Deadmau5's Blockchain Strategy
Mau5 Manager/Business Partner Dean Wilson, Downtown's Publishing Divestment, Spotify's Stalking Software & Nirvana's Copyright Hell.
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When NFTs hit the mainstream back in January, we were hardly surprised to see Deadmau5 making moves in the emerging space. After all, the self-described Goat Lord has always been ahead of the pack in terms of what the Internet is up to.
Dean Wilson of Seven20 might be best described as the goat herder, shepherding the Mau5 (real name Joel Zimmerman) to success in all things art and tech. We asked Dean to help us make sense of the breakneck speed of blockchain.
Deadmau5 was one of the first EDM artists to have an impact on the NFT space. You obviously couldn’t know what was going to happen, but did you have suspicions?
We're nearly a year into the conversations. Joel was like, “Wait, we're selling JPEGs? This can't work, surely.” But that’s why this job is so great. The remit is to break doors down with technology because Joel’s the tech guy. He's the gamer. He's authentic in that space.
And then, you know, it's gone crazy with Beeple and Christies and Mad Dog Jones—it just kept expanding until the bubble burst a few weeks ago, which is good because now we can get on with what the real business of ERC tokens. Because NFTs aren't just art. They're going to be everything—music, contracts, whatever kind of file that you want.
There was a great quote in a recent article about IBM investing in a blockchain for patents. It’s said it applies to any place there is “people, processes and paperwork.”
We're working with as many people as we can to expand how our business can grow in this new virtual world. We were in on Audius, which is fast becoming the SoundCloud blockchain. We're equity holders and partners at Emanate. We launched PIXELYNX with Richie Hawtin and Ben Turner with a focus on futurizing everybody's IP property and connecting big brands, musical artists and gaming.
Our focus really is blockchain gaming. I think that's where the true next explosion is coming—games that have their own crypto.
Unreal Engine is going to go on the blockchain. Unity are in deep discussions about doing the same thing. Once the two biggest game engines in the world come onto the blockchain, then that's it. Now you’re getting towards the beautiful utopia of the DAO. The decentralized organization.
That sounds amazing. It also sounds like a frenzy for IP lawyers. What’s your take on that right now?
I've had multiple calls with major labels and publishers, and nobody has an answer. Nobody's got an answer for the music in NFTs yet. What's the split? Is it more about what you're visually seeing or what you're hearing? Is it 50/50? Is it 70/30? Is it a sync? Is it a mechanical? Everybody has a different viewpoint depending on what they own.
I'm fascinated in fractionalized ownership of music. I really believe that's where we're going. We own all of our own IP, all of our publishing, all of our masters, all of our trademarks and everything. To be able to use it on the blockchain with ERC, it keeps me up at night, in a good way.
I think Joel put it really well the other day. He was like, “I'm all down for transparency. I'm all down for people getting paid properly. But how transparent do we really want our IP to be? What my deals are? How I cut things with different people? Do I really want that in the public domain?
I guess it’s all public on the blockchain, in theory.
You go on Etherscan and you can find the end-to-end transaction. It's a little different on Nifty Gateway because it's not done in real time. Maker’s Place is slightly different. Open Sea is different. There are no rules.
We did our first couple of big jobs with Nifty Gateway, and when we tried to get the money out, they weren't prepared for corporate banks to be linked to accounts. It took us a month to get a million dollars off the platform.
The challenge now is how do we take it from the 0.1% of people that even know how to buy an NFT now, and take it to the masses? How do you make it so anybody can buy an NFT? Like they buy a coffee. All the real big players know that if this is going to be a trillion dollar business, the everyday person has to be able to buy and sell and look at NFTs like you do with Apple Pay or Venmo or PayPal.
This isn't just a bit of fun. Blockchain has been here a while. Crypto has been here a while. So what happens next? This is what's happening. NFTs are just another talking point.
We published a newsletter a few months ago with the title “Will You Still Care About NFTs When Clubs Reopen?” Will artists stay focused?
It will have an effect on everybody because you have to spend time doing stuff that you haven't been doing for a year and a half. Now you’re back to dealing with the stage is fucked up and the computer didn't work and this bag didn't arrive and I don't want to stay in this hotel anymore. There's been a bliss of not having to worry about all that.
Do we need Joel to continue when touring comes back? Not really. We have a full staff on the NFT side of our business already. Joel might drop in less frequently as an artist, but everything else will still continue at speed.
So what’s your return plan?
We have a very busy October. We just announced our Red Rocks shows. Our Halloween Weekend event in Miami is already 75% sold out. I wanted to get something up as fast as possible because there's momentum. People need shit to look forward to. If we don't have things to look forward to, it's a pretty miserable life.
http://linkedin.com/in/dean720wilson
TAKEAWAYS
This week’s most salient statements.
1. DOWNTOWN ANNOUNCES SALE OF IT’S ICONIC COPYRIGHT PORTFOLIO TO CONCORD
The most sure sign so far that the publishing push of recent years might have hit its apex, Downtown has divested in the copyright portfolio of Adele, Grateful Dead, David Bowie and 145,000 more.
Takeaway: Downtown has decided to focus exclusively on the fast-growing music services sector to support the extraordinary growth of the independent music economy, as well as the creators and entrepreneurial businesses that rely on its platforms and services.
2. Over 180 Musicians Protest Spotify’s Speech Monitoring Patent in Open Letter
All we asked for was all the music ever for $9.99 a month.
Takeaway: The letter outlines the five major concerns that the coalition has regarding the technology: “emotional manipulation,” discrimination, privacy violations, data security, and the exacerbation of inequality in the music industry.
3. Heir Of British Artist Sues Nirvana Over Unauthorized Dante’s “Inferno” Hell Map
Good IP never dies, it’s heirs just lawyer up. Maybe Dante’s descendant need to get on on the action.
Takeaway: The band NIRVANA and parties acting on its behalf have routinely made false claims of ownership of the copyright in the Illustration by placing false copyright notices on the Infringing Products in substantially this form ‘© [Year] Nirvana’.
