a light source, levitate and then transform into a real car on the ground. It then culminated into a major branding event.

The technical and creative team assembled at Warner Brothers Studios in Leavesden—where they filmed the Harry Potter films—in a vast aircraft hangar that was converted into our stage. The project was intensely technical, involving choreographers, creative lighting, and projection mapping. The narrative and the spectacle, including the car's transformation, were all synchronised with the music and sound effects to the millisecond for a single live performance. It felt like launching a spaceship due to the high probability of technical issues, but fortunately, everything went smoothly.

Following this project, Dynamo’s manager approached me to become the music director for his live show, “Seeing Is Believing”, which turned out to be one of the largest magic shows globally. This experience, although not exactly the same, resembles creating a game score. Like in gaming, the music for the magic show had to be highly adaptable, adjusting to the duration of the illusions depending on Dynamo's physical condition each night. The entire show was controlled by a sophisticated console that managed music, video, and all technical elements in real-time, much like how a video game score dynamically adapts to gameplay. This required a blend of mathematical precision and creativity to ensure seamless integration of all these elements.

Tim: Considering this magic show was an adaptive and reactive experience between the performance and the sound, do you think this dynamic could translate to the digital environment? With the massive adoption of gaming and the metaverse, do you see a future where technology increasingly offers similar adaptive experiences but then tailored to a digitally native audience?

Nick: Absolutely. This is definitely an avenue I'm eager to explore with various projects I'm currently developing.

Tim: Can you share any details about these upcoming projects or collaborations that excite you? Only what you're able to share at this moment, of course.

Nick: Certainly. I'm involved in several projects right now, in no particular order.

I’ve just received a script to work on a film score, which is exciting since I haven’t composed for film in some time. This project is not so much about leveraging new technologies but about crafting the music itself - helping tell the story and collaborating closely with the director.

Additionally, I'm finishing writing a few pieces of music for a modern classical EP release of mine, a genre I haven't explored in my personal work for a while. This upcoming release will include recording with a choir and orchestra, which I’m currently prepping for.

Another project, which I mentioned earlier, which is quite far ahead in its development and relates more to your previous questions, is an evolving story about a girl who used to be human and turned ex-human. It’s also a metaphor for life and the juxtaposition of the world around us and the human condition. Since my partner on the project and I initially wrote the songs and formulated the concept a while ago, technology has caught up and advanced so much that it’s now feasible for us to realise our ideas - which is very exciting. The project incorporates an immersive live show, graphic novel, art installation and other multi-faceted strands - utilising mixed and virtual reality, gaming and 3D sound. It’s incredibly rich and layered - mixing innovative storytelling, music, and cutting-edge technology to create a deep, immersive experience. We’re aiming to offer a unique way to enrich the narrative experience and deepen user/fan engagement across different platforms.

I'm also developing a music therapy initiative. I prefer not to label it strictly as a music therapy project, but it incorporates many foundational ideas from that field.

Tim: Your projects are so diverse and interesting, looking forward to exploring them further in the future.

Nick: Yes, juggling these projects can sometimes be a challenge, however I am currently expanding my team so the process is smoother running. In fact, I took a brief hiatus to regroup after a particularly intense period. I was composing the music for a BBC/PBS America documentary titled “54 Days - China and the Pandemic“, which explores the origins and global impact of Covid. It was a significant undertaking, but thankfully the documentary was well-received internationally. 8 weeks before delivery of the score I contracted Covid which was a bit surreal - this definitely was a way of ‘getting into character!’.

I then went straight onto scoring another documentary about the political situation in Eritrea for Channel 4/PBS America. I had the opportunity to collaborate with some exceptionally talented African musicians, which was a highlight for me.

I've recently moved into a new resident studio at Qube East in Canary Wharf and I’ve just become a professional voting member of the Ivor’s Academy. I'm looking to deepen my engagement with various communities, where I plan to give some talks, mentor and participate more actively. It’s crucial for me to feel excited about the projects I’m involved in. I thrive on collaborating with teams from various disciplines, not just in music but across multiple creative and technical fields. This interplay of talents and perspectives is what drives me. Having these conversations with Katy, yourself, and meeting Sergio through Andrew Hale's introduction has been truly inspiring. It’s invigorating.

Tim: I agree! Well, I'm glad to hear you’re excited for what lies ahead. I want to thank you for your time and for such an interesting conversation. Wishing you all the best in your endeavours Nick!

To learn more about Nick’s projects, head over to his website.

Brought to you by the Web3 Music Association ("W3M") – a non-profit entity with the goal of orchestrating innovation in the music industry. Its mission is to educate music industry professionals, support their digital transformation, and bring them together to collaboratively develop innovative use cases. Created from an extensive three-year collaboration, the association is a lead contributor to the Music Protocol – a dedicated blockchain for intellectual property registration, management and monetisation. To learn more about the Web3 Music Association, click here.

“Everybody knows that the industry needs a global repertoire database, and that the only efficient way to cost-effectively manage data is with a single, reconciled, authoritative database.” – Andrew Jenkins, President of Universal Music Publishing Group of Australia and Asia Pacific Region.

The idea of creating a comprehensive music database is nothing new. Since the 2000s, numerous attempts have been made to address the absence of a unified database, each to streamline rights management, simplify music licensing, ensure accurate compensation for rights holders, and decrease the frequency of lawsuits and conflicts.

Unfortunately, every attempt has failed, facing consistent constraints in funding, collaboration, and/or governance. Industry-wide initiatives like these rarely achieve alignment on the crucial decisions required to achieve success—who manages the initiative, who pays for it, and what rights do contributors have?

“This historical lack of collaboration stems from the adversarial nature of the music industry, where competition overrides cooperation. In the end, the industry has always adapted reactively rather than proactively. We're not good at getting ahead of problems because we operate on the basis that our business is all about market share and beating the competition.” – Andy Saunders, Founder Velocity PR

The music industry’s previous attempts to reform modern music ownership

Among the industry’s earlier attempts was the International Music Joint Venture (IMJV), formed in 2000 by a group of collection societies from across the globe. Later, the World Intellectual Property Organization took a different approach with the International Music Registry (IMR) project. The IMR effort, launched in 2011, began with great promise but ultimately underwent the same fate as the IMJV.

One of the most famous examples in recent history is the Global Repertoire Database (GRD). Supported by over 80 organisations and more than 450 individuals across six continents, the GRD aimed to create “a single, comprehensive and authoritative representation of the global ownership, administration, and control of musical works”. Despite years of effort and considerable funding, the project was abandoned after six years in 2014. The shutdown was attributed to the collection societies' inability to share their data openly, a lack of overall collaboration, and “due to a fall-out of collection societies over funding”.

In 2014, JAAK was one of the first blockchain-based startups to attempt to build a comprehensive repository for music IP. They realised early on that public blockchains enable the aggregation of information from various sources into a unified repository, ensuring an auditable trail of ownership and data integrity without the reliance on a central authority. By 2018, they had launched a pilot with major industry partners, including WMG and BMG. Despite their commendable effort, the company was forced to shut down after six long years. Their shutdown can be attributed to a lack of funding required to get to market, the immaturity of blockchain and Web3, and the music industry’s limited understanding of the technology.

A new approach to establishing a global repository for music IP

While previous blockchain-based attempts made significant breakthroughs in reforming modern IP ownership and management, they were restricted in many ways. For instance, JAAK’s open data network was designed to run on top of the Ethereum blockchain. While general-purpose blockchains like Ethereum have been proven to be the most secure and robust option for real-world asset tokenisation, their one-size-fits-all approach comes with a level of complexity that needs to be fine-tuned to the specific nuances of the music industry. Their generalist nature makes it difficult to construct specialised solutions seamlessly integrating with the existing industry value chain and legal frameworks. With the recent advancements in Web3 interoperability, scalability, and composability, specialised industry blockchains are now a viable alternative to general-purpose blockchains like Ethereum.

For any industry-wide initiative – such as developing an industry-specific blockchain protocol – governance and coordination are key success factors.

“In innovation clusters or any environment where you try to define how something new is going to be implemented in everyday life, it is proven that you always have an orchestrator. This is someone leading the conversation, the experimentation, and the adoption. Usually, orchestrators have been innovative corporations or academic institutions.” – Sergio Mottola, President and CEO of the Web3 Music Association

In this context, the Web3 Music Association ("W3M") is a non-profit entity with the goal of orchestrating innovation in the music industry. Its mission is to educate music industry professionals, support their digital transformation, and stimulate the development of a global blockchain-based repository for music IP. By bringing together various music industry stakeholders, the W3M aims to bundle a broad set of expertise to collaboratively build out new infrastructure – owned and governed by the music industry at large.

Created from an extensive three-year collaboration, the association is a lead contributor to the Music Protocol – a dedicated blockchain for intellectual property registration, management and monetisation. The Music Protocol is designed to overcome the traditional constraints in funding, collaboration, and governance that have plagued previous industry initiatives in the past. What sets Music Protocol apart from its blockchain predecessors is its attempt to align and incentivise stakeholders through the $RECORD token and customised incentive framework. Subscribe and keep up to date for further details, coming soon.

Brought to you by Music Protocol — a layer 1 blockchain serving as the infrastructure for music intellectual property (IP) tokenisation. By future-proofing the music industry’s foundations, Music Protocol unlocks its full creative and economic potential, paving the way for growth. To learn more, click here.

Sources:

• https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/05/03/jaak-kord-ethereum-music-rights-database/

• https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2015/08/the-failure-of-the-global-repertoire-database-effort-draft.html

• https://archive.completemusicupdate.com/article/prs-confirms-global-repertoire-database-cannot-move-forward-pledges-to-find-alternative-ways/

• https://www.cardozoaelj.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/WISHNIA_NOTE.pdf

• https://variety.com/2018/biz/news/jaak-moves-ahead-with-blockchain-pilot-joined-by-bmg-global-music-rights-warner-music-others-1202794923/

• https://medium.com/jaak-io/building-a-global-view-of-rights-is-going-to-be-hard-but-were-not-alone-33be8e200384

Interactivity provides layers of immersion and engagement to tell stories in ways that no other medium can. While it’s uncertain how the metaverse will evolve over the coming years, one thing is clear: the growth of immersive experiences opens up new possibilities for the music industry.

Why the metaverse remains untapped potential for the majority of the music industry

To incorporate music in film or tv, there is a known standard on licensing – defining what can and cannot be done. This does not currently exist in the metaverse. Consider the scenario of an artist who wants to license one of his songs to be utilised within a metaverse game. In such a scenario, the rightsholder must individually negotiate the IP license on a one-to-one basis. The negotiations for such licenses can become exceedingly complex and expensive, given the need to determine terms around usage rights, distribution, and royalties in environments still being defined legally and commercially today.

Every time the rightsholder wants to license the same IP for similar purposes, they must start negotiations from scratch. The situation is even more daunting for independent artists or smaller entities, as they often don’t have full comprehension of the IP rights related to music licensing and lack the resources to engage in such negotiations. The current static model of intellectual property management effectively limits participation to large and well-resourced rightsholders.

The complexities of IP rights in the digital age

In the metaverse, users aren’t just playing a game; they’re blurring the boundaries between player and creator. Beyond traditional consumption, the metaverse offers immersive, interactive experiences where users actively engage with content. Music creation tools within virtual environments could empower users to co-create, remix, and share music throughout those worlds.

Consider the scenario where a radio automatically starts playing when someone enters a virtual car in the metaverse. In this case, the radio owner is able to select certain licensed songs to be played when someone enters the car. However, they might wish to modify various elements like the tempo, style or overall ambience to align with particular in-game conditions, such as the in-game time of day or the type of car they are driving. If the user likes the remix being played, they could add it to their in-game catalogue and perhaps sell it in on a marketplace for others to enjoy. Unfortunately, existing copyright laws do not adequately address the complex web of ownership and usage rights associated with this kind of remixing or user-generated content in immersive worlds, leading to legal ambiguities and disputes. As a result, these kinds of use cases are not possible today. The dynamics of gaming and the metaverse demand more from music IP than what is currently provided.

Towards a dynamic licensing model for the metaverse

The high-friction process of negotiating licenses one-to-one in the metaverse excessively burdens artists and labels, making it impractical to consider spending time and money on these potential opportunities. This necessitates a more dynamic approach where intellectual property owners can establish digital licensing terms and conditions for anyone to access and exploit – in any application or environment. This many-to-many licensing mechanism would enable a scalable foundation for the widespread use of IP beyond traditional formats, allowing the IP’s value to grow and expand.

What is the role of blockchain in dynamic IP licensing

Blockchain presents the infrastructure needed to reshape the interactions among creators, users, and intellectual property within new digital environments like the metaverse. “Real-world-asset (RWA) tokenisation” is central to this process, offering a method to convert traditional IP and its associated rights into programmable digital tokens on the blockchain. The tokenisation of music IP streamlines traditional licensing processes, significantly reducing the time and costs linked to conventional IP management. By programming the rules of engagement within digital tokens, music IP can be mass licensed without having to negotiate specific terms on a one-to-one basis. Establishing an open, transparent, and flexible blockchain-based framework for music IP management will pave the way for new music (co-)creation, remixing, and sampling opportunities.

Brought to you by Music Protocol — a layer 1 blockchain serving as the infrastructure for music intellectual property (IP) tokenisation. By future-proofing the music industry’s foundations, Music Protocol unlocks its full creative and economic potential, paving the way for growth. To learn more, click here.

How did we get here?

Pre-Internet era

Throughout history, musicians have been able to express themselves and their art through live performances. Music was a communal and participatory experience, bringing people together in a very personal way. This changed in 1877 when Thomas Edison unveiled the phonograph. This allowed people, for the first time, to listen to music in the comfort of their homes. As a result, the commercialisation of recorded music came into effect.

As the phonograph further developed, the cylinders used to produce sound became smaller and smaller. Finally, the phonograph was accompanied by vinyl records, first introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. Vinyl records were pivotal, allowing multiple songs to be compiled on one single record. The development of music distribution technology, from phonographs to vinyl records, facilitated the rise of record labels. Given the high costs associated with professional studios, music promotion, and distribution, individual artists often had little alternative but to sign deals with record labels. This ultimately led to an industry structure dominated by six major record labels that controlled most recorded music distribution and promotion until 1998.

As size and portability were barriers to the adoption of vinyl, the cassette was introduced in 1963. This allowed for greater portability on a smaller device, which people could easily take anywhere. It also allowed for significantly longer play times compared to vinyl. However, it also ignited negative repercussions, such as the first forms of piracy. Afterwards, in 1981, the first viable format of Compact Discs (CDs) was developed by Sony and Philips. The CD was a crucial development for the music industry, offering superior audio quality, portability, and affordability. This transition made the music experience much more casual, setting a precedent for transitioning from active to passive music consumption.

The pre-internet evolution from the phonograph until the CD built the foundations of the music industry value chain we still rely on today. From a live and participatory experience to a more globalised and accessible form of entertainment. Technological advancements in audio formats introduced new ways to consume, distribute, and experience music.

Post-Internet era

While the CD changed our listening habits, digital MP3 formats quickly gained popularity by eliminating the inconvenience of storing physical copies of music. Although introducing the digital format was new, it presented significant challenges for the music industry. Piracy was a relatively minor concern with analogue records because the quality diminished with each subsequent copy. However, digital formats could be duplicated without any loss of fidelity, creating the possibility of widespread piracy.

In the late 1990s, particularly during the beginning of the dot-com boom, several attempts were made to establish internet-based music companies, but none achieved significant success. However, at the start of the millennium, the music industry experienced one of the most impactful developments with the introduction of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, which was popularised by Napster. Napster initiated a new era that demonstrated how an innovation can disrupt an entire industry and make many established industry practices and players obsolete in a matter of days.

Illegal file sharing resulted in dramatic declines in sales of CDs and industry revenue. In the UK, recorded music revenues decreased by about 60% between 2001 and 2015, from £1,868 million to £761 million (CMA, 2022). To counter the rise in piracy, new ways of consuming music emerged. Initially, legal downloads through platforms like Apple’s iTunes store allowed consumers to purchase individual tracks or albums that they then owned and could listen to at their convenience. While this approach had some limited success in reversing the revenue decline, it wasn’t enough to fully mitigate the impact of piracy.

Music streaming services disrupted the industry yet again, starting with Spotify in 2008. Unlike the download model, streaming services offer consumers ongoing, legal access to vast music catalogues as part of a subscription or for free if they are willing to listen to advertisements. This resulted in streaming becoming the dominant means of consuming music. Crucially for the music industry, streaming has increased recorded music revenues from £761 million in 2015 to £1,115 million in 2021 (CMA, 2022).

From an artist’s perspective, streaming platforms offer a unique service for easy distribution, visibility and exposure. From a consumer perspective, streaming undoubtedly provides an unbeatable service: unlimited access to the vast majority of the world’s music catalogue, on-demand, for a monthly fee as low as $12.99 .

While the industry has undoubtedly benefited from streaming, revenue flows remain concerning. Artists, especially emerging artists, struggle with little to no earnings despite their music reaching a global audience. Even though streaming revenues are increasing, recorded music revenues in real terms remain significantly below their 2001 peak (CMA, 2022). The traditional structures of royalty distribution have struggled to adapt to the evolving consumption patterns of streaming.

Despite the advantages, poor streaming economics and an exponential increase in music on streaming services have ultimately led to the devaluation of music. This makes streaming an impractical long-term strategy for artists to build their careers on and thus undermines the sustainability of the music industry. Artists need access to new technology to capitalise on their intellectual property and sustain their careers properly.

The music industry’s embrace of technology has historically presented significant hurdles

The music industry's embrace of technology has historically presented significant hurdles. The figure below provides a comparative study of the gaming and music industries, representing their respective responses to technological shifts. The two graphs illustrate the industry revenue adjusted for inflation in real terms.

The gaming industry is portrayed on the left side of the figure. The colours signify unique platforms or technological iterations, from arcade systems to console, PC, and mobile gaming. Notably, each technological leap, represented by a distinct colour, either sustains or enhances the industry's revenue. This suggests a positive relationship where new technologies layer upon their predecessors, thus fostering growth. For example, the gaming industry, valued at approximately $20 billion in the 1980s, grew to well over $100 billion in 2019. Over the last 4 years the gaming industry revenue reached nearly $250 billion.

Contrastingly, the music industry, represented on the right side of the figure, paints a different picture. Each technological advancement from the 8-track era, through vinyl, cassette, and streaming platforms, erodes the revenue of the preceding technology. This suggests that previous introductions of new technologies did not provide additional value to the industry but overthrew the previous status quo. The net effect is a market capitalisation that, at best, maintains its value. Even though streaming revenues are increasing, recorded music industry revenue in real terms remain well below their CD era peak of $20 billion.

An inconsistent foundation for efficient data management

The initial method for collecting digital music data had significant flaws. When CDs were introduced in 1980, their limited data storage capacity meant that only basic song information was recorded on the actual disk. Consequently, when CDs began to be converted into MP3 files in the late 1990s, there was only a minimal amount of available data to be uploaded. Unfortunately, during this period, there was no standardised data collection process, leading to the creation of numerous databases with varying standards. This lack of uniformity resulted in early-2000s digital music databases lacking crucial information regarding the IP and rights associated with existing songs. These factors contributed to forming an inconsistent data foundation that persists to this day.

“Music is one of the most complicated copyright environments with one of the worst data management practices” – Edgar Bronfman Jr. , Warner Music Group Chairman

The rapid expansion of the music industry and the proliferation of platforms and rightsholders contribute to significant financial losses due to poorly structured data. With over 300 licensed music digital service providers (DSPs) worldwide and CISAC’s affiliated organisations representing more than 5 million creators, the stakes are high. Most data across the value chain remains fragmented and siloed due to the variations in how data is stored, processed, and managed. It is dispersed across various locations, often outdated or incomplete, and exists in multiple versions that differ from one place to another. This prevents alignment across the industry, creating inefficiencies and often making collaboration between entities difficult or impossible.

Despite decades of music digitisation since the introduction of MP3s, the industry is in a challenging situation. The absence of uniform practices and a standardised database for tracking song information and engagement results in a significant delay between when a song is played and when the rightsholder receives payment. This lag typically spans three months to a year, depending on the entities involved. This delay is particularly noticeable regarding publishing royalties, where approximately 25% of music publishing revenue fails to reach its rightful owners. An important illustration comes from the Mechanical Licensing Collective in the U.S., which recently disclosed $424.4 million in unmatched or “black-box” streaming royalties. (W&M, 2021).

Adding to the delays caused by technical translation challenges is the lack of motivation for business intermediaries to transmit collected royalties to creators. If the money remains unclaimed, these entities are entitled to retain it.  The music industry’s challenges with royalty collection and distribution are a direct consequence of the industry’s legacy data foundations.

A perpetuating cycle of complexity

The attempts to address the fundamental issues in the music industry have been reactive, focusing on alleviating symptoms rather than proactively identifying and eliminating the root causes.

The systems that governed the industry were originally designed in a pre-Internet era when the concepts of global digital rights and licences were yet to be considered. As the Internet emerged, the industry’s strategy was to retrofit traditional frameworks to fit these new digital contexts.

Traditionally, music rights were pretty straightforward – if you bought a CD, the musicians got paid for that copy. But with streaming, things got more complicated. Streaming should be governed by a distinct set of rights reflecting its unique characteristics. Instead, the industry patched pre-existing rights to try and adapt them to the digital age. As a result, a single stream is treated as both a reproduction or copy of the song (like buying a CD) and as a performance, meaning both ‘mechanical’ and ‘public performance’ rights are invoked. Legally, this is like juggling two balls (copy and performance) with one hand.

With each attempt to apply legacy music industry systems to new music consumption methods, the value chain complexity increases. Like in computer science, increasing complexity within legacy systems leads to ‘ripple effects’ that often prevent innovation. Ripple effects can be understood as the series of unintended consequences or secondary impacts that occur when changes or modifications are made to existing systems.

The traditional react-and-adapt approach to updating the industry’s foundations fails when modifications negatively impact other parts of the value chain. Solutions that fix one issue often spawn additional problems elsewhere, thus perpetuating a cycle of increasing complexity.

An inability to exploit emerging opportunities

Outdated infrastructure has refrained the industry from tapping into digital opportunities like AI, the metaverse, and UGC on platforms like TikTok. This is exemplified when we look at how the industry’s value chain handles simple IP use today.

On the most basic level, a song has two distinct components: the musical composition itself and the recorded version or ‘master recording’ of a song. At present, there is no consistent standard for connecting a musical composition with its corresponding sound recordings.

“While musical composition data is managed through one system, sound recording data is managed using another one.” – Sharp, 2023

As a result, different intellectual property rights and activities in the value chain are associated with different copyrights performed by various entities and intermediaries. A DJ creating a remix must formulate agreements with music publishers (for the composition rights) and record labels (for the master recording rights). Depending on the complexity of the remix and the number of samples used, the DJ might have to deal with an increasing number of additional intermediaries, complicating the IP management further. As such, each modification in the music value chain, like a remix, adds layers of complexity to IP management, underscoring the challenges the current fragmented system possesses.

When we include music on social media platforms, such as TikTok for example, another layer of complexity is introduced due to the nature of user-generated content. Traditionally, licensed music libraries and fingerprinting methods have failed to effectively capture and monetise these uses. With European legislation placing increased pressure on online services to secure proper licences for copyrighted material, robust metadata and licensing data management has never been more critical.

Without a consistent data standard and a centralised repository for all copyright ownership information, IP management becomes more complex. In this context, we haven’t even begun to include technologies like AI or the metaverse. When we examine this (simplified) overview of the different intermediaries for IP management, it becomes clear how complexity builds up.

Introducing AI-generated music doesn’t just add complexity; it multiplies it. Think of the original scenario, where consuming music through streaming involved juggling two types of rights: the right to copy the music and the right to perform it publicly. Now, with AI stepping in to casually create music, we’re adding more “balls” to our juggling act, making it more like juggling six balls at once. When an AI creates music, determining the holder of this right becomes a puzzle. Is it the IP rightsholder whose data was used to train the model, the developer of the AI, the user who prompted the creation, or a combination of the three? How the payment flows as a result is yet another aspect to consider.

There is a reason why music on social media has yet to represent a revenue stream for artists, why the metaverse doesn’t even have any music, and why AI is perceived as a threat. Existing copyright laws do not adequately address the complex web of ownership and usage rights associated with the remixing or user-generated content on social media or in immersive worlds. With TikTok and UMG as an industry example, these fundamental issues lead to legal ambiguities and disputes. The complexity of the industry’s value chain, in combination with legacy systems and static IP management practices, falls short of providing the necessary infrastructure needed to licence music IP demanded by emerging technology use cases today.

Web3 as a way of future-proofing the music industry

If the music industry wants to capitalise on emerging technology and acknowledge tomorrow’s digital consumers, it will require a more agile and future-facing approach to licensing. Establishing infrastructure that offers clear and effective IP management is the first piece of the puzzle needed to align with today’s digital environment. By rebuilding the foundations from the ground up, Music Protocol aims to future-proof the industry.

Brought to you by Music Protocol — a layer 1 blockchain serving as the infrastructure for music intellectual property (IP) tokenisation. By future-proofing the music industry’s foundations, Music Protocol unlocks its full creative and economic potential, paving the way for growth. To learn more, click here.

Sources:

• Sharp, A. (2023). Smart royalties: Tackling the music industry’s copyright data discrepancies. https://law.unh.edu/sites/default/files/media/2023/06/sharp_lobel-2.pdf

• Soens, T. (2023). The influence of web3 on the recorded music industry.

• Knibbe, J. (2021). Understanding Music Rights Data: The challenges of delivering timely royalty payments to artists. Water & Music. https://www.waterandmusic.com/understanding-music-rights-data-the-challenges-of-delivering-timely-royalty-payments-to-artists/

• Mulligan, M. (2023, August 31). Ai, Music Rights, and known unknowns. MIDiA Research. https://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/ai-music-rights-and-known-unknowns

• Gamal, A. E. (2012). The Evolution of the Music Industry in the Post-Internet Era. Scholarship Claremont. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/532

• Wikström, P., & DeFillippi, R. (2016). Business Innovation and Disruption in the Music Industry. Google Books. https://books.google.be/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NoteCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=music+industry+evolution&ots=GpHB5Iw8WR&sig=rEqVydKgzONzuX13U9PxO9QfIVg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=music%20industry%20evolution&f=false

• Competition and Markets Authority – CMA. (2022). Music and Streaming. United Kingdom Government. https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/music-and-streaming-market-study.

• Image Phonograph: https://blog.electrohome.com/history-of-the-phonograph/

• Image Vinyl: https://jpcavanaugh.com/2021/11/12/audio-format-wars-part-3-columbia-goes-long/

• Image CD: https://insheepsclothinghifi.com/vintage-cd-player/

• Image Napster: https://www.samhanksdesign.com/napster

• Image Streaming Services: https://stock.adobe.com/be_fr/search?k=music+stream+logo&asset_id=422592335

When Web1 was invented in the 1990s, computer scientists envisioned a decentralised world, a digital utopia of unrestricted global connections and accessible services.

But a crucial piece of the puzzle was missing: blockchain technology. Its absence led us astray from the egalitarian digital space computer scientists had dreamt of, inadvertently creating monopolies that now challenge our vision of a free society.

As a result, a few significant players came to dominate the digital landscape, creating monopolies that now dictate how we access and use the internet and leading to data privacy, content control and limited competition issues.

Web3 is genuinely an opportunity to change this. The real hurdle? We need more than technological reconstruction; we must tackle Web3’s branding problem.

What comes to mind when you think about Web3?

Is it cartoon apes? If it’s not that, it is likely Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX.

It has become easy to dismiss Web3 and blockchain amid a media focus on sensational stories and outliers. Overcoming misconceptions and scepticism is essential for building consensus around Web3.

Without broad-based support and understanding, the foundational shifts required in Web3’s infrastructure cannot be fully achieved.

Because, contrary to popular belief, Web3 is not only surviving — it is thriving.

In 2023, luxury brands such as Gucci, Dior and Prada adopted blockchain technology to engage with customers. Lego, Nivea, Nike and Starbucks earned over $1m from their Odyssey loyalty programme.

The shift to Web3 requires more than individual genius; it necessitates a collective effort. Successful adoption is seen in industries where collaboration is key.

Take the example of the fashion industry’s Aura blockchain, which luxury brands like Gucci and Prada developed for enhanced traceability.

These are all competitors uniting for a shared technological vision and need.

The Web3 Music Association is another example of an industry working together towards a shared vision. In the financial sector, consortiums are forming to explore blockchain applications for secure and transparent transactions. This collaborative approach is essential for the widespread adoption and integration of Web3 technologies.

This infrastructure is the key to true decentralisation, enabling functionalities beyond what we see. It’s about building a network where data isn’t locked in silos but flows freely, empowering users. This foundational shift from a user-centric to an infrastructure-centric approach sets Web3 apart from Web2.

A Coinbase report highlighted that “More than half — 52% — of Fortune 100 companies have pursued crypto, blockchain or Web3 initiatives since the start of 2020” and that “83% of surveyed Fortune 500 executives who are familiar with cryptocurrency or blockchain say their companies have either current initiatives or are planning them”.

More companies than we know are adopting blockchain technology.

Even when you look at the values of Web3, it’s clear that people resonate with them.

At its core, Web3 is more than just a technological evolution; it’s a movement with the fundamental values of privacy, ownership and control over your digital identity.

A survey by Consensys showed that while only 8% of respondents are familiar with Web3, a significant portion supports its underlying principles, such as digital ownership (70%) and data privacy​​ (79%). This alignment with personal values is crucial, as it signifies a shift towards a more equitable and user-centric digital ecosystem.

The values at the heart of Web3 – decentralisation, ownership and privacy – are not just ideals but catalysts for its mainstream adoption in 2024.

These tenets address the growing demand for transparency, user empowerment and fair data practices in our digital interactions. As these values align more with societal expectations and user preferences, they pave the way for Web3 to transition from a niche technology to a cornerstone of our digital future, marking 2024 as a turning point in its widespread acceptance.

We are at a tipping point

Roblox has over 210m monthly users; globally, people spend roughly 26 hours a month on TikTok and GenZ spends up to 10.6 hours daily on their phones. This is why Web3 platforms and services have become so popular, with the digital collectible market seeing over $12 billion in sales in 2023. Web3 addresses the fundamental flaws of Web2 by decentralising control, empowering creators and fostering a more open and collaborative online ecosystem.

Web3 technology has the potential to reshape our digital interactions and create new, more democratic marketplaces. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin’s 2023 end-of-year blog post served as a reminder of why Web3 came into existence. Echoing Ethereum cofounder and Polkadot founder Gavin Wood’s 2014 blog post, he said: “We are not here to just create isolated tools and games, but rather build holistically toward a more free and open society and economy, where the different parts — technological, social and economic — fit into each other.”

The journey of Web3 toward potential mainstream adoption in 2024 is linked to the lessons and developments from previous cryptocurrency bull and bear markets.

The resilience and adaptability shown in these cycles are now the basis for Web3 innovations.

The early bull markets, particularly those around 2011-2013, marked the initial surge in interest and investment in cryptocurrency. These periods were characterised by rapid price increases and heightened enthusiasm, bringing cryptocurrencies like bitcoin into focus. These early bull runs were integral in establishing the foundational interest in digital currencies and blockchain, albeit accompanied by significant volatility and regulatory uncertainties​​.

Equally important were the bear markets, which often followed the highs of the bull runs. Contrary to popular belief, these periods were not just about market downturns; they were crucial for reflection, consolidation and development. During these times, developers and companies focused on improving the technology, addressing security concerns and exploring new applications for blockchain beyond just cryptocurrency.

The 2017 bull market, characterised by the initial coin offering (ICO) boom, was a watershed moment for Web3. It brought unprecedented attention to the potential of blockchain technology in various sectors, far beyond just financial applications. The most recent bull market, around 2020-2021, witnessed the rise of decentralised finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), marking a significant shift in how blockchain could be applied. These developments were not just about speculative investments but about creating real-world applications and new economic models.

Each of these cycles has contributed to the maturing of the Web3 space. The learnings from these periods have been important in addressing key challenges such as scalability, usability and regulatory compliance. As a result, we are now at a place where Web3 has the potential to move beyond small circles and into mainstream usage.

As we look towards the future, starting with 2024, the ongoing developments in Web3 are set to redefine its narrative over the coming years. The gradual adoption of these technologies, likely from 2024-2026 and beyond, presents an evolving opportunity for individuals and businesses alike to join the journey towards a more democratic, transparent and user-empowered digital landscape.