From the outside, the explosive world of music NFTs appears flowing with eth and already established major players — artists, leaders, and decision-makers on the platforms that are winning (think soundxyz, Zora). Artists with dreams of similar web3 success gather in crowds to hear them speak in Twitter spaces while their latest NFT drops sell out in minutes.

Spend some time in *the space,* though, and a less hype-filled, more genuinely supportive social landscape emerges — if you know where to look. In the background, a few rows past the bigger names, a growing number of talented queer artists of all kinds are finding each other to share ideas, experiences, support, knowledge, and love.

My personal frustrations with Twitter spaces aside (maybe that’s for another post!), if you happen upon a great one, it can be an incredibly inspiring + motivational experience of coming together with people. After all, it’s an audio-only conversation among a group of people with designated Speakers and Listeners (designating Speaker roles is up to the host of the Twitter space). 

At worst, you’ll waste a few minutes hearing people strain to keep an uninteresting conversation going. At best, someone might come up & speak to your own observations & questions on a topic; you might learn something new that could change your whole perspective; and maybe you’ll find some new people to follow or connect with with whom you feel aligned.

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“I’m gonna invite everybody up to speak….”

One beautiful thing about the emerging web3 music scene is the camaraderie that early* independent artists can find in each other — especially those with any kinds of typically marginalized identities.

Enter someone like artist @realgrl.eth aka grl (pronouns: she/her), a frequent host & fixture in web3 music-focused Twitter spaces and Discord servers around what I’m going to call “the scene.”

On Saturday morning, I hopped into her unpretentiously named Twitter space “web3 musician lounge ✨ (Music NFTs)” to listen as other artists shared their valuable experiences, tips, advice, and support. A few days later, I hopped into another grl-led space, and was invited to join a queer and trans web3 Twitter community where the conversation has been going strong ever since.

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The excitement and potential of web3 aside, like anywhere else, it can be a lonely place, especially for people who don’t fit in (one learns quickly that the NFT world is not exactly the most diverse or inclusive as it stands now).

This blog is about holding space for people whom are often overlooked, and I want to thank everyone participating in any way in these important communities for welcoming me & each other, and for reminding me of what it means to truly build with community.

The act of holding a [Twitter] designated queer space is a powerful & political one in itself, and I want to both recognize & celebrate that! It’s maybe more important than selling out NFT projects or getting on Catalog, and it would serve us all to remember that. 

xo C

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*early in this context means early to the scene. If you’re an artist with any involvement in the web3 scene right now, you’re early, babes!