calendar
Cherie Hu of Water and Music discusses Web3 at Consensys 2022
Water and Music, the publication and research DAO (decentralized autonomous group) creating the guide for innovators to the business of music, was designed to help facilitate conversations discussions between music industry professionals. technology. They're now going one step further and actively engaging with the industry's mind to create research initiatives and give everyone involved a reward. The company's latest deep dive is in the chaos of Web3 which is the new generation of internet built around blockchain technology.
"I think a big part of why we are growing is that we're now using more collaborative methods for research editorial," begins Cherie Hu, founder of Water and Music. The company regularly holds'research sprints' that last up to 10 days where they choose a topic to gather as much data as possible to provide their customers; the most recent report was on Web3.
"We're trying to comprehend what's the State of the Union for tech trends within music, specifically those that are very noisy," she explains. "Web3 is the perfect example due to the sheer amount of chaos; nobody knows what's happening. This is the most up-and-down tunnel and it goes on and on. Then it's like, "What's going on? ?'!"
Cherie's most popular mantras particularly in the field of business reporting, has always been creating useful writing. "At the end of reading every article, you'll get a better idea about what you can do for your business or you can improve the job you do. Closing that loop between what members of the community require, as well as our writing, is vital," Cherie explains. For these research sprints, once they have decided to focus on a particular topic, they go out and speak to the Water and Music community: "We inquire, 'What are your current concerns?' and we crowdsource the responses. The structure of the report is derived directly from these needs," she tells me.
In the music industry it is not surprising that one of the biggest worries is that of fan-generated opinions. "I believe that's one reason that lots of musicians aren't doing NFTs in the moment: because they are afraid of the backlash of supporters," she muses. "We produced a study on the issues surrounding Web3. Of course, in the music industry there are plenty of issues with licensing and IP (IP) as well as NFTs. That was a whole chapter!"
As is the norm, Water and Music research sprints are extremely community-focused. "It's an open-ended ideation process and we engage a wide range of people to help with the research," Cherie says. To date, this Water and Music community has published two research reports under this collaboration model. Keeping on-trend, they sold NFTs retroactively , which meant that anyone who wanted to support this research effort, they had the option do so - and that the profits were divided fairly among all those who contributed. "It's evident for me that the results of that research was so superior to if a singular person tried to research every aspect of Web3. The work would never be completed!" she smiles. "It's been a great experience for me to see the power of not just linking people, but also synthesising collectively information."
The r6M3DkfqEiC4ADGxKc the Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
Cherie adds that the next collaborative report with the community has begun. "We're investigating even more obscure topics now, for example the metaverse -- however that's defined!" she jokes. "We're not building any thing right now. We're simply trying to understand what people's opinions are about it and what people have a hard time understanding." The report contains interviews with artists, startups' founders, as well as industry experts on how they view the metaverse and what they're trying do through it, along with the issues that are causing them to be troublesome.
Cherie states that her goal is to blend this research with building online tools to tackle these issues. "We have done this in the past with a few Web3 themes that we already have, like second-hand sales of music using royalty shares and NFTs. A few smart contracts say 10% to 20% of the secondary sales should go back to the artist who originally created it and a lot of users have been expressing this as an advantage. The reality is that the vast majority of NFT's don't generate a secondary sale," Cherie explains. She says that she believes the value is more on the personal relationship and connection that the NFT is a part of, and not so much in the opportunity to having something to sell onwards again after.
Together with the report Water and Music will be creating a dashboard for tracking where the users are able to input their NFT collection to determine the extent to which there has been further sales and if so, how the NFT has moved through the market. "We would like to create more interactive tools. It's similar to interactive data journalism particularly for artists as they're those who think the most about releasing or pricing NFT drops. We're building crucial frameworks and tools that will aid people to do this task themselves."
Conflicting visions
Cherie says that these new concepts are getting more complicated and less clear with time "For the metaverse, for instance, there's an enormous difference in how the metaverse has historically and conceptually been defined, from back in the '60s." She elaborates that the Water and Music team is building a framework for understanding traditional definitions of the metaverse and the gap between reality and expectations.
"The first sci-fi books with a metaverse reference had an expansive concept that interconnected both virtual and IRL worlds. We are so far off from this right currently. Yet, in the meantime within the music industry musicians are now saying 'I just launched my personal metaverse!' even though they are really talking about the concept of a virtual universe.
"There are currently two distinct conceptions of metaverses," she adds. "You are dealing with Meta (Facebook's holding company) and Epic Games on one side Both are centralized with one company owning everything and everything else. But then you have the idea of a Web3-forward, open, decentralized metaverse that has interoperable assets and identities. It is logical to explore blockchain and the role it has in supporting this, however it directly opposes Facebook's stance."
Cherie believes that the metaverse "just become this nebulous word that anyone could use for their own benefit" and she would like to cut through the nonsense. This is completely in line with her main purpose: Water and Music will critically and analytically look at the topic, and then provide actionable knowledge to guide people on what to do. This has real-world use cases in addition, like helping artists and their team when they are evaluating partnering with certain metaverse platforms.
Water and Music team Water and Music team
Therefore, these research projects are a natural continuation of Water and Music's work: "My 'why' for this organization is to help members get to know the world more and also to understand what they are doing within the global community," Cherie says. She hopes to assist people become better prepared so that they are able to make the greatest contribution to their profession.
"For Water and Music the primary focus is on the music industry which is an individual motive. I'm energized by the work since I was a child playing piano. I was able to spend a lot of time with classical music and I enjoy interacting with all artists and hearing their perspectives regarding where tech is headed. I hope that the knowledge we put out there helps the artists and teams get to know tech better, so they are able to create amazing artwork!"
There's a little bit of 'taking the power back' in this. Cherie hopes to assure the artists that they hold more influence than they think: "Certainly, in the streaming space, there's increasing consolidations that are dominated by Spotify as well as other major tech firms. The rates for royalties are decreasing -- well, it's all going downwards! So we're providing artists the means to appreciate the many different options. We're equipping artists and the others around them with the ability to think creatively."
A community of practise
"It's more of academic concept, however I believe that it is applicable to Water and Music: we're a community of practise," Cherie continues. "The term was introduced in 1991 [by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger] and it refers to a community of people who do not have only an interest in common in the same subject, but are also gathered for the sole purpose of finding out how to make something better."
She says that it could be the case for people working from the same field, or with similar positions within different sectors. They communicate frequently, and share knowledge. "Usually this is for professional networks, but it could also be used for communities of creativity for example, in the field of music. It's creating media, but also making tools, but also encouraging peer-to-peer learning. It's a crucial aspect of the future, breaking down information silos in the music industry and encouraging individuals to become more cooperative," Cherie adds.
The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
Cherie ends her show in a typical fashion and encourages collaboration in the Water and Music community. "In the coming months, we'll carry out interviews with artists, platforms, and startup founders. Out research into the metaverse is expected to last through the summer into the fall and so if people are interested in getting involved, please let me know. If anyone has recommendations for interviewing people, I'm open for suggestions!"
To get involved, join us on Twitter. Cherie for updates on Twitter: @water andmusic. To become a member of the Water and Music community, and gain access to the community's in-depth research reports and Discord server, go to waterandmusic.com/membership.