In this episode of Seeing Them Live, Charles welcomes Shelley Van, a seasoned community builder and manager of the Tru Band Room, Decentraland's most successful music venue. Shelley shares her journey from attending her first concert at age 12 to orchestrating over a thousand live performances in the Metaverse. They dive into memorable concert experiences and discuss the revolutionary ways digital platforms are transforming live music through NFTs and virtual reality. Shelley also explains how artists can monetize their performances and the future of virtual concerts. Tune in for an inspiring look at the intersection of music and technology.
In this episode of Seeing Them Live, Charles interviews Shelley Van, an experienced community builder, marketer, and manager of Tru Band Room, a music venue in Decentraland. Shelley discusses her journey from her first concert experience at the B96 Bash to managing over 1,000 performances in the virtual world.
Shelley highlights the unique aspects of virtual events, such as creating avatars, virtual merchandise, and NFTs to engage audiences globally. The conversation delves into the challenges and opportunities of Web3 and how it offers new ways for independent artists to monetize their work. Additionally, Shelley shares memorable moments from her virtual concerts, including a special Christmas event featuring Krampus and live interactions with fans from around the world.
BANDS: Aerosmith, Ash Orphan, Buffalo, Death Cab for Cutie, Deep Sea Diver, Ed Sheeran, Jessica Dobson, Kid Rock, Kings of Leon, Krampus, Mr. Swee, New Kids on the Block, Pans, Psychedelic Furs, Spottie WiFi, Stoney Eye, Tara Who, The Shins.
VENUES: Aragon Ballroom, Credit Union One Amphitheater, Decentraland, Filling Station, Kettle House Amphitheater, Liar's Club, New World Music Theater, Soldier Field, Troubadour, Tru Band Room.
[00:00:00] Charles: Our guest today is Shelley Van. Shelley is an experienced community builder, marketer, and event planner who has worked on global brand initiatives as a blogger and social media ambassador. Shelley currently manages the most successful music venue in Decentraland called Tru Band Room, where she has coordinated over 1,000 live performances since 2021, onboarding over 150 artists in more than 20 countries to the Metaverse platform. Shelley, welcome to Seeing Them Live.
[00:00:35] Shelley Van: Hello.
[00:00:36] Charles: So yeah, Shelley, I thought, you know, the way we'd usually do this is start with your first concert, your first experience with live music. And that was at the B96 bash, which is a radio station. I don't know if they're still around.
[00:00:51] Shelley Van: I haven't listened to the radio in so long.
[00:00:53] Charles: Yeah, they might still be in existence. But anyway, you were like 12 years old. And this was at the New World Music Theater, 1996, which now they, they call the Credit Union One Amphitheater. But, um, yeah, you just want to talk about that. The one thing I noticed when doing some research on it, it said there were like 17 bands there.
[00:01:14] Shelley Van: Which explains why I thought I was much younger, because I felt like, in my memory, I'm like seven years old. And then doing the math, I'm like, oh, I was 12. But it was a really overwhelming experience at that age. and not coming from a musical family or, you know, even like just very lazy listeners. That's kind of what I'm surrounded by.
[00:01:36] So my step mom and dad took me and my siblings to that show. And I just remember I was like small, so I couldn't really see much. It was just very loud. And the person behind me who was a stranger was kind of my size. And so I kept just turning around to see what she was doing. And like mimicking, like, yeah, this is cool. But I remember New Kids on the Block was there. And at the time my older sister was like a huge Jordan Knight fan. So I was just living it up like this. I am such a badass, but that's my memory. That's all I've got.
[00:02:15] Charles: It's funny you've mentioned the New Kids on the Block. I saw them there maybe 1990 on their Hanging Tough tour, I think it was. And what was really memorable about that show was the volume of young girls.
[00:02:31] Shelley Van: And then I was going to say, I'm surprised you were there.
[00:02:34] Charles: Oh my God. It's like when you watch the footage, like from the Beatles, you know, and they're, they're, they'll just screaming, you cannot describe what that's like. And until you're like in it, you, you can't hear like anything. It's it, it was incredible. My girlfriend at the time, I took her little sister and her friends, um, who were quite a bit younger than, than my girlfriend. So that kind of explains what I was doing at a New Kids on the Block concert. It was, it was pretty incredible. The crowd interaction.
[00:03:05] So that was your first experience and yeah, it can be overwhelming for young people to be at a concert. I know parents want to bring their kid to their first concert and have it special. But, sometimes it's depending on the crowd and where the seats are.
[00:03:21] I interviewed one of our guests in season one, Pauline, and she said she made it a point to get like these front row seats in the, like, in the upper deck, they, uh, saw Ed Sheeran at, uh, Soldier Field, which was, I think an all time attendance record was set there, when they were there. So just kind of, you know, some of those pointers is like, you know, a mom or a parent, just kind of be careful of where you buy tickets, because yeah, being in the pit sounds great because you're right up by the stage, but it's also, can be pretty nutty.
[00:03:55] Shelley Van: Yeah, my, uh, I was parented with a, like, if the kids survive, we've done well. That was, that was the whole strategy in place for, uh, me and my siblings.
[00:04:07] Charles: Yeah, same here. It was, some of the things my mom took me to, it's like, oh my god, I can't believe she did it, but I want, I mean, I wanted to go, but yeah, it was, some, some situations were kind of crazy that way. So yeah, Shelley, I don't know if we could go in chronological order, I guess, in 2002 you had, uh, seen Aerosmith and Kid Rock, that was one of your most disappointing shows.
[00:04:31] Shelley Van: Yeah, my, I was in high school and my girlfriend and I, every time Aerosmith came through, we would go and it was so much fun and we were, you know, cute, young, blonde, and just out of our minds. It usually ended up that somebody was walking around and they would hand out front row tickets, and we always bought lawn seats So we kind of banked on that like, Oh yeah, if we just flirt our way around the audience, we'll, we'll work our way down.
[00:04:59] And so more often than not, we were in the front row and it was incredible. We were just drunk on that vibe and the energy. But the year that Kid Rock opened, I think we still made it down to front row for Aerosmith, but Kid Rock's show was just so boring. I mean, it was like, however long it was in my memory, it's You know, an hour. It couldn't have been that long. It was probably 15 minutes.
[00:05:23] He had divided the audience in half. And it was like, okay, this side say kid, this side say rock. And that was it the whole time. Just the crowd, and I was kind of like, okay, that's it. That's all we're doing, huh? And that, that was all we were doing. So it was kind of like, okay. That was a disappointment.
[00:05:40] Charles: A little bit of that goes a long way. Okay. And then for your, your best concert, you had put down this band, which I'd never heard of before, Deep Sea Diver. And in doing research, um, you had originally. On, on the form, on the guest form, said that you had seen them in Bozeman, Montana.
[00:05:58] So I just searched up Deep Sea Diver Bozeman, Montana, up popped this Missoula, Montana show the same year. This was, uh, September 4th, 2021. They were opening for Death Cab for Cutie at this place called Kettle House Amphitheater. But you, uh, corrected me and said, no, I saw them at this place called the Filling Station. About less than two weeks later on September 16th in Bozeman. And, um, I looked up the capacity and I don't know how accurate this is, but that club, it says holds 194 people.
[00:06:35] Shelley Van: That would be crowded.
[00:06:37] Charles: Yeah. So, so it's a tiny place then, right?
[00:06:39] Shelley Van: Yeah. It's just a little hole in the wall bar, and those are my favorite. Those are the best shows.
[00:06:46] Charles: Yeah. But what seemed really cool about this show, I could only imagine when you were there is that, you know, you have this band, Deep Sea Diver, and they're And, you know, they're opening for Death Cab for Cutie, and they had come out with this album called Impossible Weight, which is W E I G H T, and during my search, up popped this, um, in studio performance on K E X P, and the listeners, of that, uh, station voted that the number one album of 2020. So I watched, I watched that recording and it was, it was cool. You know, they, they're very interesting band to watch.
[00:07:25] And at the end of the, the, uh, performance, the DJ there interviews them and the lead singer, Jessica Dobson says the energy of the people losing their minds over music and this deep ache in so many people's hearts to experience live music because this is right after the pandemic. She was talking about this, this Death Cab show and you had a similar response to the question. You said almost the exact same thing. So go ahead and talk about that show. Cause it sounds pretty cool at this small club.
[00:07:56] Shelley Van: Yeah. So first of all, small clubs are just my favorite of all time because it's just such an intimate, you know, raw experience when you're like right there. You can, the sweat spraying and no matter where you are in the club, it's in the air. And my partner was a big fan of The Shins and Jessica Dobson played in The Shins.
[00:08:15] So, that's how he introduced me to Deep Sea Diver. And I became a very fast fan. They are, I love their music and she's just, she's incredibly talented. Um, but so the filling station is just this tiny little bar again, like hole in the wall in Bozeman, Montana. And the show, I think it was 12 dollars. And so it was like, come on, you have to go.
[00:08:39] But we were just coming out of the lockdowns. This was my partner and I, our first show since the lockdowns. And we were really quite stir crazy, just craving that interaction. That's just any sort of human energy vibe exchange. And so, you know, we walked in, a little rusty with the people skills. I don't know if that happened to everybody, but it was like, I forgot how to human after being so isolated for so long.
[00:09:08] And, you know, we just kind of wander in. We parked our bodies in one location and didn't move much. And, but then the music started and it was just like, Oh, life. I remember this. Yes, here we are. And it was just, oh, it was just so good. So good. And the performance was fantastic. I bought all the merch, like everything they had to offer. I was like, I want the album. I want the poster. I want the shirt, you know, and they were there signing it all. And it was just, it was really, really special.
[00:09:37] Charles: Yeah. And it sounds. You know, again, like a really, a rare opportunity, but given, you know, who they were opening for on that tour and then to see them at this club sounds like a really, really cool experience. Yeah, I remember when , my wife and I went to see, the psychedelic furs and X was opening for them at the Aragon ballroom.
[00:09:58] I think that was maybe our first show back after the lockdown. And yeah, it was just, you're so happy and yeah, you're trying to interact with people. 'cause you haven't really been in a crowd like that in a long time. And even the venue seemed to have a, a, a vibrancy to it, you know?
[00:10:16] I, it might've just been imagination 'cause I hadn't been to a, a concert in so long. Um, but yeah, it was, it was really cool. But speaking of venues, and I mentioned this just briefly in your introduction, you, , have a venue, right? A virtual venue,
[00:10:34] Shelley Van: Virtual. Yep.
[00:10:35] Charles: In this place called Decentraland and it's the Tru Band Room and under your most surprising concert, you had mentioned a show there by this, uh, band.
[00:10:52] How do you pronounce it? Krampus?
[00:10:53] Shelley Van: Oh, no, no, no, no. Okay. Let me back it up. So Decentraland, think of it like a gaming platform similar to, you know, Fortnite or Roblox, but it's more of a social media experience gamified in a 3D environment. So if Facebook were a 3D world, you could run around in. So instead of scrolling, you now have a 3D representation of yourself, which is your avatar.
[00:11:19] You know, you dress it how you want it to look, you tweak it to your preferences, and then you can physically, virtually run around this space, right? This world. And so that's where I have a virtual music venue called the Tru Band Room. And the Tru Band Room was designed and developed right during the pandemic when live music was essentially just shut off.
[00:11:45] And the partners in Switzerland are the co founders are the founders of the True brand and they're super successful software developers and they have their own business but as like a side hustle during the pandemic they're like, how can we help musicians? One of them has a brother who was a touring musician and he watched his entire income stream just disappear.
[00:12:08] So they're like, we're big nerds. We're not musicians, but how can we help the musicians of the world? And so this virtual venue was created in this space. And so I came in to manage the entire, the whole process, you know, booking musicians, onboarding, teaching them how to access the world and all these things.
[00:12:28] So that show, cause now we're a thousand deep, but that show was so special because it was around the holidays. So for Christmas, my venue sits within this open world. So it's just like the real world. Like I'm sitting in my house. I own this property, but the neighbors are doing their own thing. And the rest of the world is operating externally.
[00:12:49] Right? Same thing in this environment. You own your space. The whole rest of the world is doing its thing. Okay. So the Christmas event involved Santa and Krampus. Krampus is like, I'm going to get this all wrong, but it's like a pagan thing.
[00:13:04] Charles: I looked it up. In Alpine countries, Krampus represents a Christmas demon who punishes kids who misbehave. So it's the dark counterpart of Saint Nicholas, I guess.
[00:13:16] Shelley Van: Yes, the alter ego. And so, this character, something to know about Decentraland, it is a decentralized platform, which we don't need to get into all the crypto and blockchain technology, but just know that the culture on this side of things is very, we call it degen, which is like degenerate, so the weirder, the more obscure, the fouler, the better.
[00:13:42] So, of course Krampus is running around for Christmas, but this character is dropping gifts. So virtual gifts, which users in world can click on and claim. So Krampus is running around to different locations in Decentraland, and just, you know, airdropping these virtual gifts. And I'm running an event with Ash Orfman, and he's our weekly resident, he plays every Thursday.
[00:14:08] And so Krampus shows up, now people are chasing Krampus, so this horde comes in with him. And Ash is so chill, he's, you know, on screen, live, just jamming, doing his thing, and then all of a sudden he said, Oh, it's crowded in here, and I was like, yeah, Ash, Krampus is here, and gifts are dropping, and so, all these people who are really just there for the gifts, suddenly heard Ash, and they were like, whoa, wait, what is this place?
[00:14:37] And I'm, you know, talking to them in the in world chat, typing, saying, This is the Tru Band Room. Welcome. You know, we have live musicians here almost daily. You know, and here's Ash Orphan on screen, who's then engaging with them in real time via the live stream. He's like, Hello, welcome everybody. I hope you get your gifts, you know, but stick around for the music.
[00:14:57] And Ash plays, um, all original music and he has this one beautiful song that is just perfect for a virtual mosh pit. You know, you use your character and you just jump around. And so I'm watching this scene unfold. Where this whole group is here, they're all decked out in Christmas wearables, and you know, running around, and then they hear the music, and everybody's like, And then they start moshing, everybody's jumping around, bouncing around, and I was behind the scenes, you know, in my, on my couch in pajamas, crying.
[00:15:27] Because it was like, just this magical moment of people from all over the globe, my favorite thing to ask is, you know, where's everybody from? And it's like, Argentina, Peru, Portugal, the UK, India, you know, everywhere. And united by this universal language that is music. You know, and again, it's during the pandemic.
[00:15:49] You're just craving that human connection. And here's this virtual, ridiculous thing unfolding. But the human connection is real. You feel it, the music, the energy, the vibe, and just all that excitement translated. And it was just, it's one of my favorite memories of all time.
[00:16:08] Charles: Yeah. So, okay. I guess I was mistaken. Cause so Krampus isn't a band. Well, it is a band actually. They're an Italian band, which I was listening to some of their music. They're a folk melodic death metal band. So they kind of sing, the lead singer sings regularly, you know, and then he breaks into the cookie monster death metal voice, the verse, and then he goes back and back.
[00:16:31] But so that's why I thought, I thought Krampus was the band, but no, it's, it was Krampus, the evil version of Santa Claus, basically. Okay. Cool, now we met a couple of weeks ago at the liar's club in Chicago. We were seeing there were a few bands there. You were interested in seeing, Tara, Who?
[00:16:50] Shelley Van: Yeah, so first the Liars Club where we met, I was there to see Tara Who because Ash Orphan is the bass player in that band and Ash Orphan has been playing in the Tru Band Room for three years, weekly, without fail. I've never met him. He's French. He lives in Ireland. So, you know, the chances of him playing in Chicago were like, what had to be there.
[00:17:13] So it was absolutely beautiful moment to finally meet him in person. But so the Tru Band Room, um, was designed by a team in Switzerland. Uh, software brow eye is their company and the original architect goes by Judas Judas. He's based in the UK. I don't know his real name because. In this world, people often work anonymously and it had many, many iterations in the beginning because we didn't, it was meant to be a practice space for NFT holders.
[00:17:48] And again, I don't want to get too deep in the weeds here. But it was meant to be more of a, a practice studio virtually. And we had our first live show with Ash Orphan and quickly realized, Oh, this is much bigger than just a practice space. This is a venue because being able to live stream with excellent quality audio and visual, and visual quality.
[00:18:12] We filled the space with avatars and it was crowded. The ceilings were short and it was kind of boxy. So we quickly opened up the ceiling, spread it out so that we could fit more avatars in there, which sounds absurd. I realize it's a virtual space. What do you mean there's no room? It's, it's imaginary, right? If you've never played a video game or you've never experienced having an avatar that represents you, real world rules apply with personal space. If you step too close to an avatar, you actually apologize. Like, oh sorry, I bumped into you. It's, the psychology behind it is fascinating. There are people studying this behavior, but it translates.
[00:18:51] So we needed to make more room. One of my favorite in real life venues is the Troubadour in Southern California, in Hollywood. It's a legendary spot, you know, Elton John played there in his beginning days and they've just got such an epic history of music legends that roll through the Troubadour and I've been there.
[00:19:12] You can feel the history in the wood grain, in the sticky, dirty floor. It's, you know, that real raw rockstar vibe. And for a metaverse venue, oftentimes you think like, Oh, it's so futuristic. It should be, you know, space age and weird. And I was like, no, no, no. For music. I think we should make something that's far more. intimate, keep it kind of closed in and messy and, you know, translate that like the epicness that is Rock star music, but in digital form. So that's how that was the inspiration to keep it not as futuristic as you might think. We still have, you know, moving lights and elements that make it futurey, but the overall vibe is meant to be about the music.
[00:20:05] It's less about gaming experience. And I'm using air quotes when I say gaming, because it's really, it can be gamified, but it's more of a world, a virtual world. For humans to socialize than it is a game. There are gamified experiences within this social world. But so for music, I was like, it should be about the musician on screen, less about the environment you're in. So that's where the design comes in.
[00:20:30] Getting artisan, if they've ever streamed to Twitch, it's an easy transition. We use the same software. It's OBS, which is a free open source streaming software streaming to Twitch. You can just plug in our private server and now you're streaming to Decentraland in the Tru Band Room.
[00:20:47] The added element though is we want the musicians in the Tru Band Room in Decentraland as their avatar, so that they can see the audience that they're performing to. So it's difficult to describe without like a visual aid.
[00:21:02] Charles: Yeah, when you, you sent me a video of Ashe's, one of his performances, it was like, it's Ash playing like on a, on a screen, like human Ash. Right. And then, so you're saying then he has an avatar in the room so he can see the people and what it sounds like.
[00:21:19] Shelley Van: Correct. That allows him to then vibe on that energy. Because remember, this is COVID times, nobody's performing. If you're performing to Twitch, you're performing to a camera. And you can see a number. You know, oh, there's 33 people watching the stream. There's 150 people watching the stream. So you have this number in your brain.
[00:21:39] But in Decentraland, you have this, It's very visual crowd when each of those numbers is an avatar. And they're jumping. They're dancing. They're typing in chat. So you can communicate with them in real time. It's really awesome. But so for Ash, or for any artist. having their avatar in world so that they can have that energy exchange in real time is really important.
[00:22:03] So my onboarding process consists of like, here's how to stream that's different for everybody, depending on whether or not that, you know, what instruments they're using, if they have multiple instruments looping in and, you know, It's very unique experience for everybody, but streaming, getting in world.
[00:22:22] And then there's a whole other avenue of this, which involves, you know, creating your own virtual merch. So then sell creating music, NFTs to market during your time on stage. A whole thing, we probably have an entire other discussion
[00:22:37] about.
[00:22:38] Charles: That's how they would get paid then the musicians get paid through this merch they developed?
[00:22:43] Shelley Van: Yeah, that's a great way to monetize your performances. There are other ways to, a lot of venues do pay for performances. Um, you can have sponsors come in and sponsor your show. Each venue has different, approaches to that. Ticketing. I'd like to clarify that all of the shows in the Tru Band Room are free.
[00:23:01] So anybody can run in and experience it. There is the capability to ticket a show. We call it token gating. So that you'd have to have an NFT in your virtual wallet so that when you enter the club, you can't get in unless that ticket is in your wallet and then it reads it and then you're able to enter.
[00:23:21] So token gating is a way to ticket a show. Which is where I think the future of virtual music is going. The barrier to entry is too high right now for virtual wallets, crypto NFTs, things like that. So we're just not there yet, but what we do for everyone who attends a show in the Tru Band Room, they are given a ticket stub.
[00:23:43] It's called a Proof of attendance, right? So, for every show I work with the art, the performing artists to create the artwork that is attached to this virtual stub and we use AI, we use original art, we, you know, whatever the artist wants to do, and I create that as an NFT, it's a polygon NFT.
[00:24:02] So it'll show up on OpenSea, which is an NFT platform, but your avatar, once you enter the space and you're at the show, it's timed, so you have to be there when, when it's live, this ticket stub is automatically dropped, airdropped to your wallet. So after the show, you can go look in your crypto wallet and there it is.
[00:24:22] You were there. And then on the backend, I've programmed it so that, you know, it shows the time, the date you were there. What show you attended, a little bit about the artist, the links to whatever the artist is trying to promote or their, their channels. But so it's this virtual evidence that you attended this show.
[00:24:40] They are collectible because they're inherently rare. You know, there will only ever be a certain amount for this live event. And so people trade them, people buy them on the secondary market because they just want to collect them. It allows artists to have a record of who attended their shows. So it's kind of like building your Web3 email list, if you will, but instead of emails, you're collecting wallet addresses so you can see every wallet address that attended your show.
[00:25:10] If you've sold one of your ticket stops, the show app, if you've traded it or sold it, that record is listed. So you know who the original person is who held, who was at the show, but then you can see where it went. But so we call them holders. If you hold these show apps, these artists can reward their holders, right?
[00:25:30] So let's say you've been to 10 Ash Orphan shows and you've got 10 show apps to prove it. Ash can then see, hey, this wallet address has 10 of my show apps. Which means this is, this is somebody that I should probably know. The ideas are fairly limitless. He can airdrop you something as a reward.
[00:25:48] Like here's, I'm dropping this music NFT. I'll send it to you since you're a loyal fan or I'm dropping some, I'm going to drop a new song. I'm going to send you something to your wallet that says I've got a new song coming up. Again, it, the wallet can be treated very similarly to as an email. So it's a great way for artists to start building connection to a global audience that they may have never been able to reach.
[00:26:16] Charles: Yeah. Because when we were at the Liars Club and you'd mentioned that I, you know, I showed you my NFT ticket from Marcus King, who I saw earlier in the year at the Salt Shed. And, this was given to me by Live Nation. I mean, I didn't even know, they'd never mentioned it. I didn't know it was going to happen.
[00:26:34] You know, I bought the tickets, my buddy and I went to the show and I don't know, I don't know how long before prior to the concert, yeah, this NFT. I'm like, what is this? And it's a ticket stub. You know, it's a general admission. It has Marcus King and some of his album work on it and such. And so I did forward, cause I had two of them.
[00:26:53] I forwarded one to my buddy and he has it. And like I told you at the Liar's Club, I'd have it on my phone, and I, and I don't know what to do with it, you know, I don't want to delete it. Cause I don't know if I could ever find it again, I guess maybe through Live Nation, I'd save this, I have a screenshot of how to find it again. I was just looking through that, prior to our interview. So with that said, I don't think I want to try to find it if I, you know, close up.
[00:27:18] But yeah, I thought it was super cool. Cause you showed me some of these tickets stubs, that you and Ash had designed and yeah, it's just really a neat concept because, as you know, the paper ticket stub has gone away, which kind of bums me out, but I, I always justify it with, well, now they let my camera, in the venues so I could take a picture at least of the artist because I, I like to do that just so I kind of know what they were wearing, what venue I was at, things like that, the date, et cetera, you know, its all recorded with the photo. So I guess it's kind of a trade off for the ticket stub, but now this is the wave of the future because I, I know a lot of people like to keep their ticket stubs.
[00:28:00] Shelley Van: Oh yeah. It's, it's such an awesome piece of memorabilia, but you know, a paper ticket stub can get lost. So can a virtual ticket stub if you don't know how to store them appropriately. But, we're saving trees and this allows mass, distribution at a global scale when you have an audience coming from so many different areas virtually. It's a really cool way to connect and again, build a list if you're the artist or for us as a venue, we have a record of everybody who's ever set foot in the venue and we can market to those people in a very anonymous way, because again, in Web3. your name isn't necessarily associated with your wallet.
[00:28:41] It's just a big old string of numbers that is your wallet address. So, I don't know how Live Nation is doing it. They might be using it with an email. But again, we don't need to get too deep in the weeds on how all that works. For us, it's usually a non custodial wallet that is attached to your account, and then things just get airdropped into that, because that's a Decentraland specific feature.
[00:29:01] Charles: Yeah, um, I, I believe I received it as maybe an email and there was some kind of link and I had to activate it or something. But yeah, it's, it's cool. It's my first NFT ticket stub, so to speak. Shelley, you said Ash, he's like a regular resident of the Tru Band Room. What other bands do you have playing there or coming up or there's, is there a schedule that you guys release or how does, how does that work?
[00:29:28] Shelley Van: So, if you visit events.decentraland.org, that's all the events happening in the world. You can filter it and just do a search for Tru Band Room and all of our, all of our events will show up. We've slowed our schedule down a bit just because the platform itself is going under some renovation.
[00:29:45] They're, they're working on the release of a new downloadable client, which will make it easier to use. They're working on mobile compatibility. So for now we've got kind of a light schedule. We've got Stoney Eye. He's a brilliant producer and musician based in Long Beach, California. Lots of roots rock, reggae style.
[00:30:04] He's on every Monday, he does MoFi on Monday at 4 p.m. Pacific. So 7 p.m. Eastern and Ash on Thursdays, except when he's touring, of course, he's on tour right now, so he'll be back on October 17th. Then we've got all sorts of rotating events. We've got the music festival coming up, which will be our big, big event in November.
[00:30:31] That is November 20th to the 23rd, I believe and that's a Decentraland event. I'm, Program partner for that. So I all day on Friday, the 22nd will be my artists. So we've got Stoney playing and that's all EDM focused by the way. So complete EDM takeover for this entire festival.
[00:30:54] We've got Stoney on with his wife, Sultry Dubs doing an EDM set. Buffalo and Pans our DJs based in Paris, France and incredible musicians. I've got two new guys, David and Gecko. And I'll have to consult my notes and get back to you on the rest of the lineup, but that'll be a really big show.
[00:31:15] Charles: So like if a band was interested in performing there how would they get in touch with you?
[00:31:20] Shelley Van: We are very active on Twitter, or X, Discord. I'm always available via email, or any of my social channels as well. We call it Web3, right? And so most of the activities happening on X and Discord. So most musicians know to either come over there, but I try to be active on Instagram as well, just to be available everywhere.
[00:31:44] Charles: Cause I'm just, I'm thinking, you know, some of the bands I see, smaller bands, even like some of these house concerts that I've been to, or living room concerts or whatever you want to call them, you know, that would be a good way to do something like that, you know, I guess you're just, you're basically streaming, but, you know, as, as a way to reach a lot of people, but maybe the same kind of performance, maybe more, more intimate, so to speak.
[00:32:10] Shelley Van: It is more intimate. You're able to connect with your audience one on one, in just a different way. Like when I walk into a venue in real life, chances are the lead singer is not going to be like, yo, dope shoes, Shelley Van. But in a virtual experience, my name is over my head. They can see what I'm wearing and my, you know, what my avatar is wearing.
[00:32:31] And I have really dope wearables. I'm not going to lie and so when I come into the room, usually somebody's like, yo, Shelley Van, killer outfit or, you know, whatever. And it's like, Oh my gosh, this person who's who knows where on the globe just called me out by name and commented on something and there's just an immediate ability to grow a community.
[00:32:53] And I work with most, mostly independent artists. So it's like, if they're interested in taking that leap into Web3 and looking at music, NFTs, or digital merch as a way to monetize their work, then that's where I can be really, really helpful and hold their hand through that whole process. We offer marketing support.
[00:33:16] And we do this completely for free to the artists. We never charge a dime. My mission is to really just support their journey in this very new space that we find ourselves in. It's a cool time to be alive, really.
[00:33:28] Charles: Yeah. Yeah. No, it sounds, sounds really interesting and I'm thinking, so do these bands have, record deals or work with a record company or maybe I'm thinking maybe not necessarily.
[00:33:39] Shelley Van: Not necessarily, more often than it's not, they're not in relationships with labels. In the Web3 side of things, that's kind of the whole point, is to remove the middleman. Like, decentralization, like, no, be your own everything. And so, that's sort of the mantra of the space. I don't want to bash labels or anything, but, you know, musicians aren't paid fairly.
[00:34:06] They're not being compensated for their streams on Spotify in a way that makes sense for them to live comfortably, unless you're super famous. So for the independent musician or the, you know, the, the more unknown musicians, it's a really interesting way to monetize your art. And I've seen musicians make quite a bit in this space if they do it right.
[00:34:29] Spottie WiFi, I don't know if you've ever heard of him. He's actually from Rockford, Illinois. He's an excellent example of how to build your business in the Web3 space. If you Google him, he's got articles. He made, you know, $160,000 in 30 seconds or something. I'm going to get that wrong. A hundred and something thousand in 60 seconds. And he became the kind of poster child or the example of the thousand fan theory.
[00:35:00] Because if you can accumulate a thousand fans that are willing to spend a hundred dollars a year on you as an artist, you've just generated a six figure income for yourself as a musician. And so he sort of pioneered that whole journey in the Web3 space by dropping music, NFTs and I hold many of his and some of them come with physical vinyl.
[00:35:23] So if I hold this NFT, I can then go to his site and claim my vinyl and have it mailed to me. So it's like, Oh my gosh, yes, I'll do that all day long. And he's getting way more than a hundred hours a year out of me, but he's got many people doing that. You know, he made like $1.5 million in his first year in Web3. So for all the musicians out there, this whole world exists. It's like drinking from a fire hose at first, but once you start understanding, it's really amazing.
[00:35:54] Charles: I could see that. A good way to monetize something like your music and not have a record deal. Because, I see bands and, and know people in bands that, they're very good, you know, and they, their music needs to be heard, but, you know, this would be a good way to get out in front of people that you otherwise would never be able to interact with.
[00:36:16] Shelley Van: Yeah, and that's, that's where the Tru Band Room comes in. Because if you're on that Web3 journey and you have music NFTs, how do you find people that understand what a music NFT is? Like, where do you find your already onboarded audience. Lots of musicians Kings of Leon released an NFT with their record. That was actually how I discovered NFTs was through them.
[00:36:38] So there's multiple ways of doing this, but if you don't already have a built in audience or you have a huge following, but they have no idea what an NFT is, or, you know, digital merch or any of these things, it's like, how do you reach that?
[00:36:52] Well, that's where the Tru Band Room comes in. And we act as a support element, like. If you're on that stage, that stage is yours. Market yourself. What are you up to? What are you doing? Build relationships with your audience because those are the people that are likely going to want to be your fan, want to support you.
[00:37:08] And because they're in Decentraland, they're already onboarded into Web3. They know what an NFT is. They have a digital wallet. They understand cryptocurrency. So that's where we fit.
[00:37:18] Charles: That's a neat business model. I think that's really interesting and looking forward to seeing where, that all goes. And I'll have to check out a show, I guess.
[00:37:27] Shelley Van: Oh, I'm gonna get you in there.
[00:37:29] Charles: Well, Shelley, there was so much to talk about with all of this NFT digital stuff and I know we're just probably scratching the surface, but, is there anything else you'd like to add or talk about before we, um, sign off here?
[00:37:44] Shelley Van: No, I guess I'll just give a quick shout out to the artists that I've worked with, some of the artists that I've worked with, you know, Stony Eye, Ash, of course, that's how we met, Mr. Swee, he's an Italian musician and DJ living in Mexico. He speaks like seven languages. He's just an incredible human being. And he's done, I don't know, over a hundred shows with us. And, much love to Mr. Swee, Buffalo, Pans, again, French DJs that are doing their own thing and killing it. And just to all the musicians out there, like, keep doing your thing, and if you need support, or you're interested in learning about how you can build Web3 community, hit me up.
[00:38:29] Charles: Yeah. Where can people find you, Shelley?
[00:38:32] Shelley Van: So, on X, my handle, oh god, it's teenybod, T as in Tom, E E N Y B O D. There's a story there. But you can look me up as Shelley Van with an E Y, Shelley Van, and you can find me pretty much everywhere on all platforms.
[00:38:49] Charles: All right. Well, thanks for coming on Seeing Them Live and this has been really interesting and I'll have to look at, more ways to collect these NFTs now, I guess. And check out your club Tru Band Room, which is T R U band room. Thanks again for coming on Shelley.
[00:39:06] Shelley Van: Thank you so much.