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Cherie Hu of Water and Music discusses Web3 at Consensys 2022
Water and Music, the newsletter and research DAO (decentralized autonomous group) building the innovator's guide to the business of music, was created to facilitate conversation with people working in music technology. Now they're going one step further and actively engaging with the industry's hive of minds to design research projects and to reward everyone involved. The latest research conducted by the company is in the chaos of Web3 which is the future of the web built upon blockchain technology.
"I consider that a significant reason for us to be growing is that 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' of up to 10 weeks when they pick a specific topic to glean as much information as possible to provide their customers; the most recent report was on Web3.
"We're trying to figure out what's the State of the Union for tech trends in music, particularly ones that can be very loud," she explains. "Web3 is the perfect example due to the sheer amount of noise; no-one knows how it's all happening. It's the biggest rabbit hole and it just keeps going down. It's as if, "What's happening? ?'!"
Cherie's most popular mantras that she has used, particularly in the realm of reporting for business, has always been creating useful writing. "At the end of reading every article, you'll get an idea of the best practices for your business or you can improve your job. Closing that loop between what members of the community want, and what we write about, is very important," Cherie explains. These research sprints are conducted once they have decided about a subject the team goes out to talk to the Water and Music community: "We ask, 'What are you currently struggling with?' then we ask the community to provide the responses. Our report is derived directly from these demands," she tells me.
In the world of music, unsurprisingly, one of the top concerns is fan sentiment. "I think that's the number one reason that lots of performers aren't performing NFTs in the moment: because they fear backlash from supporters," she muses. "We did a report on the issues surrounding Web3. In the world of music, there are plenty of concerns about licensing as well as Intellectual property (IP) with NFTs. This is a full chapter!"
True to form, the Water and Music research sprints are extremely community-focused. "It's an open-ended ideation process and we have a large number of people to help us do the study," Cherie says. So far this Water and Music community has released two reports in this collaborative structure. In keeping with the trend, they offered NFTs in retroactive fashion, so that if people would like to contribute to their research they were able to, and those revenues were split fairly among all participants. "It's clear to me that the result of that research was so superior to if a individual tried to study the entirety of Web3. The work would never be complete!" she smiles. "It's made me believe in the potential of not only creating connections, but also collectively synthesizing information."
It was a Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference
Cherie adds that the next collaborative report in the group has been started. "We're looking into even more mysterious issues right now, such as the metaverse -- however that's defined!" Cherie quips. "We're not making any plans to create something right now, we're just trying to determine what people think about it, and also what they are confused about." The book contains interviews with artists, entrepreneurs, and professionals from the industry regarding their definition of the metaverse and the goals they're trying to achieve through it, along with the issues that are causing them to be troublesome.
Cherie mentions that the goal is to combine this research and the development of online tools to address these issues. "We have done this in the past with a few Web3 themes that we already have, like the secondary sale of music via royalty shares and NFTs. Some smart contracts state 10% to 20 percent of secondary sales will go to the original artist and many users are communicating that as a benefit. However, my opinion is that the vast majority of NFT's do not result in a secondary sale," Cherie explains. Cherie thinks that the value is on the personal relation and the connection that an NFT represents, not on the possibility of having an item that can be sold on to others later.
In addition to the report, Water and Music will be developing a tracker dashboard that the users are able to input their NFT collection and see the extent to which there has been other sales or, if there have been what the NFT is performing in the market. "We would like to create more interactive tools: it's as interactive data journalism specifically for musicians as they are probably those who think about the best ways to release and pricing their NFT drops. We're creating crucial frameworks and tools that will help people do this analytical work by themselves."
Conflicting visions
Cherie says that some of these cutting-edge terminology are getting more obscure and less clear as time goes by "For the metaverse for instance, there's an enormous gap between how the metaverse has historically and conceptually defined to the 1960s." Cherie explains how the Water and Music team is developing a model for understanding historical definitions of the metaverse as well as the gaps between reality and expectations.
"The initial sci-fi works that mentioned the metaverse had an expansive concept connected virtual as well as IRL worlds. The world is so far from this right currently. But at the same time within the music industry, artists are saying "I've just created my personal metaverse!' even though they are really talking about a virtual world.
"There are currently two distinct conceptions of metaverses," she says. "You are dealing with Meta [Facebook's holding firm] and Epic Games on one side Both are centralized with one company owning everything however, there's the idea of a Web3-forward, multi-layered metaverse, with an interoperable identity and asset. It makes sense to try at least experimenting with blockchain and the role it plays in facilitating that, but that directly is in opposition to Facebook's strategy."
Cherie says that the metaverse "just become this nebulous word that anybody can utilize for their own benefit" and she is determined to break through the confusion. This is completely in line with Cherie's raison d'etre: Water and Music can critically and analytically dig into the issue, and be able to deliver actionable knowledge to guide people on how to react. This has real-world use cases also, for instance, helping artists and their team in evaluating partnerships with specific metaverse platform.
Water and Music team Water and Music team
These research initiatives can be seen as a natural extension of the Water and Music's mission: "My 'why' for this membership is helping people get to know the world more and also to understand their place within the global community," Cherie says. Cherie wants people to get the best education possible so that they are able to make the greatest influence on the industry they work in.
"For Water and Music the primary focus is on the music industry and that comes down to a personal reason. I'm energized by the work because I grew up playing piano. I was able to spend a lot of time around classical musicians and I enjoy interacting with all artists and hearing their perspectives on where tech is going. Hopefully, whatever knowledge we put out there helps artists and their teams understand technology better so that they are able to create cool art!"
There's a sense of taking the control back' within this. Cherie wants to reassure musicians that they are more in influence than they think: "Certainly, in the streaming space, there's increasing consolidations dominated by Spotify along with other tech giant businesses. The rates for royalties are decreasing -- well, it's all going downwards! -- so we're giving artists the tools to understand the variety of options. The artists we train and people around them to think creatively."
A practice community
"It's more of academic phrase, but I feel it really applies to Water and Music: we're in a group of practitioners," Cherie continues. "The term was introduced in the year 1991 by cognitive sociologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger] and it refers to a community of people who do not have only the same interests in the same subject, but are also gathered for the sole purpose of finding out how to make something better."
She explains that this can relate to individuals in a similar industry, or in similar roles across industries. They communicate frequently, and share knowledge. "Usually, it's for professional groups, but it can be used for communities of creativity for example, in the field of music. There's a part of not just producing media and building tools, but facilitating peer-to-peer learning. This will be an essential aspect of the future, dissolving the information barriers in the world of music, and encouraging everyone to become more cooperative," Cherie adds.
The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC event.
Cherie ends her show in a typical fashion by encouraging collaboration among and within Water and Music community. "In the next couple of months, we'll be rolling out interviews with artists, platforms, and startup founders. Our research into the metaverse is expected to last through this summer until the beginning of season of autumn. If you would like to get involved in this, contact me. If anyone has suggestions for interviewing people, We're open to suggestions!"
To get 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.