Small Grants/NSFW: Rap Battle

Proposal: Nouns Rap Battle

TL;DR: Celebration of an interactive live remote rap battle, at the end of the battle an NFT will be auctioned. The NFT will contain both artists, nouns sunglasses and a nounish design ⌐◨-◨.

Description:

  1. To support new emerging artists and let people discover them I thought it would be fun to give these artists some nounish power ⌐◨-◨. We will host a live remote rap battle in which the artists will be freestyling with a nounish background. To get an idea: Best Freestyle? (J. Cole, DaBaby, Juice WRLD, Lil Baby, Tory Lanez, G-Eazy)
  2. The rap battle will be interactive, meaning that in OpenBeats.wtf watchers are going to vote on the structure of the rap battle and which themes they are going to rap about.
  3. At the end of the rap battle, watchers will vote for the winner and a NFT will be auctioned in OpenBeats.wtf which will contain both artists, nouns sunglasses and a nounish design ⌐◨-◨.
  4. In case you were wondering WTF is OpenBeats. It is a long term project I am building which looks to solve today’s music problems (streaming economy doesn’t pay) from a Web3 perspective. If you want to find more: https://twitter.com/ferrodri_dev/status/1590697393061699585
  5. While starting OpenBeats by coincidence I met nouns and I got fascinated. My objective is to build OpenBeats on top of Nouns, something similar to what Gnars has done. So, to use Nouns brand in my own brand.

How will this proliferate Nouns?

Emerging artists and fans will discover Nouns and its nounish vibe. Furthermore, this is the first step and a proof of concept towards improving the fan to artist experience while supporting emerging artists, a win-win model for artists and fans in which they both grow.

If this works out further actions will be done from OpenBeats which will support a nounish vibe everywhere (logo, marketing, website, etc). Our long term goal is to build the next Web3 music app with Nouns as an image and culture ambassador.

Funds and structure of the project:

The project deadline is January 11th 2023 in which we will celebrate the streaming rap battle.

This project funding can be done in three tranches. Upfront I really do not need funds, just to validate the idea with the nounish NSFW team. After a positive response, this will be the work that has to be done.

  1. Smart contracts, backend and frontend code that has to be done in order for the interactive rap battle and NFT auction to work. I will do this myself and calculate this as 5 weeks of work. Funds: 4ETH. I could ask for 2ETH upfront to start coding.
  2. Hire a designer for the background of the rap studio, the NFT and some cool marketing. Funds: 0.5 ETH.
  3. I am not a native english speaker, even though I am proficient, I believe a native presenter who has a hip hop background or vibe will do it much better. Funds: 0.25 ETH.
  4. Rent two music studios for a couple hours. Funds: 0.5 ETH.
  5. Regarding the artists, the idea is to have them come for free and let them earn from the NFT auction, however, I have not talked with them yet, so this will be a pending expense. Maximum budget per artist will be 1ETH. I have previous experiences hiring artists for private concerts.
  6. Regarding marketing, the idea is to have the artists promote it as well, however some funds could also be needed to promote the event. This will also be a pending expense after interacting with artists. Maximum 2ETH.
  7. Management of the project all done by me apart from the code: 1ETH.

The idea from the NFT auction is to divide the proceeds between the artists and future OpenBeats treasury, which in this auction will take a maximum of 30% to fund future activities. It depends on the artists, OpenBeats might not be able to get any funds from this NFT auction.

Furthermore, if this works out, there could be a weekly rap battle or even an annual competition with a final IRL event sponsored by Nouns and OpenBeats.

Funds breakdown:

Description (USD) ETH Tranche
1. Product code development 4,800 4 1 and 3
2. Design 600 0.5 2
3. Presenter 300 0.25 2
4. Rental of two music studios 600 0.5 2
5. Artists' fees (pending) 2,400 2 2
6. Marketing (pending) 2,400 2 2
7. Project management 1,200 1 2

ETH Value as $1,200

Minimum total ask = 6.25ETH or $7,500 equivalent

Maximum total ask = 10.25ETH or $12,300 equivalent

About me:

  • I studied business and law, launched masalashirts, flyandclaim and more while studying.
  • I have been a developer since 2017, I have coded all my products.
  • Founder of rentalplus.es, 2M€ revenue in 2021.
  • CTO, CMO, manager of 200 people in ocasionplus.com. Spain’s largest car dealer with 6,000 cars.
2 Likes

Hey Ferrodri, this is an interesting proposal. I read through your Twitter post as well. May I ask as the Founder of rentalplus.es, with an exceptional revenue success and the understanding of creating a web2 business does it not make sense to create OpenBeats.wtf and then to approach Nouns with a proof of concept?

I would debate that if Nouns is funding the creation of the project, shouldn’t the name have Nouns in it, otherwise Nouns is funding you to create your brand to a certain degree?

I do not have an issue with the ask etc, just a thought I had after reading your bio.

1 Like

Hi RGB-NOUN!

Thanks for the feedback and reading my proposal, I appreciate it a lot.

Regarding your first question:

I have been deeply studying Nouns last week and from what I understand, there is a great advantage to submitting a proposal before building a proof of concept. The following apply to this case in my opinion:

  1. By submitting the idea in the discourse I am going to get some feedback on the product and idea. I could get some feedback in other places, however, the nouns culture makes it so that all of us want to proliferate nouns. Therefore I believe it is a much more qualified feedback, as the one you gave me.
  2. By building with Nouns I solve in a better sense the cold start problem, since I already count with an initial community, some funding and even some talent if anybody likes the idea and wants to join. For example, a designer from the nouns community will be great. Furthermore, if I receive some positive feedback from the nouns community now it seems like they will be attending the live event on January 11th 2023. https://twitter.com/punk4156/status/1592189447260577798
  3. From the nouns perspective, I think in this case, it is great to participate on an emerging idea in the web3 music industry, which could later on result in a great hit, therefore proliferating Nouns.

In summary, I think doing it counting with nouns participation will achieve a better result for both parties than doing it individually.

Regarding your second question:

I was inspired by gnars.wtf after meeting 0xigami IRL. I am open to changing the name after receiving more feedback. It could be OpenBeats⌐◨-◨ or even I could rename it.

For me, at this point, the concept is more important than the brand name itself. Building with Nouns is great as I believe it is the first decentralized brand with a win–win model, both for the DAO and future brands building on top of nouns. So at this point, I am totally open to debate about how we should market the name of OpenBeats or even change the name. I thought, as I put in the post, that the logo should have nouns sunglasses 100%

How would you name OpenBeats for this purpose?

I don’t have any thoughts on the name etc, would take some time to think it through, but I’m not the best candidate for this part of the discussion. Have you had a look at the other Nouns music related projects? There are quite a few cool ones already out there in the ecosystem.

Yup, I have seen them, however, I think this one offers solving the streaming economy problem in an unprecedented way. I am launching an innovative product.

Can’t speak for the rest of the team but this could be interesting if executed / distributed well. I would be interested in seeing what your vision is

2 Likes

Hi Wiz!

Thank you so much!

What is the best way to get in touch to share my vision?

I’m trying to understand the end game for your product. Do you want to be a web3 spotify with the revenue in the creators hands rather than a central company?

If so, they made 3 billion in revenue last year and still lost 166 million dollars.

It’s a very tough industry. I’d love to see it disrupted, but without gathering a huge amount of artists and users quickly, it is very difficult to scale.

Maybe building some type of decentralized protocol for music sharing would be fundable as a public good, but I don’t feel like this idea is far enough along or nounish yet. I agree with the comments above that building out the website and idea would help a lot for the community to be able to see the vision and continue to support your efforts, even if it’s just a sounding board for ideas as you build.

Sharing it here on discourse.

1 Like

Great, thanks everybody for the feedback, I am going to bootstrap it by myself and keep you updated!