# Music Industry 3.0

This is a story about a hypothetical upcoming hip-hop artist *Toke Stakkums*, who uses personal tokens on Ethereum to monetize his entire career, without record deals, signing streaming licenses, or dealing with buying royalties.

This future might not be too far off.

## Tokenizing The Music

### The Rise of $STAKK

*Stakkums is walking to the door of the studio and his producer friend, Charlie, is walking out.*

*Charlie*: Whaddup Stak? I heard you were doing a show at *The Fanfare* on Tuesday?

*Stakkums*: Yeah man. Come through. It's $5 at the door. I'm also promoting my artist token $STAKK on Ethereum. I just made them today. If you want, you should buy some.

*Charlie*: Oh man, I did just get an Argent wallet since my boy told me to start getting into Ethereum. DeFi is crazy.

*Stakkums*: Absolutely, I created a Uniswap pool and 5000000 Stakkums. They're currently selling at $0.005 each. When you buy, you really help fund my music since I own all the tokens at the moment. Later, I'm planning on releasing music, doing shows, and selling merch all by people burning the token.

*Charlie*: Oh man, that's crazy. So why burn the tokens?

*Stakkums*: Well, it destroys tokens, and raises the price for all the holders. Think about it like stock buybacks when companies destroy shares to pump up the price. It's a way for fans to hold the tokens to invest in me. If my career blows up, I charge more tokens, but there will be less available. I want to give my music out for free, but monetize only by selling the tokens through Uniswap.

*Charlie*: Do you have any not on Uniswap? I'll throw in 100 Dai right now, but I don't want to hit those fees. At $0.005 that means I'll get 20,000 Stakkums.

*Stakkums*: Woah woah, but then the price won't increase. How about 12,000. Still better than hitting Uniswap.

*Charlie*: Ok, but only 'cause you my boy. You have zkSync right?

*Charlie and Stakkums pull out their phones and send the transaction. The deal is done in 1 minute.*

*Charlie*: Cool. I hope you hit it big Stak. I heard about these personal tokens but this is my first time playing with this stuff.

*Stakkums*: Hell yeah. Come through tonight I'm dropping a new track too.

*Charlie*: Bet.

### Initial Sales

Stakkums has minted 5000000 $Stacks using [Aragon](https://mainnet.aragon.org/). He then took 200000 of the tokens and added them to Uniswap V2 with 1000 Dai. He now has a floating token price on Uniswap of 0.005 Dai for every $STAKK. Since he currently is the only one supplying liquidity, each time someone buys a $STAKK, he gets the Dai. Because Uniswap increases prices for each trade, his total token worth increases the more people buy the tokens.

Charlie's offer wasn't bad, but Stakkums has to increase his token price, since his career depends on it. He still has a lot of $STAKK left, but he needs to be careful. If he sells too much of his tokens too early, he won't be able to sell them later and generate income. Charlie bought his tokens for $0.0076 each in the deal. With only a few shows and recorded songs, he knows his entire career is worth $38,500. Not much, but better than nothing.

## Bootstrapping The Fan Base

### Disrupting the Deal

*Phone rings*

*Stakkums*: Hello.

*Don Carlo*: What's up kid. Look I know you're doing your thing but you gotta see the deal I put together. These record label guys aren't into rappers from Boston, and I know they want to put together something for you. It's a great deal an...

*Stakkums*: Look man, you gotta relax with that Boomer shit. I told you the tokens are the future. If they want to invest they can buy my tokens. I'm at a spot putting together a show and I'm busy.

*Don*: Look Stak. I'm not into this whole Bitcoin, Shitcoin, or whatever coin but you're turning down a great deal.

*Stakkums*: My tokens are worth $0.20 right now. On the circulation I'm worth $350K. Is this deal going to buy all of that out?

*Don*: What? Where'd you even get that number? Look they want to give you $15K up front. Your Youtube videos are getting crazy views and your Twitter is blowing up. They'll put you together with the media guys and handle your entire marketing. If you record some albums and listen to these guys, you'll make a killing.

*Stakkums*: Yeah, but that shit is washed. What happens when I blow up?

*Don*: It's in the contract they have a good ramp up. You hit the sales on an album and they pay you more.

*Stakkums*: Nobody buys albums anymore it's all Youtube and streams man. See you keep selling me on that Boomer shit.

*Don*: Look I don't know about all this stuff you're doing but I'm telling you you're wasting your time. You want to get in this industry, sell what you need to sell, and get out.

*Stakkums*: Yeah I'll call you back I got some things to do. *Click*

*Don presses the speaker phone off button. He is in an office with Beast Boys A&R Representative, John.*

*Don*: Look I can't get the kid. I know you want him but this is getting ridiculous.

*John*: Hey it happens. I mean maybe the kid is right and this whole Bitcoin thing is going to blow up, but do you have anyone else? It looks like he's not coming on board. Thank you.

*John reaches over for his coffee. His assistant Stacy is handing him and Don a coffee*

*John*: Stacy have you heard of this kid Toke Stakkums? You're what? 19? Is he hot? Why isn't he interested in deals.

*Stacy*: Oh him? I have some of his $STAKK token.

*John*: You gotta be fuckin' kidding me really?

*Stacy*: Yeah I bought it last month after one of his shows. It's on Ethereum. It's crazy cause I'm invested in his music. He does this voting thing where you can vote for where he will play next and he pretty much plays there for free. He's been doing a show every few weeks around town.

*John*: Holy shit. So he only really makes money selling this coin shit?

*Stacy*: Yup. These venues and fans are pretty crazy. They buy up the token just to vote to get him to play for free at these venues. Last week it was neck and neck between Middlesex and Wonder Bar. I think he said it was so high on both ends that he's setting up shows at both.

*Don*: So wait a second. He plays for free at these bars, the bars don't pay him shit, and he makes money how?

*Stacy*: The tokens. People are buying $STAKK on Ethereum and he owns most of them. I actually think some people at the venues are buying the tokens too. They get him in for free, and he does a free show, they make money too. He's been getting a lot of people to show up for him too.

*John*: So I can buy this token right now? And I can vote for where I want him to play next?

*Stacy*: Technically yeah. Do you have Ether or Dai?

*John*: Woah woah what is that?

*Stacy*: A different token. You need some to buy $STAKK.

*John*: Ok how much do you have?

*Stacy*: 1000. It's worth $0.07 each now so it's worth about $70.

*John*: Can I buy it from you?

*Stacy*: No way, I'm keeping these. He's fire. You can give me cash and I'll buy some for you.

*John*: Ok let's say I wanted to buy $1000 worth?

*Stacy*: Let me see, you would get... *types in phone*... a little over 10309 $STAKK. You'd bump the price up to 0.097.

*John*: Really? Can I venmo you and you do it now?

*Stacy*: Sure!

*Don*: Well I have to go. I'm sorry about the kid.

*John*: What do you mean? I'm signing the deal now from what it looks like. Stacy what do I need to do here?

*Stacy*: Download Argent first and let me get you set up. My venmo is here...

*Don walks out of the room*

### How Token Economics Works
Stakkum understands the venues want the foot traffic. By staying with the token burn and voting model, it forces venues that want him to buy his tokens and participate in the voting. He isn't taking a huge cut, but after starting last year, his token's Market Cap has hit $485,000. He cashed out about $55K by selling face to face with fans and a few friends. He's making ends meet, but still needs to rely on Uniswap sales to push up the value.

Stacy knows this too as a fan. Getting someone to buy using uniswap is great for her. Her tokens went from being worth $0.07 to $0.097. As a fan, she promotes and supports his brand, and she sees her tokens increase in value. Stakkums has turned all of his fans that own his token into personal brand ambassadors who want him to get more follows so their tokens can grow.

John can't get a deal signed, but he knows the industry is getting ridiculous. He can barely beat bigger record labels with connections in Youtube and venues to get artists to see his fans. He works for the company, but he's not stupid. It's a dying model. If you don't know anyone at Spotify, your artist is dead in the water. It's expensive to get an artist off the ground and even though he's never heard of artits doing this, he thinks this token thing could be something new and fresh.

## Selling Via Token Burn

### Where to Next?

*Stakkum*: What's good Dallas!

*Fans scream. Stakkum is on stage at The Bomb Factory*

*Stakkum*: Ayo ayo. Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for appreciating me. I'm blessed. Thank you to the Bomb Factory. They did this shit and put this together for ya'll. But ya'll hit that 50,000 burn, ya'll did it together and I want to thank ya'll to the fullest!

*Fans clap in approval and the crowd goes wild.*

*Stakkum*: Well lets go I got 45 more minutes and we bout to get this shit. Run my track!

*Music plays and the crowd screams again.*

### Burn Economics

Stakkum has grown his fan base for over 4 years and has built $STAKK to a token price of $3. He also has burned over 500,000 tokens, giving his work a total Market Cap of over $13M. He still has a little over 2M tokens, but sold his shares to earn over $3M in liquid Dai.

His fans, over 200,000 unique addresses who hold his tokens, advocate for him to venues and major streaming platforms. Charlie, who purchased 12,000 now has a token worth of $36,000. Stacy has $3000. John has $30000. All for supporting a music artist. By monetizing and supporting Stakkum. They have increased their own net worth.

Since Stakkum releases his music under the GPL v3+ license, platforms who add his music, must add it for free. To them, since they pay no licensing fees, it's a no-brainer. His music is on Spotify, Youtube, and Google Play, for free. No royalties are necessary since he has sold his art through the token itself. There is a free market for his work, and he has committed to performing by the DAO's decisions, so he continues to earn money and gain supporters.

## Disrupting the Record Deal

### Global Status

*Camera's are flashing. Stakkums is arm locked to Laura Bertreau. A French Footballler, and they are on the Red Carpet of the World Grammy's, hosted on Crystal Island in Lagos.*

*Stacy*: Stakkums!! Stakkums!! Shawn!!

*Stakkums walks over*

*Stakkums*: Woah woah no one has called me that in years!

*Stacy*: I'm from Boston!

*Stakkums*: Oh no shit who are you here for?

*Stacy*: I'm working for TMZ. I used to do A&R at Beast Boys.

*Stakkums*: Wow that's a throwback!

*Stacy*: Absolutely! Can I get an interview? *Stacy gestures to the camera crew to get their gear and get over here. Her eyes are saying,'move your asses quick'*

*Stakkums*: Yeah!!

*Stacy*: Ok, how does it feel coming into the Grammys being nominated for best Rap Song and Album of 2032? You have to feel like you're going to get at least 1 right?

*Stakkums*: Oh yeah, it's great. Honestly with my $STAKK token, I don't mind if I don't win. The token price hit $395 and I feel like I'm in a dream world. I'm actually working more on my DAO with Laura to start investing in up and coming artists with big messages in Brazil, India, and China. If people want to be involved, make sure you search for bigstakks.eth with 2 k's.

*Stacy*: That's great. I want to thank you. I bought 100 $STAKK back in '25.

*Stakkums*: Daaaaaamn. You rich now? Dranks on her!

*Stacy*: Ha ha. Well I killed my student loans with that last year so it's been great. I wish the Grammys had a category for "Most Innovative" artist. You really changed the game with your $STAKK token. Now every artist is following in your footsteps to generate Personal Tokens.

*Stakkums*: Right. I had a buddy in college start telling me in 2020 that Ethereum was the future. He was a crazy smart kid and he got like, 100,000 tokens really early from me for $10,000. I still talk to him but he dropped some knowledge and made a lot of money. I'm going to see him out in Greece right after this.

*Stacy*: Right, right. The token model helped your fans, and I don't know of any other way to build a culture than to start selling tokens. Do you have anything to say to up and coming artists?

*Stakkums*: Just keep grinding. Hip hop is all about counter culture. When I was coming up, cryptocurrencies were still in the infancy. Stay true to yourself and try to help as many people as you can. Oh and thank you to my fans. That show last night on the beach was crazy. I didn't think ya'll would burn 20,000 $STAKK for a popup but we made it work. Check out the videos man it was a movie.

*Stacy*: It was! Thank you so much and good luck in your nomination!

*Stakkums*: Thank you.

### End Game

After hitting a $400 token price, Stakkum removed all of his liquidity from Uniswap and cashed out. In total he has made over $300M in liquid DAI selling his tokens, of which he has digitally invested to well over $1BM in liquid, available ETH. He placed what he had left in 500,000 $STAKK into the bigstakk.eth DAO. But he has made money on the new bigstakk DAO by selling ownership tokens in a private auction for an undisclosed sum. It is estimated his net worth is over $5B in ETH.

In an effort to maintain the price, Stakkum has encrypted 3 new albums, and 3 unreleased mixtapes into the bigstakk DAO. After a vote, the bigstakk DAO can decrypt the mixtapes. The DAO tokens are currently 45% owned by him, 10% owned by family and friends, and 45% owned by unknown private parties. It is expected that more $STAKK burns must occur to release the albums, and they will likely release over the next 10 years. Many individual $STAKK owners have cashed out, and the majority owners are now streaming services, that play his music with advertisements to make up their investments.

After the burn, the total tokens in circulation is 3.2M $STAKK, making his token's total Market Cap. over $1.2B. While it likely won't maintain that price. The DAO is expected to slowly sell their tokens over time for DAI to invest in new and up and coming artists who adhere to the token model, generating revenues for all DAO holders.