wavWRLD's Weekly Wavs 🌊🌐🎶 Issue #22 | 2022 Recap
Your Guide to the Best Emerging Artists & Songs in Music x New Internet
gm wavFAM!! We have blasted off into the new year and *snap*—just like that, all our problems have vanished. Your NFTs with a floor price of 0.0003? Tax write-off. Low engagement on Twitter? It’s not your fault that the platform is broken!
No seriously, for all the resolutions and excitement, it’s worth it to do a little retrospective on 2022. After all, this newsletter started as a little baby email update after NFT.NYC this past June, and we haven’t looked back since! So sit back, relax, and let us share some of our favorite wavMOMENTs of the past year…
ETHDenver
wavWRLD formed in late 2021, but until this past February, it was a figment of processing chips across the internet. In the cold winds of winter, meme master Crews suggested something simple: ETHDenver is normally a developer conference, but what if we used the occasion to throw a music event? Nothing big—just a showcase for artists like Anna Luther, Alec King, KarmaVioletta, Jack Nedo and Pat McMans? Crypto may have peaked, but at least momentum is growing for Music NFTs.
Little did we know, a small community-led showcase in the front room of a local Denver brewery (followed by a spontaneous wavWRLD Field Trip to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre to decompress on the last day of the conference with some of the Catalog + Songcamp crew) would be the launch pad for so much more…
NFT.NYC
It all started with an idea… In this case, one from core contributor Simon Lapscher. Inspired by Bon Iver’s One To One, he asked, “What if we hosted an intimate show for only the most devoted collectors, and used NFTs as the way to prove fandom?”
Thus, the wavROOM was born: token-gated, intimate performances for super fans. NFT.NYC was the perfect proving ground for this idea. What’s more, it became our priority to ensure wavROOM artists were paid in full—table stakes for our mission to help artists support themselves with their music.
With the help of 11 sponsors, wavWRLD booked a three-story venue in the heart of Manhattan at The DL: The perfect location for the last conference funded by 2021’s bull run. The event was a success—7 artists performed in token-gated wavROOMs, while another 12 shared the rooftop and singer-songwriter stages on the other two floors.
The event was filmed and recorded; NFTs of the wavROOM performances were released on Glass, using Reveel for revenue splits to ensure everyone involved got paid. From humble beginnings less than a year ago, wavWRLD had brought its vision to the real world—and we felt we were only getting started.
Art Basel
Summer hits. The bear market sets in. Twitter is a ghost town. Who would plan another event in this environment?
With ideas ranging from a party house (Blockchain Manor!) to an indoor-outdoor extravaganza, after much deliberation we decided to focus on what we saw as the core of our work: The wavROOM experience.
The setting was intimate; the guest list, curated. 4 artists—fred riko, KarmaVioletta, Lackhoney, and FUTRxLGND—lined up to perform their sets. Honestly, we can’t describe the magic of what came next.
It’s difficult enough to stay engaged with an online community for an extended period of time, let alone to take the jump from internet friendship to real-world interaction. But for the few hundred people who made it to Miami this past December 2022, the vibes were flowing—at the wavROOM was no different. Something about the collective effort that had been made over the past year gave us all a feeling of accomplishment and inspiration. New friendships were made, old friendships were solidified, and frameworks were set that will define our space for a time to come.
& even some live minting took place 👀…
As for wavWRLD, stay tuned for upcoming NFT releases on Glass and beyond from the Art Basel event—we’ve got plenty in store for 2023. In the meantime, the news!
wavNEWS 📰
Decent has gone all big-brained on us again with a new update: Web2 + Web3 Social Authorization. Since the inception of music NFTs, platforms have been searching for effective ways to bridge web2 and web3 audiences. Barriers are numerous: Differences in the nature of ownership, differences in scale, differences in technology—but, as new technology becomes available, new opportunities arise to connect the two worlds.
This new update provides a straightforward means to onboard web2 fans by funneling them through web3 platforms. It goes like this:
An artist creates an NFT through Decent
Fans are prompted to create a wallet—it can be tied to their email, if need be
Fans provide their email address and proof-of-followership on Twitter
Fan mints token; artist gets high-quality, opted-in data from their fans (win-win!)
The data piece is an important one. It can be difficult to get in touch with collectors consistently unless you have their email address—by linking that all at the start, you save a lot of headache down the road. This collector’s journey also heavily emphasizes a connection with the artist rather than financial gain, which helps take pressure off the whole situation.
It’s crucial to note that we’re talking about bringing in a fan base that already exists. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an artist’s responsibility to grow their fandom; the onus is on builders to make it as easy as possible to express or participate in that fandom. Kudos to Decent for doing their part.
wavLIST 🎶
Fresh wavs & what we’re listening to this week from the WRLD:
KarmaVioletta’s live performance NFTs from Zoratopia Miami ‘22, of their song “Dream”
Open editions at 0.03 ETH
Grab one before the sale ends on Feb 1st
Crook Brown’s Sound genesis of his song “Soufside Baby”
SOLD OUT, but may be available on secondary
Tadziu’s song “Not a Good Reason” on Lenstube, which was composed & produced by him, with vocals from the Cymatics Infinity Vocal Pack.
He made this video by taking a photo of a flower, editing it with AI, then making a video with fl studio. Tip him and/or collect it on Lens!
Prophet g WavezzZ’s first ever recorded song & first ever Music NFT called “STEP ONE” on Manifold
111 for 0.0111 ETH
narou’s Catalog genesis of his song “running in circles”
1/1 for 0.5 ETH
wavALPHA 👀
Upcoming drops & projects that you need to know about:
Today, Jan 20th at 3pm EST, Zoratopia releases Iman Europe & HENO.’s live performance mints from Zoratopia Miami ‘22, hosted by Angel Darmella
Today, Jan 20th at 5pm EST, Talk Time drops their Sound genesis of song “Haymaker”
25 editions at 0.05 ETH
On Tuesday, Jan 24th at 5pm EST, BYHAZE releases his Sound genesis of song “Caught Up”
25 editions for 0.04 ETH
Jadyn Violet created one of his best songs ever, and it’s coming out on all streaming platforms next Friday, Jan 27th.
Pre-save it here & he will love you forever!
On Wednesday, Feb 1st at 12pm EST, MoonManT releases the music video for his inspirational song “The Way” Ft. The Lord D.Lee x Roswell Grey on Glass.
50 editions for 0.6 SOL
wavSPACES & IRL 🎙️
Today, Jan 20th at 3pm EST, Zoratopia releases Iman Europe & HENO.’s live performance mints from Zoratopia Miami ‘22, hosted by Angel Darmella
Today, Jan 20th at 7pm EST, shxdw closes out her week of daily spaces with a panel—Accountability: How to Have a Difficult Conversation.
Don’t forget to go mint her “You're Lying But Ok” Lyric + Punk NFT on Zora!! More details here.
wavWRLD’s very own Violetta joined Jadyn Violet recently for his daily UVR space and blessed us with a meditation and sound healing ✨ Feeling overworked and overwhelmed? Listen back to the space here or join on Monday, Jan 23rd, as she will be facilitating another meditation in the UVR space, around 12pm EST.
On Monday, Jan 23rd at 3pm EST, Fragsy is back with a great space featuring our very own KarmaVioletta, who will talk about exploring music in web3. There are so many tools for artists within this space 💿 Set your reminders & join us to be a part of the conversation 🤍
On Thursday, Jan 26th 7-11pm EST, wavWRLD is hosting an IRL meetup in Miami at Understory for Jazz in the Jungle 🎶🍹🌴 Come vibe with fellow creators, collectors, builders, founders & visionaries in the web3 space! Follow us on Twitter for more details & the RSVP link coming 🔜
wavTIPs 💡
Web3 music continues to shrink in the bear market … While Sound.xyz has been cooking for a minute and plenty of platforms and communities continue to build, the infrastructure still does not exist to support the number of artists active in the space. Pair that with the slow holiday season and Twitter/ Discord burnout, and we’ve found ourselves in a bit of a 2022 hangover.
That is A-OK! What do we do in a hangover? Panic-buy Pedialyte from CVS and binge Netflix for 10 hours? Yes. And then, once recovered, we have a healthy meal and get back to work. There’s a ton of opportunity to be found on web2 platforms, and like we are seeing with Decent—people working hard to onboard fans to our new blockchain paradigm.
We’ll leave you with this: If you don’t feel like you can build an audience in web2, why would web3 be any different?
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Thanks to our contributing writer Fred•Riko & our editor-in-chief & curator Violetta!
It’s all about the wavs we make with friends along the way.
-wavWRLD 🌊🌐🌱
Disclosure: Writer Fred Riko & 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.