wavWRLD's Weekly Wavs 🌊🌐🎶 Issue 031 - NFT NYC Recap
Your Guide to the Best Emerging Artists & Songs in Music x New Internet
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Take a second to celebrate yourself because this year has been crazy so far. We won’t recap cause y’all know what has gone down, but just to top everything off we’ve got a memecoin rally going this week. Buy DFresh’s $PEPE bag y’all.
But no, we’re in celebration mode. First off, we made it through the first winter of the crypto winter and that was a bear to deal with. Second off, music NFTs were the absolute highlight of NFT NYC.
Now. You can’t take it from me—I wasn’t there. To get our facts straight, we had to call in expert reporter Steph Guerrero for the low down on the conference:
“I wasn't sure if it was my impostor syndrome or my general anxiety, but there was a sense of not belonging I felt at the NFT NYC conference. It seemed like its focus was more on fulfilling sponsor obligations than on creating a meaningful experience for attendees. Panels were oddly organized—like sports and music tied together on one stage—making it hard to stay focused. Art and music were an afterthought, with little attention paid to the artists participating in the conference. The musical performances were held in a lunch room with no proper sound system nor equipment, and the audience was there just to grab a bite or have a quick meeting.
After leaving the conference, I rushed to the events organized by different web3 music communities like Dreams Never Die, Water & Music, Songcamp, and UVR. These spaces were the exact opposite of the conference itself. They were full of friendly people interested in what you had to say, with music in the air and even full meals offered to attendees. It felt like the promise of NFT NYC came to life as soon as I left the conference center.
This made me think: What if the web3 music space threw a whole conference from the ground up? We know what it takes and can curate panels and presentations that will benefit us as a community. We can also be transparent with our sponsors, allowing them visibility and participation but not at the expense of having a safe space for candid discussions.
To attract sponsors, we can expand the conference beyond just web3 artists, collectors, and startups. By booking artists that have a strong following, regardless of whether they participate in the web3 space, we can onboard more people into our world, while also learning a few tricks from traditional marketing. We can also have panels about general music marketing before a panel on how to mint your first music NFT—encouraging an exchange of information and collaboration between communities.
The web3 music community should consider organizing its own conference, as our smaller sub-communities are already successful at throwing events. It would allow us to create the meaningful experience we want without the feeling of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It would also give us a chance to reach a broader audience while maintaining our community's values and identity.”
Bang. Bang! You heard it here first folks: we’ve reached a critical mass as a community and don’t have to rely on the rest of the NFT world to support our dreams. It was only a matter of time.
Thank you to Steph! Now for the on-the-ground, day-by-day wavLOOK at NFT NYC:
Tuesday, April 11th
We kicked the week off with Subjective—featuring Pulsr, wavWRLD and a few other collectives. KarmaVioletta played on the main floor—an ARTECHOUSE-style wonderland with projection mapping all over the space. There were 6 floors!! Each floor had a different vibe and activation.
We then progressed to Coopahtroopa and BlockchainBrett’s Music NFT Movement II in a trendy designer store in SoHo. The cops came at the end! The partey moseyed out to the street with everyone hanging around and catching up outside. Outdoor conference vibes.
The night capped off at Equalize, hosted by Brux & Dot and centered around promoting gender equality in web3. The venue—Nublu—was super dope. Lots of frens were there—it got so HOT that even the fire department showed up!!
Wednesday, April 12th
Over to Brooklyn for CLUB CHAOS at Public Records put on by Songcamp x Catalog. This was the first of two nights and featured opening sets from Rowan Spencer and Pozibelle, and a headlining set from KarmaVioletta playing music from Songcamp’s 3rd songwriting camp and headless band of 77, CHAOS! Other highlights were Boy Untitled in the booth on the visuals, a trippy crypto ritual pack burning ceremony, Pastel singing a Chaos song live with Kinney, and Dot closing it out. Shout out to Elcee the Alchemist and Flav.io for their impromptu freestyle battle outside after the party ended. Dope!!
Thursday, April 13th
In the craziness of NYC, of course we made it a priority to blow off some steam, so wavWRLD hosted a touch grass at Central Park! It was a beautiful day. We drank White Claws and wine as we got to know each other. We bumped a bunch of songs from web3 frens who were and weren’t in attendance on Oohlala and Spinamp.
That night came the second B2B Songcamp x Catalog event, this one hosted by Catalog. It was sick—at a really cool venue in Williamsburg and the Heds DAO b2b2b DJ set with Oshi + Sober Rob + Deffie was epic!!
The UVR was also amazing! Jadyn Violet, Brace, The GX Universe, Jamee Cornelia and Muta all crushed it. The venue was a loft rave type vibe—everyone was there and there was also a rooftop with an amazing view of the city.
Friday, April 14th
On Friday, we headed back to Brooklyn for a Songcamp studio session!! We made a few hits and generally shared in the vibes. Then came the Songcamp x Metalabel karaoke! Fun and hilarious, we saw Violetta serenading everyone as Alicia Keys, a few front flips and shenanigans from DarbyTrash, a duet from Matthew Chaim & Kathleen Regan, RAWRA & Will, Dilip & Greydient, with Mark Redito on the inflatable air guitar, and plenty more from the Songcamp and Metalabel fam.
Honorable mention to FUTRxLGND—we didn’t get to make it to their show, but we heard it was pretty epic!!
Saturday, April 15th
wavWRLD touched grass AGAIN at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. It was a cloudy day, but that didn’t stop us all from getting together for Round 002 to vibe. It was like a scavenger hunt to find each other and find a cool spot in that park, but we did it! Again, we sipped on some drinks as we got to know each other better, while bumping a bunch of songs from the web3 frens who were and weren’t there.
wavNEWS 📰
Mastercard dropped a music NFT! You can mint it for free on Polygon. Here’s what these collectibles have to offer:
“These Music Passes will offer NFT collectors Full access to many exclusive futuristic features, which include an AI-powered music generator application, educational content, a chance to win a live concert featuring various artists, and much more.”
Ok, breathe in, breathe out. It hurts my eyes to see NFT and AI written unironically in such close proximity to one another, because it feels like a meme gone wrong. “Futuristic?” sounds like a rug to me.
Well, maybe not. It turns out Mastercard has a whole music accelerator program, featuring the likes of Young Athena, Coco Sarai, and Manu Manzu, who all seem like dope growing artists.
So props to Mastercard. You can go to their website to claim—I started to, but then I had to put in my data rather than connect my metamask. F**k you Mastercard.
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This week, Sound.xyz shipped an easier way to add funds to your wallet if you login with an email rather than a crypto wallet to the platform.
Having recently made it possible to create an account with an email, this payment system is a natural next step. Now you can get your mom to mint your next Sound drop, especially once it opens up to everyone.
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Decent has enabled over 2 million mints on Optimism! Huge milestone for them.
wavLIST 🎶
Fresh wavs & what we’re listening to this week from the WRLD:
Fred Riko’s second single “Breathe” from his debut album. Collect on Riff x Lens for 24 hours for 1 wMatic 🎶 Out on 4/20!!
Twenty Duce’s “Daily Rotation” with Tailormade Tyson on Sound. This song is perfect for the 4-20 vibes. Listen & collect here.
LNRZ’s freshman class drop—“SATELLITES'' on Sound x Bonfire. The project has 6 songs on it, each with a rarity chosen for them by the LNRZ community. More details here.
FR3NZ EP (W/ SIIMBIIE LAKEW, LUCA MAXIM, MoRuf, JAMEE CORNELIA, AND GRL) by Allan Kingdom on Sound! Listen & collect here.
Tadziu’s beautifully chill and peaceful song "Content", with a happy cat image to match, on Lenstube. This song was composed and produced by him. The guitar and bass samples came from dav's collection with SEEDS DAO.
wavALPHA 👀
Upcoming drops & projects that you need to know about:
Sound of Fractures’ Wild Awake—An experiment in scene building with a first digital home on TokenTraxx—Actually inspired by wavWRLD, LNRZ, Future Surf Radio & others! Read their first long form piece about their ideas behind Wild Awake on Mirror.
Today, April 24th at 3am EST, Isadore Noir released her song “HURTME” on Sound. 15% of the sale will go to Miles Ryan Harris to help with ongoing legal fees as he navigates being the best father he can be to his two boys.
On Wed, April 26th at 1pm EST, HOUNDTRACK drops his song “endless sky” on Sound. This is a tune he started while staying in an Airstream trailer in the woods of central California, channeling his inner Bon Iver.
On Wed, April 26th at 4:30pm EST, from the Scottish Highlands and the shores of Lake Erie comes a new techno collaboration from producer Acutek and J. Thorn producing as Dyztopian with their song “Elektra Reflections” on Sound, mastered by Songcamp & CHAOS fam Conor Dalton. Don’t sleep on this one-of-kind unique song from two musicians who believe in the power of music, collaboration, and community.
On Fri, April 28th at 6am EST, don’t miss bitbird’s debut on Sound with Orange County-based producer wes mills’ song “goldeneye 007” from his video game-inspired debut EP ‘nintendo 64’.
wavTIPs 💡
For the folks with strep throat after NFT NYC … just remember last year it was covid <3
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Thanks to our contributing writer Fred•Riko & our curator & editor-in-chief Violetta!
It’s all about the wavs we make with friends along the way.
-wavWRLD 🌊🌐🌱
Disclosure: Writer Fred Riko & Curator/ Editor Violetta Hyland may occasionally own the NFTs of certain artists mentioned & certain platforms/ protocols highlighted. Their wallet holdings & activity can be viewed openly on the blockchain. We prioritize featuring wavWRLD members & contributors.