A Hub is a scene.
A Hub is a playlist.
A Hub is a home page.
A Hub is a platform.
A Hub is a record label.
A Hub is a blog.
A Hub is an archive.
A Hub is a clubhouse.
A Hub is a record store.
A Hub is a collective.
A Hub is connected.
A Hub is context.
A Hub is your own Nina.
Up until now, Nina has appeared to be a marketplace or a platform like any other. This was a necessary first step. Since the earliest conversations that led to Nina, we have intended to create tools that enrich music online and support the diversity of people’s relationships to music. Today we’re excited to announce a new feature that furthers that initial vision: Hubs.
Anatomy of a Hub
At the protocol level a Hub keeps track of permissions and relationships between curators, collaborators, and releases.
When you create a Hub you can:
- Publish new releases through the Hub, creating a point of provenance between that Release and the Hub
- Repost releases from the wider Nina ecosystem to your Hub
- Publish writing either independently or in reference to a Release (think: music reviews)
- Add collaborators with permissions for the above
As a Hub creator you can also set two fees:
- Publishing Fee: the Hub can automatically receive a % split of every release that is published through it in perpetuity via Nina Revenue Share
- Affiliate Fee: A premium fee placed on top of releases reposted through your Hub
When we launch Hubs there will be two main ways to access them:
- A page on ninaprotocol.com: Every Hub will have a page on our site. It will also map out relationships between Hubs, Artists, Collaborators, and Collectors. The Nina ecosystem will take shape through this network of relationships. Ninaprotocol.com will look less like a marketplace and more like Wikipedia or Discogs where you can explore the context-rich connections on the protocol.
- An (optional) self-hosted Nina powered site: This will allow you to have your own instance of Nina which has no dependencies on any servers we run. As long as the Solana and Arweave blockchains operate you will be able to create, customize, publish, and collaborate through your Hub. This can be based on our easy-to-setup open-source template, or completely customized via our SDK. Self-hosted Hubs will support token-gating so that you can offer lossless files, archives, merch, or whatever else to your audience.
Some Hub use cases (Hubs aren’t just for artists):
- An artist can use a Hub as their homepage and publish their music through it - their Hub becomes their discography and storefront
- A label can add their artists as collaborators - when artists publish through the Hub the label is automatically added to that Release’s revenue share and receives a % of all future sales
- A fan can keep track of all of their favorite music by building playlists, even with Releases they do not own - earning a fee when sales occur through their Hub
- A collective of artists can publish their music together and share in the sales
- A music blogger can review tracks and earn a fee whenever a reader purchases a track through their Hub
- A group of fans can create a collaborative playlist of their favorite genre or artists, earning fees when sales occur
- A venue can publish live sets that they hosted, creating both an archive of live events and a permanent revenue source for the artists and the venue operators
This list is not exhaustive, but is intended to show the flexibility of Hubs.
Hubs are designed to give music communities the ability to exist online in their own context, while encouraging their own personalities and styles, without becoming cut-off from the wider network of Music.
Hubs will be the basis of recommendation and discovery across Nina, allowing for richer exploration than simply comparing who has collected which artists release.
Hubs allow for the expression of taste.
Hubs allow for emergent properties and relationships - perhaps a community curated playlist begins commissioning tracks to be published through its Hub - is it now a record label?
Hubs are robust in a way that will facilitate, adapt to, and support the unknowns of future development, both cultural and technological.
Hubs are a space for you to create your context.
“So when can I set up my Hub?”
We will begin rolling out Hubs as an invite-only feature in the coming weeks. Once a Hub has been created, Hub creators will be able to invite as many artists/collaborators to their Hub as they wish.
Hubs will eventually be fully public and permissionless, but in the meantime, apply for a Hub here.