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NFT holders decide fate of Dailly’s interactive album Metamorphic
Country music, electro rock, independent musicians on web3, plus more top stories
Metaproof Team
January 17, 2023
🎵 Metaproof Music
Hey friends, this is Sophia from 🎵 Metaproof Music, the weekly newsletter where we keep you informed on how the metaverse and web3 are changing the music industry.
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📲 By the numbers
Social media is currently shaping the way music is discovered, downloaded, and processed by listeners, yet recent research also shows the next frontier: the metaverse. (Source)
Nearly half of Brits or 43% are aware the metaverse is used for gigs; almost a quarter (23%) of people aged 16-24 have already attended a metaverse gig.
Eight percent (8%) of all Brits asked revealed they have watched a performance of their favourite artist on the platform in the last year.
With people, those over 55 are the most likely to have never interacted with the metaverse, or a huge 65%.
📫 News & trends
Dailly a.k.a. DJ Plus One is leaving the future of his new album Metamorphic in the hands of Ethereum NFT buyers. Building interactive visual experiences around Metamorphic, he’s in on a unique twist: NFT holders can ultimately decide whether the rest of the world gets to freely experience that media.
A past member of the Scratch Perverts and Jack Beats, Dailly used Lidar tech to scan real-world environments via an iPhone, the data representing East London locales in an homage to the rise of the electronic music scene. He and the team used hands-on and generative manipulation techniques to create visual imagery pairing with Dailly’s glitchy electronic soundscapes. Each interactive space is viewable in a web browser on a computer or device, letting users explore a 3D environment. It can also be experienced through a VR headset, such as the Meta Quest 2 or Quest Pro.
Metamorphic’s interactive environments will be sold in an exclusive Ethereum NFT drop this month by web3 collective BeetsDAO and art platform Async Art, with 10 total renditions of the album each featuring the 10 songs.
Cue music NFTs: They represent an opportunity for fans to directly support their favorite artists, musicians to build stronger communities with their listeners, and content creators to build more substantial and sustainable income streams. They generally fall under two categories: ownership-based NFTs, tied to intellectual property rights and royalties, and patronage-based NFTs, which do not grant holders any ownership rights but are collected to support an artist. Crypto-native rapper Jay Kila gleaned on their benefits: “NFTs are kind of like the last hope, I think, for independent artists to transition into this model where you can actually get money for your music in a much more direct way. It’s going to disrupt a lot of things.”
“We’re taking back what it means to be an independent artist,” says Heno., an indie hip-hop artist using web3. He has appeared on a Snoop Dogg NFT mixtape that made $300,000 in a single day, appearing in Fortune Magazine for his contribution and selling more than 200 NFTs since entering the space less than two years ago. “I can, on the blockchain, in perpetuity, see who is supporting me, whether they make themselves anonymous or front facing,” he added. Due to the valuable data and royalties in perpetuity that even brands and companies outside of the music space can gain from having the direct-to-consumer information that NFTs provide, the music industry has a lot of incentive to invest in closing the gap that makes web3 seem so alien and inaccessible.
In the current web2 music industry, numerous organizations manage music metadata and its licensing. With web3 developments like NFTs, which can identify each individual usage via blockchain, data management questions come into play. Metadata is currently delivered by a major label through the industry standard Digital Data Exchange (DDEX), creating XML files of more than 200MB, which contain information on contributors, artists, commercial and territorial rights and more. According to Con Raso, managing director of business-to-business music streaming technology provider Tuned Global, web3 formats are still in their infancy yet questions old systems and creates space for the development of new ones. One example: a blockchain-based standard in which all parties involved in the creation and licensing would be presented with a single view of a recording or works.
American singer-songwriter Carly Pearce has kicked off the first-ever country performance in iHeartLand with a “sassy” breakup anthem, delivering a powerful declaration that a cheating ex can have everything back - but not the diamond ring. Her iHeartRadio LIVE with Carly Pearce performance in the metaverse marked iHeartLand’s first-ever iHeartCountry event in Roblox and Fortnite, caught by viewers Thursday evening (January 12). The metaverse event, which featured “How Fan Are You?” trivia questions for Fortnite fans, came as Pearce geared up for her “next era” after the success of her 2021 album, 29: Written In Stone.
In Singapore, a platform run by a collective of like-minded musicians and supporters, known as The Great Wave, uses cryptocurrency to create a stash of funds for artists to draw on and use for producing and releasing their original works. Powered by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), the platform is likened to a “company that’s run by a series of different smart contracts,” promoting trust among people who can come together for a common funding goal. By using the DAO, The Great Wave has increased its stable of artists, such as those from South Korea, to more than 10 in under a year. Independent musicians, however, are encouraged to understand first how blockchain technology works before they hop on the bandwagon.
Independent electro-rock band d3adc0de has unveiled its debut single “Fight Or Flight.” The new song comes with a sci-fi music video directed by Mike Lowther, setting the tone for future music that will expand on an ongoing narrative created by the act. On their forthcoming plans of blending music with the metaverse, d3adc0de member Steven Morgan called it an “ambitious project that bends the lines between music, cinema, and performance, and becomes more rewarding for the fans that want to explore and immerse themselves into something alien.” The band plans to perform in unique venues that “simulate and immerse the audience through augmented reality integrated with [their] concerts.” d3adc0de also claimed to have built a metaverse that allows a user to explore their virtual environment, learn about band members, and watch the music video together with other fans.
Metaverse fashion ecosystem Brand New Vision (BNV) has announced that the public NFT mint of the M3TALOVE collection is now available for purchase using a digital wallet as well as credit card payment. The collaboration among BNV, Parisian fashion designer Victor Weinsanto, and K-pop girl band LIGHTSUM was first announced back in September 2022. The sale, according to its press release, marks one of the first NFT collections in collaboration with a K-pop artist that will be available for anyone to purchase. Utilities include exclusive access to LIGHTSUM’s concert in the metaverse performing exclusive new music as well as a 15-minute virtual meeting with the girl band via Zoom.
In the UAE, Dubai has set up an independent regulator for virtual assets called the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and announced its Metaverse Strategy in July 2022 in its bid to become a global hub and one of the world's top 10 metaverse economies. Potential territorial issues around infringements in the metaverse exist, and copyright protection would be relevant to metaverse software applications, images, artwork, designs and music, such as avatar characters, virtual accessories, in-platform music, and virtual landscape and building designs, applied in the metaverse. Law firm Gowling WLG urged brand owners and businesses to take advantage of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy and the momentum in the UAE to grow their presence in the metaverse, before which, however, they should formulate a suitable IP strategy and protection measures from the outset, seeking the appropriate legal advice.
Self-styled as an ethereal being “born from a distortion of nature,” WAVE is considered the world’s first metaverse-only DJ. It recently unveiled a new album, called relea∫e, featuring songs originally composed by WAVE’s own AI and refined by DaHouse Audio producers Lucas Mayer, Wonder Bettin, Rodrigo Lemos, Silvio Erné, and Max Von Dusen. Mayer explained: “We suggested harmonies for the AI, and they devised various musical paths and ways of incorporating them into the song. In the end, we mixed the texture of real instruments and the synth we created for Kia with vocals from Gustavo Bertoni, Lemoskine, YESEO, JVNR, Uza, Thom K, and Brenda Mayer.” relea∫e features eleven songs, six of which originated from an AI, and can be found on Spotify and Apple Music.
ASTRO, a powerhouse dance music collective formed by web3 innovators, is pushing the boundaries of collaboration in the space. Noise DAO is kicking off the year with Astro, which recently sold out 444 editions in less than 24 hours on Monday and introduced a novel burn mechanism for the project. The ASTRO collective also functions to create a natural callback to the project’s impetus, or onboarding new artists and helping them build momentum in the space. The goal: get each new artist onboarded to the Sound protocol while also utilizing an ASTRO Sound page for joint drops between camps, which will help fund future ASTRO camps and projects.
Cyprus-based global media publisher TheSoul Publishing predicts that virtual influencers will become a popular marketing tool for brands. In 2022, the growth of the metaverse has seen brands experiment with new platforms and tools to market their products, from social commerce to VR fitting rooms to metaverse catwalks. The impact of this technological evolution will be felt intensely within the influencer industry, generating a host of new opportunities for virtual influencers within decentralized media. These digital creations offer content creators new revenue streams through a wide range of partnerships, along with their own product launches.
Audio is bound to be a huge part of creating immersive, worthwhile experiences for audiences in the metaverse. Thus it’s critical for brands to define their sonic strategy across real and virtual worlds. Smart brands have a sound that is instantly recognizable, and from the McDonald’s “ba da ba ba bah” to the State Farm jingle, sonic logos go a long way to quickly invoke a brand without saying a word. One key step: Think of the ways, places, and times audiences will encounter sounds and how they want people to interact.
Blockchain technologies, such as NFTs, are shifting the power dynamics within the music industry and creating new opportunities for growth and engagement. Advocates say NFTs give artists the tools they need to grow an engaged community from scratch, starting with just a small group of loyal fans. To break into the scene, experts advise budding artists and independent musicians to choose the right blockchain tools, gamify fan engagement, consider creator royalties, blend traditional and web3 strategies, and create long-term utility for fans.
💸 Finance buzz
Decent, a no-code application platform and SDK that makes it easy for anyone to build innovative web3 applications and NFT releases, raises $3.5M in a seed round to allow the music industry to embrace web3 seamlessly. It promotes friendly UX tooling to ignite mainstream adoption of crypto rails, enabling creators and developers to autonomously monetize their work. (Source)
Web3 entertainment firm Orange Comet acquired Mint State Labs, a provider of entertainment and gaming technology. Founded in 2021, Orange Comet is building communities and developing ecosystems in digital collectibles, web3 gaming and experiences for global audiences and fanbases and has created IP across entertainment, music, and culture. (Source)
Revelator, which provides digital IP infrastructure to music companies, launched its NFT payment infrastructure in partnership with Stripe, offering a new way for music companies, creators, and fans to dive into the web3 space. The infrastructure is offered as an integrated web3 functionality on top of Revelator’s digital music supply chain management service offerings. (Source)
MNFTM announced the launch of its web3 NFT marketplace and platform for black and ethnically diverse creators & collectors globally. With a vision to create an NFT marketplace and community that thrives in diversity and brings light to creators from all backgrounds, MNFTM will initially focus on music, art, video, and collectibles from diverse creators. (Source)
🗣️ Quote of the week
“For us with NFT projects, it’s really about engaging that community in a more active way… We’re working on a lot of different projects, and none of them are short-term ‘let’s do this quick thing and win these quick dollars’. It’s not about that. It’s about how we engage these communities over the long term. [Solely] exploiting short-term revenue streams is not the way to run a music business.”
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All content on this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not aim to serve as or replace expert investment advice.
If you are a startup building in the metaverse / web3 ecosystem and are raising capital, please reach out to Sfermion. Sfermion is an investment firm focused on accelerating the emergence of the metaverse.
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