NEW series on the blog: wtf is…
Hi all! With so many platforms, companies, communities, & more popping up every day — just within the web3 music space alone! — I’ve decided to start a new series here where I do a little deep dive into one of the above every so often. If you have any ideas on who or what I should cover next, let me know!
However, one important distinction to make between this series and my artist interviews: this is an 100% independent blog, so I’m not necessarily a “fan” of any platform I’m exploring in this series, whereas I usually am a fan of the artists, and seek their input on the final version of the interview!
I think what I’ll do is let the platform/company/whatever know that I’m writing about them, and then see if they want to comment or answer the questions posed in the post for a part two future post!
Ok, and what I’ll also do is break this down into a few main sections. Again, hit me with suggestions for regular sections for the series! Ok, ready?
wtf is… Dequency?
Alright, here we go, Dequency! Does anyone really know Dequency? Does anybody know… Jordan Catalano?
First Impressions: So, I first heard about Dequency via Carla the Poet, who has been interviewed on our fair blog! She started working for them as community manager a little before the i-wave interview dropped. On the surface, I like Dequency — it has a clear and concise mission that it communicates well in its bio: “The marketplace for music & visual creators to connect and collaborate in web3 | sync licenses for NFT art, metaverse content, and beyond.” Not the sexiest topic in web3 music or music in general for that matter, but definitely an important one!
Beyond their Twitter profile, I visited Dequency’s web site for the first time today, and was pretty impressed. It’s clean, functional, subtly impressive (animations! content!), and easy to navigate.
What do they do?: They are creating both a marketplace and framework for sync licensing of music for NFTs/metaverse things, which sounds like it could be a useful go-to tool for artists. Those of us in web2 music world may be familiar with applying to multiple sync libraries, cutting deals with each one, etc. Dequency wants to decentralize this so that artists can make money quickly + easily when other web3 entities seek to use their music in some (metaverse? NFT projects?) way.
What’s new with them?: Just last week, they celebrated the launch of their catalog, which is full of many big names in web3 music (read: artists who have had their NFTs featured in big ways and with success). Here is Dequency breaking down the launch of this catalog in their own words:
A tweet that speaks to who they are:
Closing Thoughts: While this idea makes sense in theory, we want to see it in action! Who is buying these sync license NFTs (are the sync licenses still in NFT form or was that just in beta?), and in what kinds of metaverse or NFT projects? I think some examples would go a long way for artists to see the great utility in this platform.
Maybe I’m a little biased BUT I think Carla the Poet does an amazing job as the messenger and dot-connector of all things Dequency! The topic of sync licensing in web3 feels intimidating (I think about contracts and the fact that the law is so not caught up with web3), but her experience as an artist & therefore, her way of speaking directly with us artists as a spokesperson goes a long way for me personally.
The roadmap is solid. Things like custom licenses (charging big companies more $ to use your music than smaller entities) and tools for users to search/sort through their growing music catalog are practical; it seems like they’re building a strong foundation.
Excited to see what’s next for Dequency! As for i-wave, catch us on the next post, and hit us with your recs for what to cover for this new series, “wtf is…”!
xo C