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Background
- 02:04 – Intro
- 13:19 – Good Karma DAO
- 18:42 – Good Karma DAO’s First Showcase
- 27:44 – $CHERRY Part 1
- 36:22 – Future of Music in Web 3
- 39:53 – Parallels between Music and Crypto
- 45:19 – Web 3 Investments by Major Labels
- 50:38 – How can new artists join the Good Karma DAO?
- 54:06 – What can we expect from Grady in 2022?
Support Season 4’s NFT sponsors!
Intro
For those who don’t know who Grady is. Which is hard to believe. We’ll throw that out there. Give us a quick intro on yourself. Tell me, like, who are you, where are you from? And more specifically, how’d you get into crypto?
I’m from Santa Barbara, little bit north of LA. I moved down here when I was 19 to do some music with my boys and I had a band for a few years and then I started producing and writing for other artists and that led to me going, why aren’t I just doing this for myself too and started a solo project. I got into crypto, got into crypto. I don’t know why that sentence just is so silly. It just sounds so like elementary level, what’s the professional way to say that I got into crypto. I aped in?
I bought my first Bitcoin, something like that.
I probably bought my first portion of a Bitcoin in like 2019. Cool. I didn’t really actually like step into the rabbit hole that I threw some pennies into until like 2021 really. It started like percolating around my ears in 2020, but I was so consumed about what I was doing at the time that I just didn’t really allocate any to it. Around this time, last year like Alt coins were just like going bananas and it was like this crazy thing that, that I had no idea was underneath the surface of like the Bitcoin. I don’t even think like NFTs were mainstream yet. It was like Defi Alt coins were like the thing and I thought it was super silly and like a fun way to create buzz. And so I started like just asking like, Hey, I need as much information as possible about this stuff. And Cooper had been following me for a few years. We met at a concert that he was going, my friend that I was doing an album with, was performing San Francisco and Cooper was there. And like when I was walking in, he was like, Hey, you’re Grady. Two years later that led to him coming over to my house and like basically telling me not to start a Defi Alt Coin. I was like, I love your suggestion, but I’m gonna do it anyway. It was insane. Like it was such a roller coaster and just because of the hype that it generated, it really made me realize that people were ready to give it a shot, regardless of the outcome, I think it was such a risk intensive sector of the internet that a lot of people were just aping in and seeing what came out the other side. And so you saw a lot of these like crazy experiments and rapid, evolution of what people were paying attention to. And when that started simmering downCooper asked me to meet his friend Daniel Allen, and the way that he worded it was so funny. Like Cooper’s just so humble and like, is so bad at like putting things on aggressively that he was like, you’d be doing me such a big favor, dude. Like just, just meet up with him, please. Like, I’ll owe you so big time. And like, I thought that he was just gonna be like a really whack producer. And then I met him and like everything he played me was just mind blowing and he was just such a cool kid and was already like tapped into Catalog. Then I tapped into Catalog and started selling like the records that didn’t make my album that came out last year, The Love Umbrella. They weren’t gonna have a place to like be exposed for at least like six months. And I was like, well, this is like a cool opportunity to maybe like give this to a specific group of people that are like web three savvy. Because of that, I started just meeting like all these epic people that were trying so hard to like push the envelope of web three music and music NFTs, ike Blockchain Brett, Patrick and everybody at [inaudible] everybody with Jeremy and all them land the, the one thing that, that was consistent with all those people was like just really wanting to extend a handout as far as possible because there were so few artists that were trying to tap in at the time that everyone was just so willing to help. And like I’d be on the phone for hours doing such like menial tasks with Cooper that I know he’d done like hundreds of times, like on-boarding people and like, he was just super helpful. Everyone was always so helpful. Like helping me set up like multisig wallets and all these things that I just didn’t know about. There’s so many people I wanna thank for like, for being, an essential part of my on-boarding into the space. Like I literally would not have been able to do anything that I’m doing without these people like, Neer, Cavesa. I can’t even start it’s like, it would be like a Grammy speech, it’s like where do I stop? You know, that it’s like, everybody that I’ve encountered in this space has been nothing but helpful. And it’s really motivated me to do the same thing. And that’s where good karma really came from I was like, I’m like really doing well in this space. And like, I know that that this space really roots for the underdog more than anybody else. Like they’d rather see a kid come from nothing and start popping off in web three than like someone that’s already established. So many of my friends are like, working Postmates jobs, doing jobs that like aren’t full-time music. When I knew that that was what they should be doing. They’re like my favorite artists in the world. And so I thought, what better way to do that than expose them to the space and also expose me to artists that I’ve never heard of through a community project. And so that’s where Good Karma records.
So let’s, let’s break apart this entire intro for a minute. Okay. You mentioned the love umbrella. You mentioned Good Karma DAO, you mentioned in the beginning you moving down from SB to LA to make music. Can we start really quick from there? So who like, if people aren’t familiar with your style. Okay. How would you explain your genre and maybe list some of the songs that you’ve created that may be more well known than others that you find, more enjoyable that you have worked on? Give me some more context on the music side of things just for everybody that’s listening. I wanna also talk about Good Karma DAO, but we’ll get to all that in just a minute. So more on the music side. So for those who don’t know you.
Favorite songs that I’ve made, I mean, there’s records that like they were cool moments for sure and have stuck with me and motivated me or got me excited about the different genres that I do because like Grady as an artist, like the Grady music is very different than like a lot of the stuff that I’ve done for other people. I did a record last year for Ty Dollar Sign and Jack Harlow and 24 K Golden for Fast and Furious movie. I’ve done shit with June Alex from Chain Smokers and, and they did a record with Kigo that I worked on. I feel like I’ve done most like genres of pop. I’d love to get into country. I love making country music. I just feel like it’s gate kept pretty hardcore as far as like, actually making hits in the space. But I get a lot of joy outta making those records just because like there’s so is what it is, you know what I mean? Like country music is so cool to me just because like it’s not embellished in any way and like it is very easy to like break down what it’s about. And when you do, and I compare it to other, you know, iterations of pop I’m like, well, rappers are mostly singing about money and girls. Right. Like girl pop stars are usually singing about heart break and you know, guy pop stars are usually singing about like trying to get a girl. And it’s like, okay, those three things like kind of excite me I guess. And like, I relate to that, but like what about like being on a boat with my friends, like drinking a beer and just like listening to music, like the fact that that’s like, what that genre is about is just so epic. I just like being on a boat fishing, make stuff, drinking beer and listening to music with my friends and I’m like, yeah, I relate to that. It’s sick. Like, why wouldn’t we wanna listen to that? It’s good energy.
All right. So the next album is gonna be all country. That’s what’s gonna be on chain, right. You’re gonna tokenize a country album.
I mean, ironically it is the closest thing that country has ever done. Cherry is very much a like folk leaning album.
Good Karma DAO
Which by the way, gives off the vibe, just looking at the imagery and how you kind of position the whole look and feel of the entire crowd-fund on mirror. You’ve honestly done a lot in your career too. So Good Karma DAO. What is it? You brought that up a little bit in your discussion, which full disclosure I’m in Good Karma DAO. I don’t have the tokens. I missed that. So when are you guys gonna do another sale for me to buy selfishly, but I’ve been attending. I attended the first show. Okay. Saw you perform I love the vibes that all of Good Karma DAO kind of pushes out. Tell me about the birth of Good Karma DAO. What the goal is? Why are you doing it? These showcases that you put up every month? Gimme the spiel. What is it?
Sure. Yeah. Good Karma DAO is the name that we’re running with right now, that is an umbrella of different projects that will be released over the next few years. First one being Good Karma Records, which is a decentralized music label that we have, I think, 87 members right now. We did a raise for 20Eth in October and had 87 backers with a cap of 0.2, because I wanted to make sure that we had had established a breadth of people instead of just like a few heavy hitters would kind of defeat the purpose of it being decentralized. So we launched that and for the last few months have been basically setting up the infrastructure, locking down the studio, locking down the offices, locking down all the equipment required to like give artists that don’t have those resources, a space to be developing themselves and developing their sound. So we’re actually like in the process of signing our first two artists right now we’ve gotten their contracts over to them. We’ve been back and forth negotiating and we’ll be presenting it to the DAO in this next week.
Yeah. So how do you actually get involved? How do you become a member and an artist in Good Karma DAO?
So right now, well actually it closed yesterday, but we did a roll call to see how many people were looking to buy in and how much they wanted to buy in for the next 5% of our token supply. Cause we’ve only allocated 20% so far. We’re doing it in batches so that we can continue to get more and more people in. So right now,I think in the next few days I have to check with the team, but there should be a link for you to be able to exchange Eth for karma.
So the way the decentralized labels set up, how does scouting work? How does placement work? How does all these other components that a traditional label would’ve otherwise done? How does this now get mimicked in a decentralized fashion?
Yeah. Good question. A lot of the set up of a label is the exact same. The biggest differences are that instead of like one or two people making the decisions as far as like where the money goes and who gets on-boarded and just the biggest decisions of a label are made by an entire community of passionate music lovers instead of just a few people on top.
Got it, got it. Got it. Yeah. Okay. Got it. So Good Karma DAO these showcases that you put on every single month all the members that you guys put in and give a spot to perform, are they in the DAO? Are they artists of the DAO?
Not every time. No. So it’s pretty much always independent artists every now and then we’ll have an artist come on that we just love, but for the most part, it’s independent artists and it’s mostly artists that we are interested in signing to the label DAO.
Got it. Okay. Yeah. Makes sense. Recap quickly, the love umbrella.
Wait before we go there. You went to the first one, right? In December. How was that?
Good Karma DAO’s First Showcase
Honestly, I haven’t been out to a live performance in a long time. It’s been a minute. It was so exhilarating. It was so like heartwarming. I felt like I could finally disconnect from work for a minute and just enjoy myself and be present, which if you ask people around me I really love what I do. I’m online a lot. Right. And you see the drums behind me. And I feel like ever since I got a crypto, I am a drummer. Yes. I’ve been playing since like five years old, from everything from like rock funk, jazz R and B gospel, like all that stuff. And I feel like ever since I got into crypto, my like passion for music hasn’t died down rather has become little faint. And my energy has shifted towards this digital economy, whatever you want to freaking call web three. And being at that showcase, being at the performance, I don’t even know how to, it was amazing. I really had a good time. I’ll give it to you. It was really good. And Grady, I’ll tell you this too, bro. Watching you perform. That was the first time I saw you perform me and my friend, Joey, we both looked at each other like, wow, this guy’s a superstar. Like what the hell? We were honestly like super impressed and the way you were able to move the entire audience and the intention is not to fan girl. Like not to be like such a whatever right now, but just to give you credit where credits deserved, it was really well done. It was really well done.
Thank you. I’ve been performing for a long time. I think what really impressed me was a, the energy from some of these artists that have done either no shows or like less than five. Also, I was expecting the energy to be electric, but I really was astounded when I was standing on stage watching some of these guys perform just how connected everybody was, because most people in the audience hadn’t heard of a lot of these artists before. And the fact that that the entire room was moved, to that degree strictly off of the vibe right there and then instead of like the nostalgia of being excited about the records that you know, because a lot of time, that’s what hypes you out, but seeing how connected people were with that moment, as, it was like, it was very proving to me that that we were on something cool.
So check this out. So for those who weren’t there, it wasn’t just live performances. There were dancers, right. There was an, there was a bar, right there was all these different characters and individuals from all different backgrounds there that all like came under the roof of somewhat of crypto of like mindedness of web three to some extent. It was really, it was really cool and I’m really excited to see what, what Good Karma DAO kind of pushes out next. I know you guys have a showcase coming out at the end of the month. Was it January 30th or something? The 20th. So in 10 days from now we’re recording on the 10th.
Some other really cool things that we’re doing at the beginning of February as well and end of January.
Yeah, dude. Epic. I love what it stands for. I want to buy in which I probably shouldn’t say that on the recording. So this is not investment advice. I’m just a musician I love this stuff I align with it and I love where you guys’ heads are at.
It’s really like if you’re interested in being a part of the decision making that is traditionally present in a label, then it’s a great place to be. There’s so much going on in the next few months for this sect of good karma that I’m so excited and there’s so many incredible people working full time on it. I’ve never been so confident in something that that I’ve surrendered entire control of. I feel really confident about the people that we have building this with me. So I’m excited to see where it goes. And like I said, like, it’s so weird to try to envision what eight months from now looks like, because there’s so much that we’re built thing that I just don’t even know where my time is going to be best allocated and where it’s gonna be supplemented by other people that are more competent in doing the things
Makes a lot of sense. I guess for full transparency, like sure. I’m excited about it. Right? Sure. I wanna be supportive, but by no means, does that mean anybody else should be a part of it? Right. So I think I need to say that so I don’t get shot on in the comment section.
It’s just like anything else it’s like, don’t join a football club, if you don’t like football. This is for a specific group of people, which to me it’s like, do you like music? And do you like to see people come up? Do you like to be literally invested in the artist that you believe in, then this is a cool place to be. And that to me is everyone that I know, I don’t know, a single person that wouldn’t want to like be on the ground floor of an artist and, and know that they are actually a part of this person’s journey and they have vested interest in them, you know? Cause as they blow up, that’s actually the main thing that we’re doing at Good Karma records like four artists is helping them develop their social tokens so that they don’t need us or, or anyone all they need is their own and community. So we’re like a community curation community.
Makes alot of sense.
We’ll be doing that for artists that we don’t even sign. Just helping them build their web three social presence.
So for the artists that are listening to this right now. Okay. How do they get involved? How do they jump in? How, if they want your support, how do they do that?
I mean it’s just like any other web three project
Just join your discord. Introduce yourself
Introduce yourself in the telegram. There’s very specific chat channels and channels to get your stuff listen to and find collaborators. We have like, you know, producers, mixing engineers, A and Rs basically anyone in music that you can find through that discord. There’s so many places to look now. It is a good hub. There’s so many talented people that have tapped in and it feels like there’s just more every day. So yeah, if you’re an artist and you’re interested in getting more involved in web three, not even necessarily with Good Karma, come check out Good Karma because we’ll help you out regardless of whether or not we wanna sign you. I just wanna see more kids getting their presence in web three solidified because like, I really do believe that that it’s going to change the music industry. It already has.
Yeah. I love it. All right. The love umbrella.First of all, I listened to that. It was very theatrical. It was very different than any other thing I’ve come across, especially the introduction. It’s hard to put into words like on the podcast. And that’s why I was so pissed that I missed the actual like crowd-fund, because I was also on the phone with Cooper right before it happened.
Are you talking about the party bed?
Yeah.
Oh yeah. Yeah. That was cool.
Yeah. And he was like, check this thing out. And I was like, I was like, okay. Yeah, cool. I’ll do it. He sent me the link. He sent me the link and I was like, I forgot to do it. But whatever the love umbrella was that your first piece on chain?
No. No it wasn’t. It was the third piece though. The first thing that I put out and the second thing were two records off of the love umbrella that didn’t make the final cut of the album. I wrote over 40 songs for the love umbrella and just as far as sequencing went, it got boiled down to 19. And then I had all these records left over that I’m like, these are awesome and I’m doing a deluxe edition and like putting it out on vinyl and be releasing the album. But in the meantime I’m like, why not just put out some, some records exclusive to web three? I think that that separation is also cool. I’ve been able to like push new records in the space that I wouldn’t otherwise like have time in the timeline of my music on like DSPs for . So it’s been super exciting to be able to expose, like the future records early in that space, because it is the future.
It is the future bow. It is the future. I do agree with you.
I wonder how many people watching this are gonna be sick of me, like popping my, my air drums over and over.
Honestly, I think it adds the entire experience of Grady.
It’s not, but it’s not the Grady experience. This is just the cold Grady experience
Are you sick?
What do you mean you can’t feel?
I don’t know. I thought this was part of the act. This is part of the showcase, the part of the performance that you’re putting on.
I’d rather have COVID, then I like at least have an excuse. I just have a cold, I have a sore throat. I woke up with a cough
Loser
Yeah. It’s funny how like this is probably worse than the current strain of COVID like symptomatically and like it’s, it’s funny that people are more terrified of COVID than this, you know? Cause this sucks. This really sucks. I am powering through for you, Adam. I want you to know this is a labor of love.
$CHERRY Part 1
Dude, power through for me and introduce cherry. Talk to me about cherry. This is the latest project that you’re working on. Full disclosure I’ve contributed to this because I’m a fan. Okay. And I’m excited to see what you do. You mentioned earlier that this is the closest thing that represents somewhat of a genre to country or folk music. I said earlier how the graphics kind of mimic that type of look and feel, but tell me what is the idea behind Cherry and why call it Cherry?
Well it’s called cherry for just a specific reason. I’ll tell you why it’s called cherry. It’s called cherry because the girl that kind of got the ball rolling for me to start making the album had a cherry tattoo and always wore these cherry ear rings. It was just kind of a little homage to her, even though the project ended up evolving into more of an exploration of like my inner self and the girl that the love umbrella was about. It all started because of her. And also like the first record on the album that’s coming out in a few weeks Jersey, feels the most like the album to me. Like it kind of walks in representing what I wanted the album to feel like throughout and that’s just very cut and dry and and soft and and bare. And that’s why I wanted it to, if you go look at the graphics,I’m collaborating with my friend, Kate, her artist’s name is the Ghost Cat. She’s a incredible artist and tattoo artist. And she gave me this one.
Ok cool. Cool. Yeah, we see that.
She’s slick with the fine lines. This is actually a piece for the album. And so Kate and I have been spending like pretty much all of our time together for the last few weeks. There we go, that’s on my arm. Look at that guy. He’s so cute.
So is that you?
Yeah. It’s anyone though, there’s no face. There’s probably not gonna be much of faces throughout the project. I mean, like, this is, it’s so funny. You always wanna say it’s like, you’re best and like your coolest work .The love umbrella is like infinitely more electric. This album is very confidently, I can say the most cathartic project that I’ve made. The thing that, that has felt like the most genuine medicine of anything, we’re at 38 backers. Let’s go. Let’s go. So basically what, what this crowd-fund is for is a, because I’m an independent artist, like trying to continue to like, show what can be done for other independent artists, shouts out to Daniel Allen of course, for getting that ball rolling. I wanted to think of new, new ways to like get the community engaged that like is a fan of me and is supporting, my music to like be a part of the process of kind of defining and shaping this album. And obviously, like I’m never gonna take any sort of criticism on the music. That’s something that I will do on my own from start to finish, aside from listening parties and like making sure that it all scans well, but at least for this project, it was very definitively, like I had to be the one to make all the music, but I wanted to get the community involved in new ways. And so when we started making all the art for it, I thought, this could be a cool idea. What if, the community that’s that’s backing this with me is playing a part in deciding how we represent each album, because I’m gonna be putting out each song as an individual NFT and so all of them are going to need artwork, single artwork. And so Kate’s been absolutely crushing it making a whole bunch of stuff around what she feels when she listens to each song. And I told you I’m sick and I have in my head what I think works for each record and she has in her head what works for each record. But we just wanted to get other ears on the project to see how they felt when they experienced it prior to it coming out and develop like a closeness with the people that are making this album come to life also having vested interest. 20% of like all the sales are going back into the token supply. As the album gets sold and resold over the years, that just continues to compound.
That goes through the as you coined it, who invited Grady DAO, right? Name pending. I think it’s actually a cool name.
I love concise names,
I think it speaks for itself. Along with the creation of cherry, I will be establishing who invited Grady. A DAO to represent all past present and future Grady projects, musical and beyond. Okay. Yeah. What does that beyond entail beyond music? Like what do you imagine that experience kind of unfolding into? What should collectors expect? Like why should we get into it beyond betting on you?
For sure, beyond betting on me, I don’t, I don’t know, because as it says, it is just all things that are an extension of me. I just know myself well enough to know that I’m not going to stay exclusively in music forever. And have already been designing outside of it and developing outside of it with the other projects I’ve been working on for like the last year. It’s more of, it’s more of like, take my hand if you’re interested in seeing where this thing goes, because I don’t know. It’s like I just said, I really don’t know what seven months from now looks like there’s so many things that I’m working on that, I kind of want to do it together and see what makes sense for us, because I’ve spent so much time alone making art and I’ve found that it’s good for getting ideas off the ground or for incepting them for plant the seeds. But once the seeds are in the ground, it really does take a village to water it. I want to, with everybody continue to expose them to the things that I’m thinking of and the projects that I’m working on and what I I think could exist and getting the green light from everybody else on where we can devote energy collectively, because I know that I’m gonna always gonna fall my heart and try to do that without interference. But that being said, like wherever that thing goes, I want to have people along for, and I’m excited to be starting that with Cherry because this is such a personal project for me. Whatever leftover funds we have after we’ve made all the, music videos and all the assets for it and the website that is gonna be so epic. We’re also just gonna be getting other artists involved in web three. That’s something that like I’ve found incredibly rewarding is being able to like buy an artist first NFT. I’ve been collecting my friends’ work for like basically like since I started selling work and in web three. And so like, continuing to have that synergetic relationship with a community of artists is important to me.
Future of Music in Web 3
Let me ask you this Grady, what do you think the future of music looks like in the world of web three?And by the way, it’s such a broad question. It’s such a general question too, so you can take it from whatever angle you want, but I think you bring in a unique point of view to this.
Cool. I think the way that I feel about it probably isn’t the way that a lot of artists right now feel about it. ButI realized probably like five months ago that music was probably gonna get to a place where it was free to listen to. That just makes the most sense as a metric. There’s people that are developing ways to continue to add value for artists. Catalog was really one of the first, Audius being another. But I got involved with David Greenstein, to develop Sound XYZ, probably like five months ago. And I think it’s the most promising setup that I’ve seen so far, because the buy-in cost is low enough that you can get a whole bunch of fans engaged and feeling a part of a song, but also getting artists paid. The way that I see it is we’re continuing to have like a greater and greater disparity of wealth. And I’ve always felt that gate keeping art in any way isn’t kosher. It’s not what I want. I would prefer to have music be free, but be cherished and be valued and appreciated. I think that all these incredible sales like me selling the love umbrella, like Halik selling his project, all these artists selling their work,I think is really telling of the importance of finding real supporters of your work. In the current setup, like you can have literally hundreds of thousands or millions of fans and still not be living off of your work. And that to me is insane when, we can have a hundred fans in web three and, and be full-time musicians. So if you take that and you spread that out farther and farther, I think that you’re going to see that every artist will agree that being able to listen to music for free makes the most sense and being able to be a part of that artist trajectory and journey, and actually invest in them is what makes the most sense? Because we all are companies, all musicians are companies, you know what I mean? Like you’re a company, you are an individual with other individuals working for your identity, for your brand and your product is your music and your merch and all this now NFTs are just another thing, right? It’s another thing that people can purchase, but this time you’re adding like actual connection to your brand, they’re investing in you as a brand. So I think having that availability, what’s going to redefine the music industry. I don’t see streaming services lasting in the way that they are currently for more than 10 years.
Parallels between Music and Crypto
From that tangent, what are the parallels between the music industry and the crypto industry?
It’s a good question. Well it depends on what sec of each you’re talking about I think as far as like culturally relevant things, it’s pretty top heavy. There’s a lot of people making decisions and kind of guiding the ship that maybe shouldn’t be, I think the relationship between the music industry and the crypto industry are like, they kind of have the ability to flip each other on their sides because music has a shit ton of culture, music defines culture and crypto has a whole bunch of commodity. It has a whole bunch of future shaping. And so right now you have all these incredible, DAOs popping up all these crazy ideas that people are just aping into being. It’s exciting and it’s new and it’s fresh. And now you have thousands of people that almost bought the declaration of independence. And it’s like, everyone’s just kind of high minding around these crazy concepts and new like ideas that may or may not work, but who gives a shit because we’re in it together and it’s fun and it’s new and no one’s done it before. But now you have a group of people that used to be a few people making decisions. And now it’s like a whole bunch of kids in their bedroom are competing with like with like the richest people in the world on bidding words and Sotheby’s like, that’s insane. If you take that and you apply it to musicians and artists and realize that every good artist has the ability to have that, fever, pitch, excitement around their project. It’s just about finding those fans, getting them to be a part of your journey and having you grow together with them. So that’s why Good Karma records made so much sense to me. I was like, why wouldn’t a label be owned by the people that support the artists? Why wouldn’t the artists also have equity in that label? All of our artists get equity in Good Karma as well. And like those things just make the most sense. If you think about it from like the fans are the ones that are buying the tickets and they’re the ones that are listening to the music, they should be a part of this process. You know, they should be involved. They should have equity. These artists wouldn’t exist without them and vice versa. Artists give the energy and fans give the gasoline. And I think we’re noticing now like a big mental shift and a lot of my friends and a lot of musicians hitting me up through sound XYZ and through Good Karma and just through what I’m doing, like being like, yo, like I can do this. And I’m like, yeah, you can like, just take the time to commit because that that’s really, the only thing is it’s just time. It’s like, if you’re willing to commit the time, it will work out. I promise like we’re so early in this, that people don’t realize that like, most people don’t hold NFTs. Most people don’t hold crypto and this stuff is going to continue to get more and more popular. You know, we’re talking about 4% of the world having crypto wallets right now, 4%. Imagine if 30% did. Imagine if 40%, you know, imagine if that 10 X it will just continue to get more and more valuable. So just step in while it’s still early, because this will be what people are doing. Like Good Karma records will be one of a thousand music label DAOs. I’m confident because it just makes sense for a whole bunch of people to get together around a certain vibe that they connect with and be like, let’s make this happen. Let’s make this vibe happen. Let’s make a train and say all aboard.
Web 3 Investments by Major Labels
Do you ever see a scenario where, so let’s look at FWB okay. Yes. A hundred percent. Let’s look at FWB for a second. Okay. They got a capital infusion from Andre Horwitz. And it basically solidified the club like on a mainstream level. Okay. Got a lot of headlines and whatnot. Do you imagine at some point, Good Karma DAO getting some type of like similar investment from like a Universal Music Group or an Atlantic records or a Sony working in this DAO format, or do you imagine them spinning off their own DAO and changing the way they kind of have been approaching, artist management, record labels for centuries, right. For what, what the standard is? You know what I mean? How do you imagine that kind of unfolding?
That’s a good question. I’ve been approached by VCs already. And the main thing that I’ve been steadfast on is I don’t want any one entity to hold more than 5% of it or else it defeats the purpose. The simplest way to put it is I would be happy to help any major label or any Indy label transition into a DAO structure. I just don’t see a world in which that is going to happen anytime soon. It’s just such a different setup. And in the priorities that it feels are, are so different. I mean, the deals that that artists get from major label are just so backwards compared to what I think they should be and what kind of deals we offer. We never take a majority share of master or publishing, whereas most major label deals are between like 60 and 80%. I just don’t know if I’m correct, I feel like I’m correct in it, maybe there’s some middle line maybe like we continue to offer more and more, and maybe they continue to offer less and less. I think that’s kind of where the tipping point will be. I think labels will have to start asking for less and less from their artists as artists realize that they can get the same level of support from their fans without giving up as much. Because labels are incredible. I mean, my experience with labels has, has been awesome and I’ve met so many amazing people at different labels that are in it for the right reasons and they’re not the ones that have anything to do with, with the shitty deals that artists are getting. So I know that like systematically there’s a lot of problems, but intrinsically there’s a lot of good. At its core, music labels are helping artists get their music heard and that’s the main thing that we’re interested in doing is getting artist music heard and getting them paid for it. Short answer. I don’t see a world in which we collaborate with a major, unless they were willing to adopt the same ideologies that are present in web three. But that being said, I would be more than happy to help them and also just get their input on how they see that shaping because they are giants and they, they have done so much like for music, they are the music industry. I think we have a lot to learn from each other. We’re all out here in web three, like still figuring out exactly what works and what doesn’t. I think a lot of this is still very educational and preliminary and we’re going up against an industry that’s been in place for almost a hundred years. They obviously have a lot of things that are right and that are useful. I just think that there has to be some redirection of like how much they take from their artists. I just hear so many stories about artists, like having their projects done and then their label won’t let them put it out for whatever reason. And like, that to me is just backwards. The only reason ever to do that is like, if you wanna make sure that, that artist doesn’t shoot themselves in the foot. I am never interested in telling someone when they can and can’t put something out. I mean, we’re all just sitting on so much shit because of like that just being ingrained.
How can new artists join the Good Karma DAO?
Yeah. So let’s, wrap up with a couple questions here. A new independent artist wants to get into crypto the first step, get into Good Karma DAO, step number one. Step number two. What’s next? Like how do you get involved? How do you get started? Yeah. And I’m asking it from a very like dumb down point of view, right? Sure. For people who want to follow a path like yours, like Daniel Allen’s, like Valencia, like Harrison First, the list goes on and on and on.
So the biggest issue right now is that everybody wants to be integrated that I talk to now that everyone is like, it’s like, of course, like why would I not want to make $10,000 in four seconds? That sounds awesome. The problem is like we’re still a really small team. We don’t have the whole world working on the back end yet. And it’s a lot of work just to get these things going every time. So my biggest advice to anyone, at least that’s an artist, that’s trying to get tapped into Web three is start at Good Karma. Start, start in any, in any community that is web three music centric, Good karma is a great place to start. But then tap into the discords of sound XYZ, of Catalog, introduce yourself, show your music, start being an active member and being helpful and you’ll find that people are more than happy to help you in return. I think we’re, we’re still in a super synergistic phase where people do have time as busy as we all are. Like I allocate time to helping people get into web three. And I know that even the busiest people, I know Cooper still does this. Everyone, I know, regardless of how busy is more than happy to help, as long as you’re willing to put in the time. It does require time and it does require attention and it isn’t cut and dry yet. There still is a lot of legwork to do and you have to be willing to do it and be active. Everyone that I know in this space, it’s become a huge part of their life. And it’s interesting for me, knowing that I had to give up part of being a creator of music right now, to be able to facilitate other music creators and get them to a place where I felt that everybody was winning. Cause I haven’t really been making music in like four months. I maybe written like three or four songs and I know that that won’t last forever. I just feel like what I’m doing right now is super necessary to making sure that other people can do the same thing, and can get in the space and, and start being as free as possible. I care at least as my much about that as I do about making my own music is, is watching other artists flourish.
What can we expect from Grady in 2022?
I love it, dude. Last question. What can we expect from Grady in 2022?
The moon is where we’re headed. That’s all I’ll say for now.
Right
We’re going to the moon.
If you’re listening to the audio, come watch the YouTube. You’re the man.
I love you. I’ll see you the next showcase
You got it. I’ll see you Thursday. Are you gonna Daniel Allen’s thing?
Yeah, of course. You kidding? I’ll be in the front row with my book.
This was fun.
I did wanna talk about citizens of Stanley Gaspa and Spice DAO and the film DAO and all of that, but I know that you already have Spartan coming on. I know that he’s just gonna crush it. And we already had so much to talk about, but I’m so excited. You guys have to tune in to listen to Spartan. One of my best friends collaborator on that project. He is the brain behind it and absolute genius. I’m so excited for what he’s doing and we’re in together.
I’m stoked to have him on. I’m glad for him to be on season four and Grady we gotta do this sometime again soon, in a few months once Cherry is complete, the songs are out, Good Karma has developed more.
Thank you to everybody that is tapping into the Cherry crowd-fund through this. I’m excited to have you in the group chat. And also if you’re not, thank you. I feel like by the time that you listen to this, there’s a good chance that the first songs out. So I hope you like it. Thank you for listening and listening to me, talk for an hour and Adam,
Thank you. We’ll see you soon.