Friends With Benefits

Author:

Abstract

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This proposal will see the creation of an FWB-built DAO to provide grant funding for musicians entering web3. The funds will be raised by an NFT drop of 444 tokens serving as DAO membership passes. Half of the funds will cover operational expenses and the other half will provide a budget for artist grants + acquiring music NFTs. This budget will provide a minimum roadmap of 9 months but has the potential to be extended by way of revenue from secondary sales and additional fundraising efforts.

Motivation

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Across the traditional music industry landscape there are various funding bodies that artists can turn to for financial assistance in creating their art, however none of these institutions offer any ongoing value proposition for either side. LIST3N attempts to re-imagine that framework by creating a community-led system that rewards artists and funders alike, while simultaneously signaling the value of music NFTs to the broader ecosystem.

Ask from FWB

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I am proposing a 4ETH investment from FWB as well as help with promotion of the project via email and Discord channels. In addition to that, I would ask that FWB be comfortable being positioned as a primary partner in the project alongside Zora, which will help present legitimacy and instill confidence during the current bear market.
FWB’s 4ETH investment will be immediately recouped from mint proceeds. See budget for more details.

Impact on FWB community

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There are a large number of FWB members who are active participants in the music industry. LIST3N is an opportunity to signal FWB’s commitment to nurturing talent and our belief in web3 as a tool which can be used to build a more equitable music industry. In exchange for FWB’s initial investment in this project (which will be recouped from mint proceeds) FWB will receive a portion of secondary royalties on the project as well as full credit as one of the primary supporting partners alongside Zora. The ongoing success of the LIST3N project will serve to strengthen the FWB brand by placing it at the forefront of web3 x music development. FWB members who are interested in minting this project will also have access to the mintlist via raffle.

Overview

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The goal with this proposal is to create an FWB-adjacent DAO focused on supporting emerging artists in the web3 music space. While FWB doesn’t explicitly exist to provide funding for talent, this is a low-risk way for our community to build a program which will do just that, benefiting people well beyond the scope of our membership base. As LIST3N grows and evolves, so will FWB’s influence on music projects across the web3 ecosystem.

Details

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This is an FWB-adjacent project, but I think it’s important to our success that the initial membership mint be accessible to all people across other web3 x music communities. With a combination of community outreach, grass-roots marketing, and promotion within traditional music industry channels, I think we can build a buzz-worthy project that will have a high chance of selling out and generating a healthy volume of secondary sales (by bear market standards, at least).

Once the LIST3N pass has minted and artist submissions are open, the majority of this project will exist on a custom-built website which will allow holders to connect their wallet to vote on artist submissions using a heart-rating system. In addition to that, holders will be able to propose music NFT purchases for the DAO treasury. At the conclusion of each season, votes will be tallied in both categories, and one artist will be awarded 1Ξ. At the same time, the DAO will spend 1Ξ on the agreed upon music NFTs. In addition to that, the DAO will mint a 1/1 music NFT to commemorates LIST3N’s early support of the winning artist. This NFT will be held by the treasury.

This process will repeat on a monthly basis.

Proceeds from mint will provide nine months of funding these operations, but as previously mentioned it’s entirely possible that this timeline will be extended by way of revenue from secondary sales, as well as fundraising efforts. For music-adjacent companies in the web3 space, providing a season’s worth of funding for a reputable FWB-backed community-based arts funding program should be an attractive proposition. Targets for fundraising include but are not limited to Soundxyz, Omgkirby DAO, HedsDAO, Dreams Never Die, Coop Records, Hifi Labs, Water & Music, Seed Club, CPG Pop, Secret Garden and more.

Timeline:

Weeks 1-2

• Launch landing page for the project with allowlist sign-up

• Begin community outreach, marketing, promotion.

• Artwork creation for Mint Pass

Week 3-6

• Comprehensive site build

• Build out Discord

Week 7

• Launch token on testnet, de-bug holder backend, test submission forms

Week 8

• Project Minting

• Artist submissions open

Week 9-11

• Artist submissions close

• DAO members vote on season one winner

• DAO begins accepting proposals for music NFTs to acquire, community discussion

Week 12

• Season one grant winner announced

• Season one music NFTs purchased by DAO

• Ongoing

• On a monthly basis, the process repeats

Roadmap

How it works:

-LIST3N begins with an NFT launch. A collection of 444 NFTs with top-tier art. All holders of this NFT will become DAO members.

-50% of mint proceeds will go directly to the DAO Treasury. This will be the seed fund used to support emerging artists and build value for holders. 50% will be held for operational expenses.

-Upon mint completion, artist submissions will open for Season One. In tandem, community proposals will be open for DAO members to discuss the purchase of music NFTs.

-DAO members will vote on artist submissions + music NFT purchase proposals throughout the season (one season = one month)

-At the conclusion of each season the DAO will award one artist with a 1Ξ grant, and simultaneously spend appx 1Ξ on music NFTs as agreed upon by DAO members.

Outcomes & success measures

This project will be considered a success if we sell at least 200 of the 444 NFTs. At this sale level we will have covered all upfront expenses and provided a 3 month runway for the project.  Other success targets will be measured as outlined below:

Pre-mint:

-High volume of wallet submissions for allowlist mint (using premint.xyz tool)

-Twitter growth

Mint:

-Successful mint on the technical side, minimum sales of 200 NFTs at 0.08Ξ each

Post-mint + Launch:

-High volume of artist submissions once grant program launches

-High volume of proposals within LIST3N DAO for the purchase of music NFTs

-High incidence of DAO members voting on artist submissions

-Timely execution of artist awards each season

-Post-award success of artists within web3 space (eg. an artist who was given a grant by LIST3N goes on to launch a successful web3 music project)

Looking forward

There is a ton of room for this idea to grow and evolve into something more than just a web3 granting system, if the community is wanting to do it. What if one month instead of investing in music NFTs, the DAO decides to allocate that same funding towards releasing a song by one of the winning artists through traditional platforms? Or what if after six months of granting artists, we decide to use DAO funds to host an IRL showcase for the artists we’ve supported? A SXSW showcase maybe? What if someone in the DAO works at a radio station and can carve us out an hour of programming, we pre-tape a show every week, call it LIST3N-FM and play only music from across the web3 music ecosystem? Those are just a few examples of ways that LIST3N could scale and grow if the desire exists within the community. I’m really excited to begin iterating on what the future might look like for this project.

Budget

Budget draft: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/106sljKodV4ti3EkaJ7dGPxx784NzyAqFApK4y3KNQpk/edit?usp=sharing

Timeline

If approved, building would start right away.
We are setting a realistic goal of launching this project in Q1 2023.