Rally Digest #41 (September 6, 2021)

Welcome to the Rally Digest, a weekly round-up of everything that’s happening around the Rally project.

New Creators:

Megadeth/ $MEGA

It was over 30 years ago that Dave Mustaine founded MEGADETH, in the process pioneering the sound that would become known the world over as thrash metal. And from the very beginning, the band proved to be the most lethal and audacious unit on the heavy music scene. In the decades since, MEGADETH have taken their place as one of metal’s most influential and respected acts — not to mention among its most successful. They have gone on to sell more than 38 million albums worldwide, earning numerous accolades including a 2017 GRAMMY® Award for ‘Best Metal Performance’ for the title track ‘Dystopia,’ 12 GRAMMY® nominations, and scoring five consecutive platinum albums. With sheer determination and a relentless recording and touring schedule, MEGADETH worked their way up from headlining clubs to headlining arenas, festival and stadiums, cementing a legacy that continues to grow and spread throughout the world.

Anthony Reeves/ $LUV

Anthony Reeves is best known as LuvAnthony on his TikTok with over 10 million followers where he creates content centered around lifestyle, dance, and fashion. You also may know him for his gaming content on Twitch as well as his fashion content on IG.

BT / $MUSIC​​

Grammy-nominated electronic musician, film composer, producer & software developer

Flip the Bird/ $FLIP

Flip The Bird is more than just a chicken and rib joint. Quality is what drives us; it is at the core of our brand. When opening Flip The Bird, we wanted to keep our menu simple so that every item had a chance in the spotlight. With every order we receive, we strive to put out an amazing product that is made from scratch, to order, in a fast casual environment.

Romina Hendlin, $ROMI

Born in Venezuela and based in New York, Romina Hendlin holds a BA in Mass Media with a major in AudioVisual Arts from the Catholic University in Caracas. She studied photography at Roberto Mata Taller de Fotografía and later graduated from the International Center of Photography in NYC. She has a Masters in Visual and Media Anthropology at Freie Universität Berlin. She is a recipient of the Sam Sahid Scholarship and the Foundry Photojournalism Ricoh Scholarships.

Hopspin/ $HOP

Hopsin is an independent hip-hop artist from Los Angeles, CA. He is the owner of record label and clothing line Undercover Prodigy.

SoyPan/ $PAN

Twitch streamer and a content creator from Mexico.

Project News:

On Tuesday, Rally’s VP of Product Chris Fortier unveiled the first phase of Rally’s NFT platform that will focus on utility over scarcity and provide another way for creators and fans to transact directly, enabling a new shared economy where creators and fans can grow together. By the end of the year, we will integrate NFTs directly into creator coin pages.

On Wednesday, Rally introduced a new brand identity and re-launched the website. ​​The goal is to give voice to the chorus of the creative community, and an identity that has the flexibility to change in any creator’s hands and be shared across the entire spectrum of participants.

The website includes a number of new features including a more clear path for creators and fans to educate themselves on the value of social tokens and the opportunities for community engagement enabled via crypto. With the new website we:

• Created a quick educational video on the homepage that highlights how to launch a social token economy.
• Updated the creator coin pages to more clearly feature the value propositions for fans when adopting their favorite creator’s coin.
• Developed a new article hub that includes inspirational and educational case studies of creators on the platform to help guide creators as they launch and grow their economies and to help fans to better understand how to engage.
• Launched a new landing page for featured 3rd-Party developers that allows creators to explore the vibrant ecosystem of developers that are creating businesses on and around Rally

On Thursday, Rally CEO Bremner Morris outlined the course for Rally post-decentralization and beyond- including leadership team, NFT strategy, commitment to creators and developers, new brand identity and more

On Friday, Rally launched on Instagram to celebrate creators, artists and their token communities. .

Rally in the News

• Rally’s Bremner Morris appeared on Bloomberg’s QuickTake (18:20 is the start of the segment) to introduce the concept of a creators bill of rights and to discuss why creators are are looking to crypto and other opportunities to branch out from big tech owned social media platforms that regularly change rules that negatively impact their businesses
• Forbes Japan featured Rally promementiy in a piece on the rise of creator coins. Rally advisor and creator Jeremiah Owyang provided extensive commentary.
• TechCrunch included a mention of Rally’s alliance with UTA
• TubeFilter included a mention of Rally in a piece on Coinbase partnering with Mr Beast
• The Daily Hodl feature on the rise of tokenized economies included Rally noting, “Sites like Rally.io have exploded in popularity, as they provide platforms for creators to easily launch their own bespoke fan tokens.”

Industry News:

• Apple is relaxing its rules to allow certain apps to link directly to external sign-up pages, potentially allowing them to monetize outside the Apple App Store. The iPhone maker is notoriously rigid about enforcing its in-app monetization rules, so the move is a boon to developers. Industry observers told The Information that further relaxation of the rules could soon come to creator economy apps like Patreon, Cameo and Mighty Networks.
• Creators are protesting. From a Twitch streamer walk-out protesting harassment on the platform to Black TikTokkers going on strike and even the Pokemon Go subReddit shutting down to protest Covid-19 misinformation, creators across platforms are organizing around social movements. The balance of power is now tipping in favor of creators, much like labor movements in times past, says labor-market experts speaking to The Information.
• Amazon is working on a social audio app like Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces, Axios reported. The twist is that the Amazon offering will be more like a digital radio-station for live streams of conversations and performances, sources told Axios.
• Just a week after an NFT collection consisting of lists of text called Loot dropped on the internet, created by Vine co-founder Dom Hoffman, an economy worth hundreds of millions has developed around it. A currency called Adventure Gold was created, allowing each Loot NFT holder to get over $50,000 in AGLD each. The token itself is worth nearly $400 million in total. And each Loot item is trading at around $50,000 each.
• CryptoPunks are Hollywood-bound. Larva Labs, The maker of CryptoPunks and other NFT collections like Meebits and Autoglyphs has signed a deal to be represented by Hollywood mega-agency United Talent Agency for film, TV, video games, publishing and licensing, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
• Messari’s Mason Nystrom explores “the social token paradox,” which afflicts social-token communities built around exclusivity. These communities need new members for their value of rise, yet must also maintain exclusivity.