Following on from our previous article where we spoke about subscriptions and fan clubs, we started thinking about expanding fan clubs to how artists could fund their music and their careers differently in the Web3 era.
As always, historical context is nice to have, and “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. In this article (and the follow-up must read book ”The Death of the Artist”), William Dereiewicz argues that the entire history of mass media (including recorded music) is a blip in history. Being paid for the consumption of art by the masses is not the norm, nor is it a right. Instead, patronage has been how art has been funded since the beginning of civilization — we see examples ranging from the late middle ages/early modern ages in princely courts in India, or throughout the ages in various European countries and more modern patrons of jazz like Nica Rothschild and Tony Taylor.
What should artists do, then? The book suggests that a new word be coined for the role of the artist today- “producer”. Produce your art, and find the equivalent of the Emperor of Austria to bankroll your inner Mozart. Actually, you don’t even have to look that hard- on the Internet, each of us can be 1/1000th of the Emperor of Austria (h/t Kevin Kelly and Li Jin).
There are more recent lessons available than the Emperor of Austria, of course. Here’s our mandatory history lesson about the four primary ways artists can create distributed patronage of their art:
- Collateralising past content- David Bowie, that great harbinger of the future, created Bowie Bonds in 1997, in partnership with the Prudential Insurance Company (not at all a rock’n’roll thing to do, somehow). The bonds raised $55 million by offering investors royalty payouts from the US income of 25 of his past albums. The proceeds were used to buy back the masters to his music from his former manager- in theory, to increase the payouts available to bond holders. Proponents of artist independence and this form of ‘crowdfunding’ usually stop the story here, because the sequel is less exciting.As mp3 piracy grew in the early oughts, the income from Bowie’s royalties plummeted, and the bonds were downgraded to just above junk bond status. By 2007, however, iTunes came to the rescue, and the bonds were redeemed, without default. There’s an important lesson in this story- we’ll get it to when we get to #web3solvesthis.
- Crowdfunding future work- We were reminded of this story because, for the first time, Abhijit (our CEO) has binge watched a Netflix series- The Sandman. In 2012, Amanda Palmer became the first person to raise a million dollars on Kickstarter for her next album- the genius of this was that there was something for everyone, from $1 to $125. In 2012, music crowdfunding was one of the biggest categories on Kickstarter, and also the most likely to be successfully funded.
So what changed? Why isn’t every artist funding their career in this way? We don’t actually have concrete answers- Kickstarter rug pulls? The fading of crowdfunding as something people want to support? The most obvious answer seems to be that most artists are not interested in or equipped to manage projects of this complexity.
3. Ongoing patronage- As we’ve mentioned in an earlier article, Patreon is not a great fit for musicians, mostly for the same reasons. The flywheel of needing to share ‘content’ (ugh how we hate the word) on a schedule, is not ideal for music, and is better geared to podcasts, teaching and so on. More casual forms of interaction are probably easier AND better, because they deepen the relationship. Matt Heafy, the drummer for Trivium, makes $10,000 chatting with his fans on Twitch- this is more than he makes on
4. Co-ownership- If you combine these in some ratio or the other, you get a ‘fan-owned’ band. The Grateful Dead, Phish & other jam bands are probably the best examples from the past. Web3 has actually moved the needle quite substantially on this, and reimagined what a ‘band’ can be- more on this in a second.
So how does #web3solvethis?
Collateralising past content seems to be the first, and easiest, win- that’s what royal.io, Opulous and the like have tried to do. But this still uses Web2 rails, and as we’ve seen in previous articles, the pie is still small, even if you try to spread it around more and ‘democratise’ it.
But the more important lesson from the Bowie drop is- its impossible to predict technology futures, and you’ll get wild volatility in the short and medium term, especially in the boom’n’bust Wild West that Web3 is. Whether artists, collectors and fans will hold on long enough remains to be seen.
Crowdfunding, ongoing patronage and the idea of co-ownership seem to overlap in Web3 for us. The idea of fan DAOs, band DAOs, label DAOs and creator coins to fund different types of work, reward different roles played by collaborators and create entirely new mechanics is really the most exciting thing Web3 can bring. Songcamp’s 4 seasons have been thrilling and really moved the needle on what is possible, especially Headless Chaos, the 77-member project that launched a few months ago.
The only problem is- this still feels like ‘work’- when will we cross over to when it’s as fun as being on someone’s Twitch channel, or a fan club? That’s when the true potential of this will be realised, as artists find fans willing to be patrons, to contribute to the music, to outreach, and to creatively deconstructing and reconstructing their work in ways they couldn’t earlier.
To use the overused Marshall McLuhan quote, the medium is the message. And until we find Web3 native modes of consumption, mainstream adoption will remain elusive, and limited to financialisation of assets.
In news from a.live this week — we have officially launched our public beta and you can explore our worlds here. It’s such a thrill to count down to the release party every Friday and congregate with other virtual avatars in these song worlds, but even if you miss the release party you can explore later at any time and even coordinate with your friends to log in at the same time and make it a private party multiplayer experience!
We kicked things off with Esabalu’s release party of her song “Be Okay” on 19th August, and will be following up with a new song and artist every week. Coming up this Friday on 26th August is Huyana’s “Is it you.” We’re learning new things with every release and only see it getting better with every weekly drop.
