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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 world of music was designed to help facilitate conversations conversations between people in music tech. They're now going one step further by actively engaging the industry hive of minds to design research projects and to give everyone involved a reward. This latest dive by the company has been to the abyss that is Web3, the conceptual next generation of the internet built on blockchain technology.
"I think a big reason for us to be expanding is because we're now using more collaborative methods for research editorial," begins Cherie Hu co-founder of Water and Music. The company does regular 'research sprints' that last up to 10 days where they choose a topic in order to collect as much information as they can for their clients and the latest report focused on Web3.
"We're trying to comprehend how to understand the State of the Union for the latest technological trends in music, especially ones that can be very loud," she explains. "Web3 is a perfect illustration due to the sheer amount of noise; no-one knows how it's all happening. It's the most extreme rabbit hole and it just continues to go down. Then it's like, "What's going on? ?'!"
One of Cherie's key mantras that she has used, particularly in the realm of business reporting is to create effective writing. "At the end of reading each article, you'll be armed with an understanding of what to do for your business or to improve at the job you do. Making sure that you are able to bridge the gap between what members of the community need, and the topics we write about is crucial," Cherie explains. For these research sprints, once they have decided on a topic then they head out to talk to members of the Water and Music community: "We inquire, 'What are your current concerns?' then we ask the community to provide the responses. Our report comes directly from those demands," she tells me.
The music industry is, unsurprisingly, among the most pressing concerns is fan sentiment. "I consider that to be the top factor that explains why lots of artists are not doing NFTs in the moment: because they are afraid of backlash from the fans," she muses. "We produced a study on concerns around Web3. Naturally, in the world of music, there are plenty of issues with licensing and IP (IP) as well as NFTs. It's a whole chapter!"
As is the norm, Water and Music research sprints are extremely community-focused. "It's a bottom-up ideation and we involve a lot of people in helping in the process of conducting study," Cherie says. So far the Water and Music community has released two reports in this group model. To keep up with trends, they sold NFTs retroactively so that, if anyone were interested in supporting this research effort, they had the option do so - and the proceeds were distributed fairly among all those who contributed. "It's obvious to me that the output of that research was so superior to if a single person attempted to explore every aspect of Web3. The work would never be completed!" she smiles. "It's made me believe in the power of not just linking people, but also synthesising collectively knowledge."
R6M3DkfqEiC4ADGxKcBQ It was a 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 topics now, for example the metaverse, what does that mean?" she jokes. "We're not building something right now, we're just trying to determine what people think about it, and also what they have a hard time understanding." The book features interviews with artists startups' founders, as well as industry experts on how they view the metaverse , what they're trying do in it, as well things that have been proving to be problematic.
Cherie says that her aim is to integrate this study by creating online tools that address these issues. "We have done this in the past with a few Web3 topics already, such as the secondary sale of music via royalty shares and NFTs. Some smart contracts state that between 10 and 20 percent of secondary sales should go back to the original creator and many users are communicating the idea as a profit. The reality is that the majority of NFT's don't generate any secondary sales," Cherie explains. She says that she thinks the value lies due to the immediate interaction and relationship 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 the users are able to input their NFT collection to determine the extent to which there has been further sales and if so and how the NFT has moved through the market. "We are looking to develop new interactive tools that are as interactive data journalism specifically for musicians as they're probably the ones who are thinking the most about publishing or pricing NFT drops. We're building crucial frameworks and tools that will help people do this analytical task themselves."
Conflicting visions
Cherie says that some of these newfangled concepts are getting more complicated instead of clearer, with time "For the metaverse, for example, there's a huge disparity between the way the concept of metaverse was historically as well as conceptually been defined, from to the 1960s." She explains how the Water and Music team is building a framework for understanding traditional definitions of the metaverse and the gap between what we expect and what is actually happening.
"The initial sci-fi works which mentioned the metaverse contained the concept of interconnected virtual and IRL worlds. The world is so far from that vision right currently. However, at the same time, in the music industry, artists are saying "I've just created my own world!' but they essentially mean a virtual world.
"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 they are both centralized, where one corporation owns all the assets, but then there is the vision of a Web3-forward multi-layered metaverse, with interoperable identities and assets. It is logical to try at least experimenting with blockchain technology and the role it has in supporting that, but that directly contradicts Facebook's approach."
Cherie says that the metaverse has "just been transformed into a nebulous term that anybody can utilize for the benefit of their own" and she would like to break through the confusion. This is completely in line with her main purpose: Water and Music can critically and analytically dig into the subject, then be able to deliver actionable insights to advise people how to react. This has real-world use cases also, for instance, helping artists and their team when they are evaluating partnering with specific metaverse platform.
The Water and Music team
These research initiatives follow naturally from Water and Music's activities: "My 'why' for this association is to help people get to know the world more and then also understand their own place in this world," Cherie says. She hopes to assist people become better prepared so that they will have the best impact on their industry.
"For Water and Music the primary focus is on the music industry and that comes down to a personal reason. I'm motivated by this work due to the fact that I played piano. I spent lots of time in the company of classical musicians and I enjoy being around all artists and hearing their perspectives on where tech is going. Hopefully, whatever knowledge we put out there helps artists and their teams to understand technology better so that they will be able to use it in the creation of cool artwork!"
There's a sense of taking the power back' in this. Cherie wants to reassure artists that they have more influence than it might seem: "Certainly, in the streaming space, there's more and more consolidations, which are led by Spotify and other big tech companies. Royalty rates are going down and it's all going downwards! So we're providing artists the ability to comprehend the many different options. The artists we train and others around them with the ability to think more entrepreneurially."
A practice community
"It's mostly an academic term, but I think it's really applicable in the context of Water and Music: we're in a group of practitioners," Cherie continues. "The concept was coined in 1991 [by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger] and it is a term used to describe a group of individuals who do not have only an interest in common, but who come together to focus on finding out how to make something better."
She explains that this can relate to individuals who are in the same industry or with similar positions within different sectors. They communicate frequently, and share knowledge. "Usually the purpose is to build professional networks, but it could also be for creative communities, such as in 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 people to be more open and collaborative." Cherie adds.
The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
Cherie closes in usual fashion and encourages collaboration in and within Water and Music community. "In the coming months, we'll carry out interviews with artists, platforms, and startup founders. Our research into the metaverse will probably continue through this summer until the beginning of season of autumn. If you are interested in getting involved with that, let me know. If you have suggestions for interviewing people, We're open to suggestions!"
To be involved, join us on Twitter. 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.