In Music NFTs, we always ask collectors what makes them want to collect music NFTs, but we never really ask artists why they would want their music NFT collected.

I'm gonna try to break down why I would want a collector to snag one of my music NFTs

Reason 1: The record is 🔥🔥🔥

If you hear a song and love it, I hope that's enough inspiration to collect it, if it's in your price range for supporting music that you love. Hearing a song for the first time and going "wow" should be enough.

Reason 2: Supporting me

I'm still coming to terms with the idea that people will spend money on me just because they like me, but I also know that sales is like 90% selling yourself and 10% selling the product, so...it shouldn't be that weird.

My ratio may be off but whatever

Reason 3: My impact in web3

Buying my NFT because of my impact in the space is totally legit, in my opinion. There are NFTs that exist which are representative of the moment or era of the space & I think I'm an important figure in this era of web3 music.

Won't judge you for it.

Reason 4: Owning something others want

I talked to a collector in the space and they said "I just wanna own something rare" and the word rare infers that the demand outweighs the supply, and people just wanna rub that in the face of others. I fux with that too

Reason 5: The flip

This is reason 4, minus the hold aspect. If demand exceeds supply, then you can sell it for a premium. I get paid twice, you get paid more than you spent & the third person gets the token they wanted at a price they were willing to pay.

There are other reasons out there I'm sure, but I would love to hear you guys' (gender neutral) perspective. What reasons do you want collectors to buy you music NFTs?

Also I used @typefullyapp to make this thread. Wanted to test something new. It's a super simplified and distraction free view to thread writing.

As always thanks for reading if you made it this far. See y'all on the chain.

Why I want my NFT collected

Man @HenryChatfield asks the best questions! Let’s attack each question in a 🧵maybe? https://twitter.com/HenryChatfield/status/1504925441185890304

What do I need more of as a musician in web3?

Tools to create unique experiences for my collectors. As one of the biggest utility buffs in my peer group — I think not only is it hard for me to create interesting utility because I gotta use a hodgepodge of tools to execute

Even just to bring utility for $SHRP to life I had to use PartyBid + Fractional + Snapshot just to do that! 

If I wanted to reward them social tokens I have Coinvise and gotta use that. Then collabland in discord. Then mintgate for gated websites.

Even if I end up executing all of that — it doesn’t guarantee the collectors use it all because it’s confusing for them.

Idk if it’s because they aren’t ACTUALLY interested in experience or what but yeah…

What are the hard parts &amp; pain points for me?

For me personally, it’s hard to build a community while simultaneously trying to join and be active in a lot of them. I personally am prioritizing building these next few months, but…

…one thing I’ve found is that artists don’t get treated like founders of projects, namely pfp vibes, who actually have no obligation to do anything other than grow their project/community. 

I think this is more of a “hard part” than a “pain point”

If anything about being a musician in NFTs causes me pain, it’s that good music actually has less value than it should. Music being really fire has no value because of that. I know I’m web2 there are also many factors that play into the perception of “good”

…like cultural impact and timing and individuality and of course “good” is subjective but it’s still kinda crazy how the thing we use to quantify how good we are in web3, ETH sales, doesn’t always balance out in the end.

If I could have a larger team, what would that role look like and what would they do with me?

My larger team would focus more on project and time management than creative. I like tot hunk of myself as a creative director more than a musician, so I really need support in that.

I remember Hiroshi Fujiwara from Fragment Design saying he has no idea how much he gets paid for his projects and his accountant just drops the money in the account and…I wouldn’t quite mind that either, but NFTs are too focused on sales numbers for me to now know the figures.

That…might be it for this trio of questions. This is an interesting thought exercise. My brain was definitely working to answer these

Web3 Artist Needs

Here’s an as exhaustive as it gets thread of performance from #ZORATOPIA IRL

Shouts out to @ourZORA @soundxyz_ @fortheTL &amp; @taramoves 

Thanks for the love and support

Here’s my set intro and the first song, “Justice,” which is available on EP000007 available on streaming services 

Here’s a clip of my 2nd and 3rd songs:
• Kaioken 10 — about 10 editions available now on opensea &amp; on DSPs
• Soldier — available for streaming via your favorite streaming service on EP000001 

Here’s the next song, Sharp, available for streaming on @catalogworks — the NFT owned by a community of over 40 folks 

Next up is Triple Beam, available on @soundxyz_ (secondary is booming over there, get yours) 

Here’s the last song of my set, AEUG, available on EP000005 via your favorite streaming platform. 

Once again thanks for the love and support.

@CallMeLatasha is the Michael Jordan of NFT music, and I need more people recognizing and saying it.

Leave a comment under your favorite song? Or all of them, fuck it right? Haha

Zoratopia Performance

Yo! I wanna talk to you guys about my next NFT release, my first on @mintsongs! There’s a free NFT in this thread, so read ahead to learn more. I wanna talk a bit about my mind around minting a music NFT on Polygon vs Ethereum, so let’s get into it.

If you’ve ever heard me talk to folks about what chain they should be, I often talk about a perception of value that comes with on a low gas blockchain, like Polygon or Tezos or Solana or whatever…and how I feel that many, if not most artists are underselling themselves on em.

I believe that Ethereum is a high value chain, in terms of primary sales, as well as holding value. I believe that the other chains are great for high volume, but the idea of value on it is quite different.

I think if BAYC airdropped Mutant Apes, or even BAKC on Polygon instead of a claiming process on Ethereum, they would be essentially worthless.

When I was initially thinking about dropping on @mintsongs — I was thinking “this could be a really great way to get a lot of copies of music out to people who wanna collect my music but haven’t had a chance to” &amp; I think that’s such what makes Mint Songs so unique.

I thought to myself instead “what if we can change the perception of value of music NFT on Polygon?” using Mint Songs as a catalyst for that. I thought this would be a perfect time to experiment, so I’m jumping into my drop experimenting.

First: Taking advantage of the unique proposition of Polygon and how affordable it is to use, I’m dropping a handful of free to claim NFTs using Mint Songs’ “posters” feature. It’s free to claim &amp; if you don’t have a wallet it’ll help you set up via email:
https://www.mintsongs.com/poster/62/collect

First.A: Here’s the poster. Obviously, or maybe not obviously, I’m dropping “Wolf”: 

Second: “Wolf” is a 3-song EP, and the experiment here is that I’m dropping something rock-focused, as opposed to how I normally drop something rap focused. I think there’s a need for rock music to enter the NFT space and I wanna be a part of that story, not just a feat of mine.

Atop that I experimented with using orchestral sounds in my production, so it’s sort of designed to be something really heavy juxtaposed against something much lighter.

Third: I know I said earlier that @mintsongs — and Polygon — is great for doing high edition, low price point NFTs but I’m going to give the single edition NFT a shot. All three songs will be 1 of 1, and priced similarly to my ETH NFTs that are single edition.

What’s great is that alongside this, I can drop something that’s completely free to claim, and offer rewards to those folks down the line for supporting me. Get yours here: 

https://www.mintsongs.com/poster/62/collect

I’m a believe that shifting the outside perception of value on these other chains starts with us, so I’m going to give it a shot.

I’ll be releasing “Wolf” on March 10th. Poster available now. https://twitter.com/mintsongs/status/1498691082351169537

As always, thanks for joining me in this thread. I hope this explains my idea around “what chain should I mint on?” &amp; helps you realize the power is ours! Share this thread with someone, get the poster (it’s free!) And leave some comments for conversation

Wolf on MintSongs

I think about Kanye, I think about Kid Cudi, I think about Childish Gambino, I think about Tyler, I think about Jaden, I think about Pharrell, I think about Virgil.

That’s where I’m going.

Hi! I sold a music NFT for 3 ETH at the beginning of the year on @catalogworks using @prtyDAO’s PartyBid &amp; in an effort to allow my collectors to be involved with my career, I’m allowing everyone involved to vote on future decisions for the song.

Let’s talk about it (🧵)

Back in November, I minted an NFT for a song called Sharp on Catalog (@catalogworks) and in my initial thread about the NFT I allude to trying something new and having the community involved in it. https://twitter.com/BlackDave/status/1458234446910476299

Something a lot of folks, artists especially, talk about when it comes to music NFTs is allowing their collectors to be a part of their careers, and while I think they’re talking about financially…I wanted to take it a little deeper and let them make decisions with me.

Using a platform called Snapshot (@SnapshotLabs), people who participated in the PartyBid (by @prtyDAO) are using the token they received as proof of fractional ownership to vote on 2 things today:
1. Should the song go on streaming
2. Do I pay myself 0.5 ETH or 1 ETH

Here’s a link to the Snapshot page if you guys wanna read more and follow along. You’ll be able to see which wallet addresses vote for which thing, with every individual having the same voting power, despite the amount they invested: 

https://snapshot.org/#/blackdavesharp.eth

With the proposals (the things I allow folks to vote on (I’m pretty sure proposal is jargon in this space)), I’m able to maintain certain decision making power to myself and give other power my community through letting them decide. I write the pros and cons of each decision

Pop open this pic to look at proposal 1 about whether or not I should put Sharp on streaming services: 

Pop open this pic to look at proposal 2 about how much I should pay myself out of the 3 ETH I made from selling the NFT: 

I think if artists end up having really interesting collectors who either have skills or connections to folks who can support them, then there’s a chance those folks may pull some strings to help you out, as there’s an interest in making the NFT bigger.

I have some really cool collectors of $SHRP (the token) on that front, who I won’t be asking to do anything special, I’m not gonna dox y’all or anything, but it’s an exciting thought nonetheless.

If you contributed to my partybid back then and haven’t claimed your $SHRP tokens, you’re out of luck until next week’s votes BUT hit me up so I can get you set.

If you have your $SHRP tokens, head to the snapshot page and vote: https://snapshot.org/#/blackdavesharp.eth

If you’re an artist interested in this sort of thing, the tools I specifically used are:
1. Catalog aka @catalogworks (it’s a closed platform but you can openly use @ourZORA NFTs on ⬇️)
2. PartyBid aka @prtyDAO 
3. Mirror aka @viamirror 
4. Snapshot aka @SnapshotLabs

I have lots of goals, but in web3, one of my biggest goals is to push the envelope as much as possible and inspire artists and collectors to join me in that push. Artists are creating DAOs. Labels are showing up as DAOs. This is my spin on that.

As always, thanks for joining me on this journey. I’m pinning this thread for the moment. If you have any questions, whether or not you threw in…ask away.

✌️

PS: I don’t check for typos so complain to ya mama about em

Sharp Sale

I think of my NFT collectors as accountability partners that I really don’t wanna let down.

Been thinking about this tweet and wanted to break my thoughts down a bit more. https://twitter.com/BlackDave/status/1495435202503618570

I’m, at the very least, thankful this ain’t considered a hot take.

I think for a long time folks were conflating curation with gatekeeping — which is possible — but these are different things. I think that fundamental understand was really key to opening the doors for a “blog era” of web3 music.

I firmly believe that one of the next frontiers in web3 is that personal blogs will start to flourish. I don’t know if it’s going to be via microblogging, like tumblr or if it’s going to be long form, like blogger — but I think we will be showing our tastes through blogs soon.

Please make it a wallet login and please add following and a dashboard. Mirror is stressing me out not having these features. It needs to be somewhat social, in my opinion.

Creating culture, especially through music, is paramount to the growth of web3 — but equally important is proper documentation, deconstruction &amp; critique of these things. I love that @HYPEBEAST &amp; @highsnobiety cover NFTs but their community isn’t “web3 native.”

I think atop platforms that report on things, we’ll need critics of these things. Folks who review music, who wrote probably obnoxious thinkpieces about web3 music focused topics.

I was just thinking to myself “does there really need to be a different platform to write about web3 music” but I think the standards, values and perceptions — at least for now — are very different, even if it’s the same artists on both sides.

Would love to see a web3 @DJBooth — would love a web3 @theneedledrop or whoever your reviewer of choice is — would love a web3 @nardwuar…just music focused.

Marketplaces are important to growing the ecosystem, making acquiring music NFTs easier, but it’s really hard to find content that’s deeper than surface level about music NFTs.

…maybe I’m in too deep and I should continue to let basic information proliferate as we grow and not allow for something too in depth quite yet…

…maybe we’re too early altogether for in depth platforms. I think not, considering how much money is already moving around.

Just focused on building culture in this web3 world. I’m finished with this visionary stream of consciousness (as Kanye calls it). Thanks for reading this far if you made it. As always I’m open to all conversation around this. ✌️

Also as always, I don’t really proofread like that so forgive all typos haha

Web3 Rap Blog

Music NFT hot take: Artists have a tremendous amount of leverage and power but don’t realize or utilize it as they should

This is a thread, let’s talk about it:

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how despite having an unprecedented amount of opportunity being in web3, especially at such an early state in the game, artists are willing to give most of their individual power to marketplaces, platforms &amp; other communities.

I’ve got songs on @opensea, @catalogworks, @soundxyz_ &amp; soon to be @mintsongs &amp; while I’m excited to work with amazing people, platforms &amp; marketplaces, giving them too much power as artists just reinforces centralization.

I get daily DMs asking how to get on Sound &amp; Catalog.

I think of these platforms as needed destinations on my music NFT journey, but I feel like a lot of folks are putting too many eggs into a basket that looks like a marketplace. ESPECIALLY these gated communities like @catalogworks &amp; @soundxyz_.

These are TOOLS, that’s it.

Don’t get me wrong guys:

I LOVE @catalogworks &amp; I can 100% say @Alex_Siber is one of my top 5 people in web3, not an exaggeration.

I LOVE @soundxyz_ &amp; I think @dgreenstein1 is a super smart dude who knows what he’s doing and cares about artists.

I think a lot about what it would look like if artists in the NFT space tried to consolidate their power and create something in the image of what we eventually desire. This doesn’t have to take the form of a marketplace, but a formal community of some sort.

When we talk about communities in web3, I think there are 2 kinds to consider: formal and informal.

A “formal” community I think is something that you claim being a part of. I look at DAOs &amp; PFPs as versions of this.

An “informal” community consists of a group of people you’re in community with but there’s no flag to plant. I think of group chats like this.

I think about if a handful of artists went really hard on turning an informal community into a formal one and how much of a focal power point that would be. If the power is supposed to be in the hands of artists in web3, this is major, I think.

I think of my favorite women in the space like @CallMeLatasha @ImanEurope @Verite @SassyBlack_ @Yahzarah @withlovetika @aurafbaby &amp; more banding together and creating a formal community that really just plows through the space making moves on behalf of each other &amp; the community.

I use women as an example just to remind y’all how many of them are really paving the way but it could be any group of people of any identity. This doesn’t require anyone giving anyone money, this doesn’t require multisig wallets, just a group of people who formally plant a flag.

I wonder if even artists who are less popular than the ones I name could all formally band together and move with this much power. There are already collectives/agencies out there like @hplus_creative &amp; @madebyanimus on the visual side, and they get to make plays for each other.

I think this would also create really interesting opportunities for marketplaces to exist in more of a decentralized fashion as well, handing the spare key to collectives, crews DAOs, orgs — whatever — and allowing them to handle things like curation, while platforms just build.

ALSO stop being so thirsty to get on these major appearing platforms. Yeah, it’s a good look but it’s not necessary at all. We can do it ourselves if we build up in our informal communities to try and create a formal community.

Here’s a cheat code:
1. Start a crew, formally
2. Every member mint a song on @manifoldxyz 
3. Go to @ArtivaApp &amp; make a site/marketplace for the crew
4. Put on for each other and get those NFTs sold.

I wonder what the first Odd Future or Wu Tang or A$AP or whatever will look like in the Web3.

I use them as examples because the group had a deal but the individual artists could all sign deals on their own. Working as a formal community and individuals.

Power on two fronts.

I might bring the homies in my crew, The Worst Generation (don't try to steal my name now that I said it), into Web3…see if what I’m saying is actually true.

I feel like I’m rambling so I’ll stop here. Would love to engage in conversation with you guys about this.

As always thanks for getting this far if you’re reading this.

I have nothing to promote right now but this was sitting on my mind so I wanted to drop it on the community.

Music NFT Hot Take: Artist Leverage

Quick Music NFT Take: I think we talk WAY too much about record labels in music NFT spaces for none of us to be signed to a deal.

Who are we getting into these conversations for? Why are we focusing so much on them when they aren’t us?