My experience thus far with learning about blockchain has shown me that nothing beats mucking around and getting your hands dirty. (In September 1991 I had heard a computer lab technician at my college say the same thing about the MS-DOS 6.x beige boxes in his domain, so there is obviously some wider universal wisdom at play here.)
Up until a few weeks ago, I had only a vague understanding of what a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) was, coupled with a pronounced under-appreciation for this technology. I kinda/sorta got it, but not really. At the very least, it hadn't clicked yet that this emerging blockchain technology may represent a massive interruption in how creators such as myself bring their works to market.
Part of my initial indifference to NFT's was that I had yet to clue in to the royalties functionality, which is (or can) be "baked into" an NFT via a smart contract at the minting stage. NFT's, along with platforms such as Hive, point to a future where content creators can do an end-run around the (allegedly) sketchy accounting practices of more traditional publishers and distributors. (Under the historic model, it seems, artist royalities take a back seat to the financial interests of corporate shareholders and executive do-nothings.)
My debut NFT, a musical composition entitled Hynopompia, was minted as an Ethereum-based RARI token via rarible.com. (As of this writing, I am exploring possible HIVE-based alternatives to RARI.) And while this initial endeavor is teaching me much about NFT's, it is likewise helping me learn a little more about smart contracts through direct, hands-on experience. (Again, as with NFT's, I'd barely had an entry-level understanding of smart contracts, and if I had created or deployed any previously, it would have been unwittingly or indirectly, likely through transactions on the TRON network. In fact, my lack of expertise in this area is such that I'm still trying to figure out if any given Hive transaction is by its very nature a form of smart contract.)
In any case, Hypnopompia will be the opening track on my next album, although it'll appear there with an alternate arrangement that won't compromise the uniqueness of the NFT version.
I wont reveal the title of the album until it's ready to drop, but what I will say is that Hypnopompia will be bookended by a closing track entitled Hypnagogia, with everything in between forming an autobiography expressed largely through melody, and to a lesser extent through song titles.
I have already released one of these tracks as a single, One Last Goodbye, which was consciously about the loss of my childhood home, though presumably I was also thinking subconsciously about the then-impending loss of my late mother, whose battle with cancer was cut short by a stroke just one week ago today.
(My apologies if the above seems like surface-level reportage of a major life event. As of this writing I'm still in the early stages of grieving, and from here on will simply let music speak for me on that topic until it feels right to do otherwise.)