Original Author: Old Yuppie

This article comes from the WeChat public account:old yuppie, republished with authorization by Odaily.

Original Author: Old Yuppie

This article comes from the WeChat public account:

old yuppie", republished with authorization by Odaily."Emerging technologies like blockchain have been dominating discussions around the music industry and emerged as one of the most divisive trends of the past 12 months. Declan McGlynn talks to Plastician about why he believes this is the future of independent labels, promoters and artists."The Plastician is synonymous with all forms of grime, dubstep and bass pressure. He built his reputation as a presenter in Rinse's early days and became a regular on the iconic club night FWD>>, becoming one of the pioneers of dubstep sound that emerged from the UK garage as a DJ and producer." 

As an artist he has collaborated with Skepta, Skream and Benga and started his own label Terrorhythm, now in its 20th year. Instead of DJing on Twitch during the COVID-19 pandemic, he hosts Beat Reactions, conducts Q&As around the genre, and engages with viewers and the community.

I want to connect a little more with my audience,

He told Pitchfork at the time,

And people who use Twitch are used to being in the chat."Earlier this year, he crowdfunded the vinyl release of his 2008 album Beg to Differ, reaching the required $5,925 in just two hours. Never taking himself too seriously, he also spent part of his time writing a book called "Dad Jokes," samples of which can be found everywhere on his Twitter feed."Building and incubating communities has been a trend in Plastician's career, during his tenure as host of Rinse, resident of FWD>>, streamer on Twitch, and owner of Terrorhythm. It's the impetus for that connection that led him to explore the technology behind one of the most talked about -- and controversial -- trends of the past 12 months -- NFTs."Friends with Benefits"Rather than bragging about a bunch of cartoon apes, Plastician (whose real name is Chris Reed) has been exploring how artists, labels and the wider electronic music community could benefit from this emerging technology, whether it be the artist's royalties , event tickets, cuts from record labels, or community building. If you're new to blockchain, NFTs, Web3, and their various implications, read our March 2021 article What Are NFTs and Why Should Electronic Music Care? "

Reed's experiment saw him work with Friends with Benefits - a creative community based on Web3 principles, owned by its members, and calling itself

. Last year, Resident Advisor featured this members-only community. With Plastician as

answer:Co-chair of the London chapter, we thought it would be a great time to speak to someone with 20 years experience in electronic music about how blockchain can really benefit artists. Outside of the NFT hype, we asked him what he thinks of the Web3 hype?

"Artists get paid for performances instantly, in real time"

Q: You are no stranger to this whole space, are you? When did you become interested in blockchain?

answer:

I first introduced NFTs around the end of 2017. A friend of mine told me about a project called CryptoKitties where you could mate digital characters and they would cast a baby that you could sell. People are collecting them again and trying to breed them in order to get a rare baby. It's kind of like a game where if you can flip anything you mint, you make money from it. I found it very interesting.

answer:Then there was the big crash in 2017 and it scared a lot of people away from cryptocurrencies. Around the end of 2019, the concept of Web3 started to resurface in front of me - I started working on decentralized finance. I really started digging in and learning about all the different protocols and reconnecting with a lot of people from when I was trying to build a blockchain music distribution service in 2017.

I've been active in the community again since early 2020 and more recently it has become part of my daily routine, being involved with the Friends with Benefits DAO.

Q: Tell us more about blockchain music distribution companies

answer:For example, if I want to release on your label, you'd set up a smart contract saying 'I get 50%, you get 50%, here's my [cryptocurrency] wallet, here's the label's wallet ’, any money that comes through goes to the distribution platform and they split the payment automatically so there’s no need for an invoice, and the money comes in every month, not every six months. This cut down on a lot of paperwork at the time.

answer:A friend of mine suggested that we do this on the blockchain because it would mean that every time someone gets a play on Spotify, we could get paid in advance. Artists can therefore get paid for views instantly and in real-time. We don’t get paid immediately from streaming companies in the traditional world, now we’ve fleshed out the idea and what parts of the industry it might solve, but then there’s a crash and no one wants to get close to it. A lot of people we talked to lost their jobs, so we put it on hold.

Q: Aside from royalties and accounting, what are the main benefits of adopting blockchain technology for artists and labels?

If you had to explain it to an indie label that wasn't particularly interested in cryptocurrency trading, how would you sell it?

answer:

In general, ticket touting is a big problem. If an artist like Ed Sheeran sold out at Wembley Stadium, you'd have touts selling it online for six times face value, but the artist didn't receive any kickbacks from the extra profits. If you're selling tickets as NFTs, you can't duplicate them because they're verifiable on-chain. They can't be copied, they can't be counterfeited, and if someone wants to sell it, a percentage of it - up to 100% - goes back to the artist's promoters, if they choose. It could stop touting entirely, because people only get their money back, they don't make a profit on the ticket. I think this is a very obvious use case.

answer:Then there are NFTs -- collectible versions of artists' albums and EPs. People like to collect stuff, and a lot of people buy certain versions of tape, but they don't have a tape drive, they just sit on a shelf. People will feature their favorites on their Facebook profiles -- we've seen that on Twitter. Once it can be verified, you can't just put someone else's NFT in your profile picture, labels will be able to sell digital merchandise for the Metaverse. In the future, people might hang out in the metaverse. And they might want to wear a t-shirt from a band or label that their character can wear. We’re going to buy digital sneakers, digital hoodies, and that’s going to impact artists and labels in so many ways in the future.

We're not saying people will stop doing things the old way, but some will adapt and they will coexist

answer:

answer:It's a real hybrid -- when you name something that might happen, you get either real excitement or enlightenment. A lot of them just see these gifs that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars just to get people's brains interested in it. We are all creative people at heart, and I think once people realize what can be achieved in NFTs, or by building an application on the blockchain, [they will get excited].

A great way to explain it to someone with a recording background is Discogs. Where would people catalog their collections, and for what? They want to show people what they have. But no one knew they actually had these things. They have fun with digitized versions of their collections. Some people would love to have it, and maybe even pay a little extra for it. I may be one of these people. We're not saying people will stop doing things the old way, but some will adapt and they will coexist. Not much has changed, and some people will adopt it faster than others."Friends with Benefits "Q: Apparently, big corporations and established artists can afford to fund the experiments we've seen so far. When you're talking more of the indie scene, labels and artists, what tools do they have to get up to speed quickly?

answer:

Here is a good example. I work for a DAO, which is a decentralized autonomous organization called Friends with Benefits. Friends with Benefits started out as a token that was minted and distributed to a group of people who were friends with Trevor [McFreddries] who created it. You can then verify that you have this token in your wallet to access the Discord server, which is kind of like a cross between a web forum and a WhatsApp group. What some small artists can do is, with some followers or teams around them, they can tokenize the Discord channel, let people claim some free tokens, [and] create a community and vibe about what you're doing.

You can post things like a behind-the-scenes look at your studio, or get early access to tickets, or a limited-edition EP that's only available to people on Discord. You cook new utility in the token and get people to invest in what you're doing. You can give away tokens at the beginning, and when people realize its value, they will pay for it. This is

For example, if I created a Plastician Token, I made 1 million, but I hold 100,000 myself... If the Token is worth 1 pound in the market, then I have 10 in the bank. $10,000, which I could use to fund my next album or take a year off to tour. The community got me the funding directly, I didn't have to raise it myself, I didn't need a loan, and I didn't need to sell my royalties to companies. This empowers artists, giving them their own source of income and also empowering their communities and followers. Because if you get in early, work hard, do a good job, put out good music, more and more people are interested in joining your community, the token price goes up, and everyone benefits from it.

answer:That's the beauty of it, it inspires support for musicians, and I think the music industry has been impacted a lot since we entered the streaming age. The value of music has all but disappeared to the point where people feel entitled to music for free - why should they pay if they can get it for free? In this way, you are not technically paying, but if you support me as an artist because you like what I do, buying and holding this Token will allow me to have more time to make music.

The problem with the streaming model is that most of us as musicians spend 5% of our time on music and the other 95% of our time is engaging with social media, getting content on Instagram, shooting promos, blogging, promoting a Activity. Everyone benefits if the community rally around what you do and allow you to keep creating. It's similar to Bandcamp -- the kind of people who buy your music on Bandcamp [versus other platforms] are happy to participate and help, and they want to support you."Friends with Benefits"Q: What advice would you give to someone who is reading this and wants to get involved or start their own community?