How I'm Converging Web2 and Web3 As A Music Artist
I'm sure if you engage in any internet activity you haven't been able to escape terms that feel like an entirely alien language: web3, blockchain, NFTs, etc. And if you're a creative professional, then you may have experienced anything from excitement to curiosity to dismay to guilt. Of course that depends on how you're engaging the emerging technology informing this alien language. So I wanted to offer my perspective as a music artist. One, because I've entered the space and have begun to learn and speak the language, myself. Two, I know I'm not alone in this journey. And three, I have some ideas I'm particularly energized by. And since we're all learning and building, I invite interactive engagement.
The PRIMARY DILEMMA
My perspective is shaped by a dilemma. I encountered resonant questions numerous times as I immersed myself in web3 communities and conversations. Especially for music artists who've worked so hard and used so much sweat equity to establish themselves in web2. Are we supposed to just leave behind the strategies, experiences, and fans that got us here in the first place? This question is complicated by the fact that, for so many of us, web2 has felt like an insurmountable battle. Algorithms, clout culture, scarcity mindsets and so much more have all been discouraging, if not traumatic for so many of us music artists - signed or independent. And still, the idea of abandoning something I toiled to build made me incredibly hesitant. So are we supposed to wipe our slates clean and begin anew in web3? My personal response is to build a bridge of sorts.
A bit about my own sweat equity. In 2015 I completed a successful crowdfunding campaign for $10K buoyed by over 200 backers. In 2016 I released my first album. In 2017 I built a backing band. In 2019 I launched a grassroots tour called KITCHEN SESSIONS in the homes of my most passionate supporters. I did this all independently. And for an overwhelming majority of this time I didn't have any management or representation. I have been grateful for rotating teams of collaborative partners, creatives, and strategists. For me, there are supporters and ideas I cannot and will not disregard even if new technology is poised to completely disrupt the field I'm in. Instead, I'm interested in transitional fusion.
This fusion starts with my own adoption of blockchain technology. My first attempt at getting into music NFTs was in March 2021. I've been following web3 pioneer LATASHÁ since our college days in Connecticut. I saw her tweeting about ETH and I was bewildered. Like, wtf is going on here? So I followed the DYOR principle. I looked it up. Then I promptly started an OpenSea account even though I didn't quite know how I did it. And then, in all my eager curiosity, I accidentally added something to the blockchain in a process known as minting. At the time there was just too much new language, not enough apparent groundswell for music, and I couldn’t get past the perception that I’d somehow be abandoning all the supporters who helped me build. Oh! And I didn't know how to log back in to OpenSea. This also happened to be a season when my focus shifted to bringing a new life into the world.
That new life is actually an appropriate segue into how I joined web3. My precious son was born in early December 2021. To ensure that I could abundantly enter parenthood without completely disappearing as a music artist, I mapped out monthly releases throughout 2022 and queued them all before he arrived. During the summer and early fall of 2021 I polished some previously discarded records that I'd always loved and set them up for release on all digital streaming platforms (DSPs) via DistroKid. And then I worked with my longtime collaborative partner ZILLA to come up with the creative direction for all the covers, videos, social posts and merchandise. We created those primarily for Instagram and YouTube - a rhythm with which we've become all too familiar. So I had crafted an arsenal of queued content for the entire year. And then it hit me.
Could all this content actually convert into NFTs? Should I give it another shot?
Entering web3
I had to learn more. So I returned to the place where I first started seeing the language - Twitter. A place I hadn’t been in ages. This time, in November 2021, I saw more fellow music artists tapping in to the web3 space. My guy James Gardin had .eth at the end of his Twitter name and I was like, "Nah, I gotta figure this out." Couple this with the persistent nudging from a fraternity brother, close friend, and longtime supporter Beezy Philipe, my intention was set. I had to enter web3. So I copped my Ethereum Name Service domain (jpreynolds.eth), set up my OpenSea account (for real this time), asked James a laundry list of questions, followed everybody and anybody who seemed to be plugged in to web3 on Twitter, joined too many Discord servers, and started figuring out how I could incorporate the blockchain for my 2022 rollout.
I decided that my Soul Raps album would also be a Soul Raps collection on web3. That is, I’d supplement my once-a-month DSP releases with an unfolding web3-based music exhibit comprised of monthly multi-layered NFT installments. It's a mouthful. But once I grounded myself in this intention, I started contacting some of my longtime supporters who I figured may have already entered the world of cryptocurrency or who, at the very least, might be interested. Their feedback was resoundingly encouraging. Even if they weren't personally familiar with the technology. To them, it made sense for my music output to evolve in this way. They even sent some articles they'd come across and asked me some critical questions about my line of thinking to sharpen my approach.
One of those questions was about OpenSea: why had I decided to use that platform for this first phase of my entry into web3? For starters, some of the more music-oriented outlets like Catalog or sound.xyz have a curation process where they hand-select the artists who can mint on their platforms. I didn't want to wait on being selected. And I didn't want my NFT drops to be out of sync with my DSP drops. So then I considered all the other platforms I could find. Zora, for example, seemed especially popular for music NFTs. But after weighing my options with my budget, I decided to stick with OpenSea. I knew I'd be minting multiple NFTs every month in accordance with the vision for my rollout. And I didn't want to pay the gas fee every time I minted a new NFT, which was required on the platforms I had researched. At the time, the only marketplace I saw without this requirement was OpenSea. There, I could pay a one-time activation fee and then mint liberally without needing to pay gas every time I wanted to mint something new. So this choice, for my genesis collection, was mainly economic. In January 2021 I sold two NFTs. My genesis NFT sold during the Twitter Space celebrating my drop. The collector was a brand new connection from web3. My second sale went to a longtime supporter from web2, one whom I contacted when initially preparing to employ blockchain technology. It's not lost on me that of my first two collectors, one came from my web2 world and one came directly from web3. This was an indication that I may be on to something with this strategy of transitional fusion. But, as with most things in web3, I'm in a 'we'll see' posture. There’s still so much more for me to learn as I dive more deeply into this continuously evolving space.
UTILITY + EXPERIENCE
In addition to the primary dilemma, I kept hearing another point of contention in Twitter Spaces: utility attached to music NFTs. Or as web3 pioneer Black Dave calls it, experience attached to music NFTs. Some folks felt like the music should be enough, as the art is a token worth collecting on its own. That is, the music should be valuable without the promise of something extra attached to it. Other folks felt like music artists have always offered additional, music-adjacent experiences like merch discounts, VIP access codes, and really any various perks that came with crowdfunding campaigns or Patreon subscriptions. And so, just because web3 may be an opportunity for value to attach itself solely to our music in a way we never experienced in web2, providing some other function along with our tokens doesn’t necessarily counter that value. In fact, the pro-utility argument suggests, providing an attached function may likely increase the value of music tokens.
Even though I went back and forth on the issue I had always been down with the idea of offering utility. To me it's another way to be innovative. The question for me was how to create experiences attached to my NFTs in a way that isn't completely foreign to my supporters who may not be on web3 yet. So, in the name of transitional fusion, I'm bringing back the KITCHEN SESSIONS I originally launched in 2019 when all I had was my web2-oriented email list. This time there's a web3 twist.
The first time I did these sessions, I reached out to friends and asked if they'd be down to gather 10-15 of their friends for an intimate concert in their kitchen. I was manifesting the expansion of my listening audience. Apparently this was a novel idea because folks were definitely on board. I envisioned one session each week for an entire year from November 2019 - November 2020. I started out with five sessions for my family and friends. And then expansion started happening. By December, I had booked weekly sessions all the way through May 2020 - everywhere from Oakland to Atlanta to LA to Boston. The energy from this tour was starting to open up appearances and opportunities I couldn't have foreseen. But then COVID shut down everyone and everything. I had gotten to 17 of my 52 stops.
Even though it was cut short, I'm really proud of that tour. I'll never forget the encouragement I got from strangers in every city I visited. Those folks injected me with a lot of Life after those cranky Megabus rides. Now it's time for a level up. Offering these sessions as an experience attached to my NFTs makes the most sense to me. I want to give my longtime supporters a recognizable way to join me in web3. If you're already familiar with my kitchen sessions, this time around you can access them by collecting my NFTs. For those already in web3 I want to extend the invitation to experience what I consider to be my greatest asset as an artist - my live performance. In real life. I'm sharing 3 different types of experiences. Tier 1 is the classic kitchen session featuring my solo show. Tier 2 features my live show with The Peace and Power Band. And Tier 3 features a dinner party curated by another web3 artist/visionary with whom I’m in talks about partnering. I couldn't be more excited about it. Please stay tuned to find out more about that collaboration. And if you've read this much, you might as well take a closer look at how the tiers work. You may even consider becoming a collector.
WHAT'S NEXT
I'll be dropping Soul Raps on DSPs and as NFTs for the remainder of the year. I'll be sending announcements and reminders to my email list. I'll be facilitating my web3-leaning group chat on Telegram where we're sharing resources and discussing the future of creativity. I hope to onboard some of my longtime supporters into web3 as graciously as James Gardin onboarded me. I'll be attracting collectors and watching for who becomes eligible to host my kitchen sessions in 2023. And I'll be finishing up Peace and Power Planet, the live album I created with my band. So stay tuned. There's a lot in store.
WEB3 GLOSSARY in my own words
Blockchain - a decentralized, digital ledger where information is written, transferred, and stored
Collector - a person who buys a token
Cryptocurrency - digital system of commerce maintained by the blockchain. Examples: ethereum, bitcoin, etc.
Discord - Multi-faceted instant messaging platform; key site for exchange of web3 information and building of web3 community
DSPs - Digital streaming platforms; web2 marketplaces for music distribution and consumption. Examples: Spotify, iTunes, Tidal
DYOR - Do your own research; a principle meant to encourage independent investigation and due diligence before taking action.
Gas - Transaction fee for creating, buying or trading an asset on the blockchain
Mint - Creating and registering an asset to the blockchain
NFT - Non-fungible token; a non-interchangable contract signifying ownership of a unique digital asset
Telegram - Multi-faceted instant messaging platform; key site for exchange of web3 information and building of web3 community
Twitter Space - An audio-only platform built within Twitter app; key site for exchange of web3 information and building of web3 community
Utility - Additional benefits of owning an NFT
Web1 - the first phase of the internet; read-only web
Web2 - the internet with which we’re most familiar today; user-generated content, social media, blogs
Web3 - the incoming phase of the internet built on blockchain technology; not just user-generated, but user-owned
