Public or Private? NFT Holders Will Decide The Fate Of Niall Dailly’s VR Music Experience
Inspired by the creative possibilities in Web3the electronic musician and past world champion record player Niall Dailly, aka DJ Plus One, created interactive visual experiences around his new album “Metamorphic.” And there’s a unique twist: NFTs the incumbents can ultimately decide whether the rest of the world can freely experience those media.
Dailly, a former member of Scratch Perverts and Jack Beats, began exploring the possibilities of NFTs when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Live performances were suspended and the Scottish musician I suddenly had a lot more free time.
AfterEntering the Web3 space and taking inspiration from early NFT audiovisual pioneers like deaf, Dailly began to consider how to create something new and meaningful around his “Metamorphic” solo album project, to be released under the name DAILLY. A nudge from a friend about the creative ability to “do whatever you want” with Web3 technology got the wheels rolling in her head, she says. Decipher.
Dailly sought to create a visual narrative around his new album, but wanted it to come across as more than a “really charming visualizer,” in his words. On the other hand, building something within the existing metaverse the game world didn’t feel like the right environment. It had to match the tunes, but also stand out enough to try to capture the interest of modern music enthusiasts.
“People see things on their phones when they play music, and you have to do a lot of preaching these days,” he says. “People don’t really pay attention.”
Working with 3D artist Logan Gomez and art director Jeff Metal, Dailly used Lidar technology to scan real-world environments via an iPhone, using the data to render locations across East London in a tribute to the rise of the electronic music scene. Through both practical and generative manipulation techniques, they developed visual imagery to match Dailly’s flawed electronic soundscapes.
Each interactive space can be viewed in a web browser on a reasonably capable computer or device, allowing users to explore a 3D environment and become immersed in the audiovisual images. It can also be experienced through a VR headset, such as Meta Quest 2 or professional search.
Metamorphic’s interactive environments will be sold exclusively Ethereal NFT release this month by BeetsDAO (the collective behind the NFT Lost Children of Andromeda Sci-Fi Book Project and the Snoop Dogg x Nyan Cat NFT Collaboration) and art platform asynchronous artwith 10 total versions of the album, each containing all 10 songs.
In total, 100 NFTs will be sold for 1 ETH each (currently around $1,260), each pointing to one of the web-based experiences. (A NFTs It is a blockchain-based token that proves ownership of a unique item, including digital media such as artwork, music files, and collectibles; NFTs can also serve as an access pass to both digital experiences and real-world events, and provide the ability to vote on community and project decisions.)
The relatively limited droplet size won’t be the only determining factor in what may turn out to be a rather exclusive owners’ club. That’s because interested buyers, be they individuals or NFT collectors DAOs—must interview Dailly via video chat before approving someone to mint “Metamorphic” NFT albums.
After all, they are entrusted with a big decision about the future of their creation.
an ethical dilemma
When “Metamorphic” launches, interactive web-based locales will be available for anyone to experience via the official Web site, regardless of NFT ownership. The public version of the experience will remain online for at least six months, and users are free to explore the 3D settings as much as they like.
Whether those music-driven experimental worlds will stay online after that point is up to the NFT album owners’ decision. Dailly frames it as an ethical dilemma to go along with art and vibes.
Should art that belongs to a select number of people be accessible and available to all? Or will they choose to hoard the art for themselves and keep it private after that initial window? The concept and potential benefits of scarcity can have different meanings within this framework, and NFT owners will need to consider the options before voting.
“Do you believe that [“Metamorphic”] Existing in the real world benefits you or not? Are you selfish enough to think, ‘Not really, I just want it for myself,’ says Dailly decipher. “Or maybe you’re smart enough to think that if I leave it out forever, actually, my NFT will become more and more valuable the more famous it gets?”
The dynamic was inspired by the traditional art world, Dailly says, as privately owned works of art might be on public display in a gallery for a couple of months, but then sit out of sight. She didn’t want “metamorphic” experiences to only be seen by a handful of homeowners, but she also wanted to attract buyers and give them a tangible voice in the matter.
Dailly himself will vet potential NFT album buyers, but that doesn’t mean he can fully control who ultimately makes the decision. If all 10 albums do not sell in the initial mintage, the remaining songs will be placed individually at a public sale. Additionally, album buyers can choose to “break” an album and sell individual NFT tracks on the secondary market.
Initial purchasers of the album will receive a special government rights token, which they can keep even if they sell the tracks. Meanwhile, collectors who purchase all 10 individual tracks can then claim their own album token with the same rights, if one is still available; there will only be 10 of the album tokens, therefore 10 total votes for the future of the project.
The feature to disable public access to the website with “Metamorphic” experiences is built into the NFT project smart contract. (A smart contract contains the code that powers autonomous decentralized applications and NFT projects).
In this case, each album token owner can trigger the destroyPublic() function to call a vote after the initial six-month period, and with quorum and a majority of votes, the “Metamorphic” website will be forever changed to a token-only version. accessible by NFT holders.
Ultimately, Dailly says he’s on board with the idea that incumbents will determine the fate of the public experience, even if they aren’t the ones he selects to manage the project.
“You can’t sell someone something,” he says, “and then say, ‘Yeah, it’s free forever.’”
a passion project
It’s an experiment, though both Dailly and his partners at BeetsDAO admit that you’re likely to lose money once it’s all said and done. Creating the album and refining the visual accompaniment was time consuming and expensive, plus NFT Lawsuit and cryptocurrency prices are down and it’s a modest size drop.
The “Metamorphic” music will eventually be released more widely as well, including via a second planned NFT post that will offer audio from the album linked to a unique still image generated from the Lidar-powered images. No ETA has been set, but pricing is expected to be more mass-market-friendly, with the price being similar to that of a CD case.
“Personally, I need something that’s almost like ‘merch table’ pricing, or ‘gallery billboard’ pricing,” Dailly explains. “I need something to make this fit ethically for me, and that’s where the ‘phase two’ conversation started.”
Even with another step forward from NFT, Dailly describes the initial experiential drop more as an inventive art project than a commercial move. It is a proof of concept to show another angle of what is possible with Web3 media and community governance, and a commentary on the debate between public display and private ownership of art.
“At a certain point in life, when you’re older and really looking for something you’re passionate about, you do these things,” he says, adding that the technological possibilities open up around Web3 only amplify his fervor for the future. of music in space. “When people use technology here to do different things, that’s when I get crazy excited.”