I take responsibility for the punching bag that is “Music NFTs” To say it failed due to anything that has to do with artists is inaccurate and disrespectful to a ton of people who poured their blood sweat and tears into the space and many of which are tirelessly working to carry it forward today I have an immense amount of respect for anyone who’s released their music onchain - regardless of what platform was used, how it was released or how much it generated. This space is still extremely niche and I have so much work left to do before buying a song onchain is normalized or culturally relevant in a way that drives real-world impact back to making new fans and selling tickets to shows. 2021 was an insane moment in crypto history - we saw artists making more money from drops than they’ve ever seen in their life and I’m extremely stoked about that. But it also created unrealistic expectations and strange relationships between artists and collectors. Most people buying were not true fans of the artists they were supporting - they were speculating on it being worth more in the future. I talk to artists everyday and most people’s perception of crypto is that it’s a scam or irrelevant and honestly I don’t blame them. As someone who’s been an avid collector, investor and now builder for 5+ years - I owe an apology to anyone who feels that I’ve wronged them for pushing so hard on an intersection that I care deeply about and have dedicated my entire career to finding a solution for. My belief is fans should be able to capture the upside of music in the same way that labels do and I believe crypto is uniquely positioned to make that happen. But I want to be vocal that my role in promoting the Music NFT narrative lead to more harm than good and I wake up everyday trying to figure out how to resolve that. So let this be an acknowledgement of all the stupid things I’ve said or the mistakes I’ve made along the way. There’s been a lot of them - but they’re all data points and insights that help me improve and take informed shots on goal. I believe that for this space to work - we need to accept that most artists using it probably don’t care about crypto. The goal is to create spaces where fans feel aligned with the music they love and artists can easily see who their biggest supports are. Onchain markets should be a true reflection of an artist’s growth and journey in the real world instead of how popular they are in this niche corner of the internet that is crypto. All that goes to say I understand why people are so critical or joke about Music NFTs, songcoins or anything that has to do with onchain music Will keep pushing forward in the way that allows us to bring as much great music onchain as possible and encourage anyone who feels strongly about what we’re doing wrong to shoot me a DM about why. Trust the process, Coop