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Cherie Hu from Water and Music discusses Web3 at Consensys 2022

Water and Music, the publication and research DAO (decentralized autonomous group) building the innovator's guide to the music business, was established to encourage discussions between music industry professionals. technology. Now they're going one step further and actively engaging with the industry's brain to develop research initiatives and reward everyone involved. The latest research conducted by the company is to the abyss that is Web3 The next generation of the internet built around 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. She explains that the company conducts regular "research sprints" of up to 10 weeks in which they select a subject to glean as much information as possible for their customers and the latest report was on Web3.

"We're trying to understand how to understand the State of the Union for technological developments in music, particularly those that are very noisy," she explains. "Web3 is a perfect illustration as there's a lot of chaos; nobody knows what's happening. It's the most extreme web and the rabbit hole just continues to go down. It's as if, "What's going on ?'!"

One of Cherie's key mantras, especially in the context of business reports, has always been creating actionable writing. "At the end of any article, you'll have an idea about what you can do within your field or ways to be better at your job. The closing of the gap between what the community want, and the topics we write about is crucial," Cherie explains. These research sprints are conducted after they've decided on a topic then they head out to talk to members of the Water and Music community: "We seek out, 'What's your concerns right now?', and then crowdsource the responses. Our report stems directly from those requirements," she tells me.

The music industry is it is not surprising that one of the biggest issues is the fan's opinion. "I consider that to be the top one reason why a lot of performers aren't performing NFTs currently: out of fear of the backlash of the fans," she muses. "We did a report on the issues surrounding Web3. Of course, in the world of music, there are plenty of concerns about licensing and IP (IP) as well as NFTs. It's a whole chapter!"

True to form, the Water and Music research sprints are incredibly community-centric. "It's a bottom-up ideation and we have a large number of people to help with the study," Cherie says. To date, this Water and Music community has published two research reports under this collaborative model. In keeping with the trend, they offered NFTs in retroactive fashion, so that anyone who wanted to support the research, they could do so - and the proceeds were distributed fairly among all contributors. "It's evident to me that the result of that research was so far superior than if a single person attempted to explore every aspect of Web3. This research would not be fully completed!" she smiles. "It's been a great experience for me to see the value of not just connecting people but collectively synthesizing information."

R6M3DkfqEiC4ADGxKcBQ the Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC conference

Cherie states that the next collaborative report with the community has begun. "We're researching even more nebulous topics now, for example the metaverse, however that's defined!" she jokes. "We're not making any plans to create something right now, we're just trying to determine what people think about it and the things people have a hard time understanding." The publication features interviews with artists entrepreneurs, and professionals from the industry about how they define the metaverse , what they're trying achieve through it, along with things that have been proving to be problematic.

Cherie states that her goal is to combine this research with building online tools to solve these problems. "We did this with some Web3 topics already, such as the secondary sale of music via NFTs and shares of royalties. Certain smart contracts stipulate that 10 to 20 percent of secondary sales should go back to the artist who originally created it and many users are communicating this as an advantage. However, my opinion is that the vast majority of NFT's don't generate a secondary sale," Cherie explains. Cherie thinks that the value is in the direct relation and the connection that an NFT is a part of, and not so much just in the potential to have the ability to sell it again after.

In addition to the report, Water and Music will be creating a dashboard for tracking where users can input an NFT collection to determine whether there were any further sales and if so, how the NFT is performing in the marketplace. "We want to build new interactive tools that are similar to interactive data journalism specifically for musicians as they're the people who think the most about publishing or pricing NFT drops. We're creating crucial frameworks and tools that will help people do this analytical task themselves."

Conflicting visions

Cherie observes that some of these newfangled terminology are getting more obscure instead of clearer, with time "For the metaverse, as an instance, there's an enormous disparity between the way the metaverse has historically and conceptually been defined, from earlier in the '60s." She elaborates her Water and Music team is building a framework for understanding how the metaverse was defined in the past as well as the gaps between what we expect and what is actually happening.

"The early sci-fi novels that mentioned the metaverse had a grand concept that interconnected both virtual and IRL worlds. The world is so far from that right today. However, at the same time, in the music industry the artists say "I've just created my own world!' but they are really talking about the concept of a virtual universe.

"There are now directly conflicting 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 and one entity owns everything and everything else. But then you have the concept of a Web3-forward open, decentralized metaverse that has interoperable assets and identities. It makes sense to at least experiment with blockchain technology and the role it has in supporting that, but that directly contradicts Facebook's approach."

Cherie says that the metaverse "just been transformed into a nebulous term which anyone can use to their own benefit" and she is determined to cut through the nonsense. This is completely in line with her main purpose: Water and Music will critically and analytically look into the subject, then be able to provide practical knowledge to guide people on how to react. These are real-world applications, too, such as aiding artists and their teams when they are evaluating partnering with metaverse-based platforms.

It's A5k8BJI7iTDsrW6aE The Water and Music team

So these research projects are a natural continuation of Water and Music's work: "My 'why' for this organization is to help members get to know the world more and also to understand what they are doing in this world," 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 main focus is the music industry, and it all comes back to an individual motive. I'm energized by the work due to the fact that I played piano. I spent lots of time in the company of classical musicians and I enjoy interacting with all artists and getting their perspective on where tech is going. I hope that the knowledge we put out there helps artists and their teams understand the technology more, and will be able to use it in the creation of amazing art!"

There's an element of 'taking control back' with this. Cherie wants to reassure musicians that they are more in influence than it might seem: "Certainly, in the streaming space, there's increasing consolidations that are dominated by Spotify along with other tech giant businesses. Royalty rates are going down but it's all going downhill! So we're providing artists the tools to understand the wide range of alternative options. We're equipping artists and the people around them to think more entrepreneurially."

A group of practice

"It's more of an academic phrase, but I feel it really applies to Water and Music: we're a community of practise," Cherie continues. "The concept was coined in the year 1991 by cognitive sociologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger] and represents a group of people who do not have only the same interests, but who come together for the sole purpose of discovering how they can do things better."

The author explains that this could relate to individuals who are in the same industry or with similar positions in different industries. People who communicate regularly and also exchange information. "Usually, it's for professional communities but can also be for creative communities, such as in music. It's creating media, but also creating tools, but also facilitating peer-to peer education. This will be an essential element of our future: breaking down information silos in the world of music, and encouraging people to be more open and collaborative." Cherie adds.

The Water and Music meetup at the NFT.NYC event.

Cherie closes in usual fashion and encourages collaboration in her Water and Music community. "In the coming months, we'll be rolling out interviews with artists, platforms, and startup founders. Out research into the metaverse is likely to continue throughout the end of summer and into autumn, so if you would like to get involved in this, contact me. If anyone has suggestions of people to talk with, We're open to suggestions!"

To get involved, follow 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.