The Emo Thread Genre • Page 319

I fuck with Topshelf, and do not fuck with NFTs. Outside of being used for money laundering, they’re a Ponzi scheme and someone will be stuck with nothing when it blows up. Pure speculation with no value is not a sustainable business model, and a huge waste of resource. Big difference between that and communities growing and building actual value.

That said, I don’t have time to read Topshelf’s explanation and I’ll have to dig in later. Maybe there’s more to it, maybe it all sounds like another grift. Definitely seems like there’s more to it than the early NFT market when artists were getting involved to make a quick buck while the idea was new.

Every business feels like a grift now, I get people saying fuck this immediately, even from someone they like and trust usually.

 

I would recommend this piece by Everest Pipkin who is someone I broadly trust “BUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES WITH CRYPTOART WILL BE SOLVED SOON, RIGHT?”

I like Kevin. I like Topshelf. But I think it’s foolish to think that any of the issues with cyrpto will ever be solved and we’ll ever reach a future that doesn’t hurt someone

 

Yes, the first point here is absolutely true, and it's why I can't be too upset with artists who explore the space. But my big issue with music NFTs in particular is that the only thing(s) that NFTs offer over, say, Bandcamp or Patreon, is scarcity (and transferability, but that links directly into scarcity, nobody's going to buy my NFT if the artist is still selling it). And who does scarcity of digital music serve? It's not the fans, that's for sure. If my favorite artist releases a song that's limited to 25 NFTs, and I don't get one, I'm going to be upset! What I love about Bandcamp is if I discover some obscure band from 15 years ago, they're often times right there on Bandcamp. And I can directly pay them for their music, it's awesome! Making digital music scarce completely eliminates this discovery and replaces it with FOMO, which is simply a model I am not interested in dealing with.

A lot of this Web3 stuff seems like you've got a bunch of people with a basically useless product (cryptocurrency) and they're trying so hard to find a use for it, and I'm not sold on any of it. What exactly about the business of music necessitates a trustless database? I looked at Kevin's Sone site and I absolutely could not figure out what blockchain is bringing to the table for anything he's proposing, if anything blockchain makes it worse. Let's take the first example on the site. You're starting a zine, but in order to contribute to the zine, you need to earn tokens by contributing to the community. Why does this need to be on chain? How is 'decentralizing' this process good? Let's say I'm a bad actor in the space. I contribute for a little while, end up submitting three awesome pieces to the zine, driving the majority of traffic to the zine and getting a dragon's hoard of $SONE tokens in the process. Now, my fourth submission is absolute garbage. More than garbage, it's insulting, lewd, and probably illegal. But, oops, I have more tokens than everyone else in the community from my awesome transmissions before. In fact, I have 51% of the existing tokens, and no one can stop me. Goodbye, Sone Zine, I'm in control now. Why does this need to be decentralized? Why does this have to be on the blockchain? Who is this serving?

Example 2 is even more confusing as to why this needs to be on chain. It's a Discord bot that offers music streaming in channels and has a subscription fee, this subscription fee is used to pay for upkeep, artists, and Soundcloud/Bandcamp fees. What does blockchain bring to the table here? Even less than the first example, as far as I can tell. Bandcamp and Soundcloud don't directly accept crypto, so you're cashing out for the Soundcloud and Bandcamp fees every month. What about this requires a trustless database? You're already requiring trust in the fact that the Discord bot itself isn't running on chain, Soundcloud/Bandcamp/Discord's APIs aren't on chain, there is a degree of centralization naturally in that you control the data that is reported to you by Discord's API and/or from Bandcamp and Soundcloud's APIs. Anyone signing up for this has to trust that the streaming numbers being reported by you are accurate for the payouts. Why blockchain?

edit: by the way, the answer to all of my 'who is this serving' questions is 'people who hold Ethereum', because the minting of a NFT burns some ether, making everyone else's Ethereum theoretically a little more valuable

 

I feel the last line in that article more than anything in my life.

I will not be taking any questions on this or any platform because I’ve never been more bored of and depressed by a topic that I’ve written 5000 words on in my entire life. Thank you.

 

@topshelfsquad since they're being brought up a lot and people seem to have (some) genuine questions

 

Maybe this should go to another thread, I come here for new music not to talk about the ethics of nfts

 

This is now the webthreemo thread

 

agreed, it could fit better elsewhere. just seemed appropriate since the convo was about them, in large part, and happening here for most of the day

 

It’s about an emo label. I can see it belonging here.

 

new bellows

 

ive recently come upon a wealth of older releases that people here might appreciate

riyl sdre, promise ring

riyl penfold, christie front drive

riyl mineral, texas is the reason

riyl knapsack, outsmarting simon

 

Fantastic news. So deserved. I cannot wait for the full length.

 

Great news, good for Arm's Length. Really like their stuff.

 

fuk

 

Split with Pictures of June, Your Arms are My Cocoon, Floral Patterns., and Lights Strung Like Stars
All these bands are sick

riyl skramz

 

Talking about appreciating old material, I really wish I had Into Lake Giffy by Good Luck on Vinyl

One of those bands that could have totally been lost in the Myspace wipe out, and I'm super glad they weren't.

 

Relistening to that Arrange album that came out earlier this year and it’s absolutely hitting the spot with the cooler weather. This might still be my AOTY or at least top 3. If y’all haven’t heard it yet, check it out. It’s incredibly good

 

Dreamtigers - Ellapsis (February 18, 2022) • forum.chorus.fm

 

This album by The Bitter Life Typecast is fantastic! Outsmarting Simon was on-point as a RIYL.

 

Friend works with one of the guys in this band and he sent it to me, I dig it. I'm not good at RIYL but reminds me a bit of Armor for Sleep / Pianos / B&C - From Southern Illinois

 

What’s out today?

 

Burial waves ep - Kyle from PBTT side project
Also new single by proper.
That’s about all I got

 

Album early next year. Also speaking of Proper., album early next year also. Produced by Bartees Strange!!!