It took 6 weeks from my first mirror article to get onboarded to Sound.xyz, and it didn’t come from my application.

For me, it came as a result of the work I put into building my foundation in web3 music. The connections I formed, the communities I engaged with and the value I provided all led me here; this being just one outcome of a much wider vision. All of us have different paths, goals and reasons for being here; I’m just sharing my journey to provide insight into what has worked for me, so that it may help one of you.

I’ve refined my journey down to 4 steps:

1. Learn the space

2. Find your people

3. Contribute to the conversation

4. Provide value

For the purpose of this article, I will skip Step 1, as I already covered this in my first article. To familiarise yourself with the fundamentals, you can read WTF is Web3? here.

So let’s begin…

Find your people

After spending a month purely educating myself, I began introducing myself in the various communities I had joined. I did this in 30+ Discords. It’s impossible to be truly active in that many communities (unless you’re Jade), but the point is to find the ones that you resonate with and hone in on them. Today, I am deeply involved in around 3-5. I touch base in the others to stay up to date, but wouldn’t consider myself an active participant. By Joining weekly community calls I was able to form genuine connections with the people involved and get to know each other on a human level, which I found was key to forming actual bonds and not just computer screen conversations. Over time, I went from the newbie to another member of the family, feeling welcomed and thus welcoming newcomers after me. The support I received from these groups gave me the positive feedback I needed to pursue web3 and compelled me to pass on the good karma.

Through this I have become a Scout for Dreams Never Die, played unreleased music weekly in Songcamp, contributed to HIFI Labs EQ Magazine and joined the creator team at Everwave, all due to my active participation in their communities. Find yours.

Contribute to the conversation

As of this writing, I have 271 Twitter followers, a very unremarkable number in the world of social media. The difference here is that at least 50% of those followers are remarkable people. In the web3 world, mutual followers are more valuable than number of followers. Web3 music is still a very small niche, meaning that a lot of influential people are only 1 connection away. By being genuinely interested and supportive of those who are building within the space, my enthusiasm was recognised. We all have unique experiences, perspectives and insights that others do not, so why not voice them? Popular or unpopular it doesn’t matter, for the most part there is no right or wrong in a space that is still in its experimental stages of development. By putting your ideas out into the world you open up room for discussion and healthy debate, which could create a chain reaction of ideas that leads to something great.

Participating in conversations, whether on Twitter, Discord, spaces or calls, has helped me to answer questions, spark novel ideas, discover new resources and make others aware of my contributions. Be vocal, let others know you exist.

Provide value

2 weeks after my introductions I published my first article “WTF is Web3?” as a guide to give newcomers the resources I compiled through my own research. The purpose of this was to save others the hours I spent researching and hopefully kickstart someone else’s journey. I also saw this as a way to put positive energy into the world that I believe always comes back; giving without expectations of receiving, while trusting that it will have a positive impact elsewhere in the world. I shared this across Discord and Twitter and the feedback was positive, leading to others sharing the article with their audiences thus extending my reach. If I were to categorise the audience into creators and consumers, I would say that that the consumers gained value while the creators acknowledged that I was providing value. This is a win win.

After being active in the Arpeggi Labs Discord I received a message from their team:

We jumped on a call and spoke about my experiences as an artist, my struggles in the industry and the reasons why I am so bullish on Arpeggi. 2 weeks later, I received another message:

As I tested out the new features each question led to brainstorming of new ideas. As a passionate artist, I feel that they valued my alternative perspectives and by the end of the call I was given a direct line to multiple members of their team. Still, all I was doing was providing value. I didn’t ask for anything in return. If you are passionate about something, find a way to help in every way you can.

Fast forward to December, incredible artist and web3 music pioneer Reo Cragun did a remix competition for his track Zoom, collaborating with Arpeggi Labs to create the first token gated on-chain remix competition. I was not going to let this opportunity pass me by. For the next 4 days I put my all into creating the greatest remix I possibly could (give it a listen here!) which was well received, resulting in Reo hitting me up to get me onboarded to Sound.

While the remix competition may seem like an isolated occurrence, I see it as synchronicity. Reo didn’t have to go out of his way to pitch me to the sound team, I even pitched an idea for a remix competition to Arpeggi just days before the Reo remix was announced. I believe that the karma came back around (and the music was fire). I continue to talk to the Arpeggi team to this day and I’m still looking for ways to push the web3 music space forward, such as writing this article!

On January 11th, my debut NFT sold out in under 1 hour.

This surpassed all of my expectations. The love and support I felt during the listening party was overwhelming and confirmed that everything I put into this space is being appreciated. I have never experienced a connection like this in my entire journey as an artist. Sure its cool to get paid for my art, but this is so much more than that.

This marks the beginning of a new path into the wonderful world of web3. I have a strong vision of where I want to take things moving forward, but right now is about gratitude. Too often I ignore the steps of progress, always reaching for more. Today, I am thankful for every one of you who has supported me on this journey, and I am proud of myself for being here.

You can check out my Sound Genesis, Netflix, below. It will be released on all platforms on February 1st. If you would like to join me on this journey, please get in touch! I would love to connect with all who resonate with my story.

I hope to hear from you soon, all love.

~ Elcee

P.S. To discover more of what I do, you can find all my work via my website below :)