I think the easiest way to onboard new community members is through gaming, I have been experiencing this first hand. Web 3.0 provides vast opportunity to up & coming artists/creatives but I still feel like there is gap yet to be filled. For the record I believe whole heartedly that this space is the future of the internet, it’s giving power back to communities and the users of specific products rather than just share holders or investors. But with that said, I have been in crypto for over a year and last night it took me 9 etherscan transactions to connect my .ETH username to my metamask wallet. I am definitely not super advanced with technology and have been known to be severely impatient, so I’m willing to admit some of the blame lies with me. I guess the overarching point I am trying to make is this technology isn’t ready for the average user, despite how revolutionary & exciting the tech is. I know there are people who have dedicated their lives to solving these problems so don’t confuse me for another critic, I am actively looking for ways to contribute on this quest to better the consumer experience.

Motivating someone to learn in order for them to spend is a hard feat, I always disliked the messaging of that process as well. It reminded me of artists who would charge monthly subscriptions to enter their fan club, a selling point being “exclusive merch not available to the public”. So in layman terms “pay me now for the opportunity to pay me more later”, it doesn’t seem like such a great perk after all. What it does feel like is a calculated business move to profit off your most active and engaged super fans without actually saying that, everything is flowing one direction. The dream I was sold in Web 3.0 was that value would begin flowing both ways, fans could begin capturing the upside of their favourite artists success and would be rewarded for their individual contributions to the community as a whole. This thesis is a lot easier said than done because some music fans just want to be exactly that, a fan. I’ve been noticing how important messaging is, most people dislike change and using terms like Web 3.0, NFT’s, Community Tokens, Community Ownership etc. has proven to be extremely daunting. That’s not to say these concepts don’t work, because they do and I’ve already been experimenting with the majority of them for the past year in my discord. I’m just recognizing that the way I present the future of my community needs to exclude (in the short term) some of these words.

The platforms in my opinion that are positioned to be most successful in 2022 are those branded with a Web 2.0 layout, with the option for supporters to be able to pay with credit cards and hold their assets in a temporary on-site wallet. I’m not saying that crypto native music platforms wont have a tremendously successful year, because they will. But if you want to on board the next 10 million users there needs to be an easier on ramp. It would be very simple for me to sell to crypto native collectors right now but I am more interested in finding ways to bring the people who have been in my corner since 2015 along on this journey. I think gaming is apart of that puzzle, I’m not sure in what capacity yet or quite honestly what this looks like on a macro level. But I know I am getting closer everyday to finding my footing.

More to come…