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Throwback Thursday: Blockchain

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As innovation using blockchain continues in 2020, we are looking back at all the research our contributors have done around blockchain and its applications in the arts sector, including fundraising, contracts, and auctions.

If you are new to learning about blockchain, you can start with Jenée Iyer’s three-part series: Blockchain Explained. Below, you will find that series along with a variety of posts and podcasts detailing different aspects of blockchain as it applies to the arts. Let AMT Lab know if there are more blockchain topics you would like to see covered or if you are using blockchain or cryptocurrency in novel ways in your organization.

Posts and Reports

Featured
Blockchain Technology for Climate Action in the Arts
Blockchain Technology for Climate Action in the Arts

Arts and cultural organizations are becoming increasingly aware of their climate impact, and many are taking action to reduce harm. Tracking, reporting, and offsetting emissions may seem like an overwhelming feat for small or mid-sized organizations, but emerging blockchain technology may help make the process more efficient and reliable. 

Convergence and Innovation: Exploring How Blockchain is Shaping a New Era in the Korean K-pop Industry
Convergence and Innovation: Exploring How Blockchain is Shaping a New Era in the Korean K-pop Industry

 Blockchain technology has began to permeate an essential aspect of South Korean culture, the K-pop business. South Korea's K-pop industry, famed for its distinct artistic expression and worldwide clout, is entering a new era of digital innovation. The K-pop industry, as represented by firms such as Modhaus, has begun to use blockchain technology, particularly non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain-based voting systems, to create new forms of engagement for fans as well as artists and music corporations.

January News: Ethics, Entertainment, & Sustainability
January News: Ethics, Entertainment, & Sustainability

Emerging tech is growing in leaps and bounds in the first month of 2024, with headline advances in AI, cryptocurrency, and VR. Conversation around AI ethics continues, and young advocates take the lead in promoting a positive AI future. Meanwhile, Apple Vision Pro launches for pre-sale, partnering with entertainment leaders like Amazon Prime and Disney+ to spark demand for the product. For those interested in cryptocurrency and blockchain, the SEC approved bitcoin ETFs, and more than $4 billion was exchanged on the first day of trading. Additionally, privacy concerns push Google Chrome to phase out third-party cookies by the end of 2024, though advertisers worry about Chrome's hold on the market. And, while blockchain is known for being less-than sustainable, Artists are considering the environmental impact of their work, and exploring regenerative materials in their practice - from fine art to set design. 

9 Ways Blockchain is Changing the Film Industry
9 Ways Blockchain is Changing the Film Industry

Blockchain is being embraced by many in the entertainment industry. It is known for enabling content creators to cut out the middle man, reduce copyright infringements, enhance royalty payments, and more. This article dives into 9 ways blockchain is changing the film industry.

Can NFTs Be Used for Social Good?
Can NFTs Be Used for Social Good?

“Social-good communities” in the NFT sphere are created with the intention of creating or uplifting a pre-existing community. Where business communities may arise through the context of the particular NFT collection, social-good communities strive to support a pre-existing (often) marginalized community or global crisis. This article covers the current state of community building and barriers to access through NFT marketplaces, ultimately suggesting the relatively unknown future of the ability of marginalized communities to find space and place in this ever-evolving network. 

How NFTs Have Changed the Creator Economy
How NFTs Have Changed the Creator Economy

Content creators have thrived on Web2 platforms such as Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter. However, with the latest addition of platforms such as Twitch and Patreon, curating content has been enhanced by enabling direct creator-to-fan content and new methods of monetization. The implementation of Web3 technologies, more specifically non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are revolutionizing the way creators distribute content, claim ownership, and monetize work.

POAPs: Audience Engagement and Memorabilia in the Web3 Era
POAPs: Audience Engagement and Memorabilia in the Web3 Era

The average theater-goer walks into a performance with their ticket stub freshly procured from the box office. An usher hands them a playbill as they find their seat. Both items are unique to the time and place of the event, and available only to those physically in attendance at the performance. These forms of memorabilia offer audiences collectible, tangible tokens to commemorate an arts experience. However, today it is common practice to take a picture of the stage from one’s seat with playbill in hand to post on social media and store in the cloud, transforming a physical token of memorabilia into a digital one.

Crypto Philanthropy: Opportunities and Considerations
Crypto Philanthropy: Opportunities and Considerations

Cryptocurrency has the potential to and is already beginning to disrupt philanthropy and the ways that nonprofit organizations collect donations. In previous eras, philanthropic innovation was spurred by “new sources of wealth,” as with John D. Rockefeller creating America’s first foundation or Bill and Melinda Gates translating his immense success in the tech revolution into global philanthropic influence in areas of “poverty, disease, and equity.” Similarly the emergence of a new class of “crypto-elite[s]” has the potential to disrupt traditional methods of philanthropy. Now, as blockchain technology and its myriad applications become more mainstream and our society becomes more crypto-curious, nonprofit organizations have an opportunity to adapt by incorporating cryptocurrency and its various tokens into their fundraising strategies.

Music Piracy Through NFTs: Copyright Infringement in the Age of Blockchain
Music Piracy Through NFTs: Copyright Infringement in the Age of Blockchain

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have gained massive popularity in recent years, touching industries from fashion to video games. NFTs occupy a unique space under copyright law, but are subject to the basic rules other art forms are. The law protecting digital assets, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), was passed in 1998 before NFTs were prevalent. The DMCA allows any artist to request a work be taken down if it is something they have ownership over and did not authorize its publication. This extends to artists with any ownership stake, whether they are a singer-songwriter with sole ownership over a song, or a whole team of writers and producers. While NFTs have the potential to benefit musicians, the music industry has fallen victim to the copyright issues NFTs present. Music industry professionals should understand the vulnerability of their work and consider monitoring NFT marketplaces to get ahead of being victims of copyright infringement.

Be Bold and Transform: Takeaways from the 2022 Alliance of American Museums Conference
Be Bold and Transform: Takeaways from the 2022 Alliance of American Museums Conference

The 2022 Alliance of American Museums’ conference in Boston offered bold and transformative ideas that all arts organizations need to understand as they re-create their operations and strategies for 2022 and beyond. Recognizing that “Normal is not the goal post” is the critical first step. A summary of highlights from my point of view might inspire you, or at least offer excellent conversation starters in your next meetings.

Podcasts

Featured
Let's Talk: The Dawn of AI Policy and the Decline of Meta
Let's Talk: The Dawn of AI Policy and the Decline of Meta

In this month’s installment of our Let’s Talk podcast series, AMT Lab staff Maraika Lumholdt and Natalie Larsen continue discussing the ever-evolving world of technology and privacy , especially in the worlds of theater and the music industry. The AI Bill of Rights, an important new blueprint for the future of technology policy, is also examined.

Let's Talk: Blockchain, Tik Tok, and the Yondr Pouch In The News
Let's Talk: Blockchain, Tik Tok, and the Yondr Pouch In The News

This month in Let’s Talk: Tech In the Arts, Alyssa and Grace discuss how blockchain can be used in the music streaming industry, marketing and the trending app Tik Tok, and the Yondr pouch for restricting cell phone use during performances.

Podcast: Digital Civil Society, Blockchain, and Data Management in the Nonprofit Sector
Podcast: Digital Civil Society, Blockchain, and Data Management in the Nonprofit Sector

In the newest installment of the ATM-Lab podcast series, Chief Editor, Jenee Iyer, speaks with Lucy Bernholz, Director and Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society about digital civil society, blockchain, data analytics and more.