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It's R2vgUULNXvgOULNXVh Cherie Hu from Water and Music discusses Web3 at Consensys 2022.
Water and Music, the newsletter and research DAO (decentralized autonomous organisation) building the innovator's guide to the world of music was established to encourage conversations between people in music tech. The company is now taking it one step further by actively engaging the industry's brain to design research-based projects, and reward all those that is involved.
"My main reason behind this membership is helping people understand the world better, and then also understand their place within the global community," begins Cherie Hu, founder of Water and Music. She wants to help people get the best possible education so that they can make the most impression on the people in their field. One of Cherie's key mantras that she has used, particularly in the realm of business reporting, has always been creating actionable writing. "At the conclusion of each article, you'll be armed with an understanding about what you can do for your business or to be better at what you do. Making sure that you are able to bridge the gap between what members of the community require, as well as the content we write about is crucial," Cherie explains.
The Water and Music team has expanded to conduct regular research sprints' of up to 10 weeks where they select a specific topic in order to gather as much data as they can to help their customers. In these sprints of research, after they've decided about a subject the team will go out and speak to people in the Water and Music community: "We ask, 'What are your current concerns?', and then crowdsource those responses. The structure of the report is derived directly from these demands," she tells me.
In true fashion, the Water and Music research sprints are extremely collaborative and team-based. "It's an ideation process that is bottom-up and we recruit a number of people in helping with the editing research," Cherie says. As of now, the Water and Music community has published two research reports under this collaboration arrangement. In keeping with the trend, they offered NFTs retroactively , so that anyone who wanted to support the research, they could - and the proceeds were distributed fairly among all contributors. "It's obvious to me that the result of the research was far superior than if a individual tried to do everything. This research would not be complete!" she smiles. "It's convinced me of the value of not just linking people, but also synthesising collectively information."
Taking the power back
"It's more of an academic phrase, but I feel it really applies in the context of Water and Music: we're an ensemble of practice," Cherie continues. "The term was introduced in the year 1991 by cognitive sociologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger]. It refers to a community of people who not only have the same interests and passion, but also come together with the sole aim of finding out how to make something better."
The writer explains how this might be the case for people working in a similar industry, or with similar positions across the different industries. People who communicate frequently and also exchange information. Water and Music will contribute to this by producing tools and media that facilitate peer-to peer education: "That'll be a really crucial aspect of the future plans: breaking down data silos within the music industry and encouraging everyone to become more open and collaborative." Cherie adds.
There's a sense of taking the power back' in this. Cherie hopes to assure musicians that they are more in influence than it might seem: "Certainly, in the streaming world, there are increasing consolidations that are dominated by Spotify as well as other major tech businesses. Royalty rates are going down but it's all going downhill! We're offering artists the ability to comprehend the wide range of alternative alternatives. We're helping artists and others around them with the ability to think creatively."
Water and Music team Water and Music team
Cheire explains that the term "community of practice" initially meant professional community, however it could also apply to artistic communities for example, as we have here. The focus of Water and Music the exact goal is to promote the music industry which is an individual motive. "I'm motivated by this work because I grew up playing piano. I spent a lot of playing with classical musicians however, I am a fan of being around all kinds of artists and getting their perspective regarding where technology is headed," Cherie continues. "Hopefully, whatever knowledge that we share will help artists and their teams understand tech better, so they can use it for creating cool art!"
Through the rabbit hole
The latest analysis has focused on the mess that is Web3 which is the concept of the next technology of the internet based using blockchain technology. "We're looking to comprehend what's the State of the Union for technological trends in the field of music, particularly those that are very noisy," she explains. "Web3 is an excellent example due to the sheer amount of noise; no-one knows what's happening. This is the biggest web and the rabbit hole just keeps going down. Then it's like, "What's going on ?'!"
In the music industry, unsurprisingly, one of the top concerns is fan sentiment. "I think that's the number factor that explains why lots of musicians aren't doing NFTs in the moment: because they fear the backlash of supporters," she muses. "We produced a study on concerns about Web3. Naturally, in the world of music, there are lots of concerns about licensing as well as IP (IP) with NFTs. This is a full chapter!"
The tlg9Yi9H8w9qUpATyR6 The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
The next report that will be collaborative within the community has already begun. "We're investigating even more obscure issues right now, such as the metaverse, however that's defined!" Cherie jokes. "We're not making any plans to create any thing right now. We're trying to determine the opinions of people about it, as well as what the people are confused about." The publication includes interviews with artists, startups' founders, as well as industry experts regarding their definition of the metaverse and what they're hoping to achieve in it and also what's proving to be difficult to solve.
Cherie states that her goal is to integrate this study and the development of online tools to address these issues. "We did this with some Web3 topics already, such as the secondary sale of music via royalty shares and NFTs. Certain smart contracts stipulate that between 10 and 20 percent of secondary sales must go back to the artist who originally created it and many users are communicating that as a benefit. However, my opinion is that the overwhelming majority of the NFT's aren't generating a secondary sale," Cherie explains. She says that she believes that the value lies in the direct relationship and connection that the NFT symbolizes, not the possibility of having something to continue selling after.
In addition to 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 and how the NFT is performing in the marketplace. "We would like to create interactive tools that function like interactive data journalism, specifically for musicians as they are probably the ones who are thinking the most about publishing and pricing their NFT drops. We're developing essential frameworks and tools to help people do this analytical work by themselves."
Conflicting visions
Cherie observes that certain terms that are new and exciting are becoming more muddied rather than clearer with time "For the metaverse, as an example, there's a huge difference in how the metaverse has historically and conceptually been defined, from earlier in the '60s." She explains her Water and Music team is developing a model for understanding historical definitions of the metaverse as well as the gaps between expectation and actuality.
"The early sci-fi novels with a metaverse reference had an expansive vision of interconnected virtual and IRL worlds. It's a long way from that right today. However, at the same time, in the music industry musicians are saying "I've just created my own world!' but they essentially mean the concept of a virtual universe.
"There are now directly conflicting views of the metaverse,"" she says. "You are dealing with Meta [Facebook's holding company] as well as Epic Games on one side Both are centralized and one entity owns everything, but then there is the idea of a Web3-forward multi-layered metaverse, with interoperable identities and assets. It is logical to explore blockchain technology and the role it can play in helping facilitate this, however it directly opposes Facebook's stance."
Cherie says that the metaverse has "just turned into this vague word that anybody can utilize for the benefit of their own" and she is determined to cut through the clutter. This ties back in perfectly with her purpose: Water and Music can critically and analytically dig into the issue, and provide actionable insights to advise people how to react. This has real-world use cases, too, such as helping artists and their team in assessing the possibility of partnering with certain metaverse platform.
The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference.
Cherie closes in usual fashion by encouraging collaboration among and within Water and Music community. "In the next couple of months, we'll be carrying interviews with musicians platform owners, artists, and startups founders. Out research into the metaverse will probably continue through the autumn and summer months therefore, if you're keen to be involved in that, let me know. If anyone has suggestions for interviewing people, we're all ears!"
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.