In the book Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work, author and sociologist Michael P. Farrell explores how creative work is more often than not a result of collaboration among friends who dare to pose difficult questions to one another as they refine their work. At their best, he believes these circles enable the highest level of genius.

In fact, many of these great collaborative movements in music are well documented in stories like Corporate Rock Sucks (80s punk rock), Our Band Could Be Your Life (80s Hardcore), Meet Me in the Bathroom (90s NYC rock), Sell Out (2000s corporate rock), and Never Be Alone Again (Mid 2000s Bloghouse).

One reason that we started NOISE, is our belief that we’re at the beginning of a new movement in music—characterized by musicians who are digitally native, are starting their music careers in web3, and are using the funds and support from their early work to refine a sound that is distinctly their own—and long-term, will become the global stars of tomorrow.

Musician and writer Patti Smith once said, “To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It’s freedom.” At its core, we think this idea represents the power of web3. Musicians from all walks of life are being empowered to make the most music, and the best music, they’ve ever made.

NOISE is excited about this future. Over the past 12 months, we’ve collected over 1,000 individual music NFTs and become one of the largest (if not the largest) collector of Music NFTs. We’ve also invested in many of the core web3 music infrastructure projects including Catalog, Nina, HedsDAO, and more.

Beyond collecting, when we announced NOISE, we set two additional cornerstone intentions:

• Highlight the best up and coming artists in web3

• Bring more collectors into the space to get their first music NFTs

To start working on these goals, we launched our editorial project “HIGH FREQUENCY,” and to date, have focused on telling the stories behind the artists and their music. We’re not focused on the business model or the sales numbers, but what drives them as artists, and where they want to take their music long-term.

As we started sharing the stories of artists like Daniel Allan, Reo Cragun, Pauline Herr, LATASHÁ, and more, the feedback we consistently heard from collectors and fans who have not yet picked up their first music NFT–is that they were interested and excited, but they didn’t know where to start. The speed and activity in this market can make it tough to keep up, and seemingly impossible to get started.

To help, we’re announcing an extension to our editorial work at NOISE–HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1–a compilation album project launching early 2023.

HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1 will feature new songs from artists who we believe represent the values of web3, have the potential to be breakout stars, and whose work is essential to every music NFT collector’s set long-term.

While the first volume will be curated by current members of NOISE, over time, we plan to push curation into the hands of the broader Music NFT collector community over time.

Since NOISE began, we’ve been fortunate to meet and collaborate with many of you in this space. For those who we haven’t yet connected with, DM us on Twitter or email us and send your music to hello@noisedao.xyz. We’d love to continue meeting with others who are as interested in building up the space as much as we are.

And stay tuned for more details on HIGH FREQUENCY Volume 1 coming soon.

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Article written by Adam D’Augelli, edited by Wallace Morgan and Samantha Ayson