NFT
Grammy-winning electronic musician RAC recently teamed up with HIFI Labs to launch the CULT Pass, a dynamic, blockchain-enabled membership pass for its Web3 supporters.
Rather than a static digital image, the NFT sphere changes depending on the contents of an owner’s wallet, using special generative seeds based on digital artist Andres Reisinger’s artistic mood plus visual cues from text-to-image AI model Stable Diffusion – and audio triggers by RAC itself of course.
“This project tests what is possible at the intersection of Web3 and AI,” said Joe Barham, co-founder and CEO of HIFI Labs. Decrypt.
i am so proud to announce ↴
CULT Pas ✨
an experiment in online identity I’ve been building over the past year with @hifilabs
a dynamic membership that visually changes and changes based on what’s in your wallet pic.twitter.com/m7iVkbCr9E
— rac.eth ⌐◨-◨ (@RAC) May 4, 2023
The CULT Pass was officially announced last week, but RAC (real name André Anjos) started handing it out to its biggest fans a few months ago.
“We are not trying to sell a product with this. It’s more about the concept and its elaboration,” he explains. It’s the latest in a long line of Web3 projects undertaken by RAC in an effort to bridge the gap between artist and audience, and to help fix what he calls a ‘broken music industry’.
In 2017, RAC allowed fans to purchase “Ego,” the first-ever full-length album ever released through the Ethereum blockchain, and did the same in 2020 with its “Boy” album. About 150 fans took up the latest offer, and he said he felt closest to the people who really appreciated his art.
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In the years that followed, he experimented with it its own ERC-20 token, RACand released several NFTs in addition to using Patreon and Discord in an effort to further build a community around his music.
“I spent so much time building networks and trying to connect with audiences on social media,” says RAC, “only for these companies to put things behind a paywall.”
It’s happened on SoundCloud, Facebook, and most recently Twitter. These CULT Pass orbs are designed to act as a membership token for the RAC fan club and change depending on which RAC tokens you already own.
“It’s a way of taking responsibility for our community. It’s a layer above social networks,” he continues, comparing it to wearing a t-shirt of your favorite band. “It’s not always about the ‘thing’. It’s about belonging.”
A look at the CULT Pass orb mutation process. Image: RAC
The CULT Pass sphere is an early version of the technology and, with four different iterations of visuals available, is currently very “on track” according to RAC – but he and HIFI Labs have big plans for where it goes.
In addition to footage, RAC plans to include generative music and video in future versions of the orb, while off-chain activities such as streaming music on Spotify, buying concert tickets and watching live streams will also affect how the orb evolves.
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“The system is built to recognize and support organic, authentic engagement,” explains Barham.
In addition to leveling the orb, this data can also be used by the artist to reward fans with things like presale access or unreleased music. As the orb evolves, the access and utilities it unlocks also change. Heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold recently took a similar initiative with its TicketPass NFT and an integration with Ticketmaster.
“It’s transactional, but not exploitative,” RAC says of his approach. “Even within our ecosystem, I think some people get caught up in the trading aspect of these things. I wanted to move away from that and create a membership that allows you to build on it.
love my orb.
it’s kind of funny because technically I don’t own my rarer releases, so it’s pretty low, but still gorgeous. pic.twitter.com/g3oBWxHTjq— rac.eth ⌐◨-◨ (@RAC) May 4, 2023
Right now the sphere is centered around RAC and his career, but he’s mostly the test case. “Now that we’ve built the infrastructure and framework, we can iterate pretty quickly,” he explains. “We can apply this technology to anyone.”
“Each artist has their own version of audio and visual DNA, their own engagement style and unique community,” adds Barham. “The framework we rolled out with CULT Pass – while replicable and broad – is intended to reflect the unique expression of each artist and their community.”
In the future, this framework could also be applied to links from like-minded Discord communities or subreddits. There’s no set release date for future versions of the orb because, as RAC explains, they’re still figuring this out.
“My approach to this sort of thing has always been, ‘come be a part of it.’ I know there’s a whole group of fans who don’t care about this, and that’s fine. However, I do want to reward the fans who have invested, as it is about building a fairer system for all of us,” continued RAC, adding that he wants to ensure that both art and the public are valued.
“We are very early, but I really believe in what we are doing,” he adds. “When else will we really have the chance to shape the future like this?”