Zima Red ep 110: David & Jay - Hume: Why Virtual Influencers Are The Future Of Entertainment
Primer: The world is trending towards the digital. Virtual influencers are increasing in popularity, enabling artists in the music industry to take back ownership of their work from the hands of record labels. Learn how Hume is empowering musicians and the Angelbaby persona — a rising virtual influencer in the FLUF World that they are partnered with.
Background
David Beiner
Background in UX
First job at a startup connecting tutors and students
Joined Vaudeville Ventures as a product strategist. Got to experience how to bring media products to the market
In 2017, he found out about Ethereum smart contracts
Started a consulting firm to help people understand the space
In 2019, he and Jay started talking about virtual artists
Jay Stolar
Started singing at a young age
Would perform in theatre and concerts
Went to NYU Tisch School of the Arts for drama and writing. Didn’t like it there
Embarked on a solo career as an artist
Entered the music industry and realized that the majority of the earnings did not go to the artists
Spoke with David about creating a world for virtual artists
How Did David Get Interested In Crypto?
Studied economics in school
One semester, they zeroed in on the financial crisis. Learned about quantitative easing
Found out about Bitcoin in 2014. Was just an intellectual interest
In 2017, he found out about Ethereum and was blew away with it
How Did They Met?
Met on a class trip to China
It was a social entrepreneurship class
The Business Model Of The Music Industry
There’s money to be made in music
In the early 80s and 90s, CDs were selling for $20 and the music industry got really greedy
Music streaming came about as people were frustrated they had to pay $20-25 to listen to one or two songs they liked from an entire album
70% of every dollar goes to the master recording while the remaining 30% goes to copyright/people who wrote the song
On average, there are at least 3 people involved in a song
The amount they earn per stream is $0.0035
“So if you start breaking down the numbers, the amount per stream comes out to something like $0.0035. So if you have a million streams, it's generating nothing compared to what you would think. Like you'd think if you're going out, and your friends see that you have a song with a 100 million streams, 500 million streams, you'd be like, whoa, you got to be rich. But that part is just really broken.”
- Jay Stolar
When artists sign a deal with a record label, the record label gets a 87% stake in the company
Web3 and NFTs returns power to artists
How Are NFTs Going To Affect The Music Industry?
A struggling brand new artist could create a micro-community and sell their music NFTs to that community
On top of that, the artist still owns their music and their brand
Artists would have the option to decide whether they want to stay independent or sign a label deal
Hume
A metastar entertainment studio
A metastar is a metaverse-native virtual artist
At Hume, the metastars are music-driven
“Music is at the core of everything we do because it's extremely powerful. And probably one of the greatest ways for people to connect that transcends language, transcends culture.”
- David Beiner
Provides a venue for artists to perform and for them to create their own clothing brands
Realized that there are many PFP projects with open IPs
However, these PFP projects do not have music. Artists could build on top of these projects and their communities
Angelbaby
Angelbaby is a metastar
Jay and David met Angelbaby while walking in the Angeles Forest in California
Angelbaby is part of a group called the Hume Collective that’s dedicated to preserving the art of expression and keeping the metaverse open
The backstory of Angelbaby combines music, storytelling, and experiential interactions with artists and characters. It will have an incredibly deep, rich, and expansive story
More lore will be released in the next few months
They connected with FLUF World and started helping Angelbaby and the Hume Collective to build their world here
The Future Of An Open IP World
Will have more cross-platform IP and partnerships
Why Do They Focus On Virtual Artists?
Virtual artists can collaborate with more people than physical artists
Will Metastars Be Utilizing AI In The Future?
Thinks that it will happen
There’s a project called Altered State Machine. It could be used plug an AI into a digital avatar or an NFT
The AI will be able to learn in the environment where it is placed in
Hardest Part Of Being A Founder
David
There’s a glorification culture around founders and startups
Having the conviction to continue building
Communication with your co-founders — knowing when to push and when to give them space
Jay
To clearly listen to your co-founders and trust them
Would be nice to have more time
To not become a victim of your first success — repeating something just because it worked the last time
Where Have They Found The Most Traction?
Angelbaby stole the scene and FLUF World sold out in seconds
Currently focused on building that community right now
How Will Hume Generate Revenue?
Have 2-3 key revenue drivers for the long-term
Each metastar will have their own initial drop with interesting components to it
Brand collaborations and sponsorships in the metaverse and in real life
Live performance and music
Grand 5-10 Year Vision
Hume artists permeates the various metaverses
There will be concerts and events both in the metaverse and in real life
Will have a full-on entertainment experience across multiple verticals
Single Favourite NFT
David
The Angelbaby scene NFT
Uses it as his Zoom background now
Really like his Bored Ape dog. Has a Cheetah dog
Jay
His OG Fluf
His SuperHeroine ASM AIFA All-Star
Most Controversial Thought On NFTs
Jay
On the music side, people are underestimating what it's going to be like once all the major players come in to the ecosystem
Hope that these powerhouse entities are not going to mess things up for new artists like what they are doing in the traditional world
If He Could Improve Something In The Space
David
To have an agreed upon and transparent mechanism to store the visual and important information related to the NFT in a place that will continue to exist
NFT Ecosystem In 3 Years
David
More NFT projects that are multi-layered — NFTs that can interact with one another
Jay
A lot of user-generated NFTs being created in real-time
Rise of a social media NFT ecosystem
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