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Cherie Hu of Water and Music discusses Web3 at Consensys 2022
Water and Music, the newsletter as well as the study DAO (decentralized autonomous group) creating the guide for innovators to the business of music, was designed to help facilitate conversations conversations between people in music tech. The company is now taking it one step further by actively engaging with the industry's brain to develop research projects and to reward everyone involved. This latest dive by the company was into the chaos that is Web3, the conceptual future of the web built upon blockchain technology.
"I consider that a significant factor in our expanding is because we're now using more collaborative methods to edit research," begins Cherie Hu who is the founder of Water and Music. The company conducts regular "research sprints" lasting 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 the State of the Union for the latest technological trends within music, specifically those that are very noisy," she explains. "Web3 is the perfect example, because there's so much confusion and no one knows exactly how it's all happening. It's the most extreme tunnel and it continues to go down. Then it's like, "What's going on ?'!"
One of Cherie's key mantras particularly in the field of business reports is to create effective writing. "At the end of any article, you'll have a better idea of what to do for your business or to improve at what you do. Making sure that you are able to bridge the gap between what people in the community need, and what we write about, is crucial," Cherie explains. For these research sprints, when they've settled on a topic, they go out and talk to the Water and Music community: "We ask, 'What are you currently struggling with?' then we ask the community to provide [those responses]. The structure of the report comes directly from those requirements," she tells me.
The music industry is it is not surprising that among the most pressing worries is that of fan-generated opinions. "I think that's the number one reason that lots of musicians aren't doing NFTs right now: because of fear of negative reactions from their supporters," she muses. "We produced a study on the issues surrounding Web3. Naturally, in the field of music there are plenty of concerns about licensing as well as Intellectual property (IP) with NFTs. It's a whole chapter!"
True to form, the Water and Music research sprints are very community-oriented. "It's a bottom-up ideation and we engage a wide range of people in helping with the study," Cherie says. So far it appears that the Water and Music community has published two research reports under this collaboration model. To keep up with trends, they sold NFTs retroactively , which meant that, if anyone wanted to support the research, they could - and those revenues were split fairly among all participants. "It's evident to me that the result of this research was much better than if one singular person tried to research every aspect of Web3. This research would not be completed!" she smiles. "It's made me believe in the potential of not only creating connections, but also collectively synthesizing the knowledge."
The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
Cherie states that the report's next collaboration with the community has started. "We're researching even more nebulous subjects right now, like the metaverse -- what does that mean?" she quips. "We're not making any plans to create any thing right now. We're simply trying to understand what people's opinions are about it, and also what they have a hard time understanding." The publication contains interviews with artists, entrepreneurs, and professionals from the industry on how they view the metaverse , the goals they're trying to accomplish in it, as well what is proving problematic.
Cherie states that her goal is to combine this research by creating online tools that address these issues. "We have done this in the past with a few Web3 themes that we already have, like secondary sales of music through royalty shares and NFTs. A few smart contracts say that between 10 and 20% of the secondary sales should go back to the artist who originally created it and lots of users see the idea as a profit. But I think the reality is that the overwhelming majority of NFT's do not result in any secondary sales," 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 the ability to sell it again later.
Together with the report Water and Music will be developing a tracker dashboard that users can input an NFT collection and see whether there were any additional sales, and if yes, how the NFT has been able to move through the market. "We are looking to develop more interactive tools. It's like interactive data journalism, specifically for musicians as they are probably the people who think about the best ways to release prices for their NFT drops. We're developing critical frameworks and tools to aid people to do this work by themselves."
Conflicting visions
Cherie says that some of these cutting-edge concepts are getting more complicated rather than clearer in the course of time "For the metaverse for instance, there's a massive gap between how the metaverse has historically and conceptually been defined, from earlier in the '60s." She elaborates that the Water and Music team is creating a framework to understand how the metaverse was defined in the past, and then the gaps between reality and expectations.
"The early sci-fi novels with a metaverse reference had a grand concept that interconnected both virtual and IRL worlds. We are so far off from this right now. But at the same time, in the music industry the artists say "I've just created my own world!' but they essentially mean the concept of a virtual universe.
"There are currently two distinct conceptions of metaverses," she says. "You are dealing with Meta (Facebook's holding company) as well as Epic Games on one side Both are centralized where one corporation owns all the assets and everything else. But then you have the concept of a Web3-forward open, decentralized metaverse that has an interoperable identity and asset. It makes sense to try at least experimenting with blockchain technology and the role it has in supporting that, but that directly opposes Facebook's stance."
Cherie concludes that the metaverse "just become this nebulous word that anyone could use for their own benefit" and she is determined to cut through the nonsense. This ties back in perfectly to Cherie's purpose: Water and Music will critically and analytically look at the topic, and then be able to deliver actionable knowledge to guide people on how to react. It has practical applications also, for instance, aiding artists and their teams when they are evaluating partnering with specific metaverse platform.
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Therefore, these research projects can be seen as a natural extension of the Water and Music's mission: "My 'why' for this organization is to help members get to know the world more as well as understanding what they are doing in this world," Cherie says. She hopes to assist people get the best education possible so that they will have the best impact on their industry.
"For Water and Music the exact focus is the music industry which is a personal reason. It's a passion for me due to the fact that I played piano. I spent lots of time with classical music and I enjoy interacting with all artists and hearing their perspectives on where tech is going. I hope that the knowledge that we share helps artists and their teams understand technology better so that they can use it to make cool work!"
There's an element of 'taking control back' with this. Cherie is trying to convince musicians that they are more in influence than they think: "Certainly, in the streaming space, there's increasing consolidations dominated by Spotify and other big tech companies. Royalty rates are going down and it's all going downwards! We're offering artists the means to appreciate the variety of choices. The artists we train and others around them with the ability to think creatively."
A community of practise
"It's mostly an academic concept, however I believe 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 anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger] and is a term used to describe a group of individuals who not only have an interest in common and passion, but also come together with the sole aim of learning how to do something better."
The author explains that this could be the case for people working who are in the same industry or who have similar jobs within different sectors. People who communicate regularly and exchange knowledge. "Usually, it's for professional networks, but it could also be for creative communities like music. There's an element of creating media, but also making tools, but also encouraging peer-to peer education. This will be an essential part of our future: breaking down information silos in the music industry and encouraging everyone to become more open and collaborative." Cherie adds.
The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC event.
Cherie concludes her tour in the usual manner, encouraging collaboration within the Water and Music community. "In the next couple of months, we'll carry interviews with musicians as well as platforms and startup founders. Out research into the metaverse will probably continue through the end of summer and into season of autumn. If you would like to get involved, please let me know. If anyone has suggestions of people to talk with, We're open to suggestions!"
To be involved, join us on Twitter. Cherie 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.