Singer Vérité’s fan-first approach to Web3, music NFTs and community building
Carving out a sustainable career as an independent musician is no easy feat. The competition is fierce, support can be hard to find, and earning a living without the financial help of a major record label is an uphill battle. Yet, for those who are able to build a loyal fanbase, the freedom of complete creative control can be liberating.
Technology has long proven to be a potential friend to those musicians willing to embrace it, and nonfungible tokens are the latest innovation that many tech-savvy artists have begun incorporating into their careers. But NFTs remain both controversial and experimental, especially among the mainstream, and music NFTs are still relatively niche.
One artist who has cracked the code to maintaining a successful career as an independent musician is American singer Vérité, who has racked up hundreds of millions of streams without the support of a record label since releasing her first single, “Strange Enough,” in 2014.
After finding success and touring internationally, Vérité became one of the earliest musicians to experiment with NFTs in February 2021. Since then, she has built a strong Web3 community and had several successful high-profile drops, including releasing 1/1 NFTs, selling the master rights to her music, fractionalizing song royalties on the blockchain and giving NFTs to concert attendees. She has done all this while still retaining her dedicated non-Web3 fans, many of whom have little to no interest in crypto.
How does one walk this fine line and successfully integrate Web3 into their career without alienating their existing, perhaps skeptical, fans? Magazine sits down with Vérité to find out.
Don’t over-rely on Web3
For many musicians, Web3 is an exciting frontier filled with new possibilities for fan engagement and revenue generation. However, Vérité believes it is important that artists have diversified revenue streams and marketing strategies and don’t fall into the trap of assuming that the hype surrounding anything, especially NFTs, will last forever.
Building a music career in Web3 is “a bit of a double-edged sword,” Vérité tells Magazine. While it can help bring people together, “it becomes a negative when maybe artists limit themselves to only utilizing those tools and only existing within those communities, not really having the foresight that there was a hype cycle that then broke and these paths to monetization closed.”
“My focus is ‘How do I build a career that can withstand trend cycles, that can refocus on the foundation of my career while trying to push forward to build better?’ because we recognize that a lot of these systems are extremely broken.”
Protect and respect fans
Not every fan wants to join their favorite artist on their Web3 journey, and that’s fine, according to Vérité. When she first started releasing NFTs, she heavily emphasized that she was simply experimenting with the technology. “I was very, very clear that I don’t care if you come with me on this experiment — this is an experiment for me,” she states.
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Vérité actually took it one step further, actively encouraging fans not to join her. “A lot of my communication with them was, ‘Don’t buy this. Don’t participate unless you are fully educated and willing to fully educate yourself and take on the risks.’” Even now, she still tells her fans that they should never feel pressured to participate in anything Web3-related.
“More than monetizing, it’s really protecting the people who have supported my career for the last eight years,” Vérité emphasizes.
It’s clear that not everyone is sold on the power and potential of blockchain. The bear market certainly hasn’t helped the space’s reputation either, with the collapse of crypto exchange FTX making mainstream media headlines and the prices of even blue-chip NFTs crashing 95% from their bull market peaks.
“If you go on my Discord — and I do tag everyone and say, ‘What do you think about crypto and NFTs?’ — people are not jazzed. Most of them, honestly. It’s just general disinterest,” Vérité explains. But it’s not necessarily that her fans actively hate crypto. “I’m finding that people don’t have a desire to do something new because they don’t see a problem, right?”
According to the singer, “NFTs, Web3, how it’s been marketed out to the masses is also wholly unpalatable really to non-tech-native fans.” Instead, she offers the following advice:
“I would more so recommend people to frame it as utilizing tools because it’s a weird market, and it’s hard to justify some of the scams and the negative aspects that can cause real harm to someone who isn’t knowledgeable or educated on those things.”
Offer an option, not a requirement
Instead of forcing fans to join her on-chain, Vérité instead focuses on building experiences with a Web3 element that is present but optional. She describes her approach as offering a “door” for fans to enter, one where blockchain functionalities can be unlocked to further enhance the fan experience — but where fans will still enjoy the experience regardless of whether they open the door:
“Do you need to jump the technological hurdle in order to have the experience, right? Or is it just a door? If it’s a door, you can talk about it because it’s not a burden.”
“For me, it’s really trying to consider, ‘What is the experience that we’re offering, what are the actual viable use cases of blockchain technology that we can tack on that aren’t burdensome?’” she says.
One example is “The Vérité Crewneck,” a tech-enabled sweatshirt the singer dropped in late 2022 in collaboration with IYK, a company working with brands, artists and creators to develop phygital experiences. The sweatshirt has a near-field communication, or NFC, chip embedded in the sleeve, which can be scanned to access exclusive content and unlock an NFT representing a certificate of authenticity.
Vérité explains that fans who bought the sweatshirt received “premier access to the next era of my records.” Buyers could scan the chip with their phones and get early access to music and perks such as behind-the-scenes content. “That was the main value proposition — not a Web3 activation, right?”
But the landing page also features an option to verify the garment, through which curious fans can receive their NFT.
Fans are at the center of it all
Between straight-up telling fans not to purchase her NFTs to offering them experiences where the Web3 option is an added bonus, Vérité’s fan-centric approach has undoubtedly played a significant role in her ability to push boundaries — and see success — in Web3 while still maintaining a loyal non-Web3 fanbase. Or, in her words, “My fans come first, and I don’t have fans just so that I can sell them shit all the time.”
Regarding her long-term hope for the future of blockchain and music, Vérité says her vision is that “we can demystify the black box of data that exists between artists and their fans, that is held by social platforms, ticketing companies, etc., and that blockchain actually does have the ability to make that information transparent so that artists can communicate directly to the people who support them and reward them in long-term scenarios.”
If the hype is to be believed, this dream may one day come true. But based on Vérité’s experience at the forefront of it all, it seems the only way the music-Web3 revolution will be truly successful is if fans are placed at the center of it.
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Robert Jenrick has vowed to “bring this coalition together” to ensure that Conservatives and Reform UK are no longer fighting each other for votes by the time of the next election, according to a leaked recording obtained by Sky News.
The shadow justice secretary told an event with students last month he would try “one way or another” to make sure Reform UK and the Tories do not compete at another general election and hand a second term in office to Sir Keir Starmer in the process.
In the exclusive audio, Mr Jenrick can be heard telling the students he is still working hard to put Reform UK out of business – the position of the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick. Pic: PA
However, more controversially, the comments also suggest he can envisage a time when that position may no longer be viable and has to change. He denies any suggestion this means he is advocating a Tory-Reform UK pact.
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The shadow justice secretary came second to Mrs Badenoch in the last leadership contest and is the bookies’ favourite to replace her as the next Conservative leader.
Robert Jenrick lost the Tory leadership contest to Kemi Badenoch. Pic: PA
Speaking to the UCL Conservative association dinner in late March, he can be heard saying: “[Reform UK] continues to do well in the polls. And my worry is that they become a kind of permanent or semi-permanent fixture on the British political scene. And if that is the case, and I say, I am trying to do everything I can to stop that being the case, then life becomes a lot harder for us, because the right is not united.
“And then you head towards the general election, where the nightmare scenario is that Keir Starmer sails in through the middle as a result of the two parties being disunited. I don’t know about you, but I’m not prepared for that to happen.
“I want the right to be united. And so, one way or another, I’m determined to do that and to bring this coalition together and make sure we unite as a nation as well.”
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This is the furthest a member of the shadow cabinet has gone in suggesting that they think the approach to Reform UK may evolve before the next general election.
Last night, Mr Jenrick denied this meant he was advocating a pact with Reform UK.
Sir Keir used Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday to accuse Ms Badenoch of having “lost control of her party” and said Mr Jenrick and Reform leader Nigel Farage are “cooking up their joint manifesto”.
“The member for Clacton (Mr Farage) is going to do what he always does – eat the Tory party for breakfast,” he added.
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PM ‘doesn’t know what he believes’
A source close to Mr Jenrick said: “Rob’s comments are about voters and not parties. He’s clear we have to put Reform out of business and make the Conservatives the natural home for all those on the right, rebuilding the coalition of voters we had in 2019 and can have again. But he’s under no illusions how difficult that is – we have to prove over time we’ve changed and can be trusted again.”
Mrs Badenoch has said in interviews that she cannot see any circumstances in which the Tories under her leadership would do a deal with Reform UK.
Richard Fuller, the Conservative’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, insisted to Sky News Mr Jenrick was not talking about a coalition, but meant if you divide up “the right” then “you end up with a far left government” and “we want to make sure we don’t repeat that mistake”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Pic: PA
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice told Sky News “competition is a good thing” and for people who do not want to vote for Labour, “they’ve got to vote for common sense, courage and leadership, and you only get that from Reform UK”.
“Frankly, they [the Conservatives] should disappear into sort of yester-year,” he said.
“And we are at a once in a century moment where a new party is taking over from the Conservatives.”
Mr Tice added: “Robert, you’re saying some good things on justice. But you’re in the wrong party, chap.”
Chair of the Labour Party, Ellie Reeves, said: “I think people have the right to know what they’re voting for when they go to the polls, are they voting for a coalition of chaos or voting Conservative, getting Reform, voting Reform, getting Conservative?
“These grubby backroom deals Jenrick seems to be talking about, they need to come clean about it, Badenoch needs to come clean about it.”
In next week’s local elections, Reform UK will compete directly against the Tories in a series of contests from Kent to Lincolnshire. At last year’s general election, in more than 170 of the 251 constituencies lost by the Conservatives the Reform vote was greater than the margin of the Tories’ defeat.
Today’s YouGov/Sky voting intention figures put Reform UK in front on 25%, Labour on 23% and the Conservatives on 20%, with the Lib Dems on 16% and Greens on 10%.
Plans for strike action will be drawn up by the UK’s largest teaching union when its executive meets this evening, Sky News has learnt.
The special executive of the National Education Union (NEU) will map out a number of scenarios in a full ballot for industrial action while it waits for a final pay offer from the government.
The Department for Education (DfE) has proposed a 2.8% pay rise for the 2025/26 financial year, saying it was an “appropriate” offer that would “maintain the competitiveness” of teachers’ pay despite a “challenging financial backdrop”.
It comes on top of the 5.5% pay rise accepted by teachers last year for 2024/25, which followed eight days of strikes in England in 2023.
However, the NEU, led by general secretary Daniel Kebede, has rejected the 2.8% offer as “unacceptable” and “unfunded”.
Instead, the union is calling for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise – although it has not put a figure on the proposal it would like to receive.
Mr Kebede has also criticised the government for suggesting schools could pay for it by making “efficiencies” in their budgets, saying schools have already faced years of cuts.
‘Anger and fear about what is happening in education’
The government will only finalise its offer once it has received the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations on the pay of school teachers in England.
The DfE has not yet published the STRB recommendations or its decision on whether to accept them – but it is expected that this will happen imminently.
A source on the executive told Sky News there was “real clarity about the impact of an unfunded pay award”, adding: “There is a lot of anger and fear about what is happening in education.”
They said any potential strike action, if approved, would be targeted at the first half of the autumn term and so would be unlikely to affect student exams.
In an indicative electronic ballot that was launched at the beginning of March, 93.7% of NEU respondents turned down the proposed 2.8% pay rise, while 83% of teachers said they would be willing to take industrial action to secure a better deal.
Striking members of the NEU in 2023. Pic: PA
However, the result was achieved on a turnout of 47.2% – lower than what would be needed if the union’s formal ballot is to be successful.
Under trade union legislation, the NEU must achieve a turnout of 50% in both the teacher and support staff ballots. Some 40% of those eligible to vote must back strike action for it to go ahead.
The government has promised to repeal the 2016 Trade Union Act but has delayed the process until after electronic balloting has been introduced.
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The source on the NEU executive said: “The decision of the NEU conference was that schools can’t afford an unfunded pay rise – we are already seeing redundancies in London and that situation is going to be dire next year.
“Schools are suffering an improvement and retention crisis, morale is bad and teaching is not high on the list of well-paid graduate jobs.”
They said that as well as pay, teachers were also concerned about the new Ofsted inspection system and the impact AI could have on de-skilling the profession and job losses.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “With school staff, parents and young people working so hard to turn the tide on school attendance, any move towards industrial action by teaching unions would be indefensible.
“Following a 5.5% pay award in hugely challenging fiscal context, I would urge NEU to put children first.”
The NEU has been approached for comment.
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