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Cherie Hu of Water and Music discusses Web3 at Consensys 2022
Water and Music, the publication and research DAO (decentralized autonomous organisation) building the innovator's guide to the business of music, was created to facilitate conversation discussions between music industry professionals. tech. Now they're going one step further and actively engaging with the industry's mind to create research-based projects, and also to honor everyone who is involved. This latest dive by the company was to the abyss that is Web3 The next generation of the internet built on blockchain technology.
"I think a big part of why we are expanding is because we're using more collaborative models for research editorial," begins Cherie Hu co-founder of Water and Music. She explains that the company does regular 'research sprints' of up to 10 weeks where they choose a topic to gather as much data as possible for their customers and the latest report focused on Web3.
"We're trying to understand what's the State of the Union for technological developments within music, specifically ones that can be very loud," she explains. "Web3 is a perfect illustration, because there's so much noise; no-one knows what's happening. It's the biggest web and the rabbit hole just goes on and on. Then it's like, "What's happening? ?'!"
One of the most important tenets she has used particularly in the field of business reporting she has been a constant source of useful writing. "At the end of any article, you'll have an idea about what you can do in your industry or how to improve at what you do. Making sure that you are able to bridge the gap between what members of the community want, and our writing, is crucial," Cherie explains. In these sprints of research, after they've decided about a subject, they go out and engage with people in the Water and Music community: "We inquire, 'What are your concerns right now?', and then crowdsource those responses. The structure of the report is derived directly from these demands," she tells me.
In the world of music, unsurprisingly, one of the biggest worries is that of fan-generated sentiment. "I think that's the number factor that explains why lots of performers aren't performing NFTs in the moment: because they are afraid of backlash from supporters," she muses. "We did a report on concerns around Web3. In the music industry there are many concerns around licensing as well as Intellectual property (IP) that are impacted by NFTs. It's a whole chapter!"
In true fashion, the Water and Music research sprints are extremely community-focused. "It's an ideation process that is bottom-up and we have a large number of people in helping us do the research," Cherie says. As of now, the Water and Music community has released two reports in this collaborative structure. Keeping on-trend, they sold NFTs in retroactive fashion, so that anyone who wanted to support this research effort, they had the option do so - and the proceeds were distributed equally among those who contributed. "It's clear for me that the results of that research was so superior to if a singular person tried to research all of Web3. The work would never be complete!" she smiles. "It's been a great experience for me to see the potential of not only linking people, but also synthesising collectively information."
R6M3DkfqEiC4ADGxKcBQ It was a Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
Cherie adds that the next report collaboratively created with the community has begun. "We're looking into even more mysterious subjects right now, like the metaverse, whatever that means!" she jokes. "We're not building any thing right now. We're just trying to determine what people think about it and the things people are confused about." The report features interviews with artists startups' founders, as well as industry experts regarding their definition of the concept of metaverse, and the goals they're trying to accomplish in it, as well things that have been proving to be problematic.
Cherie mentions that the goal is to integrate this study by creating online tools that tackle these issues. "We did this with some Web3 topics already, such as the secondary sale of music via NFTs and shares of royalties. Certain smart contracts stipulate that 10 to 20 percent of secondary sales will go to the original artist and many users are communicating this as an advantage. The reality is that the vast majority of NFT's do not result in an additional sale," Cherie explains. She says that she thinks the value lies on the personal relationship and connection that the NFT symbolizes, and not in the opportunity to having something to sell onwards again after.
In addition to the report, Water and Music will be building a tracking dashboard where users can input an NFT collection to determine whether there were any additional sales, and if yes, how the NFT has been able to move through the market. "We would like to create more interactive tools: it's as interactive data journalism specifically for musicians as they're the ones who are thinking about the best ways to release or pricing NFT drops. We're building critical frameworks and tools to help people do this analytical work themselves."
Conflicting visions
Cherie says that some of these cutting-edge concepts are getting more complicated instead of clearer, in the course of time "For the metaverse for instance, there's an enormous disparity between the way the metaverse is historically, and how it has conceptually defined to the 1960s." She explains her Water and Music team is building a framework for understanding historical definitions of the metaverse, and then the gaps between expectation and reality.
"The first sci-fi books that mentioned the metaverse had a grand idea connected virtual as well as IRL worlds. We are so far off from this right now. But at the same time there is a trend in the world of music, artists are saying 'I just launched my personal metaverse!' even though they essentially mean the concept of a virtual universe.
"There is a direct conflict between visions of the metaverse," she says. "You have Meta (Facebook's holding company) as well as Epic Games on one side: both are centralized where one corporation owns all the assets, but then there is the vision of a Web3-forward decentralized, metaverse with interoperable identities and assets. It's logical to try at least experimenting with blockchain technology and the role it has in supporting the process, yet it completely opposes Facebook's stance."
Cherie concludes that the metaverse "just been transformed into a nebulous term which anyone can use to the benefit of their own" and she is determined to take a look at the myths. This is completely in line to Cherie's purpose: Water and Music will critically and analytically look into the issue, and be able to deliver actionable insights to advise people about how they should react. These are real-world applications in addition, like aiding artists and their teams to evaluate partnering with metaverse platforms.
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Water and Music team Water and Music team
Therefore, these research projects are a natural continuation of Water and Music's activities: "My 'why' for this association is to help people to better understand the world, and also to understand their place in the world," Cherie says. She wants to help people get the best education possible so that they can make the most contribution to their profession.
"For Water and Music the exact focus is the music industry and that comes down to an individual motive. It's a passion for me because I grew up playing piano. I spent a lot of time around classical musicians however, I am a fan of interacting with all artists and hearing their perspectives about where technology is heading. Hopefully, whatever knowledge shared with the world will help artists and their teams to understand the technology more, and are able to create amazing work!"
There's a little bit of 'taking control back' with this. Cherie hopes to assure musicians that they are more in influence than it might seem: "Certainly, in the streaming space, there's increasing consolidations that are dominated by Spotify as well as other major tech companies. The rates for royalties are decreasing -- well, everything is going to go downhill! So we're providing artists the ability to comprehend the variety of options. The artists we train and people around them to be more innovative."
A community of practise
"It's more of academic concept, however I believe it really applies in the context of Water and Music: we're a community of practise," Cherie continues. "The concept was coined in the year 1991 by cognitive Anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger] and is a term used to describe a group of individuals that do not just share an interest in common in the same subject, but are also gathered to focus on discovering how they can do things better."
The author explains that this could be the case for people working in a similar industry, or who have similar jobs within different sectors. People who communicate regularly and exchange knowledge. "Usually the purpose is to build professional groups, but it can be for creative communities like music. It's not just producing media and making tools, but also encouraging peer-to peer education. That'll be a really important aspect of the future, breaking down information silos in the world of music, and encouraging individuals to become more cooperative," Cherie adds.
The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
Cherie closes in usual fashion by encouraging collaboration among the Water and Music community. "In the next few months, we'll carry out interviews with artists as well as platforms and startup founders. The metaverse research is likely to continue throughout the summer into the fall and so if people want to be involved, please let me know. If you have suggestions for interviewing people, we're all ears!"
To get involved, to get involved, follow 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.