TRISTAN

“THE VAST MAJORITY—OVER 90%—DESCRIBED FEELING INTIMIDATED BY WEB3, BUT ALSO FEELING FOMO. FOLKS WERE SCARED BUT ALSO SCARED OF MISSING OUT.”

Tristan Khan’s career has spanned two decades across North America and Europe, including stints for DICE, Elrow, and the United Nations before co-founding Web3 startup Goosebump. Khan’s mission is to “facilitate flourishing” for others, particularly by empowering artists. At the XP Music Futures Day Program session, All You Need to Know About NFTs, the Metaverse, and Web3, he sought to “demystify” the Web3 space as the music industry faces this moment of change.

His first point: “if you’re unsure about Web3, you’re not alone”. Khan recently conducted 150+ discovery interviews with professionals “across the music business ecosystem: labels, stations, managers, major tech founders, and over 40 artists from Coachella headliners to underground techno DJs.” He found that “the vast majority— over 90%—described feeling intimidated by Web3, but also feeling FOMO. Folks were scared but also scared of missing out.”

Khan offered a simple overview of Web3, NFTs, and the metaverse, including some of the “massive disconnects” between Web3’s democratic intentions and its commercialized implementation and strategies for creating more familiarity and accessibility.

Three ways for labels and artists can take the first steps into Web3:

“Aim for Web 2.5. Web3 will scale fast, but we’re still in the early stages of its life cycle. You’ll have much greater success if you develop projects that straddle the line between Web2 and Web3.”

“Hunt for opportunities to be first. Because Web3 is so new, many exciting project ideas still haven’t been executed. Think by genre, by medium, by artist profile.”

Focus on community. “I cannot stress the importance of community enough. Fans have always been the lifeblood of the music business. Understand their needs, their fears, and help lead them through the transition.”

For artists based out of Saudi Arabia and the broader MENA region, Web3 offers the opportunity to build virtual followings regionally and worldwide. And Khan’s hopeful about the real-life barriers it can break down: “As Web3 scales and that technology becomes more and more affordable, we will be now able to spend time in virtual spaces with folks we can’t afford to travel and engage with in real life.”

RE-MAKING THE FESTIVAL REALITY

VR technology can render exclusive and even impossible experiences, making events virtually accessible to everyone, everywhere. Meeting your real friends at the festival, virtually, or standing next to David Guetta on the main stage, the Serbian-based EXIT Festival is pioneering how VR technology reinvents the festival experience in the years to come.

Unlocking The Power Of Web3

Dedicated to empowering creatives, artists, and brands across the region, NFTY Arabia is the NFT marketplace for digital art from the Middle East and North Africa. As a technology, NFTs enable an evolution of music that artists are just beginning to explore. “They are based on smart programming, which means you can program the NFT to be triggered to change based on different factors. What could you do to trigger your piece of music that could change over time? It’s a real, living, breathing, interactive thing”, states British-born Egyptian entrepreneur Timmy Mowafi, co-founder of MO4 Network and founder of NFTY Arabia.

Disarming Misconceptions

When asked about the potential of Web3 to change global prejudice against the Arab world, co-founder of Web3 music start-up Goosebump, Tristan Khan, explains, “I think exposure is really the answer. By spending more time and engaging with the virtual identities of folks from different parts of the world, different backgrounds, different perspectives, we become more aware of our overwhelming similarities relative to our perceived differences.”

Hearing The Voices Of Ai

Taking part in the conversation on how virtual artists and beings change the game in the AIdriven metaverse, extraterrestrial artist Aurora highlights the pioneering role of Saudi Arabia and XP Futures specifically: “Recent advancements prove that the Saudi Kingdom is making its way into the metaverse faster than many other nations. Platforms like XP Futures are a great starting point pushing the boundaries of the private and public sectors.”

CONSTRUCT A CREATIVE-DRIVEN WORLD

“Label who?” asks American-born-Omani-raised Emaan, the first Middle Eastern artist to create their own cryptocurrency. “Artists and creatives have already learned how to be independent with the abundance of technology that is currently available. Now with the ability for artists to own and sell their own work, we can design a very creative-driven world.”

Become Immortal

“Can we live forever in the metaverse?” wonders SVORA, a virtual digital artist, raising a question that has driven artistic creation for millennia. Yes, argues Sasha Tityanko, deputy CEO for Sensorium Galaxy. “An artist’s virtual alter ego can exist without the limitations of a human lifespan.”

Protect Property Rights

Work Towards Transparency

Use technologies to make systems more transparent and efficient: number of event attendees, total sales, how people are getting paid, and how much. Establishing equity in the music industry starts with data transparency.

Bridging Real Life With Virtual Life

“Rave culture cannot be replaced with the metaverse,” asserts Dubai-based tech entrepreneur and founder of FrequenC Wees Abrahams. “But the new generation loves it, to be able to build an alter ego and be who they want to be.” This calls for creative interventions to incorporate the virtual and the real into the future of immersive entertainment experiences.

Utilize technological innovations to fight music piracy. Whether it is through new technologies such as blockchain-based NFTs, improved licensing laws and regulatory systems, addressing data leakage in ISNIs (International Standard Name Identifier), ISRCs (International Standard Recording Code), and ISWCs (International Standard Musical Work Code)— enhancing the protection of property rights is pivotal to a thriving music economy.

Enjoy The Gap

“To figure out what Web 2.5 is going to look like, you’ve got to look at what’s already working in Web 2.0. What types of content is your fan base actively engaging with? And then you want to think about what that could look like in a Web3 iteration”, suggests Co-founder of Web3 music start-up Goosebump, Tristan Khan.