When Universal Music Group’s 10:22PM label revealed its virtual band Kingship last November, the premise felt truly novel: a group made up of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape NFT characters, born from decentralized IP and built for the metaverse. A Gorillaz for the Web3 era. The very next day, legendary music producer Timbaland revealed his own plans for Bored Ape-based groups. Eminem and Snoop Dogg have since used their Apes in a music video and MTV performance. Many other Ape NFT owners have tapped their IP rights. Along the way, there’s been NFT backlash, Bored Ape backlash, and metaverse backlash to top it all off. But one year later, despite the changing tides of Web3, 10:22PM is still building out Kingship. More and more of the vision has been shared in recent months: the launch of NFT key cards as access passes to the group’s content, a brand deal that put Apes on M&M’s candies, and a first taste of music from Grammy-winning hitmakers Hit-Boy and James Fauntleroy. Today, Kingship debuts Kurt the Roadie, the first character in its world that isn’t an Ape. The flamingo ally is inspired by an Ape, though: the band’s original Mutant Ape NFT artwork from Ape IP creator Yuga Labs has a pink flamingo wrapped around its neck. (Kingship's band member Ape NFTs are owned by noted creator/collector, Jimmy "j1mmy" McNelis.) The Ethereum NFT profile picture (PFP) is being airdropped free to all holders of Kingship’s key cards today, with each of the 5,200 images of Kurt featuring a generative blend of hand-drawn traits. The artwork will be revealed on November 14. Some traits were designed in collaboration with Fauntleroy, a noted producer and songwriter who has worked with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. Kurt the Roadie isn’t simply a bonus NFT for supporters, however. He’ll also play a functional role in the custom metaverse platform that 10:22PM is building for the game, serving the purpose of flying users’ characters to an island setting—as the artwork above suggests. Joshua showed Decrypt a tech demo of Kingship’s upcoming 3D metaverse world, which is built with Unreal Engine and designed to support potentially hundreds of simultaneous users. Owning an NFT key card gives holders access to one of the four member-inspired towers in the world, while owning all four members’ NFTs unlocks an exclusive floating villa. Building immersive, interactive experiences for music fans is at the heart of 10:22PM, which Joshua founded when joining Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2018. It was established with a focus on content creators and influencers, as well as multimedia storytelling, and has evolved into Universal’s destination for Web3 experimentation. Kingship’s Key Card NFTs launched in May, several months after the band was announced, which Joshua chalked up to due diligence and necessary compliance in developing its own drop. It set UMG up for future Web3 moves—“I assure you, we weren’t sitting here counting our Bitcoin,” she said—but the NFT world shifted from boom to gloom during that span. Still, as Kingship gradually shows its hand ahead of a full launch of music and token-gated experiences, UMG is taking interesting steps that could yield further industry Web3 adoption. Joshua said that the deals of Fauntleroy and Hit-Boy, who serve as co-executive producers on the project, may be among the first major artists to include a smart contract component. Smart contracts contain the code that powers NFTs and autonomous decentralized applications (apps). Some marketplaces have recently moved against honoring creator royalties, spurring fervent debate—but using smart contracts for transparent, on-chain royalties participation for artists is still considered to be a promising real-world use case for blockchain technology. “They participate in all royalties moving forward on all of our NFTs,” Joshua said of the duo. “They're part of us. They're part of the community. They're part of Kingship—why wouldn't they? I think that these smart contracts and the way we pay artists in royalties and all of that will advance the music business.” In one respect, Kingship’s gradual rollout feels very much in line with many Web3 projects that are built in public, piece by piece—albeit with a major record label backing this one. By Andrew Hayward, Nov 9, 2022, https://decrypt.co/113975/how-umg-is-building-out-its-bored-ape-metaverse-band-kingship
