Ep. 78: Feelings Check-in. 1) Justin Bieber's music NFT 2) Personal feelings on rejection

[00:00] We are here. We're here. We're moving a little slower this morning. I'm sleepy. I'm tired. [00:06] And it was so fun. I don't think you're allowed to say I'm tired on a podcast. I think I'm here. [00:30] Just boys club. [00:31] Hi. Hey. [00:33] We're here. We're here. [00:35] And we had such a great time. [00:36] It was so much fun. [00:38] Shout out to Luxo for being great partners. We had your fashion week party at this incredible house in the West Village. [00:45] And everyone came out, looked incredible, brought great energy. Verite DJed, Reggie James DJed. Kiki came out and did some euphoria makeup looks. It was a great time. It was such a good time. That's why we're so low energy today. We're. [01:01] We spent all of our energy last night. [01:03] With a very mixed crowd of fashion people and crypto people, which is incredible. Felt like a major win. [01:10] Yeah, huge. Yeah. So here we are. Welcome to the Feelings Check-In. The Feelings Check-In is... [01:16] our weekly podcast where we unpack a, [01:20] Web3 or crypto adjacent news story from the past week. [01:24] And then we talk about our feelings. Talk about our feelings. Personal, professional, professional. [01:28] or otherwise. [01:29] Spiritual.

[01:31] First, we're going to break for... [01:34] A word from our incredible podcast sponsors, Kraken. Hey, Natasha, if someone wants to get into crypto or is looking for a better way to trade, where should they go? Oh, Dina, I'm so glad you asked. The place to be is Kraken. It's more than a crypto platform. Kraken is your bridge to the new world of finance. A simple, gorgeous place to trade with a redesigned trading interface that's so easy to use. From degen to day trader, first timer to full timer, make your trades in just a few clicks. [02:04] dot com backslash boys club sign up in just a few minutes and you can even get started with as little as ten dollars we love you kraken [02:11] Okay, we back. What are we talking about? Dina's unpacking a story for me today. Thanks. [02:16] The Lord, because I had too many martinis. [02:20] How many martinis is too many martinis? Like a half a martini is too much martini. But I had a great time, so it's worth it. But anyway, you're going to tell me a story about what's happening on the crypto adjacent internet this week. Yes, this week we're talking about music NFTs. [02:38] Okay. [02:39] And it's a little bit of, you know, the Instagram versus reality meme. Yes. [02:44] Okay. [02:45] That's what's going on with this week's story in a major way. [02:49] So the headline is, [02:51] is... [02:52] Justin Bieber dropped a music NFT this week and it sold out. [02:57] Okay. [02:57] compelling headline. Very, very compelling headline. [03:01] the reality of,

[03:03] is that a producer who worked with Justin Bieber eight years ago, [03:07] is selling an undisclosed portion [03:10] of his undisclosed ownership percentage, [03:13] In one song. [03:14] via an NFT. [03:16] which is probably a security... [03:18] and not available for sale in the US. [03:21] And it is not endorsed by Justin Bieber or his team. [03:25] And that is what's happening. Oh, my gosh. Okay. So inaccurate headline. [03:32] I'd say there are some reaches in this story. [03:36] Okay, so let me tell you a little bit of context and background. The song... [03:40] that the shares are being sold of is a song called company on his purpose. I don't know that song. I'm going to play just a couple seconds of it so we can get a vibe. Okay. Exciting. [03:54] Oh, I do know this song. Okay. That's company. That's a great song. [04:00] Great song. I'm personally not familiar with it. Do you really... [04:03] Is it that one? No. No. No, no, no. Okay. They got a similar vibe. It's not. It's like an album track on... [04:10] purpose, but... [04:11] Not as a diss, it's just, it is. It wasn't a single, in my understanding. [04:17] Basically, I feel like [04:19] Part of what's hard for me about the story so far. [04:22] Is that I don't understand the music industry. [04:24] So I'm like, how is a producer compensated? [04:27] What is their job? [04:29] And how can they be selling... [04:31] a portion of their compensation. You can think of it like a cap table. Okay.

[04:35] The producer owns a percentage of the song [04:37] And he sees upside down. [04:41] from that. [04:42] through revenue that probably at this point primarily comes through streaming though of course if it's used for sync on film or tv then there's money that would come in there okay but it's primarily streaming revenue from spotify youtube all these other places okay do you have a sense of what that percentage could be like is it like 50 or is it like two percent it's hard with an artist like justin bieber he has so much leverage in those relationships with his producers okay that it's like it could i really don't know i think my husband works in the music industry [05:12] I think his split would probably be like a 50-50 with an artist. Okay. Okay. [05:16] But... [05:17] It's different when you're at Justin Bieber level. Yeah. So who knows what his percentage ownership is. But basically the pitch is that this song makes money from streaming revenue and it's [05:26] And the producer is selling some portion of his... [05:30] portion. [05:32] We don't know what his portion is. [05:34] And so that NFT holders who buy... [05:37] the quote-unquote shares will be entitled. Oh, he's calling them shares. He's not. But the NFT holders who buy the NFT. Uh-huh. [05:45] will be entitled to proportionate share of that revenue in the future. [05:49] I've decided that [05:51] I'm going to start giving hotter and more truthful takes on this podcast. Wow. Be controversial. And so I'm coming in hot with the story. Let's hear it. I'm going to start with the positive. Well, first of all, do you understand sort of how it works? I do. I just want to make sure I want to review with you quickly.

[06:06] This producer, what's his name? His name is Accident. Oh. With an X. [06:12] Okay, don't love that, but accident produced this one song. [06:16] on Justin Bieber's album. Do you know if he's produced other songs? He has. Jason Derulo's song, [06:21] Pitbull song. [06:23] He's a... [06:24] It's totally legitimate. Totally legitimate. Producer, songwriter, publishes. Actually, his real name is Andreas Schuller. Okay. So he dropped this NFT collection. [06:33] Yes, on something called anotherblock.io. [06:36] I'd never heard of that before. Do you know how many? [06:39] Yes, $2,000. $2,000. They sold out. How much were they? [06:44] 0.017 ETH [06:46] which equals $27, $28. [06:49] Okay, very reasonable. [06:51] Yeah. [06:52] So he made? He made $54,000. [06:55] Okay, so he made $54,000. Presumably another block, the platform that did the sale, took a percentage of that. There's no transparency around what the percentage of his... [07:04] revenue he's going to be sharing with these holders. It's not disclosed what his percentage ownership of the song is. Okay. What's the percentage... [07:13] that he's sharing. Like, let's say he makes $10. How much of that is going to the holders? So the royalty ownership per NFT is 0.0005%. [07:23] Okay, so nothing. So 0.0005% on who knows it could be as low as 1% or less than a percent of... [07:32] ownership of the song. I'm tracking the overall structure. I'm a little lost in the numbers around. Of his, 100%.

[07:38] The numbers are upside down. That's why you can't figure it out. [07:40] It doesn't make any sense. Okay. We'll get into that. Let's start with the positive. Okay. I love to see this kind of experimentation. Mm-hmm. [07:47] Truly. Yeah, you do. Like, I think that it's a great swing. And I think that in a different scenario with a different type of artist with more transparency and different numbers and mechanics, I think it's cool. Yeah, it's really cool. I think that people should be able to do what they want with their assets in this case. [08:06] the producers, [08:08] asset is ownership and in the song. Okay. And I think that there should be a mechanism for him to be able to find some liquidity in that. [08:16] if he chooses and i think that this like nft structure is a really great way to do that yeah [08:22] Those are the two positives. Good job. Do you have any positives? [08:26] It's okay. No worries. I'm searching. [08:29] Search me in my brain to see if there's something I like about this. [08:31] Um, not off the top of my head. Okay, no worries. No worries at all. Okay, here are my qualms. [08:37] And I am very, it's, it's been a, [08:40] I got very low sleep last night and coming in real hot. [08:43] I think that [08:44] This is really shitty marketing. [08:46] Yeah. [08:47] And I think that it's deceptive. And I think that [08:50] That is amazing. [08:52] Toxic to this industry. Yeah, and I think it makes people who are on the outside looking in suspicious of [08:59] about the industry as a whole. [09:01] And I think it needs to be stopped. [09:03] Wow, I love this. I do. I think that this is problematic and I think it paints...

[09:08] it tars the entire industry with a bad brush. Yeah. [09:13] And we all have to pay the price for this type of shit. Yeah. [09:17] Because people are like, crypto's a scam. Crypto's like... [09:20] just money grabbing bullshit. And that is money grabbing bullshit. And like, so this is evidence for it. When you were asking me if I had something positive to say, I couldn't think of something because... [09:30] the first thing that came to mind for me was you saying, I love experimentation. And what came to mind for me is this, [09:37] type of experimentation ends up being harmful. It's harmful. Yeah. And that's upsetting. [09:42] Yeah. [09:42] It's upsetting. The financials are upside down. So like we talked about, each NFT represents this [09:48] minuscule ownership on an undisclosed percentage it's comically low yeah also like you'd need i think i saw a tweet that was like you need like [09:57] 2 billion streams in order to [09:59] break even on your 27 like it's the math doesn't math the math's not mathing it's not mathing there's not even like a girl math that could be applied here nope and it's a security which is like i'm i i'm not gonna why why do you say that just for the listener they're giving a portion of the streaming money back to the holders that like you buy something and with an expectation of return mm-hmm [10:23] That is a classic security. It's a security. That's why they're not doing a sale in the U.S., presumably. You can't buy it if you're in the U.S. And, you know, whatever. That is what it is. I'm not going to, like... [10:34] I have that's a whole other can of worms, but I guess like

[10:38] What irritates me about it is it's just a kind of flouting of the rules. And for a rules follower like me, that's tough to say. It's less of an issue for me about the security piece, but it's like it is. Yeah. Call a spade a spade. Has Justin Bieber's team? [10:55] said anything i don't know but i will say and shout out to laudy day for this insight but a similar drop happened with a rihanna song okay and her team freaked out and it was delisted i guess there was like some secondary that was happening on openc it was delisted from openc entirely like they they're like no thank you i would be really upset if i were just yeah they're using his name and likeness which is shitty but when you dig into it it is the producer and his share it's just like [11:25] And it worked. They sold out and he made 50 grand, which is like cool. But also like. [11:30] 50 grand? 50 grand, if you are... [11:33] taking a risk to [11:34] other people wanting to work with you because you've marketed oh interesting something like if i'm a big artist yeah i if i'm dualipa congratulations i would love that [11:44] I don't know. Maybe that's not the calculation you're making, but I do think... I know. I think you're right. I think you're right. I didn't think of that. I think, yeah, you're Dua Lipa and you're seeing this dude did the sale. You might think twice. Yeah. Crazy. What's the name of the NFT called? Company. That's the name of the song. Okay. That's that. That's the news of the week. Kraken is a crypto OG. They have more than 10 million clients around the world that trust them with their crypto needs. They're one of the largest crypto platforms out there with some

[12:14] So you can rest easy that your funds and your privacy are safe for the keeping. And if you need help along the way, as we all do sometimes, Kraken's award-winning client support team is available 24-7 every day of the year. This is a true story. I've actually hit them up a few times with very dumb questions about our account, and they were so nice and so patient. It just takes a few minutes to get started today at kraken.com backslash boys club. [12:38] Okay, let's move on to feelings. We've been pitching a lot. And we've made some swings. We've made some big swings to try and get some folks to be involved. Bethany Prankle. [12:48] Not a lie. That's not a lie. [12:50] And, you know, you encounter... [12:54] knows in that situation. And... [12:58] If you're not encountering those, that means you're not... [13:01] Swinging. [13:02] big enough. So I think it's healthy and I think it's [13:05] All good. [13:07] But [13:09] Sometimes... [13:11] It's actually-- [13:15] You. Here's actually, actually, it's actually not about getting the nose in the people. It's about when you're a human on the internet, there's going to be people or a non-human. I think there's little Michaela. She gets a ton of hate. So. [13:28] If you're an entity on the internet. [13:30] Some people aren't going to like you. And... [13:32] you may never know the reason why, or you might. [13:36] know the reason why, but [13:38] I... [13:39] as a people pleaser, [13:42] Want to be liked. Yeah.

[13:44] And so when I encounter people on the internet that [13:48] don't like me. [13:49] or boys club, and I take it personally, [13:52] I... [13:54] have feelings about that and one of my main feelings is wow i need to get thicker skin [13:58] Right. [14:00] Because... [14:01] that's kind of the [14:03] part of the game that we're playing right now. Yeah. [14:05] And so it's like either play that game and be comfortable with what that game looks like and the tradeoffs and the consequences or don't play the game and whatever. So I think it's like, am I in the arena? [14:18] Or am I not in the arena? And I think it's like, I'm in the arena. And so I need to be comfortable with people not liking me. And... [14:26] It's going to happen and it's not a reflection of my soul. [14:29] Mm-hmm. [14:30] And... [14:32] It's not even a reflection of [14:34] And it could be anything... [14:37] It could be anything. So anyway, that's just a feeling that I'm having. I also think one... [14:43] of the things about Boys Club is that the brand, the voice... [14:48] what we produce. [14:49] has a very subversive [14:52] edgy [14:54] particular worldview. Mm-hmm. [14:56] and [14:57] I don't think we're doing our job if everybody likes us. [15:00] A hundred percent. But it's hard because we are people. Like you and I are flesh and blood and have feelings and are... [15:11] putting our heart and soul [15:13] and energy and time into this thing. And it feels bad when that's not...

[15:19] what doesn't resonate with somebody. Yeah. And... [15:22] But at the same time, if you're for everybody, you're for nobody. [15:26] Totally. And I really, truly believe that deeply. [15:29] And it's more like, honestly, the women that I think... [15:35] Or cool. [15:36] are cool and like could... [15:39] be in [15:40] The Boys Club. [15:41] sphere. [15:43] those people who don't like it and don't get it. That's what's exciting to me. That's what I take personally. Mm hmm. [15:49] The dudes who don't get it, Boys Club, what? I don't get the name. What are you talking about? Like all that noise that we get. I'm like, I don't care about that guy. Yeah. [15:57] And I really don't care about that feedback. But it's more like... [16:00] the certain type of woman who... [16:03] I want boys club to be for who doesn't get it. [16:07] that [16:08] is hard, but it's also fine and normal and it's going to happen. And I need to. Couldn't be less fun. [16:15] It's fine. But yeah, that's my feeling. I think I get upset by or feel sensitive to. [16:22] that type of woman, not [16:24] getting Boys Club because they're like, I don't get crypto and I'm not into crypto. Oh, yeah. And... [16:30] I feel upset by that because I'm like, we are crypto. [16:35] But like, I feel... [16:37] were also not [16:38] In many other ways. There's much about... [16:42] what Boys Club is for and about and producing. [16:47] that

[16:49] is... [16:50] about a [16:51] certain type of person and mostly a certain type of woman who is looking for a sense of belonging in her identity in many areas of her life. [17:00] And Boys Club is designed for that person. [17:04] And I... [17:07] feel discouraged when someone gets tripped up by the crypto thing and they're like oh that's not for me that's not for me [17:12] I will say ending on a higher note or on a more positive note. [17:18] I saw a tweet the other day and I will have to dig it up and credit the person, but she was talking about [17:22] You know the concept of a third space, Starbucks or... Yes, yes. A coffee shop. Hotel lobby. Hotel lobby being like, it's not your home, it's not your office, but it's this third space that you can go into and be. Her thesis was that there's this new thing emerging called a fourth space. Okay. Okay. [17:38] which is [17:40] communities, primarily online communities. Mm-hmm. [17:43] like boys club shouldn't say boys club but [17:46] Like our discord would be a perfect example, I think, of this fourth space concept, which is like, you know, it reminds me of. [17:54] When Taco Bell did the fourth meal. I know. I know. But like what you're talking about, a sense of belonging. [18:00] That being something that you are applying, obviously, to your IRL life, but it bleeding into our digital lives as well. And Boys Club being... [18:08] a really great [18:11] fourth place for you to like spend your time online amongst people who [18:15] share a similar worldview and there's some camaraderie around and

[18:21] That is, I think, a function that it serves that I personally really enjoy. Yeah. [18:26] I, that's really cool. I think that's a really like fresh... [18:29] perspective on [18:31] community as like a framing. Yeah. Yeah. I think for me around this time, [18:35] The stuff. It's interesting. You and I have like different trigger points around it. Like you definitely get upset by... [18:44] a certain... [18:45] type of [18:47] person [18:48] not... [18:50] Like worried that they don't like you or don't like boys club. Don't think it's cool. Don't think it's interesting. And... [18:56] I think... [18:58] Oftentimes, I think we're more struck by that right now because... [19:02] We're... [19:03] Going into corners of... [19:05] the internet and of verticals that aren't our home base. [19:09] Like, yeah, we're like doing stuff in fashion. We're like doing stuff for Art Basel in like artist circles and we're. [19:15] putting stuff out into these like very different verticals. And there's a lot more opportunity and surface area for people to not [19:24] No Boys Club, first of all. [19:26] And then in being introduced to it, [19:28] not [19:29] resonating with it or not getting it or not being in it enough to know [19:35] the nuances of what it is. [19:36] And [19:38] Yeah, I'm just present to like, for me personally, [19:40] And that just I'm confronted with the amount of work that we have to do that, to go into those verticals well. I think this week was like a perfect example of like, okay, let's do something in fashion. Let's do an event during New York Fashion Week. There's a feeling around...

[19:55] Imposter. Yeah. And I'm like, what am I doing here doing this event? And like, how do we show up in a way that feels authentic to us and authentic to our community? And... [20:04] right for the brand. And I think last night went so well. And I do think we executed on that, but we're flexing a different type of muscle in trying to get certain people in the room and trying to have [20:14] a broader conversation and... [20:16] There's a... [20:18] roadmap to do that in a certain type of fashion influencer-y girl and like [20:23] there's a checklist on how you go about that as a certain type of brand. [20:28] And I think we're trying to do it in a different way. And I'm struck by how hard that can feel when you feel like you're trying to like chip away at it in the day to day. And it doesn't happen accidentally. [20:39] Yeah. There's organic aspects of it, but it doesn't happen like organically. Yeah. So I... [20:44] get discouraged by that more than an individual person, maybe not like us. [20:49] Even though I'm so sad Bethany Frankel hasn't responded to my email. Okay. On that note. On that note. [20:56] fun having you here. So fun. We'll see you in Austin next week. Dina, where are we going to be in September? We are going to be at Permissionless in Austin, Texas. Permissionless too. It's happening and we're curating the culture track for the conference. So if you're into the stuff we talked about here, you should come and have a good time with us. So email your boss [21:19] Tell them that you need to go and buy your ticket now. They will never be as cheap as they are today. And we also have a promo code in our Discord for Boys Club members. Come hang in Austin.

[21:32] Friends. [21:33] This is where we make an ask. We're in our call to action era. It's CTA times. Rate and review this podcast. Subscribe to our newsletter. And if you're feeling extra generous... [21:45] Send it to one friend. [21:48] Thank you for listening. We love you. Bye.