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