A Feminist-Infused NFT Protocol? Fans vs collectors [Part 2]
Beats Per Mint is a new music NFT platform and protocol debuting in December 2022. It operates and engages musicians and their fans using what we refer to as a feminist-infused protocol. This article will not break down what feminism is to the uninitiated. You can get that breakdown and how we use it to address the first pain point with music NFTs; price, in Part 1. This “feminist-infused” protocol is being developed as an open-source and public good. Please support our Gitcoin grant page here and learn more about Gitcoin funding here.
In Part 1 we discussed economic accessibility and the inflated pricing of music NFTs. BPM’s solution would be to re-configure Unlock Protocol’s limited subscription NFT as an installment plan. Great, but this leaves the question, is that the sole purpose, albeit a good one, in using a subscription model? No.
Part 2, will address how Beats Per Mint approaches pain point #2 (listed below); a speed-driven and skewed market. So let’s continue to dive into this wonderful new music market paradigm.
Music NFT Challenges, a review:
What challenges or problems does independent music face in Web3?
[PART 1 — Economic Accessibility]
]1 ) Way too overpriced for the average music lover
[PART 2 — A Return to a Fan Market]
2) A limited and speed-driven collector market who themselves have no consensus where value lives in #musicnfts.
3) Onboarding Web2 fanbases and extremely limited marketing options
4) A serious lack of artist development and Web3 career blueprints other than living bag-to-bag or drop-to-drop.
Part 2 introduces the power of Time, which is a feature and tool throughout the protocol that addresses many of our pain points. This article and aspect of our protocol suggest providing room to expand the music NFT market beyond a select number of collectors.
The Disorienting Nature of an Exclusive NFT Market
As you read, there are 1000s of independent (mostly American) musicians who mint their work on a long list of music NFT platforms and chains. 60,000 musicians worldwide upload to Spotify daily. So in comparison, we are not just under the radar, we are in the basement of the building with the radar antenna on top. But that is a good thing and allows us to reframe from creating a market status quo so early.
A few platforms slightly differ from the pack, but all of these platforms essentially SELL music and sell it the same way. The fact that they sell music at all, willfully ignores that music has not been sold since DSPs.
What sells today is the commodification of culture. Culture outsells streams and sales.
The music NFT market in its early drive for recognition did a bold moonwalk backward in time and started selling music again (singles at that) and justified its pricing, in part, in rebellion to the industry's exploitative status quo. The price for the first time was set on artists’ terms.
But was it really? Despite our deep-felt rhetoric, this crypto-rich market, simply allowed it to happen and continues to do so because no one was, is, watching. And the main incentive given to the uninitiated is that NFTs are an investment. Talk about plucking the apple from the tree cause yall wanna f*ck around. Jeesh.
The Falsehood of the True Fan in Web3
The market itself is a limited one in crypto and character. Limited by the number of crypto holders interested in music and with crypto to spare, and the culture of collectors as opposed to fans. One may argue, can’t a collector be a music lover? Of course, but 25 music lovers don’t make a show baby. Yet I have observed artists refer to them as “true fans?”
Why? Cause they are able to pay a certain amount for your music, that in the end, they can’t even showcase and share themselves? Not exactly putting fandom towards the forefront there.
This idea of true fans is a relic from Web2. It suggests if you are able to obtain 1000 true fans willing and able to spend 100–200 dollars on you yearly; do the math. Ok, cool. That makes perfect sense over a year's time. It is inclusive and practical for all fans when spread out over a damn year. I question though if it transfers well to Web3. Instead, it accentuates a dynamic Web3 is supposed to stand against.
This was the beginning of Fans being defined as collectors/investors. Fans, from their popular inception, or “the people” have a purpose other than buying or investing in your music and screaming at your shows. People who may become new fans are themselves true ones because they act as sobering agents. Fans at any stage of becoming one, allow you to grow artistically and honestly. A protocol and market that can house organic growth as opposed to prioritizing speed and exclusivity, without the interference of algorithms or centralized selection, over time, will, I believe, demonstrate the more powerful ideals of Web3.
Yet still, I hear the defiant whispers of Exclusivity being the proven market driver. Shhh. Just stop, allow me to continue.
Musicians who talk to their fans after a show or engage with them online will tell you; that a fan is more than their wallet. A (true) fan can be identified otherwise in a myriad of ways through their actions, and in that capacity, ultimately feed the bottom line. Fans of every order, collectively, in mass, create what all artists need; momentum.
Everyday fans also keep us grounded in what’s important.
Who do you make music for? If you say everyone, then you were completely asleep when Web2 proved otherwise. What relief or rejuvenation do you want your music to provide? How is your music changed if your collectors live in relative comfort or walk in the world with privileges you may not even have? This dynamic is as old as patronage during the Harlem Renaissance. It paid the bills but left Black artists resentful, having to cater if not tip-toe around their mostly white patrons. Artists like to position NFTs as special and positioned as something in addition to how you engage with your larger crypto-poor fanbase. If you don’t have a Web2 fanbase, you may not even bother to create one. Let’s see how long this dynamic lasts in the context of human nature and our sorted relationship with MoNEEEY (said like that JJ Walker senior insurance ad).’
When I listen in on numerous Spaces rooms with music #NFT in the title, this idea of NFT collectors being the “true fans” is insanely capitalistic, a tad lazy, if not laughable.
I was there in Clubhouse when Blau sold a few songs for 11 million and we all claimed NFTs were the way and never stopped to reference the well-documented use of race and gender as a market driver. Some may interject to scream “NOT WEB3, we’re different” I then counter with the usual, ‘who is “we”?’ Some of us quieted our thoughts of Blau being white, male, and EDM privileged. Blau had already been in NFTs for a bit so he had amassed a crypto-bro-laden collector base. Crypto bros love that soulless genre, so there you go, 11 million in a few minutes. We then thought, ‘well shit, I’ll take a fraction of 11 million, and never looked back.
We were then told to get to know our “collectors” (if ya can find them). And with the ones we have, we began building exclusive experiences for just those 5, 25, maybe even 1000 collectors. Oh, wait that was just Snoop who already has millions of everyday fans so Sound.xyz afforded him that quantity, but not the rest of you mere independents.
With whatever quantity you minted of a single song, your pull, and influence were valued by how often you dropped and how quickly your songs sold. With alpha status and domination as market drivers, how do we set this market apart from those that came before it? We can’t and some won’t.
So how can we bypass the quick fix of Blau’s story and as Web3 music artists grow a fanbase that is instead, a fraction of what a 30-year vet, like Snoop, has?
By not selling music.
BPM is a unit of time, so use it
The Beats Per Mint feminist-infused protocol uses time as a measure for growth.
Our protocol is project-based. Each project lasts a duration of months. Allowing creatives to use the time to weaken the need for speed, and expand what can be achieved within a longer stretch of time and expectation. People are paying a limited monthly subscription to 1) buy your end product and 2) gain added access to it, you, during the creative process or whatever complimentary experience.
Our solution to a skewed market is to allow new fans to opt in at any time during the subscription period. When they opt-in becomes a market feature. Your stands are there at the beginning and new ones are welcomed by a community when they arrive. Each month an artist has an opportunity to grow their fanbase around one BPM drop or project. And over a number of BPM drops and time, amass an engaged base that not only shares music, provides compounded monthly revenue, keeps you honest and free, but collectively identifies by a culture of experiences you and your music provides.
From the beginning, you the creative have produced culture and nurtured it throughout time. Web3 is just waiting for you to remember who you are at your core value and create a protocol and market around that. BPM is an example of this determination and goal.
Next week in Part 3 I continue explaining how Beats Per Mint and its feminist-infused protocol use time to better onboard our Web2 fanbase and allow room for user-generated content marketing. We’ll use Beam Me Down as an example.
Join us today with friends to talk about the upcoming Gitcoin round, quadratic funding, and highlighting projects we love, including Beats Per Mint.
