The Note is Oohlala’s weekly digest of global music news; covering the latest in community, industry and technology. If you enjoyed this week’s newsletter, please subscribe, comment, and share it with friends!
You keep asking, we keep shipping. We have a major update from our devs this week, the Oohlala Music NFT Leaderboard! Let’s check it out.
The Leaderboard is a new feature which creates collector rankings by dollar amount spent on music NFTs. If you set your Primary Name on ENS, your ENS name will be displayed on the leaderboard.
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You can view collector rankings from platforms like Catalog, Decent, Lens, Manifold, Sound, and Zora.
Supercollector monitors music NFT collector activity across Sound, Catalog, Zora, Decent and more… creating personalised collection pages for collectors and artists to share.
Powered by Decent XYZ, ‘Supercollector Release’ is a tool for creating full web3 albums as individual tracks with unlimited editions. The pricing model is 0.01 ETH per track, making it accessible to all. A Supercollector Release is an unlimited open edition that is infinitely available. The pages featuring collect buttons and collectors’ names will be automatically generated and customizable. The tool will be open to all and it will be easy to port over Bandcamp albums. Sign up or like their tweet to be notified when it’s live.
A Symbiosis in Web3 Social Media Where Artists and Users Are in Charge
Community growth lead at Lens Protocol and Music NFT enthusiast Christina Beltramini was featured on Decential’s mediasite last week. Their discussion sheds light on how social media platforms have created a misalignment of incentives between users and creators/artists, leading to exploitation and a lack of control over their own content.
It explores how Web3 technologies and the Lens Protocol can create a symbiotic relationship between users and creators, allowing for more ownership and control over content, as well as opportunities for monetization and collaboration. The Lens Protocol enables creators to create and curate their own communities, where they can interact with their fans and supporters in a more meaningful way. The article also touches on the potential for NFTs to revolutionize the ownership and distribution of digital content.
Popular Spaces Host and Artist, Jadyn Violet, has announced their Podcast to be exclusively available on Beats XYZ via Lens Protocol. EPISODE ONE — The Future of Music:
In the first episode of the series, Jadyn curates some legendary special guests for a panel discussion. The panelists include TK the Legend, Ibn Inglor, Jon Waltz, and Nifty Sax.
This discussion took place during the UVR show on March 2nd, 2023.
ANNOUNCING UVR PODCASTS 🦇
Every day for the past 9 months we have been running the daily spaces. However, these conversations do not live on forever. I’m excited to finally announce podcasts !
The FSR community premiered Season 2 of the Future Surf Radio program on March 15th. They celebrated the one-year anniversary of Future Surf by kicking things off the way they do best - engaging conversations and amazing music!
We’re thrilled to announce the premiere of FSR Season 2 at 9PM EST this Wednesday the 15th. We will be celebrating the 1-year anniversary of Future Surf by kicking things off the way we do best…with engaging conversation and amazing music! https://t.co/ZYwtU6jtp6
— FUTURE SURF RADIO | futuresurf.lens 🏄🏾♂️ (@futuresurfradio) March 14, 2023
Stephanie Guerrero, former producer for Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, is working to democratize the music industry through Web3. Guerrero is the CMO at Legato Labs, an NFT licensing platform that allows artists to monetize their music by selling NFTs and licenses to their music on Web3. She also runs a Web3 music consulting company called Goat From Mars, which works with musicians and companies that want to support independent artists. Guerrero aims to ensure women are involved in every decision-making opportunity in the industry.
B2B: A 2 Nite Music Experience is a live music event taking place in Brooklyn, New York on April 12 and 13, 2023. Hosted by Songcamp and Catalog, this event will feature back-to-back IRL soundtracks at Public Records’ Sound Room and National Sawdust.
The event is 21+ and collectors of the “B2B Signature Edition” will receive a ticket to both shows, as well as a voucher for the B2B art print designed by peace_node. There are only 50 editions of the “B2B Signature Edition” available, so collectors should act fast (sold out).
Collectors of the “B2B Open Edition” will receive a commemorative digital poster for the two shows, but not tickets to the events themselves. Songcamp is a release club of musicians from around the world, while Catalog is a digital record shop and music community that aims to provide artists with the autonomy and earnings they deserve.
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Water & Music ‘Wavelengths’ Summit
Water & Music has announced the inaugural Wavelengths Summit, a conference on what’s next in music and tech. The event will take place on May 6, 2023, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and will feature interactive programming focused on three themes: Emerging Tech, Fandom + Community, and Bridging Legacy Systems. The conference aims to foster community among music-tech leaders, creators, and innovators through culture, conversation, and collaboration.
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. (Wikipedia)
Campfire is a music guild that utilizes web3 technology to create more equitable conditions for creatives. They organize live studio sessions, educational summits, writing camps, and more. The Campfire team consists of TK, Maaliyah Symoné, BXB Love, Iman Europe, Alec, Ladi, Blackdave, and Moruf. Their goal is to represent music education, creation, and innovation globally.
Campfire Studio Sessions aim to create an environment where artists, songwriters, and producers have the freedom to make music as they please. There are no briefs to adhere to. The music created is then released onchain (as music NFTs, but also snippets, eventually music videos, etc.), on DSPs, used for sound kit creation, and pitched for sync. (ALPHA🚨)
The event took place at Music Hill Ranch on Wednesday 3/15 and Thursday 3/16 from 10AM-10PM both days. Over 200 applicants applied, and about 25 collaborators were selected to participate and then were paired in groups. The event was supported by sponsors Lens, Ooh La La, R3vl (Reveel), and The402.
This event was supported by sponsors Lens, R3vl (Reveel), The402 and yours truly.
We continue celebrating Women! This week, we’re highlighting the Divine FemiNINE; a playlist curated from this month’s Creator Grant program. The playlist highlights women-led music production and performance.
Fresh from Campfire Sessions, Sammy Arriaga & Rae Isla recently minted their live performance of “Heartbreak Closer” from Austin, Texas.
“We had just written the song at the Campfire sessions at a lovely ranch in North Austin. We thought it would be so special to debut it since we were on the same show lineup a couple days later. Not only was this the first time we ever performed “Heartbreak Closer” live, but also the first time we both shared the stage.”
Been in the studio the last few days at the @Campfire_xyz sessions making magic with some of my fav humans on this rock ✍️
List3n is a music-focused DAO that aims to financially support emerging artists in the web3 space and invest in music NFTs. They will mint 444 NFTs in early April, which will act as a DAO pass for each holder. Holders will be given access to a custom-built web backend which will allow them to vote on music submissions. At the end of each month, a winning artist will be awarded 1Ξ.
Holders of the List3n DAO Pass will also be allocated a monthly 1Ξ budget to acquire music NFTs which will be held by the DAO treasury. Any unsigned artist may apply for the grant with an unreleased or recently released song, and the winning artist is encouraged to use part of the funding to invest in web3-related activities. The DAO will also allocate 1Ξ of its treasury on a monthly basis towards acquiring music NFTs. List3n has a current financial runway of about a year, during which they hope to become a key resource for emerging web3 artists and establish themselves as a unique A&R/discovery pipeline.
Neena Roe, a Billboard Columnist, recently published a submission call for the Billboard Fresh Picks column, which is aimed at uplifting small, up-and-coming music artists who might otherwise be overlooked. The column is not intended to bolster major labels or acts with a lot of resources behind them. The submission email is intended for artists or their managers only, not publicists.
Fresh Picks features songs released within the last week that are R&B or hip-hop adjacent, including alt R&B. Submissions should include the title and artist in the subject line, a link to the track and description in the body, and must be available to stream on Spotify.
The column is multi-language and welcomes submissions in languages other than English. The column is focused on music discovery, and while established artists may be included, the column prioritizes unsigned or smaller acts. Finally, the email address is not for general artist pitches, and managers should not submit songs that were released more than a week prior to the Monday publish date.
UP & COMING ARTISTS read this thread. Cyd & I started the Billboard Fresh Picks column to uplift small acts making incredible music amidst over-saturation in the market. Not to further bolster major labels/acts who have machines behind them. I created a submissions email to help.
Universal Music Group and music streaming service Deezer have joined forces to explore potential new economic models for music streaming that “more fully recognize the value artists create.” This partnership seeks to create new methods that reward recording artists and songwriters for the value they create and to update and reimagine the engagement model for Deezer’s users and the artists they love. The partnership will evaluate the viability of different economic models aimed at driving subscriber growth, fostering stronger bonds with music fans on the platform, and developing commercial opportunities that benefit artists and the broader music community. Additionally, the partnership will seek to better align the interests of artists, fans, and streaming services to benefit artists at every point in their careers and from every genre and geography, commercially from streaming. Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO of Deezer, noted that he believes that music is undervalued today and that he is keen to find additional ways of increasing monetization to the benefit of real artists, the labels, and platforms like Deezer.
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Spotify New UX
Spotify has revealed a new mobile interface during their Stream On event. The new design is meant to facilitate deeper discovery and connections between artists and fans, giving listeners a more active role in the audio discovery process and creators more space to share their work. The updates include advanced recommendations, visual canvases, and a completely new and interactive design to make discovering new audio easier than ever before. The new feeds for Music, Podcasts & Shows, and Audiobook previews on Home allow users to explore visual and audio previews of playlists, albums, podcast episodes, and audiobooks personalized to them. Additionally, the Autoplay for Podcasts feature automatically plays another relevant episode that fits the user’s taste when a podcast ends.
Beatport, a digital streaming and download platform for electronic music, has partnered with Polkadot to create a new web3 marketplace called Beatport.io. The platform will be powered by the Polkadot blockchain and hosted on Aventus, a Polkadot parachain. Beatport.io will allow artists, record labels, and music fans to benefit from web3 by building and carrying out selling activities of one-of-a-kind digital assets, including collectibles that give fans access to unreleased music, exclusive merchandise, discounted tickets, and other perks. The partnership will also see the launch of ten events over the next eighteen months, with each event featuring a new NFT collection made available through wallets that have Polkadot incorporated.
Audius, a decentralized streaming service, has introduced “NFT-gating” for its content. This is a form of “token-gating”, where content is put behind a paywall that can only be accessed by people who own the necessary NFT/token. Artists can now restrict access to their music, mixes, and stems to fans who own a specific NFT. Users must connect their third-party wallets to Audius to access the content. Audius says it will also work with NFT brands who want to release music from their communities with this kind of gating in place.
Ethereum has introduced a new standard for URLs on the web3 called ERC-4804. The new standard allows for more seamless integration between web3 and traditional web technologies, making Ethereum-based applications more user-friendly. ERC-4804 is designed to simplify the way Ethereum addresses are presented and used in web-based applications, reducing the need for users to copy and paste complex addresses. The new standard also includes support for decentralized domain name systems, enabling users to access web3 applications using human-readable names instead of long, complex addresses.
Lens has introduced a new feature allowing creators to split revenue earned from Collects, sharing earnings with up to 5 other creators with custom percentage splits. Collects is one of the most popular features on Lens and recently added the option to set limited quantities and/or time limits to collectible posts. These new offerings give collectors more ways to support creators and creators more ways to monetize with Collects.
SoundCloud is testing a new feature on its iOS and Android apps that adds a vertical feed discovery feature under the Feed tab. The Discover page will show songs based on a user’s listening history and musical taste. The app will also show a line explaining the reason why a particular song is showing up in the recommendations. SoundCloud is rolling out 30-second previews across both Discover and Following pages. Artists can select their own clip to highlight or rely on Musiio’s AI tech, which SoundCloud acquired last year to improve discovery. Other music discovery apps like Smores and HotDrop have also relied on a mixture of AI and short clips to help users find new tracks.
