With so much happening, and of course a lot more planned. I wanted to take a moment to share some key thoughts, news and updates across a few topical items that impact not just the platform, but of course all of us connected to it.
With much ground to cover, thought it sensible to share these updates from me (perhaps every 3 months, maybe more if/as you would like), using a logic that will stay constant, even as news and key areas to cover/debate change and progress.
In short — I’ve tried to make this easy to navigate.
Back (Jan-Mar):
Acknowledgements and achievements
Beats (Apr)
Updates on current key items and issues
Beyond
View of upcoming timeline and deliverables
Please Note — these will not be the only official communications or writeups!
BACK
As those who were tracking Gala Music know, the platform launch date was pushed back a couple of times, from Autumn 2022, to January 2023 — launching as a ‘tech rollout’ on March 28, 2023–410 days after we made our intention to enter the music space known.
For those who aren’t aware of the proposition (the what, why and how), you can dive into ‘the source of truth’ to learn more. This document is ‘living’ and as such, it will be shortly updated with any/all relevant information from this post.
So March then … Well we saw more than 10,000 nodes activate and welcomed 19.4k new visitors to the platform. While this is of course an early version of the ecosystem and only a slice of what it will do — there were some pretty neat tech pieces that went live during deployment:
- Decentralized Track Hosting
- Community Track/Node Player Pairing
- Daily Distribution Rewards
As with all new things, there is always a lot to learn and some ‘kinks’ to work through, track pairing (since updated) and player node owner rewards were both hot topics at release and in the case of nodes, still very much a big theme of conversations. You can keep up with these in our discord, but for those who like a more considered communication flow we will be introducing longform updates to let the community know about key decisions and changes ahead of releases and/or key activations.
Ahead of our launch in March, BT Orb Holders were dropped tracks with ‘listen-enabled reward’ utility in the Gala Music ecosystem. Jane Hancock fans expecting their digital collectibles (non-earning) were still waiting (…) and the promised October London tracks, being sent to player node owners and buyers of the artist, were placed on hold. The reason for this is that an artist holding too much of the content (%) on platform would create an imbalance across a number of platform features. We will of course revisit and make sure we’re aligned with October London, as we do with all Gala Music artists, to ensure we can strike when the time is right (note: this doesn’t impact a track release if that’s something he and the community are keen on). Stash box holders and gold chain owners — in March plans progressed with Snoop Dogg concerning a unique (free) release that will forever remain exclusive to holders. Due to previous announcements and restrictions around this, a separate communication will be shared in May to make clear who will receive the item(s) and why.
BEATS
We are now well into the technical roll-out, exactly a month at the time of writing. Some interesting stats for you, if you’re in the Gala Music Discord you would have seen these already!
- There are now over 66,000 music tracks being hosted on player nodes.
- April saw the platform serve over 1 million (decentralised) listens
- We also saw a 141% increase in visitors to the site (47k)
- A further 3.6K nodes came online (10,033 came online in March)
- More than 1.6k community members are now showing their support by putting tokens in Gala Music artist’s pools
It would be remiss of me to highlight only the wins, we of course have had some bumps. A few delays to daily minting (although note all BEAMS have been distributed without loss to those qualifying) and a specific error around an overmint, which the team will be addressing in the coming weeks to ensure balance is restored — this will not be through the distribution of ‘additional’ tokens.
For those not following in our Discord, during this early test phase, we are minting 250k BEAMS each day for distribution. This distribution only goes to those who own tracks and/or player nodes, who are also meeting the required 20 hours ‘up time’. BEAMS are calculated based on listens — unique listens have a higher weighting than repeat listens. No BEAMS are allocated to Gala Music for operations/costs, and none are allocated or distributed to artists at this time.
Along with much other background work, April also saw us launch the leaderboard, a first step in what will be a platform that encourages people to sign in and play …
Another aspect we rolled out this month was tiers, thought this was a good opportunity to share some more information with you all.
There are 5 tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. These tiers will now have fixed track amounts going forwards. While the quantity will now be set across tiers, artists will have a price range that they’re able to operate within, based on their needs and what they believe their fan base(s) will be open to.
To determine if an artist is able to rise to the next tier, Gala Music have implemented a points system, this includes items such as:
- Sold Out Tracks
- 70% sell outs
- Held BEAMS
- Track Performance
- All Access Fulfillments
- Exclusive Track(s)
- Exclusivity Window
- DSP Streams
An artist, group and/or band can of course join Gala Music above the Bronze Tier. Their entry level is based on external performance indicators, as well as their agreement with Gala Music (such as exclusivity, engagement and their contribution/content for The All Access Store).
Criteria becomes more stringent as an artist rises tiers, and artists may only jump Tiers once per every 90 day period, no matter their performance on or off the Gala Music platform.
When an Artist rises to the next Tier, the rewards rate for BEAMS held in their Pool decreases by 2%.
However, for fans that have already held BEAMS in their pool, the previous rate is honored. This rewards early supporters for holding BEAMS against the artists they believe will successfully grow with Gala Music.
While we’re here a little note on Access Pools.
Access Pools allow you to support your favorite artists and earn points for unique experiences, merchandise, items and music. Each month, the top artist in each tier with the most BEAMS held unlocks marketing and promotional benefits from Gala Music.
The points a supporter earns from holding BEAMS in an Access Pool can be spent in the All Access Store to unlock exclusive experiences, content and items. While points are universal, you will receive a discount on content from artists whose pool you hold BEAMS in.
Beyond
The All Access Store. As many of you know, this was intended to be an April launch, however, due to some recent complexities surrounding redemption, we have taken the decision to delay its rollout until later in May, in order to deploy our best version of V1.
The All Access Store is not just an important feature for BEAM (and of course soon token) holders, it is also an essential part to our UA strategy which, with our first month now behind us, is top of my mind.
Along with the All Access Store, May will welcome the first notable partnership of many. Attendance at VeeCon (May 18–20), will bring with it a huge moment for 18 emerging artists — 3 of which will take to the main stage to perform.
The activations before, during and after, will be focused on the VeeCon community (not just their conference attendees), to increase sign-ups to the platform — and drive those all important listens.
Going forwards, I will share key stats on the activities happening on and around the platform, so that you can see the impact of campaigns, releases, content, features, partnerships and of course that all important token launch.
I hope this has been useful to you. Please know your support and input is of great importance, not just to the team and I, but to all those who we believe will benefit and of course enjoy all that Gala Music will bring to life.
Here’s to a better way for us to play — together!
Bux
