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Yards: ...A New Music Industry?
Yards: I Don't Wanna Be The Best Rapper
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"Battle Mech, Robo Tech, Ready to Flex" - Apathy (Demigodz) 111111 $enjoyWhy I'm Still in Music NFTs
Why it sucks to be in music NFTs in 2024
Right now it feels like it’s easier to quit music NFTs than it is to stay. It feels easier to quit NFTs altogether than it is to stay. You’re working hard on something just for a memecoin to take the wind out of your promotional sails. You put together a stellar marketing campaign for yet another Cryptopunk derivative on the L2 blockchain that came out that day to suck up all the air in the room.
All of our favorite platforms are becoming social. So far, this has meant that instead of charging people a premium for your work, you accept tips. This isn’t a strict Zora complaint, this has been happening across the ecosystem as a music creator. Catalog Radio (which I love) was an effort at creating a social experience using tipping (cosigns) as a way to reward creators for being involved. In a slow market, I know everyone is trying to find what they can do. Sound shifted to prioritizing amount of mints over minting volume, as soon as things started to take a downturn. Free mints ran rampant, because that was the best way to land in the algorithm they had created. Manifold has put forth zero effort to create a better music minting experience. You can mint a song there, but prepare for it to be a less than stellar user experience, on top of having no platform to support pushing forward your work (or for you to be mad that they didn’t push your work).
There are a lot of people in the NFT ecosystem who have collected zero NFTs who have had a lot to say about them. I’m lying, they probably collected an Ed Balloon NFT because my dawg knows how to play the game and I’ve always envied that, shout out Ed. Your favorite NFT content creator spaces host who hypes things up to dump on you hasn’t participated in the ecosystem enough to understand our desired outcomes as participants but just goes “how am I supposed to play this” like they’re Kobe Bryant doing a between the legs dunk in the 1997 dunk contest. Guess there isn’t enough flip potential for music like there is a picture of a goblin brought to you by some anonymous dudes on the internet who you were praying were Beeple instead so you could sell it for more.
Speaking of flip potential, I think music artists kinda fucked up, too. We didn’t get better. We didn’t become bigger or more well known. Our NFTs ended up being worth the same thing because we…ended up doing more and more of the same thing. We priced our NFTs at their maximum possible value because so many artists who were showing up in 2021 had already had such a negative experience with the music industry that they saw it as a way to finally get back what was lost…and collectors were paying! What a time. Finding success as a musician is fucking hard, so I get it…but aside from a couple of edge cases, no artist has been able to really find a way to make it from what I call a “traditional music NFT” which is essentially one that puts the song into focus. Without PFP rarity mechanics or some AI addition or inclusion of stems that you’ll never use by a producer that you’ve definitely heard of, artists couldn’t find it.
I typed all these words to say that the state of platforms sucks, the state of interest sucks, and the state of artists sucks…but I’m still here trying to figure it out.
So, what doesn’t suck about music NFTs?
Honestly, at this specific moment, everything sucks about them…but I know there are a ton of folks who are passionate specifically about music and blockchain and NFTs who are thinking about the landscape and the tech offerings and are looking for and building ideas that could lead in this direction. I’ll be here trying as we all figure it out.
Later.
further 111111 $enjoyYards: Bring Back Gatekeeping
I'm not excited for everyone to have an opportunity.
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Me myself and I…and me, again.
Yards: I Hate The Phrase "Race To The Bottom"
Appreciate you adding to the convo. I would assume at this point, the platforms (obviously the main pain point for most creatives and artists) already are fully aware how bad this all feels for artists and creatives but also realize there aren't enough real humans using the platforms to keep the lights on, so everyone is rushing to change what made this all special in an attempt to try to scale with hopes of mass adoption, when we aren't ready for that clearly. And it seems like the ones making the calls think the ability to "possibly" make income for uploading compared to legacy web2 social is the thing that would be so intriguing to already skeptical normies, whom if did magically all onboard rn, would quickly realize, they jumped into a new ecosystem minus their existing following only to land in a void that just adopted the same broken discovery mechanisms where following and having followers have no meaning... sustainability, income are a bonus, the majority of creatives I've crossed path with the past 30 years main concern beyond the creative process is their art making meaningful connections. This mass pivot to obviously farm creatives and users for frequent traffic i can't see having the successful outcome whoever sacrificed and sunset our control over contracts, pricing, what and who we see on our feed, etc seems to be hoping for. Wish it made sense, and wish all that retrofunding would have just went into creating an app experience separate from the magical goated web platforms. but i'm also thankful because this all happening at once was very eye opening and taught me a valuable lesson once again. So i'll do my best to not repeat the same bright eyed, heart full trusting mistake again. <3 500,000 $enjoyI Love This Shit! (Alternate Artwork)
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Yards: In Matters of Taste
whatissimpleisnotalwayseasy.
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PS: You can still mint the song on Sound at the time of this minting
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Fear Not The Artist Who Has Minted 1000 NFTs, Fear The Artist Who Has Minted The Same NFT 1000 Times
Yards: NFTs Are A Lot Like Streetwear
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“Take the emptiness you hold in your arms And scatter it into the open spaces we breathe. Maybe the birds will feel how the air is thinner, And fly with more affection.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
Yards: The Customer is Always Right in Matters of Taste
Yards: Music NFTs State of The Union
Yards S2E00: A Chant
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I'd hope that we can continue to cultivate onchain funding sources so that VCs have a lot of competition. If that happens, they will have to go above and beyond to be the best option amidst communities who may be able to offer the same amount of capital. Which would be great for all involved.
Either way, the ever increasing power of the creator is revealing itself.
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it should be possible for musicians and artists to both earn from their work AND have a space to connect with their present and future fans. instead of needing web3 for value and web2 for distro, there can be a secret third thing where both are possible.
im hoping we can make it this place right here :~)
loving these videos by the way, insightful and thoughtful as always.
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that's fine!!!
slow growth = sustainable growth
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Alternate title: Fuck making music, are you making culture?
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kinda like Terror Squad?
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