There\u2019s fantasy football (both kinds), fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball\u2014and surely a fantasy game for just about every notable sport. But what about a fantasy game for musicians?<\/span><\/p>\n Currently in a private alpha, Vault\u2019s <\/span>Fantasy Music game<\/span><\/a> tasks players with building a roster of five artists from the <\/span>Solana<\/span><\/a>-based NFT<\/a> music platform, with points awarded for increases in Spotify monthly listeners. To lock in their roster, players will have to own the artists\u2019 limited-edition NFT drops via the Vault platform<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As it stands, Vault is releasing an average of five new drops each week including its <\/span>Cassette Culture 3.0 project<\/span><\/a>, with most of them eligible for the Fantasy Music game. Older editions are also selling out due to the size of the drops, which typically run between 50 and 100 NFTs each.<\/span><\/p>\n Last week, 50 players took part in the private alpha, with $500 given away in prize money. That tally will increase as the game scales, according to Vault CEO and co-founder Nigel Eccles, who described the current setup as \u201cvery janky\u201d to <\/span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i>. But he said that Vault hopes to launch a more polished beta version in the next four weeks with signups available <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Eccles, who co-founded fantasy sports website FanDuel in 2009 and was CEO of the firm before departing in 2017, had been toying with the idea of a music-related fantasy league game for a while but couldn\u2019t work out how to gauge popularity.<\/span><\/p>\n But then he started tracking the Spotify stats of artists who\u2019d got involved with Vault, and found playlist inclusions and the impact TikTok had on their exposure really interesting. For the game, Vault is focusing on artists with less than 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing people say is, \u2018I don\u2019t know any of these artists\u2019\u2014and that\u2019s the point,\u201d said Eccles. \u201cIt lends itself to our Vaults mission, which is to celebrate emerging artists, but it\u2019s also more fun. We don\u2019t have Taylor Swift in the game, because she\u2019s been discovered. Can you find the next Taylor Swift, though?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The game uses Spotify\u2019s data, because the streaming music platform has fast become the industry standard for measuring popularity, with numbers updated daily. Rather than total streams, Vault is interested in monthly listeners.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne person listening to your track 100 times is great, but 100 people listening to your track is even better,\u201d explained Eccles, with artist discovery very much the name of the game.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOriginally, I thought it would just be a marketing exercise and a bit of fun,\u201d admitted Eccles, with the prize fund taken from Vault\u2019s marketing budget. \u201cBut it\u2019s already more than that,\u201d he adds.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Along with tracking the Spotify stats of the artists, Eccles said that players are already asking for tour dates, release schedules, and the backstory for each of the bands involved. Vault wants to showcase both the raw data and the artistry behind it going forward. Some players are also taking to social media to promote their artists of choice once they\u2019ve locked in their rosters for the week, in a bid to increase their listeners\u2014but also because they\u2019re invested in the music.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the long run, I think that exposure will probably be more valuable to the artists than the money they make from selling NFTs via Vault,\u201d said Eccles. \u201cDiscovery is so difficult at the moment, and it\u2019s hard for new bands to connect with an engaged fanbase because there\u2019s so much music around. I can really see people going on a journey with this product, and the bands are taking part.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In 2009 we did an internal alpha of a simple fantasy game. It ran on Excel and was super janky. That game became @fanduel<\/a>. Today we are doing a private alpha of a new fantasy game but instead of drafting athletes, you are picking emerging artists. Sign up to the wait list below.<\/p>\n \u2014 Nigel Eccles (@nigeleccles) October 19, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Hachi Mugen<\/a> makes jazzy, lo-fi music, and has seen a steady increase in listeners since the start of October, with two Vault music drops supporting a string of singles. Mugen told <\/span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i> that they found Vault through <\/span>Drip<\/span><\/a>, a Solana-based NFT discovery service, and reached out to Vault about working together.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest topics on the mind of new artists is, \u2018How can I get people familiar with my music and have a chance to be seen?\u2019\u201d they said. \u201cIt\u2019s the most important factor in creating a path in this industry to have a career.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n They believe NFT projects like Vault can build a better relationship between the artist and listener. \u201cArtists spend so much time on the music, the artwork, and the general sense of storytelling, but we are losing that sense of connection with songs just getting compiled on playlists,\u201d they explained, with the Fantasy Music game already increasing their profile.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all still trying to find innovative ways to promote our music,\u201d they added. \u201cThe standout artists will get noticed through this opportunity and it will be a path for some to reach success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Tactics are already coming into play with Fantasy Music as well. Smaller artists are less likely to explode in listeners, but they\u2019re also less likely to lose them all as well. Some players are buying up Vaults from artists they believe will go on to big things, and there\u2019s already a lot of friendly teasing in the Vault office. In the future, Eccles hopes to introduce the ability for players to communicate with one another, while genre-specific games are also in the works.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still very much a work in progress,\u201d said Eccles. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to see how it develops. The way FanDuel grew was by us talking to our top players, seeing how they used the platform, and asking what they needed. It\u2019ll be the same approach for this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When FanDuel was first taking off, plenty of people asked if fantasy sports games were bad for the sports industry, with worries about fans supporting their fantasy selection more than their home team. But the opposite appeared to happen\u2014fan engagement saw a boost instead.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople just ended up watching more games and built a deeper appreciation for the sport,\u201d said Eccles. He believes Vault\u2019s Fantasy Music game will have a similar impact. \u201cIt directly supports the artist at the beginning of their career, it gives fans an exclusive product, and it allows for a more direct relationship between the two,\u201d he added.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Eccles said that Vault is being careful not to simply turn the art of music into a numbers game, staying mindful of the overall impact of such an interactive experience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve asked the question, \u2018Does this commoditize music?\u2019 and we\u2019ll continue to think about that as we shape the product, so that it doesn\u2019t,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe want to celebrate the artist and we want to help them be more successful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s fantasy football (both kinds), fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball\u2014and surely a fantasy game for just about every notable sport. But what about a fantasy game for musicians? Currently in a private alpha, Vault\u2019s Fantasy Music game tasks players with building a roster of five artists from the Solana-based NFT music platform, with points awarded for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-180175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180178,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180175\/revisions\/180178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.decrypt.co\/insecure\/rs:fit:1536:0:0:0\/plain\/https:\/\/cdn.decrypt.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image-1-1-1.png@webp\")
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