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Breaking Down the Future of Music and AI with Lawyer Ash Kernen

IP and Entertainment lawyer Ash Kernen sits down with Mega Labs to talk about the big issues facing the music industry in the wake of the new AI revolution. We cover the legal battles–including arguments around copyright, name and likeness, right to publicity, and fair use–in addition to

The Lab Report 22 - Vision Pro, Mind Against and Lessons from Japan

Hi everyone, It's been a busy few weeks here at Mega Labs. Between traveling for vacations and weddings, and launching Mind Against's new label HABITAT, we haven't had much time to come up for air. So we appreciate your patience despite the lack of newsletter. Today's edition will be a

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The Lab Report 21 - Soundcloud, RAC and the Unified Content Business Model

Soundcloud lets artists message their top fans, RAC drops dynamic NFTs and Ben Thompson from Stratechery outlines his Unified Content Business Model.

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The Lab Report 20 - AI Drake, AI Grimes and AI Everything

The music industry responds to AI Drake. Grimes Lets Anyone Use Her Voice for AI-Generated Music. Authenticity and the blockchain. Artists Launching Their Own APIs.

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The Lab Report 19 - Grimes, AI and Psychological Ownership

Grimes, artificial intelligence and psychological ownership. Ticketmaster introduces new NFT functionality and W+M maps out the music web3 fan journey.

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The Lab Report 18 - Beatport, Anyma and a Self-Reflecting Industry

Beatport Announces an NFT Marketplace on Polkadot. Anyma NFT auctioned at Sotheby's. WME Expands into Web3. The Web3 Industry Has Some Questions.

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The Lab Report 17 - Basquiat, Igloofest and Collective Experiences

Basquiat-designed punk album. The value of collective experiences and what music can learn from gaming.

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How Igloofest Used Web3 Marketing to Engage 1000+ Festival Attendees

In this in-depth case study, we explore the strategy and results behind Igloofest's Yeti Hunt activation, an innovative web3 marketing campaign built in partnership with Mega Labs.

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The Lab Report 16 - Spotify, Def Jam and Community Curation

Hi everyone, Lots of news to share this week. Looking at the articles we've included today, the main through line seems to be the slow and steady "mainstreamization" of web3. UMG supergroup KINGSHIP partners with Spotify to launch token-gated playlists, Def Jam signs an NFT band and famed modern art

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The Lab Report 15 - Rolling Loud, Hume and Open-Edition NFTs

Hip Hop Festival Rolling Loud Launches LoudPunx. Open-Edition NFTs from Snoop Dogg, Young & Sick, NessGraphics. Hume With CAA. Soulbound NFTs and more.

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The Lab Report 14 - Igloofest, Factory Records and On-Chain Analytics

We're excited to share one of our first major projects: a partnership with electronic music festival Igloofest called Yeti Hunt.

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The Lab Report 13 - David Bowie, Rolling Stone and Music Web3 Education

Stay informed on the latest in music web3. This week: BowieNet, Cooper Turley's Web3 Manager Launchpad and Mastercard's partnership with Polygon.

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The Lab Report 12 - Atlantic Records, Web3 Analytics and 2022 Year-End

Hi everyone, Here is our last update for 2022. It’s been great to reflect on the progress we’ve made with The Lab Report since launching in July. This newsletter started off as an internal note sent to my colleagues at Red Light Management to keep them up to

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The Lab Report 11 - Worldbuilding and the Music NFT Metagame

Hi everyone, Instead of taking about the latest crypto Twitter gossip, this week I want to discuss some of the emerging narratives in the music web3 space. There's a great article from Arella that invites us to ask what is the music NFT metagame? I love her framing because it

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The Lab Report 10 - Nike, Richie Hawtin and NFT Critics

Well, what a few weeks it's been. By now, you're surely familiar with the FTX saga and the massive ripple effects cascading throughout the entire crypto ecosystem. No need re-hash the details here, they've been endlessly discussed elsewhere. What I will say is that despite the turmoil, builders will keep

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The Lab Report 09 - OpenSea, Bobby Hundreds and NFT Exclusion Clauses

Hi everyone, Another interesting few weeks in the wild world of web3. The top story right now (beyond the FTX-Binance saga) is around OpenSea's attempts to navigate creator royalties for secondary sales of NFT collections. Over the weekend, the company announced it would start enforcing creator royalties exclusively on new

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The Lab Report 08 - Disney, Spotify and New Models for Music NFTs

Hi everyone, Hope you're all well. Apologies for this one coming in a bit late today. Quite a lot of catch up here post-ADE, but excited to share another edition of this newsletter. On the news front, nothing major from my perspective. A few project announcements and the regular churn

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The Lab Report 07 - Napster, Virtual Influencers and Web3 Record Labels

Hi everyone, Hope your week is off to a good start. I wanted to start things off today by highlighting a few interesting trends we're noticing. First, big music companies are getting a lot more active in hiring web3 talent. Spotify is hiring a Sr. Manager, Innovation + Market Intelligence to

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Four challenges record labels face in web3

Here are four challenges record labels face in web3 which slows their adoption of NFTs as a music format.

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The Lab Report 06 - Introducing Mega Labs

Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well.   Things have been busy around here with Francis and I announcing the launch of Mega Labs. If you follow either us on social media you've likely seen this already. If not, here's a brief overview. Mega Labs is a creative agency for

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The Lab Report 05 - Miguel, The Merge and NFT Consumption

Hi everyone, I hope the last few weeks have been good to you. Today's newsletter starts with a great article from Francis (who took over the last edition) looking at the future of record labels in web3. In it, he argues that despite a web3 narrative that prioritizes artistic independence

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Will Record Labels Survive Web3?

This is part one of an explorative essay on the evolution of record labels and the role they will play in web3.

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The Lab Report 04 - Mutek, Tycho and Crypto Woodstock

I'm out this week so handing the reigns over to my good friend Francis who's been going down the music and web3 rabbit hole with me over the last few months. See you all in two weeks! - J Hi everyone, I had an amazing last week exploring the depths

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The Lab Report 03 - CAA, The Weeknd and Going CC0

Hi everyone, It's starting to feel like we're getting into a cadence with this thing. A few weeks ago, I mentioned some projects from the majors that were significant for their lack of "real" artist representation. Maybe it's an easier way for labels to experiment than convincing reticent artists. The

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The Lab Report 02 - Muse, Mirror and Luxury NFTs

Hi friends, I'm excited to share the second edition of this newsletter. One question that's top of mind for me right now is why more established artists haven't embraced web3. On the one hand, there seems to be a bit of a technical and cultural gap that is preventing some