Music is a powerful force that unites us. It shapes our culture, strengthens our relationships and makes our lives richer and more fulfilling. Whether you are an emerging artist, local DJ, making beats in your bedroom or a passionate super fan, music provides connection and a sense of belonging for billions of people.

At Fam we are creating a place where music lovers can connect, share ideas, fund creative projects and collaborate in multiplayer. In a time where algorithms dominate and artists are forced to play a zero-sum game for attention, building strong, grassroots music communities is more important than ever.

Culture happens around music – Virgil Abloh

Intergalactic

Throughout history, musicians have had a special relationship with technology. They are like scientists, tinkering away in their laboratories, experimenting with novel tools and formats, bending them to their will (often in unconventional ways) to unlock new sonic possibilities.

In the 1970s, pioneering DJs like Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash used the humble turntable to create continuous loops (breakbeats) and invented techniques like scratching and mixing. This provided the perfect backdrop for the emergence of MCs (rappers) and the birth of hip-hop music. In the decades that followed, drum machines and samplers transformed the genre’s sound and led to the democratisation of music production, allowing more people to create music without the need for expensive studio equipment.

Today, we are experiencing similar shifts in music thanks to emerging technologies like AI and software-based production tools. These innovations enable emerging artists to create, mix, and master professional-quality music on a laptop or smartphone and distribute their work across various platforms almost instantly, all without the need for record labels and intermediaries. More music is being produced now than at any other time in history, and with AI, that trend is only going to accelerate.

The internet has levelled the playing field for creativity, but it has also fundamentally changed the way we interact with one another and form communities.

Road Of The Lonely Ones

In the past, if you identified as being a member of a particular music scene you had to go to a physical space to hang out with people who shared your passion for music. Punk shows, raves, jazz bars and block parties provided a sense of community and a chance to find connection amongst like-minded individuals. These spaces created opportunities for serendipitous collaboration and experimentation to thrive, which catalysed new sounds and subgenres.

As internet adoption increased, music communities started appearing online and began interacting with one another via message boards and forums. This suddenly meant that anyone, regardless of their geographic location, could participate and become part of a vibrant community of music lovers all from the comfort of their bedroom. These niche corners of the internet became fertile grounds for discussion and co-creation, with members sharing new music, production techniques, collaborating, and organising local events.

With the rise of social media and streaming services we saw the decay of these social spaces as they were replaced by platforms architected to promote single player behaviours and vanity metrics (likes, follows, streams and favourites). This has had a detrimental effect on the music industry at large, leaving many emerging artists feeling isolated and disenfranchised.

Humans are social creatures and yearn for connection. We find comfort amongst individuals who share our passions and goals. Our hunter-gatherer instinct to search for our tribe is deeply rooted in our biology and in this modern age we are increasingly finding that tribe online rather than in person.

U.N.I.T.Y

At Fam, we envision a future in which artists, collectives and fans can create vibrant communities where collaboration is rewarded and ownership is evenly distributed. Social spaces that foster a sense of belonging and provide individuals with the opportunity to contribute to something they truly care about. Not just a place for music lovers to unite but also a breeding ground for new ideas and cultural co-creation.

Our mission is to build a platform where millions of micro-communities can cross-pollinate and create a symbiotic ecosystem of music DAOs that collaborate and support one another. We believe this is the best way to showcase the true power of DAOs and onboard a new generation of creators into the web3 ecosystem.

Communities on Fam will be able to pool resources in a shared wallet and vote to fund projects and ideas proposed by members. By leveraging various web3 protocols under the hood we can offer communities new ways to coordinate and collaborate online.

Members can connect to web3 applications using a shared wallet and propose to release new music, publish articles, collect onchain media or create a digital merch drop - with built in splits that flow back to contributors and the community itself. They can also vote to send assets from the shared pool to fund interesting ideas and projects that the community sees value in. This could include events, sponsorships, education workshops, grants programs or a variety of other use cases.

Over time members will accrue reputation and status based on their onchain activity which allows for the creation of a rich social graph that can be used to programatically reward participation and loyalty.

For My People

We are building Fam for the next generation of music communities. Those who want to explore new ways of creating together, making decisions and sharing value.

Music collectives have long been a powerful shaper of cultural changes in the music industry. The Wu Tang Clan, Swedish House Mafia, The Grateful Dead, Odd Future and many more are examples of what can be created when collaboration and experimentation are a core principle of the group's existence. What do these collectives look like onchain, and at scale?

Independent record labels have a DIY ethos that is deeply rooted in collectivism and a community-centric operating model. Often specialising in niche or underrepresented genres these groups tend to rely on grassroots promotion via word-of-mouth and local events. Indie labels such as PC Music, Mad Decent, LuckyMe and Ghostly International curate a diverse roster of artists who collaborate with one another and often times blur the line between a traditional label and an internet collective.

Millions of music obsessed fan clubs dominate the internet, showcasing their passion for a specific artist or genre on social media and group chats. Some of the largest subreddits and Youtube channels are dedicated to music. The Kenny Beats Discord server, which has over 130,000 members, is an amazing example of what a vibrant online community of die-hard fans looks like. Members spend their time sharing rare samples, critiquing each others beats and collaborating on music. Imagine giving them a shared bank account and the ability to put on events, collect music together and drop digital collectibles created by the community.

The Originators

We’re already seeing some exciting music collectives emerging who are experimenting with web3 tools and we expect this trend will continue over the coming years as more artists look for new ways to collaborate and release their music online.

The Park have been collecting and creating music together on/offchain for over twelve years and are one of the best examples of what can be achieved when people who share a deep love of music get together and explore new ways of doing things. Each week the group hosts Fridays At The Park, an open door session at Valentine Studios in LA where musicians come to collaborate, eat delicious food, learn about web3 and bond over a mutual appreciation of good coffee. Sessions are recorded and the community votes to mint the songs and videos with proceeds flowing back to a shared treasury.

Songcamp is a project that brings together a diverse group of artists and places them into songwriting camps where they collaborate on music together and release the tracks as NFTs. CHAOS, the most ambitious Songcamp project to date saw seventy-seven members form a headless band and release a collection of 48 songs over 12 weeks. Collectors could mint a CHAOS Pack and unwrap it to reveal four random tracks complete with generative visual art. They also launched a festival, merch drop and a club night at Public Records in New York.

Phlote is a community of artists, musicians and producers that come together for in-person recording sessions that culminate in demos which are shared so that members can edit, remix and reuse the stems and release them with built-in splits.

Some other notable communities include UFO, Lucid Haus, Portion Club, LNRZ, Soulquest and the Cheeks collective.

The Light

The music industry is a harsh and lonely place for creators, but that doesn’t have to be the case. We can create a thriving ecosystem for music that is rooted in experimentation, collaboration and fairness. One that provides opportunities for everyone, not just the 0.01% of artists who manage to break through.

It’s still early days for DAOs and onchain music communities but we imagine in the not too distant future millions of artists and fans will form or join online communities and take advantage of the myriad of benefits that web3 can offer.

We’ll be launching an early alpha version of Fam in the coming weeks so if you’re part of a music community, thinking of starting a collective or just want to run a small experiment sign up for early access and follow us on Twitter.