Fandom – AI’s Kryptonite & Entertainment's Superpower
Web3 Empowers Artists & Creators to Lessen AI’s Threat by Deepening Those Fan Connections
AI presents serious and daunting challenges to the media and entertainment industry, as I’ve written several times. But there are some things that AI simply can’t and never will match — things that are uniquely human, things that will become increasingly important, not less so, as AI’s disruption accelerates in a world without regulatory guardrails.
One such thing is fandom - that mystical, almost metaphysical relationship between artists and their audiences. It’s AI’s kryptonite. In its soulfulness, fandom rebelliously repels and rejects computer code replication in a world increasingly overpowered by tech. If you ever have any doubt about that, just go to Coachella or Comic-Con to see fandom in all its glory. (I just did, attending my 13th or 14th Coachella … who’s counting at this point?).
Fandom comes in myriad packages. Live concerts and meet-and-greets are one version. Hand-signed, customized merchandise is another. Technology has given artists and creators more opportunities to directly connect, rather than less, and it’s also made it far easier for fans to interact with each other. The Internet birthed new channels of direct connection via social media posts, newsletters and customizable merch. It’s also made ticketing to live shows easier, notwithstanding all of the understandable angst that surrounds Ticketmaster.
One answer to AI isn’t less tech, but rather new tech. Tech in the form of blockchain can help keep AI in check. Web3 has been much-maligned lately - and remains largely misunderstood - but it presents potentially the most important and transformational weapon for artists to accelerate and monetize fandom. Web3’s blockchain technology promises a direct artist-fan exchange of value that dis-intermediates Web2 middlemen like Apple, YouTube and Spotify that extract heavy tolls on the entertainment industry on every transaction.
Just think about it. 20 million streams on Spotify are needed for an artist to earn $50,000. On the other hand, only 1,000 superfans can generate double that (i.e., $100,000) if they pay just $100 each year to support their favorite artist. In other words, Web3-fueled fandom requires only a small but passionate community — perhaps just the famed 1,000 “true fans” - not millions. Web3-empowered fandom can help make that a reality with what Animoca founder and Web3 pioneer Yat Siu calls “inclusive capitalism.”
In inclusive capitalism, audiences are not mere consumers. Rather, they become stakeholders in the artist’s livelihood and are happy to give support, because they value access to and interaction with their creative works, personalities and lives.
On the flip-side, the artist understands and appreciates their fans’ emotional and financial investments and creates new works, experiences and other forms of value to delight them. Together, they create a symbiotic community with the artist at its center. Fans not only feel appreciated, they feel motivated and become active artist ambassadors.
I wrote about this new kind of community-centric business model nearly 10 years ago in the pages of Billboard. I believed it then. And I believe it now. Only this time, Web3 gives the power to more fully realize this vision in the form of non-fungible tokens or “NFTs” that, put simply, are a new and direct way to deliver value in both directions - from artist to fan, and fan to artist. Fans can even invest - literally, financially - in the success of their favorite artists. Royal, as an example, is a Web3 company that offers a platform for fans to share in song royalties.
The term NFT has fallen into disfavor in recent months. It didn’t help that Coachella sold lifetime passes in 2022 as NFTs through the now-bankrupt FTX, where they’re now stuck - hardly the desired fan experience. But whatever name we use now - “digital tokens,” “digital tickets,” “digital collectibles” - they can be game-changing when properly implemented.
In the entertainment world, think of these Web3 digital assets as “tokens of culture” - another Yat Siu-inspired term which means that they embody artists, their works, and everything else they represent. And because culture is personality-driven and constantly evolving, only humans are capable of creating it, as opposed to AI that simply recycles it. So sure, fans can use AI to generate songs inspired by their favorite artists, like the fake collaboration between Drake and the Weeknd that’s blown up online. But true fans desire and appreciate the real thing. They value the craft and story of it all. They crave access. That’s why they are fans!
AI isn’t all bad, of course. I’m no “doom and gloomer” (I’ve run several media-tech companies after all). AI can become a friend to creators, not a foe, when it operates in a Web3 environment. As one example, think about musicians giving their fans access to certain music stems (even those they’ve discarded) as part of a tokenized offering. The artist’s AI could give fans an opportunity to create their own new songs based on those stems, each fingerprinted with the artist’s musical DNA so that it is monetized and paid to the artist via the blockchain every time that AI-generated song is played. Web3 provides the transparent reporting and payment, while AI serves as a means to tighten the connection between fans and artists, not alienate them.
Tech leveraged to expand audiences and deepen fandom should be a fundamental area of focus as we think about AI. Fretting about the coming AI wave only paralyzes us. Instead, we must be realists who act. Yes, we’ve all seen previous tech tidal waves that massively impacted the entertainment business. But those were nothing like AI. And make no mistake - we’re just stepping up to the plate in this AI revolution, which is in the earliest of innings.
So artists, focus first on fandom! Use every tool in your arsenal, both old and new, and push back on AI disruption with something impossible for it to recreate - your individuality and your humanity.
In a phrase inspired by that very human movie “Field of Dreams,” artists, if you build it (a fan-fueled community augmented and activated by Web3, that is), your audience will come.