Yo…
It takes so long for an artist to get good.
For example in music: whose first 3 albums are wall to wall rock solid?
There’s a frustrating sunk cost fallacy to social media. Well, to all creativity really.
You hafta put in the time (so much time) and the effort (so much effort) to be interesting, to discover your voice or at least be controversial to connect and grow. To collect likes and followers. (Or take it easy and just buy followers.)
Can bands afford to treat their music as a loss leader? To gain what? Followers? Don’t you want bands touring and making videos and writing new music? You know…being creative rather than tweeting?
This is the world we occupy. Bands want people who’ll hear their music to become fans but to do that they gotta slave away on social media otherwise how else do they promote their music?!
It’s all…annoying.
On July 1st when Twitter became glitchy and “Rate limit exceeded” or “Cannot retrieve tweets” error messages became the norm it was frustrating to creators who’d put the time (and effort) into the damn site.
Frustration is a valid emotion; it wasn’t a good experience. But it’s so lazy to blame Elon Musk. So lazy. That narrative simply doesn’t jive.Talk to Twitter employees who worked during Jack Dorsey’s time. Dude was a part time CEO and a number of decisions were delayed or worse fell through the cracks.
Twitter has never been an easy place to work or to manage.
In response to these latest irritations Jack tweeted: “Running Twitter is hard. I don’t wish that stress upon anyone. I trust that the team is doing their best under the constraints they have, which are immense.”And wisely Dorsey also tweeted: “It’s easy to critique the decisions from afar…which I’m guilty of…but I know the goal is to see Twitter thrive. It will.”
He’s right. This site has had pressing issues way before Elon Musk.
So if creators like bands are Siegfried & Roy who want to create and share their magic with the world…how do they avoid being eaten by tigers like Twitter?
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Welcome Raine Maida, the lead singer of Our Lady Peace to My Summer Lair.
Patience. This is going to be a Clumsy dispatch because Somewhere Out There are Innocent listeners who’ll be confused by the Web3 topics Raine and I cover in this fascinating My Summer Lair conversation.
Web 1 was the classic static websites of the late 90s early 2000s: think digital pamphlets. There’s no interaction. Back then you were listening to classic OLP albums like Naveed and Spiritual Machines. (I dig In Repair from that album!)
Web 2.0 refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use and like most university courses you’re graded on participation. Social media, really. By then you were posting on Facebook listening to OLP’s Gravity and tweeting about their Healthy in Paranoid Times.
We’re now slowly entering Web3 which is being dominated by scary words that are often properly ill-defined. Cryptocurrency, metaverse, blockchain and even NFTs (non-fungible tokens).
For their recent OLP album Spiritual Machines 2 it was pre-released to their happy fans as an NFT. So you could buy it before it appeared on streaming sites. This NFT was more than just the album…you know how a DVD of a popular movie is loaded with extra goodies, commentaries and making of specials? This NFT was like that.
For $39.99 each Spiritual Machines 2 NFT (guaranteed by the blockchain!) arrived with the full record, using high-quality audio; a demo from each song, a one-of-one artwork, commentary on each song and more.
I’m gonna provide two primitive examples so you can get a sense of what’s happening.
In physical real estate…in every city there are really expensive neighborhoods. There are ghetto areas. Or hoods going through gentrification and whose value will soon be elevated.
So generally when you go to buy a house or rent building floors for your business (office space) you have a sense of what to expect to pay based on the location.
Now: we’re applying that same local real estate principle to the web.
We’re assigning financial value and ownership to digital property in a way that is transactable. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc. were sweatshops you willingly signed up for. The popular companies—aka Big Tech—made billions of dollars and you did not. (Even if some did make millions.)
Web3 seeks to repair that damage and those ugly unhealthy relationships. It gives you (as a consumer and creator) digital control of your assets.You’re no longer renting, you’ve bought property.
Property that includes NFTs.
Think of it like this: if you buy a t-shirt in a store they give you a receipt. So even though Nike made more than 1 Jordan t-shirt; you have a receipt and you own that t-shirt. When you walk down the street or ride the subway people can see that shirt that you own. Owning that t-shirt means you can sell it. Owning that t-shirt means you don’t hafta wear it everyday or you can wear it everyday. If Nike only made a limited run that t-shirt that you own is naturally valuable.
That is what OLP did with the NFT release of Spiritual Machines 2. Replace t-shirt with digital album (and all the extras!) and you can understand why their hardcore fans would be excited.For those fans, this is digital ownership in a prime online neighbourhood.
Those special fan connections are what Raine is building with his new company Drrops. Drrops is a live event platform that helps artists/bands build communities that they own.
The last part is Web3…it is empowering bands to control their data and to manage their digital assets.
If you got upset because Elon Musk purchased Twitter; sure…you can delete your account but…but! you walk away with nothing. Elon wins, you do not. That’s Web 2.0. It’s free to sign up but you leave with nothing just as you came with nothing.
So I spoke to Raine at Collision Conference who was there asking…what if there’s a better way than just Tweeting and IGing to connect with his fans?
Is there a better way for all bands to build healthier relationships?
Because according to William Gibson: “The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
Is there a way to change that? Drrops is Raine’s solution and his response. Because this is a confusing conversation I open it with a metaphor to give it a framework and easier to digest.
The 2019 documentary he made with his wife Chantal Kreviazuk I’m Going to Break Your Heart.
If any of this Web3 stuff interests you, I am not an expert. Truth is nobody is.
However I recommend checking out @bobbyhundreds’ 2023 book NFTs Are a Scam / NFTs Are the Future.
As you can tell by his name he’s the founder of the streetwear company, The Hundreds. I wear their excellent gear.
Bobby works through some of the NFT and Web3 issues from a creative perspective. How can any of this new fangled tech help creative people?How do we avoid the scams and being ripped off?The internet gave us so much but it also introduced us to spam mail and Nigerian Prince cons. Web3 is sadly no different; in terms of scams. (There’s a commentary on the resiliency of human nature.)
Because Bobby writes through a creative lens I recommend his solid book. It’s a good start, read deeply and be curious.
I haven’t arrived at any defined consensus with NFTs and Web3. Asa creative person I understand the advantages and yet I remain wary. No silver bullets and no saviours. That’s typically my motto. Conversations like attached My Summer Lair interview help to greatly clarify my position.
Where do you stand on all of this?
Still fighting for my right to party…Sammy Younan-28-
Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
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