Who We Are
Nvak Collective is a next-generation record label and artist advocacy collective that fully embraces web3 to uplift creators. We believe that the operating system of the music industry is broken, and our mission is to make the music industry more equitable, profitable, and diverse. Our small team has already discovered talent from remote regions around the globe and launched them to billions of streams and hundreds of thousands of fans, all while providing artist-friendly deals and artist care.
Purpose
Over the last 8 months, Nvak Collective has been heads down building a first-of-its-kind music video game for Annika Rose’s track “Bruises”. This innovative project’s goal is to re-examine the relationship between artist and consumer by exploring new avenues for direct-to-fan engagement and artist storytelling. With the project set to launch on May 30, 2023, we hope to pave the way for establishing a middle-class for musicians and creating a more equitable music industry.
In this post, we’ll outline what a music video game is, how it works, and what to expect for this first rendition of “Bruises”.
Our Why
The industry’s hyper-reliance on TikTok to break an artist and sustain their careers has caused several issues within modern music:
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Artists are forced to prioritize creating viral video content to appeal to Spotify’s algorithm and playlisters, and are struggling to keep up with the high demand for quality short-form content.
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Music consumption has become passive. Fans are spending mere seconds with an artist's story and work, and are inundated with over 100,000 new songs on Spotify per day. In turn, artists are struggling to break through the noise and to connect with their real fans.
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Artist development is volatile and expensive. The current system in place rewards musicians for posting across platforms everyday and releasing new music every six weeks, often driving artists to focus on quantity over quality.
Direct-to-fan engagement offers an alternate approach: build fans one-by-one, and generate a more sustainable business model. In order to facilitate this direct-to-fan engagement, artists and labels will need to come up with more creative and meaningful ways to form emotional connections between artist and fan long-term. At Nvak Collective, we believe this will take the form of immersive, virtual experiences, powered by the latest blockchain technologies.
Introducing: The Music Video Game
Combining the powers of artist storytelling, direct-to-fan engagement, and Unreal Engine 5 VFX, Music Video Games are Nvak Collective’s experimental solution to the major issues within the modern music industry. A fusion of the traditional music video and video game, they are narrative-driven to convey the story of a song, but incorporate interactive game-play, allow for fan ownership, and evolve over time.
Each environment is crafted by a visionary team of visual effects artists from around the world - led by Nvak’s Chief Computer Graphics Officer, Tamir Diab - an award-winning CG supervisor and director known for bringing Hollywood hits like Avatar and Iron Man 3 to life. Fans navigate through digital realms propelled by the stems of a track, and unlock new game levels as they collect game tokens and explore each environment.
The “Bruises” Music Video Game
The “Bruises” Music Video Game is Nvak’s minimum viable product (MVP), featuring a collection of opening and closing cinematics, three game levels, and a token-gated music environment called The Listening Room. It’s a giant experiment for how to blend the worlds of music and Unreal Engine 5 into a worthwhile fan experience that will facilitate deeper relationships and more creative collaboration between artists and fans, and artists and their favorite communities.
Our goal was to make this first rendition as simple and accessible as possible, so in turn, we’ve made the majority of the game accessible via web browser at bruises.nvakcollective.xyz beginning May 30, 2023. By heading to the site and entering your email address, you unleash an immersive world to explore, listen, play, collect, and more.
Each game level was curated by artist Annika Rose keeping the original narrative of “Bruises” and the communities she cares about most in mind. Within each level, you’ll find uniquely mixed audio stems of “Bruises”, collectible game tokens, and even Easter eggs giving nods to the other web3 communities that Annika Rose is a part of.
Within the game exists a special token-gated music environment called The Listening Room. This space is only accessible to those that mint the free Listening Room NFTicket - an access pass which unlocks:
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Immersive Audio and Visual for Annika’s next single “Dad”
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Opportunity to mint the “Dad” Music NFT at 0.005 ETH
- Annika Rose Genesis NFT Holders have access to mint for free
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Future updates such as new music NFT mints, in-game collabs, and activations
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A portion of the Listening Room was curated by Donavan Brown of Venice Music, who won the golden egg on Annika’s track “In My Head” on sound.xyz in November 2022. Donavan chose to insert a special “Wishing Lamp” that allows users to make a wish for what they hope to see in the world.
There will be 2,500 items available to mint, and minting will occur in 3 windows beginning May 30th:
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Phase 1:
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Nvak Collective Founding Members
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Annika Rose music NFT holders
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Annika Rose video NFT holders
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Annika Rose Genesis NFT holders
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Glass.xyz Opening & Closing Cinematic holders
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Phase 2:
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Nvak Collective POAP holders
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Annika Rose POAP holders
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“Bruises” Scene holders
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“Bruises” AI Remix by WarpSound holders
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Lost feat. Jagwar Twin Showtime.xyz Pre-Save Holders
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+ Curated community partners
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Phase 3:
- Public
Roadmap
The "Bruises" Music Video Game marks our first attempt in merging blockchain, gaming, music, and Unreal Engine 5. We admit that we don't have all the answers, but we're determined to tackle the challenges we see happening in music each and everyday.
In a world where music consumption and fan engagement is passive, our goal is to encourage users to spend real time with an artist’s journey, and to enjoy it in the process. As this is our first attempt, we’re wholeheartedly welcoming feedback from the community to improve and innovate upon this project after its initial release.
With transparency in mind, here’s a look at our roadmap for Nvak’s Music Video Games for the immediate future:
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Incorporate Spatial Audio
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Allow users to travel back and forth between game levels
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Include Spotify SDK to drive traditional streaming
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Utilize Cub3’s Proof of Behavior protocol to track fan status and unlock unique rewards
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Enable multi-player gaming
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Build in-game collaborations with other web3 communities (as an example, picture a token-gated environment curated by and exclusively for your favorite NFT project).
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Create new Music Video Games for additional artists
Collaborators
It takes a village to bring a new idea to life, and we could not have released this project out into the world without the support and hard work of our valued partners. Stay tuned for a full article dedicated to collaboration behind the scenes, but in the meantime, see below for each of the teams involved in this massive project:
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Annika Rose: Artist
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Nvak Collective: Label
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HIFI Labs: Smart Contract & Website Development + Artist Web3 Strategy
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Cub3: Proof of Behavior Protocol
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R3vl: Onchain Revenue Splits
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PureWeb: Pixel Streaming Platform
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Decent.xyz: Music NFT Minting Protocol
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Bello: Blockchain Data Collection and Sales Strategy
Conclusion
We appreciate all who are on this journey with us as we attempt to create a first-of-its-kind product and build solutions to real-world problems. By bringing together artists and fans in a gamified, immersive experience in Unreal Engine 5, we hope to push the boundaries of music and entertainment with a commitment to constantly improving and incorporating community feedback.
Pre-Save the Bruises Music Video Game here.
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