Heds represent the future of collaborative curation and artist discovery.

As the end of the year approaches, we would like to take the time to look back and appreciate what’s been accomplished together. We are excited to announce that what started as just a couple of part time engineers and a shared vision has led to the closing of a $2.5M seed round. That is not without the help of the community we are helping to build. Through all of this change, the mission has remained clear: to curate amazing art, allowing creators to harness the power of collaboration through web3. As we’ve helped develop the heds community, we’ve also grown in our technical skills, strategic outlook, and added a number of features that have proven crucial to the heds curation model.

Over the past year, we’ve experimented with a structure that has allowed for collaborative curation and artist discovery.

The process starts with a sample curated from an internationally respected artist. The heds community creates remixes using the sample and submits their tracks to the platform. The track artists remain anonymous during the voting period open to the heds community and tape owners. Shortly after, the sample curator selects ten submissions.

These ten submissions are formed into a mixtape and then minted as an NFT.

In total, 684 tapes have been minted by more than 183 unique wallets.

This has led to:

     85 ETH

     54 New Artists

     51 Voters

12 heds artists have been onboarded to Catalog and 69 ETH has been paid out, in primary and secondary sales, to hedsTAPE artists.

To continue this vision, we’re excited to announce that heds inc has raised $2.5M led by True Ventures with support from Palm Tree Crew Crypto, Coop Records, NoiseDAO, WoodstockDAO and Chainforest Capital. They’re joined by leading collectors and operators DegenDavinci, Wesley Barrow, and Jeremy Stern participating as angel investors.

As we celebrate the launch of hedsTAPE 10, here’s what to expect in the months to come.

Heds History

Heds originally came together as a few artists, communicating via group chat, trying to take on the burgeoning space that was the Crypto Art market in 2021.

As tools like Catalog, Sound and Arpeggi appeared before our eyes, we felt a familiar feeling in the air. It’s often said that history never repeats itself, but it often rhymes. We recognized a huge opportunity for artists to test the overlap of cutting edge technology and art by developing the heds platform.

Soon after the successful development and release of hedsTAPE 01, we started to get a better understanding of how to distribute media on-chain. Additionally, this set a new precedent for community structure, a completely new way for groups of artists to trustfully collaborate.

Why Heds?

Since hedsTAPE 01 with sober rob, we’ve continued to maintain a high standard for the level of talent that has been invited to curate. Every curator, including Oshi, Medasin, Mr. Carmack, and josh pan have 10+ years of experience creating and distributing digital art to high acclaim.

Keeping the quality of curation at the forefront of our culture is, and will always be, a huge priority. Sample curators provide a creative north star for any other digital creatives looking to get involved in a new project.

Integrations

We have been intentional about building with leading web3 teams, including the following integrations:

Quadratic Voting

During the curation phase, holders vote on their favorite submissions. The vote page integrates with Snapshot for a quadratic vote, allowing holders to split votes proportionally amongst their favorite tracks.

0xSplits

0xSplits simplifies the artist payout process by allowing artists to add multiple contributors to their proceeds.

Sound SDK

For hedsTAPE 10, we’ll be utilizing the new Sound SDK to allow collectors to mint from multiple sites simultaneously.

What’s Next

As we continue to build together, we’ll keep inviting talent that attracts a growing global community of innovative digital creators. Heds will continue to embark on explorations with other forward thinking entities, experimenting with new ways to collaborate and increase discoverability of art across web3.

Be on the lookout for:

• More web3 collabs and experimental drops

• Increased support and better discoverability

• Fresh UI to enhance the user experience

• Expanded focus on curation

Get Involved

With every new cycle, heds is pushing the boundaries of what it means to create and distribute a collaborative art piece.

In order to participate in the curation cycle for hedsTAPE 10 you must own a tape from cycles 1-9.

Curation for hedsTAPE 10 will begin on 11/21.

To get involved in the production cycle for hedsTAPE 10, stay updated @hedsDAO on twitter, join our discord, and participate at heds.app.