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Cherie Hu of Water and Music discusses Web3 at Consensys 2022

Water and Music, the newsletter as well as the research DAO (decentralized autonomous group) creating the guide for innovators to the world of music was created to facilitate conversation discussions between music industry professionals. tech. They're now going one step further by actively engaging with the industry's mind to create research initiatives and reward everyone involved. The latest research conducted by the company has been to the abyss that is Web3 which is the next generation of the internet built on blockchain technology.

"I consider that a significant factor in our growing is that we're using more collaborative models to edit research," begins Cherie Hu co-founder of Water and Music. Cherie Hu explains that the business does regular 'research sprints' that last up to 10 days where they choose a topic to gather as much data as possible for their customers and the latest report was on Web3.

"We're trying to figure out how to understand the State of the Union for the latest technological trends in music, especially those that are very noisy," she explains. "Web3 is a perfect illustration as there's a lot of chaos; nobody knows how it's all happening. It's the most extreme tunnel and it keeps going down. And it's like, 'What's going on? ?'!"

Cherie's most popular mantras, especially in the context of business reports she has been a constant source of effective writing. "At the end of reading any article, you'll have an understanding about what you can do within your field or ways you can improve the job you do. Closing that loop between what members of the community want, and what we write about, is vital," Cherie explains. In these sprints of research, when they've settled about a subject the team goes out to speak to the Water and Music community: "We inquire, 'What are your concerns right now?' and we crowdsource the responses. Our report comes directly from those demands," she tells me.

In the music industry it is not surprising that one of the biggest worries is that of fan-generated opinion. "I believe that's factor that explains why lots of performers aren't performing NFTs right now: because they fear backlash from fans," she muses. "We did a report on concerns about Web3. In the world of music, there are plenty of issues with licensing and IP (IP) with NFTs. That was a whole chapter!"

In true fashion, the Water and Music research sprints are incredibly community-centric. "It's an ideation process that is bottom-up and we have a large number of individuals to assist us do the research," Cherie says. So far the Water and Music community has released two reports in this collaborative structure. Keeping on-trend, they sold NFTs retroactively , which meant that if people were interested in supporting this research effort, they had the option - and those revenues were split fairly among all participants. "It's evident to me that the result of this research was superior to if a individual tried to study the entirety 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 adds that the report's next collaboration with the community has begun. "We're researching even more nebulous subjects right now, like the metaverse, whatever that means!" she quips. "We're not building something right now, we're simply trying to understand what people think about it and the things people have a hard time understanding." The book features interviews with artists startup founders and industry professionals regarding their definition of the metaverse and what they're trying achieve through it, along with what is proving problematic.

Cherie mentions that the goal is to blend this research by creating online tools that solve these problems. "We have done this in the past with a few Web3 themes that we already have, like second-hand sales of music using NFTs and shares of royalties. 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 this as an advantage. But I think the reality is that the majority of NFT's don't generate an additional sale," Cherie explains. Cherie believes the value is more due to the immediate relationship and connection that the NFT is a part of, and not so much just in the potential to have an item that can be sold on to others after.

Together with the report Water and Music will be building a tracking dashboard where customers can enter their NFT collection to see if there have been any additional sales, and if yes, how the NFT has been able to move through the market. "We want to build new interactive tools that are like interactive data journalism, specifically for musicians as they're the people who think the most about publishing prices for their NFT drops. We're building essential frameworks and tools to aid people to do this work by themselves."

Conflicting visions

Cherie observes that these new terminology are getting more obscure and less clear in the course of time "For the metaverse for instance, there's a massive disparity between the way the concept of metaverse was historically as well as conceptually been defined, from to the 1960s." She explains that the Water and Music team is creating a framework to understand historical definitions of the metaverse as well as the gaps between reality and expectations.

"The initial sci-fi works with a metaverse reference had the vision that interconnected both virtual and IRL worlds. We are so far off from that right today. But at the same time there is a trend in the world of music, artists are saying "I've just created my own metaverse!' when they are really talking about an imaginary world.

"There are currently two distinct views of the metaverse,"" she says. "You have Meta [Facebook's holding firm] as well as Epic Games on one side they are both centralized, and one entity owns everything, but then there is the vision of a Web3-forward, decentralized, metaverse with an interoperable identity and asset. It's logical to try at least experimenting with blockchain, and the roles it can play in helping facilitate this, however it directly opposes Facebook's stance."

Cherie says that the metaverse has "just been transformed into a nebulous term which anyone can use to personal gain" and she wants to cut through the nonsense. It is in line with her main purpose: Water and Music analyzes and critically look into the subject, then be able to deliver actionable knowledge to guide people on about how they should react. This has real-world use cases, too, such as providing assistance to artists and their staff in evaluating partnerships with metaverse-based platforms.

Water and Music team

Therefore, these research projects can be seen as a natural extension of Water and Music's work: "My 'why' for this organization is to help members understand the world better, as well as understanding their own place in the world," Cherie says. She hopes to assist people be best prepared so they will have the best influence on the industry they work in.

"For Water and Music the exact focus is the music industry, and that comes down to the personal motivation. It's a passion for me since I was a child playing piano. I was able to spend a lot of time around classical musicians and I enjoy engaging with artists of all kinds and getting their perspective regarding where tech is headed. Hopefully, whatever knowledge we put out there helps artists and their teams to understand the technology more, and will be able to use it in the creation of amazing artwork!"

There's a little bit of 'taking the power back' in this. Cherie is trying to convince the artists that they hold more influence than it might seem: "Certainly, in the streaming space, there's growing consolidations that are dominated by Spotify as well as other major tech businesses. Rates of royalties are dropping but it's all going downwards! So we're providing artists the ability to comprehend the wide range of alternative choices. The artists we train and people around them to be more innovative."

A practice community

"It's more of an academic concept, however I believe that it is applicable in the context of Water and Music: we're in a group of practitioners," Cherie continues. "The concept was first introduced in the year 1991 by cognitive sociologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger] and it is a term used to describe a group of individuals who not only have an interest in common in the same subject, but are also gathered with the sole aim of discovering how they can do things better."

She says that it could relate to individuals from the same field, or in similar roles in different industries. People who communicate regularly and share knowledge. "Usually the purpose is to build professional groups, but it can be for creative communities, such as in music. There's an element of not only producing media or building tools, but facilitating peer-to-peer learning. It's a crucial aspect of the future, breaking down information silos within the industry of music and encouraging individuals to become more cooperative," Cherie adds.

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

Cherie concludes her tour in the usual manner and encourages collaboration in the Water and Music community. "In the coming months, we'll be rolling interviews with musicians as well as platforms and startup founders. The metaverse research is likely to continue throughout the end of summer and into season of autumn. If you would like to get involved in this, contact me. If anyone has recommendations of people to talk with, We're open to suggestions!"

To be involved, join us on Twitter. Cherie 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.