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- The Web3 platforms Mith and Medallion use blockchain to modernize artist-fan relations in music.
- Blockchains enable artists to be extra engaged with supporters and knowledgeable on enterprise methods.
- Jack Harlow, Mac Ayres, Palaye Royale, and Disclosure are among the many artists leaning into blockchain.
- This text is a part of “Build IT,” a collection about digital tech and innovation developments which are disrupting industries.
In his 2017 music video for “Darkish Knight,” Jack Harlow delivers slick quips on a bass-heavy beat. “I do not journey waves, I do not swap no sound / I do not cling 10, I am 10 toes down,” he swaggers, clad in a T-shirt, denims, and New Stability sneakers.
The video, steeped within the power of an artist getting ready to stardom, was the primary one Kamira Roberson, now a Harlow superfan, ever noticed from the rapper. She initially got here throughout his account on X, previously often known as Twitter, and thought he was humorous and charming, she instructed Enterprise Insider. After listening to “Darkish Knight,” she was hooked.
Quick-forward to 2024, and Roberson is having fun with Harlow’s burgeoning fame. In July, she attended a personal occasion for Harlow’s followers in Las Vegas. 4 months later, in November, she grew to become a member of his blockchain-supported Private Garden fan membership, which gives unique entry to perks corresponding to preshow fan gatherings, expedited present entry with the potential for seat upgrades, and the power to unlock limited-edition merchandise.
Harlow’s Non-public Backyard neighborhood displays the evolution of fan golf equipment as firms leverage Web3 tech to modernize artist-fan relations. Web3 — the subsequent technology of the net, which operates on a decentralized blockchain community — is giving artists extra management over outreach and direct entry to fan knowledge, averting musicians’ dependence on insights from third-party distributors.
The blockchain-supported platforms Mith, which is in its pilot stage because it powers Harlow’s Non-public Backyard web site, and Medallion are on the forefront of this shift.
In accordance with the company’s website, Mith is a fan-relationship platform that enables artists to “management how they create, join with, and distribute to their followers.” Its options embrace subscriptions, content material publishing, and entry to details about particular occasions.
Medallion is a platform for artists to create a branded digital hub with social and e-commerce options, promote premium merchandise, and acquire insights into fan habits.
With these choices, the 2 platforms are serving to reshape artist-fan connections and offering a glimpse into the way forward for fan engagement.
Marrying Web2 and Web3 by the ‘tech mullet’ strategy
The record-breaking successes of Beyoncé’s and Taylor Swift’s sold-out world tours have made it clear that followers are keen to pay a hefty value to see their favourite artists. However apart from excursions, tangible artist-fan experiences are missing.
Blockchain presents progressive options to this problem because it fuels interactive fan platforms, whereas giving musicians extra autonomy. Nonetheless, it feels comparatively new and obscure.
To make blockchain extra accessible to and approachable for artists and followers, Mith and Medallion have adopted a hybrid mannequin, blending elements of Web2 and Web3. Coined by Mith as a “tech mullet,” this strategy combines the familiarity of Web2 parts, corresponding to electronic mail logins and social-media-style profiles, with Web3 back-end applied sciences corresponding to blockchain-powered instruments.
These instruments eradicate intermediaries by enabling direct peer-to-peer transactions for digital-content distribution. They’ll additionally confirm the authenticity of information and digital property with distinctive identifiers etched right into a blockchain system, providing an enhanced sense of safety in contrast with conventional web sites.
Artists who’re on-chain, which means they function on blockchain networks, can harness these capabilities and straight revenue from the gross sales of digital downloads and merchandise — all whereas facilitating fan engagement by further means, corresponding to tokenized rewards programs.
Mith makes use of blockchain to trace ‘the ledger of a fan’s journey’
With a star-studded clientele, together with Halle Berry and Emilia Clarke, who function expertise advisors, Mith has cracked the code for creating an uncomplicated tech platform that’s engaging to celebrities and followers. The corporate’s primary attraction is its community of personal communities, that are accessible solely by paid memberships, and unique experiences.
Harlow, for instance, used his Non-public Backyard enterprise to focus on the Jack Harlow Basis, which he launched final yr to “reinvest, uplift, and assist organizations aiming to make Louisville and the broader state of Kentucky a greater place to stay,” he mentioned in a press release to BI.
“The launch of my Non-public Backyard neighborhood marks the primary time we’re accepting donations to the Jack Harlow Basis in any capability, thus extending its attain, impression, and objective,” he added.
Michelle Sanchez, a cofounder and the CEO of Mith, instructed BI that the corporate may additionally leverage blockchain tech to securely document “varied facets of a fan’s engagement.” This contains ticket-purchasing habits, social-media interactions, streaming preferences, and check-ins at in-person occasions. These knowledge factors, she mentioned, type “a complete and unalterable ledger of a fan’s journey” that informs how artists join with their supporters.
“This immutable document not solely enhances transparency and belief inside fan communities but additionally gives creators and artists with a holistic view of their viewers’s preferences and behaviors,” Sanchez added. “It revolutionizes how creators tailor their content material, rewards, and interactions, fostering deeper connections and extra personalised experiences for his or her most devoted followers.”
Medallion promotes artist-fan collaboration on blockchain
Medallion has its personal methodology of making an efficient fan-experience platform because it goals for 3 primary targets: fan possession, artist management, and ecosystem alternatives.
Joe Pitts, the director of artist partnerships at Medallion, instructed BI that blockchain tech allowed customers to personal digital property referred to as “medallions” — nonfungible tokens claimed as proof of engagement, corresponding to attending a live performance. It additionally lets them preserve a verifiable document of their actions on the platform, together with after they purchase merch.
“We’re constructing an end-to-end superfan expertise platform that matches artists’ wants,” Pitts mentioned. “So with Medallion, artists have an area for his or her followers to assemble. Now we have turnkey methods for them to ship early entry to music and tickets, in addition to native commerce codecs for superfans all whereas capturing priceless fan knowledge that the artist 100% owns.”
The platform — which has a talent roster that features Mac Ayres, Galantis, Disclosure, and Santigold — gives benefits to artists, corresponding to inventive management over their fan golf equipment’ branding and full possession of information that helps enhance advertising methods for income progress.
“With Medallion, the artist is the platform,” Pitts mentioned. “So we enable artists to direct fan connections, permitting deeper engagement the place they’ll share extra about their artwork in a protected and intimate area for his or her greatest followers. It is free to make use of, and we combine with an artist’s core enterprise areas, from music and ticketing to collectibles and merch.”
The band Palaye Royale makes use of Medallion as a digital base for its fan neighborhood referred to as the Royal Council. Emerson Barrett, the group’s drummer, mentioned the shift towards interactive digital fan golf equipment was a sport changer on this period of on-line connectivity.
“World-building is an enormous a part of what we do in Palaye Royale, however we’ve by no means had the instruments to have the ability to totally notice that within the digital area,” Barrett instructed BI. “Medallion provides artists the chance to rethink the standard manner musicians join with their followers, enabling the power to broaden the neighborhood past music and into a totally immersive, experiential surroundings.”
Pitts agreed that blockchain tech was a basis for collaboration that allowed “followers to get nearer to an artist and the artist nearer to their followers.” He added: “That interconnectivity gives new alternatives: buying and selling, sharing, proudly owning — actually exhibiting off your fandom in a verifiable, public manner.”
Adopting blockchain tech to energy the way forward for fan engagement
As blockchain continues to affect the music trade, firms contemplating its adoption should weigh varied elements. The selection of blockchain tech, its alignment with particular necessities, and the general impression on person expertise are essential facets.
Mith’s and Medallion’s success lies in utilizing blockchain tech that’s seamless and interesting for the tip person. “We’re past the ‘let’s create an NFT assortment and make quick money as a result of everyone seems to be doing it’ period,” Sanchez mentioned. “Hypothesis is out, and real-world utility is in.”
Meaning specializing in person expertise, utility, and security — not simply revenue — is paramount.
Trying forward, Mith and Medallion are poised to deliver additional improvements in fan engagement. Mith plans to advance from its pilot stage to a beta section later this yr. Its expanded model is ready to incorporate unique content material and a gamified loyalty system, amongst different new options, Sanchez instructed BI.
“Mith will present the creator with publishing and broadcast instruments, first-party knowledge, analytics, AI insights, and infrastructure to color a 360-degree view of their fandom, whereas delivering a fantastic and interesting fan expertise,” she mentioned.
In the meantime, Pitts envisions a world the place Medallion and different Web3 platforms use blockchain to foster stronger connections inside fan communities and artwork worlds. “That is the place we’re transferring,” Pitts mentioned. “Setting that basis up for future use circumstances goes to be actually necessary for any sort of creator, their fan base, and their neighborhood.”
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