Havey's Guides
Welcome to "Havey's Guides to Hive" - a blog series dedicated to educating and increasing knowledge/awareness of Hive and its associated apps!
The theme of the series will be for musicians and music fans but you can apply the concepts and principles discussed to other forms of creative content and their fans too. Technical language will be strictly kept off the cards and although there is a bit of a learning curve, have patience and prepare to play the long game!
Hopefully you will find this useful as well as entertaining and that it sparks your interest to find out more about this fascinating network. Let's lift the curtains a little bit shall we?
Times Are Changing
I was browsing my Twitter feed and came across a tweet from a highly respected DJ friend who goes by the name of Katy Jay. She doesn't mince her words and has a strong passion for promoting musicians on her radio shows and in general.
In that tweet, it was mentioned that Spotify was celebrating reaching a market cap of $50 billion but that all too familiar widespread sentiment about pitiful payouts to artists, who actually contribute pretty much the whole content of the platform, became apparent.
This prompted me to start the conversation about why musicians and music fans should be considering Hive as a potential additional revenue stream and vital tool for long term growth, sharing my experience as a musician and a fan.
Although one of Hive's apps that I was referring to called "PeakD" (@peakd) isn't a music streaming site like Spotify, it can be likened to a blog or Facebook page where you can share your music, build a following and, over time, see some real benefits. I have seen these benefits first hand and not looked back as I've been consistently posting since March 2018 and building a following from 0 on my main @nickyhavey page.
A Place To Share Music With Long Term Benefits
PeakD
The Hive-based site I have used for a year or two now (and prefer using) is called PeakD (@peakd).
This is where I write my posts, share my music creations via YouTube, Soundcloud or Spotify using the embed players and my followers can listen in. If you wanted to see my profile, you can check it out here but I'll share a screenshot of it so you can see how it looks:
An Example Of A Post On PeakD
Below is a screenshot of my latest music release I shared with a bit of blurb, the YouTube embed player and some images to go with:
As you can see, the post had 166 "likes", I received a gift or "tip" from a follower and 9 comments (bottom left, circled red) - fairly familiar so far, right? But there's another number I underlined of 8.69 on the bottom right, which is where it gets really interesting as this number is something different to what you'd get on your Facebook page when sharing your posts.
"Hive Rewards" For Musicians & Music Fans
That number, 8.69, represents something called "Hive Rewards" and is based on how the users on the whole Hive network "like" or enjoy that specific content.
7 days after a comment or post is made, that final reward is calculated, based on the "likes" it receives, and is split in half, with about half of it going to me (4.345) and the other half (4.345) of it being split between those 166 that liked that specific content.
As @gribbles so elegantly put in a message, musicians have a place to share our music on PeakD but...
...baked in is a lovely reward system, where liking things earns HIVE currency. It generates a cool feedback loop of rewards. And because of that, folk are predisposed to curation - which helps things spread.
Therefore, this creates a network effect that benefits both readers/listeners/fans AND the musicians.
Commenting On Posts
Let's have a quick look at the comments section of that same post above so you can see another really positive feedback loop that can develop.
I've underlined two comments where you can see it is possible to pick up some Hive rewards even as a fan or curator (after 7 days have passed since the comment was made), which, over time, builds up.
This is a great way to appreciate the fans' support of your work and encourage engagement of new followers that have stumbled across you to come back and check out more of your music. It's all about building connections whilst ultimately rewarding everyone.
It's certainly different to what we are used to, right?
What Can I Do With These "Hive Rewards"?
You might be thinking, "That's all well and good but there's no use case for these "Hive Rewards"". Well, this is where it gets even cooler - bear with me!
Below is a screenshot of a Deep House track called "Time Machine" feat. @winkandwoo, which is available to download via my website here:
Underlined in red, you can see it's available to buy using these "Hive Rewards" as a payment method and I have an example where someone actually went ahead and purchased this track on my website like this!
Here's a screen shot from my "Order Notes" of that Hive purchase where you can see the payment was initiated and received immediately - the track was then automatically sent to that person's email (thanks to @roomservice for developing this WordPress plugin):
So actually, the use case IS there and if you are a musician with an active following or you're a fan and love interacting with your favourite musician, then you can see that by liking your fans' comments or having your comments liked by the musician (or even other fans), there's a really positive feedback loop with so much potential that can lead to buying music, merchandise and anything else on your website via these Hive Rewards.
Will This Work For DJs & Radio Show Hosts?
Well, I have posted my radio shows after I have done a DJ Mix live on air the night before but I'd definitely say you will need to be more careful when you do your posts. Obviously, copyright and posting things without properly crediting them is a big no-no on ANY sites, even where there are no rewards. which will give you a bad reputation regardless.
My advice is to make sure you properly credit all the artists, link to their songs, websites etc or share an embed link of their track and you will be absolutely fine. It's what I have done and an example post would be here where I credited all 42 tracks used with links to profiles or the tracks with a little blurb on each.
That way, the Hive Rewards on the posts are for your curation efforts, the promotion of musicians and the hard work that's gone in to your show. Although if the musicians are already on PeakD then you might have an idea of how this could work from the points already made above.
Still Early Days
Back in July 2018, I wrote the following in a post:
We are still so early in our understanding of this [blockchain] technology that developers and start-ups are continuously uncovering new real life applications that blockchain and crypto can solve. With that in mind you need to be patient... play the long game here.
This is still true today but I've stuck around, focused on Hive's apps and seen how it has changed and developed. In my personal opinion and experience, it's been very much worth it and I know there will be more apps coming but I would say that if you are still interested in getting set up here you need to have an open mind, think long term consistency as it will take time to build up your profile/network and be willing to learn new things.
One last parting gift of mind-blowing info with PeakD and Hive - you don't even need an email address or give any personal information to create an account! 😮
So if this has "peakd" your interest and got you considering setting up an account or learning more, follow the Havey's Guides Twitter and watch out for the next blog where I'll show you how to get started.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment if you're using Hive or Tweet the account and will do my best to help!
For now though, take it easy and catch you soon!
Havey
Disclaimer
This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. I am a music producer first and foremost and want to help total beginners understand the potential that exists today. Please seek financial advice from a qualified professional if you have any doubt about how to spend your money.