Hi everyone,

So that was May … lots of news and updates to share with you all, I’m pretty certain that you’d like me to save ‘the fluff’, so let’s just get into it …

Format (proposed for quarterly update, but have decided that it can work for a monthly one as well!):

Back — what happened in May
Beats — what’s coming in June
Beyond — what we’re tackling further out

BACK

Mayhem? A little … May brought with it our ‘activation’ at VeeCon, important for many reasons, with a key one being the ability to see/test our power of ‘attraction’.

The team and I have made no secret that the platform you have today (our/your MVP) has been built with our ‘OG’ owners and operators in mind — and to ensure we are able to successfully calibrate the ecosystem’s economy and technology ahead of scale.

However our ‘OGs’, while critical to the foundation of what we’re building, are not the ultimate force behind the platform’s needed growth — they cannot generate the engagement and interaction at the level that Gala Music is building for, not alone.

Currently there are 3 groups of initial ‘target users’ that we believe will be key, as we begin the process of scaling-up:

1. The wider Gala community
2. Connected Web3 communities
3. Fan/Artist communities

While we will continue to ‘lean-in’ to our vast Gala user base (earning-enabled music tracks in games will help here), VeeCon was a critical activation for us to see how the proposition was likely to land among our proposed ‘second wave’ of users — ‘connected web3 communities’.

The good news is that Gala Music landed incredibly well.

The small number of us on the ground were able to witness first hand a truly passionate reaction to what we’re taking on, and our approach to it. I have included some stats below but in addition to the ‘scores on the doors’, more than 18 emerging artists were able to record their tracks professionally in our mobile studio, and 3 as many of you will know, got to perform on the VeeCon main stage, opening for Jordin Sparks (now also signed to Gala Music).

I would like to take a moment to reflect on that part- thanks to your support, and this technology — we were able to take talented singer/songwriters from a microphone stand and a tiny audience, to a stadium stage and a VeeCon crowd — with all their music rights, creative control and authenticity intact … If you have yet to vote for Raging Casuals, Emily Faye or Just Shockey to record a version of their track with Jordin, please do — you have the power.

Along with VeeCon, the Gala Music team also rolled out ‘Listen and Earn’, introducing new users to the concept of earning rewards through participation. I am excited for us to build on this, but am encouraged to see the levels of engagement and keen to use the data we’re jumping into to continue to improve the impact of incentives, and increase the appeal/value associated with our ecosystem as a whole.

Speaking of our ecosystem … here are some key stats for you:

• 280% growth in new account creation in May
• Over 100k visits since March 28 deployment
• More than 70,000 music tracks have now been bridged over to Gala’s L1
• Over 13k users, from 129 countries, are now holding BEAMS
• We saw our first artist ‘level-up’ from Bronze to Silver
• We introduced 4 new artists and welcomed the return of 19 emerging artists
• This month 5 artists received more unique monthly listens on Gala Music than Spotify (meaning we’re starting to be a place for discovery as well as rewards)
• 17 tracks also had higher daily unique plays on Gala Music than on Spotify …

BEATS

Let’s start with BEAM rewards …

June will see us roll-out an updated algorithm. With two large label deals expected to close in June, we are keen, especially with bigger artists coming onboard, to ensure that we are reflecting track/artist performance beyond that in our small (… albeit growing) ecosystem.

Our update will seek to create an improved balance between rewarding emerging artist discovery and delivering a better experience for those holding higher tier tracks from more established artists.

The updated ‘popularity metric’ will take both Gala Music, as well as other major DSP data (Spotify, SoundCloud and YouTube) to ensure we’re being as fair and representative as possible. We will roll this out across all tiers, starting with Silver, then Gold, Platinum and Bronze.

To note, Gala Music plays will have the greatest weighting when it comes to popularity, meaning that while breakout Bronze tracks can still be exactly that, Gold tracks (for example) getting more plays ‘off platform’ will be better recognised within the ecosystem.

Recognition — StashBox Holders

While those that chose to purchase a StashBox received tracks, collectibles, game items and access opportunities, I have been open in acknowledging that there was more that could (and should) be provided in terms of value for those that exchanged.

3931 people exchanged in total, and 41 individuals also qualified for a Gold Chain.

Today, the last day in May, I can share that:

1. Qualifying StashBox Holders (not those who purchased open boxes on secondary market) will receive an earning enabled NFT for the upcoming film production ‘Snoop’s House’. Snoop’s House is a reality show being filmed this summer, it follows the challenges of upcoming musicians who want to show Snoop exactly what they’re capable of. Living together under one roof and undertaking various challenges set by the man himself — those who make it through to meet Snoop in LA will also be able to release music as a Death Row x Gala Music artist. The production will be streamed on Gala Film in September— and the earning-enabled NFTs will be sent exclusively to qualifying StashBox holders. We will be sending out the token you will need for this exchange shortly. The number of StashBoxes you exchanged will be reflected in the level of your NFT/number of frames received.
2. The Making of the Chronic. Snoop mentioned exclusive content from this would be given to holders previously, to confirm, each StashBox Holder will receive an exclusive collectible that is connected to the short film, these will not be made available via public sale. We will confirm shortly whether these will also include earning-enabled Film NFTs also (these will also be sent to holders at no cost)
3. Gold Chain Holders, this small and select group will also be offered the opportunity of a meet and greet with Snoop (UK and US) and will receive additional earning capabilities (this is in reference to Film NFTs) and an additional exclusive personalised collectible.
4. StashBox holders will also have early access to music associated with Snoop, including tracks related to film projects, on an ongoing basis.

ALL ACCESS

The store is still not ready to release … the delay is associated, in part with the fulfilment flow, our current estimation for deployment is 3 weeks.

I appreciate that for those receiving BEAMS, with no update on our exchange listing, that this will be frustrating, but like our approach to the exchange listing, we have decided to do it the best way we can, rather than as fast as we can. While I respect that ‘done’ is often better than ‘perfect’, I can only say that the team and I will continue to assess, work and strive to keep that dynamic in check — the health of our ecosystem is dependent on it.

As the All Access store is such an important part of Gala Music’s proposition there will be a dedicated write up around it, although I would like to make clear that what the store offers is not ‘perk’ based. By that, I mean that the items you will find in store are exclusive, usually inaccessible and/or directly related to Gala Music, our artists and/or brand partners and relationships.

BEYOND

Looking back to move forward, I wanted to mention David Bowie. The (attempted) giveaway in late April, created incredible press and reach for us. It only highlighted further that big names and big fan bases will be critical to our scale, as will be the experience those fans can have with us — without perhaps needing to jump into hosting and ownership.

Two words come to my mind: gamification and ‘stickiness’.

Connected to ‘stickiness’, I would like to flag the focus we have on improved fan experience and by extension the development of our app. The app is underway and while we will be updating you guys likely in my next post, if not before, just to let you know, we are aiming to have it live to support the festivals that we’re a part of later this summer.

Festivals? Yes.

More details will be released soon on a two year partnership that will not only see us associate with big brands but also provide our artists with a bigger stage to perform from … exciting (and hopefully fun) times ahead.

Finally, I know there are always a huge amount of questions that you guys feel are left unanswered, sometimes we just can’t answer but other times we do miss or neglect to come back to them, despite good intentions. We are as a squad looking at how to improve the communication flow and to gather and prioritise FAQs through customer support. Please bear with us, I am very aware of requests around the value of historic track plays, future node uptime rewards and the distribution %s, these are all being discussed internally (there is a great number of moving/connected parts and implications come with every decision), so I will provide an answer as soon as we are able.

I think that’s likely it for now, although before I sign off, I would just like to say a big thank you as always for your tenacity and your trust, it’s appreciated,

Here’s to more from music,

Bux

Hi Everyone,

Well another month has flown by, but it has not passed without meaningful progress, and it doesn’t end without a clear view on what comes next.

Let’s dive in …

Back — what happened in June

Beats — what’s coming in July

Beyond — what’s on the horizon

BACK

June saw the release of our first ‘slice’ of the ‘All Access’ store — a place where exclusive items, passes and experiences are made available to those who have earned BEAMS and/or held BEAMS against a Gala Music Artist(s) to earn POINTS.

How ‘holding’ BEAMS works:

1. Hold your BEAMS against your favorite artists

You are able to get some exclusive benefits by holding beams against an artist to get instant things such as pre-release (allow list) access and discounts on an artist’s tracks.

2. Spend less, when holding more

When holding BEAMS against an artist, your purchasing power in the ‘All Access’ store increases. Your purchasing power is shown by your POINTS balance.

The more POINTS you have, the more you can purchase with your held BEAMS. Your POINTS balance continues to grow over time. The lower the tier of the artist you’ve held against, the quicker your POINTS balance will grow.

3. Make exclusive purchases

In the ‘All Access’ store you can use the BEAMS you’ve earned and/or the POINTS associated with them to receive a discount on the number of BEAMS you need to spend to redeem the items you like. You can also just spend BEAMS.

4. Release the BEAMS you hold anytime

You can manage how many BEAMS you’re holding against your chosen artists in ‘My Access Pools’. You can get your BEAMS back at any time by releasing the amount of BEAMS you’re holding whenever you would like — although, when you do this, you will lose your holding benefits, as well as the POINTS you’ve accumulated.

Announcements

Last month I mentioned that we would be making some key partnership announcements in June. We have taken some more time to work on these, the first of them is now expected to be released during the week beginning July, 10.

June also saw us make updates to the ‘popularity algorithm’ — this will continue to be refined throughout the month of July to make sure we get to an optimal weighting/calculation — especially important as we get closer to our official token launch and continue to bring new listeners, partners and artists on board.

Key Stats

Speaking of artists, June saw us release three new names on the Gala Music platform — Yo Poppy, Win and Woo and Brray — welcome to the crew! We now have 63 artists — and are expecting another 20 to join us in July. It’s great to see the community supporting new names and great talents — on the day of All Access release we saw 577k BEAMs being held against artists in a single day.

In June the Gala Music website received more than 1.52M visits that is up by 196% since May (517k).Visits from India, Brazil and The Philippines have also increased significantly this month, with user acquisition (UA) activities — note, we will be focusing more on Brazil, the Philippines and South Korean markets in coming months.

In June Gala Music had:

• 16,353 BEAM holders, which is up 20.7% since May (13,551), note this number includes node owners without tracks and L2E earners too
• 7140 First time listeners — up by 232% since May (2,149)
• 73,027 Total tracks count — up by 4.2% since May (70,024)

BEATS

July will see ‘Snoops House’ roll into production (important for Stash Box holders).

As mentioned, July will also see the previous announcements we have made reference to, released and also their associated activities mobilized — supporting platform awareness, growth and content with new artists coming on board and through new experiences and items launched in the ‘All Access’ store.

Speaking of the ‘All Access’ store — further categories will come online throughout July and more items will be added to the currently live ‘Concerts and Festivals’ selection. We will be replenishing some items in ‘Concerts and Festivals’, and adding more experiences to it — including more non-US events.

A content/release calendar will also be shared — as we seek to improve our transparency and communication style.

As some of you know, the Gala Music app is in development, this is the final piece of our puzzle — its testing and release will be a key input to our ‘listen and earn’ proposition, and a key source of engagement as we scale.

We will be asking for support from our ‘round table’ community members for testing and feedback throughout July.

BEYOND

As we move toward full launch, you can expect more UA, marketing and public announcements across August, with us releasing details of key events for the Gala Music calendar.

The Gala Music app will be released in its MVP form to support some of the festival activities we have planned and to ensure we have a ‘web2’ friendly offer that requires little knowledge and effort to engage with.

August will also see the announcement of two further key collaborations for Gala Music …

I’m super aware that there are always questions and to that end, we will be running a more considered feedback loop with you all moving forwards. There will also be a 6 weekly roundtable with key members and voices of the community to help us ensure we’re listening and responding to your feedback. I know I say it often, but I will never be able to say enough, how much your thoughts, feedback and support is appreciated by all of us.

Looking forward to a hot summer!

Bux

So, that was October, blink and you might have missed it — much like I did my last day of the month update … let me try and make that up to you now.

As you would have noticed, the title of this post is ‘Back, Beats and Beyond’. I would like to start this time with ‘Beyond’ by saying that next time I write to you (maybe a little after the last day of this month), it will be regarding our full launch. That update will include details of the same and a narrative/link to the white paper — as well as our launch/post launch content/product plans.

About time I hear some, many… perhaps most of you, say. Indeed it is.

With that short, but hopefully useful message shared, let’s dive into some facts and stats, and perhaps a few pertinent items, that should also be of interest to you guys.

– BACK –

Every 3 weeks or so the MUSIC leadership team (myself included), have a meeting with Gala’s CEO, Eric Schiermeyer, to share our team’s progress, talk about key aspects of product development, which usually includes a few notable highlights, challenges, issues, debates and learnings … that we, as a team are tackling/working through together.

This week was ‘update meeting’ week and ahead of it, I was wrestling with the concept of ‘success’.

What qualifies as success? I know it appears that there are some glaring obvious answers to that question — the associated benefits of a desirable and healthy ecosystem for one … But, when you dig into the various inputs and contributing factors of ‘success’ there are plenty of rabbit holes to disappear down — similar, it would seem, to my writing style …

For STGE, ‘success’ is oddly more to do with people not knowing, or caring about Gala MUSIC. The importance of easy engagement and free access to a product (and by extension an artist experience) that isn’t like one already found on a current DSP app (I will come back to STGE in a moment).

For MUSIC, I know ‘sales’ is of course part of any business, but with a Web3 lens what’s happening ‘in store’ is often of less consequence than what’s happening across the platform.

The saving up to and claiming of items and experiences, the live sessions, tipping and interactions with artists. The release of new songs and the joining of new fans. The earnings, freedoms and ‘fandependence’ musicians can obtain. The ratio and balance between token supply, utility and demand. The level, impact and value of artist, fan and owner rewards, efforts and engagement.

I suppose what I’m really driving at here is that MUSIC will not be a sales driven business, but rather an engagement driven platform.

When you see the write-up (and the white paper) in a few weeks time, elements such as the bonding curve inputs (which will be simple and easy to track), will demonstrate how we intend to bring that definition of success to life.

Speaking of ‘success’, during our meeting preparations we also came across a couple of stats that I thought you may find interesting:

• When looking at all the products in the Gala ecosystem over the last 12 month period (MUSIC launched in its first form back in October 2022), Gala MUSIC has received more payments in $GALA than any other title or product.
• In that same period it was also the product that received the most amount of crypto payments (ETH). I’m mentioning this, as this latter fact in particular, is perhaps an initial indication that beyond our ‘local’ ecosystem there is a web3 audience that’s willing to engage, even at this pre-launch stage, in the MUSIC proposition.

A few more data insights for you:

• We’re closing in on 69K BEAM (test token) Holders (68,593)
• We still sitting on just over 13K unique Track Owners (13,157)
• 70% of Track Owners own 2 tracks or less.
• 81,011 Tracks have now been paired with a Music Player (Node Host)
• 7.29% of Listeners own the tracks that they’re listening to
• At the end of October MUSIC has 86 artists who have dropped 378 releases
• There are just under 162K MUSIC account holders (161,873)
• Listeners on the platform (at time of writing) had streamed 6,675,785 times

While we’re still on ‘BACK’, I thought it might be nice to take the opportunity to look at All Access.

I mentioned to you all last month (well, September) that this was a hugely important asset to the ecosystem — despite the overly simple, and by extension unclear update to the UI (POINTS and BEAMS) — more on that later — the fan store is starting to perform.

We have — and will continue — to take the time to build out the infrastructure, as well as the partnerships we need to scale, and will be reaching out to artists to gauge their appetite in taking part in the development process, as we look to build out ‘Store as a Service’.

The idea, as my label perhaps suggests, is that All Access can be a home for all artists, even those not on Gala MUSIC. It will be a place where musicians, writers and bands can offer fans exclusive items and experiences — with complete visibility and more creative control. I think it might also transpire as a neat little way to bring new artists on to the MUSIC platform.

A few stats on All Access for you:

• 1121 Total number of experiences claimed
• 839 Artist experiences been claimed
• 133 Unique Experiences launched so far
• 35 Gala+ Experiences
• 98 Unique Artist Experiences launched so far
• 663 Unique buyers
• 1,044,487 BEAMS spent

– BEATS –

For fear that this might turn into a classic Bux style communication (why be short when you can go on and on, and on …), I shall move on to ‘BEATS’ and a few important items of note.

The first is that we’re working on (re)updating the All Access interface so that you see your BEAM balance clearly and that we’re making the relationship between BEAMS and POINTS more obvious.

All Access — BEAMS and POINTS

For those who don’t know, or have struggled with our explanations to date — you do ‘convert’ BEAMS into POINTS when you hold BEAMS against an artist. The POINTS (through %APY) gain, for want of a better word, power, by decreasing the amount of BEAMS you need to spend.

The number of BEAMS doesn’t change by ‘holding’ them (you can stop holding at any time and get the same number of BEAMS back), but they are, through holding, converted into POINTS that can be spent in store. When you spend them (please remember there is the %APY aspect here) you are also spending the equivalent number of BEAMS that you converted to POINTS.

Important to note, if you have been holding BEAMS against an artist for some time, you will have more POINTS and therefore more buying power in the All Access store — i.e. you will be able to spend less BEAMS than someone who doesn’t have any POINTS. We will update the interface to make this as clear as possible. (wish me luck)

Whilst typing about All Access, the team have said that the store for 3D Bux holders is now ready. There are a couple of pieces still to link up, but for those who bought (as opposed to won) a 3D Bux you will be able to scan and access your unique videos and claim your additional gift items (welcome to the club!) by no later than Wednesday, November 08.

Algorithm V4 Update

This is one of those occasions where giving too much information may be problematic (tell us more), yet sharing too little content is just utterly unhelpful (why bother saying anything, vapor-wear anyone?), but, I’m writing this behind schedule, and it’s Friday, so I’m going to try and walk that line.

We have some ‘ready for the masses’ updates that will roll out just ahead of full launch. The OG system of fixed daily ‘BEAMS’ for example will be no more, as there will be a bonding curve in place. There will also be other upgrades relating to tracks and track tiers (track supply) for new music releases.

To speak (type) plainly, our intention is to make the track upgrade system fully transparent and ensure that track quantity is determined (and supported) by popularity, with the earliest/earlier mint level(s) of the track maintaining an advantage. As the number listens climb, so can the number of tracks made available for supporters and fans to buy.

Of course, with more tracks, there are likely more owners and with the previous tiers having their mint amount recognised as such, the tracks released in higher tiers will receive lesser rewards than their earlier mint/lower tier counterparts, which will be reflected in their price.

Essentially we are creating a more seamless link between an early Web3 buyer, who wants to receive the distribution that a lower quantity, early track release can earn, to a more fan compatible proposition, more suited to those who perhaps want to spend less in order to begin their collection, or to earn just enough from a high quantity track, to enter into giveaways/become eligible for rewards.

With this update in mind, we felt it sensible to release the V4 algorithm and a range of new artist and supporter incentives at the same time.

Rewards

We will be doing a lot more to incentivise and reward engagement, across owners, listeners and artists (we’ve talked about my love of ‘carrots’ and my dislike of ‘sticks’ a few times).

A couple of things of immediate note to share with you related to this today:

STGE Performances

This weekend we have our first LIVE party test on STGE.

It’s important that we reward both viewers and artists for coming to play. So we will be doing a BEAM boost for all those who login to STGE and watch (free to do).

If you are holding BEAMS against PLS&TY and you watch live, then you will receive 16 BEAMS as a ‘thank you’. If you watch live, but are not holding BEAMS against PLS&TY then you will receive 8 BEAMS as a ‘thank you’.

For those of us not in the US/not on the best timezone for such fun — if you watch the playback with 12 hours of it being streamed then you will receive 6 BEAMS if you’re holding BEAMS against PLS&TY and 3 BEAMS if you’re not.

I appreciate it may feel a little unfair to have a lesser boost for not being able to watch live, but those doing so are really helping us, as we seek to test the app (before adding more features and of course more content to it).

Speaking of content. Artists will receive additional perks and rewards for participating on STGE, the wonderful ones we have lined up, are also going to be in charge of curating a playlist (not just of their tracks). The more folks enjoy their playlist (shown by time spent listening to the same), the more rewards an artist will enjoy from it — hopefully a nice way for artists to support and promote each other’s tracks and for everyone to benefit.

The PLS&TY concert tomorrow will be communicated to you, our OGs in an email, it will also be pushed in a limited fashion on socials (it is only our first test), including discord announcements channel — with links etc.

Technology Updates

Connected to the above, we have released new versions of STGE on both Android and Apple this week — these include:

• SSO login
• “Curated by” labels
• Live parties
• Live streams
• Recordings
• Notifications
• Emoji interactions and live viewers counter
• (Android only) change from playlists to listening parties

For the platform side of life, while the guys are super busy preparing for full launch, they still managed to push several updates in October as well:

• New User Onboarding Feature/Flow
• Spend GALA[GC]
• Removing of pairing to inactive nodes
• Removal of Treasure Chest
• AA Store: Artist Experience Pages
• AA Store: Experiences as NFTs

Finally, as it’s open until November 06, 2023, I should also mention that we are currently running the ‘one BEAM’ campaign.

While this is focused a little more on showcasing to fans that ‘free’ music can be connected to greater things (for artists, as well as listeners), it would be remiss of me not to mention it to you all — there are some wonderful things up for grabs — and it is only a BEAM to enter.

Okay, I think that brings my update to a close for now. Although, I would like to write the last part of it to you, and say …

Thank you — it’s crazy how short, yet long 18 months has been, how much we’ve done, yet how much we still must do and how much frustration and yet support we have received. I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t change anything, but I’m so very grateful and appreciative of the vision you have and support you show the team and of course the artists, I always will be.

Here’s to the future,

Bux