The realm of music NFTs is an ever-changing landscape allowing new artists to explore their creativity in new and authentic ways. We’ve seen some of commercial electronic music’s biggest stars like Deadmau5 and BLA3 use the technology to make a quick buck, which has left fans of deeper, more mature shades of dance wondering when NFT’s will be adopted in underground circles.
Cue Tamago; the cutting-edge decentralized audio streaming platform working to create transparent revenue sources for artists. Created by underground house and techno producer Clarian, the platform is curated with the underground in mind featuring music from iconic labels like Tiga’s Turbo Records, Desert Hearts, Visionquest and artists like Doc Martin, Mr C, Mathias Meyer and many more.
In the first of a series of exclusive NFT drops on the platform, Tamago welcomes Paramida to the app, the Panorama Bar resident heralded for her distinctive, offbeat releases on her Love On The Rocks label imprint. Paramida’s creative approach to underground dance culture now extends beyond the dancefloor and into the metaverse, but only in her own art-forward and creative way.
Paramida’s exclusive audio NFT features an unreleased track, “Kalitya’s Theme”, off her upcoming sophomore EP, due out August 25th. The visual component of the Paramida x Tamago NFT was created collaboratively by Creative Director Benham Samrad and Illustrator BiLo. The auction opened on 6th July and will remain open through 7:30 PM EST on 14th July. The NFT drop is also bundled with guest list access to Paramida’s highly sought-after Love on the Rocks events this year.
In a world where artists are paid fractions of pennies for their streams on many popular platforms, Tamago is creating a path forward for underground artists to take advantage of the benefits of Web3 technology through transparent revenue models. As a producer/DJ himself, Tamago’s Co-Founder Clarian developed the platform as a fair, authentic, platform for his peers, up-and-coming, and established artists.
Tamago co-founder Clarian North sat down with Paramida to discuss their new collaboration and the future of audible NFTs.
Clarian: How was your gig in NYC last weekend?
Paramida: Great. Loved playing at Nowadays and got to open the club, which I really love, because you set the energy for the night, plus I had a 4 hour slot so it gave me a lot of time to build it up.
Paramida: I’d like to jump right in and ask you what’s the main idea behind Tamago?
Clarian: A group of friends, consisting of ravers and engineers, created Tamago. We were fed up with some things in the music industry today.
We looked at the barrier between musicians and their audience making creators dependent and liable to their intermediaries’ greed. Depressing stats like how 75% of the recorded music industry’s revenue in 2018 came from music streaming and only a mere 12% of that was distributed to artists means that the majority of artists out there are not able to make a living with their music and those that can are taken advantage of.
Clarian: I love the track you’re auctioning on Tamago. Are you a fan of Sailor Moon and did that have an affect on the NFT?
Paramida: Yes, I am! One of my favorite childhood cartoons. The main title of my EP “Moonrise VII” is Sailor Moon House, so it was obvious we had to go into that direction visually.
Paramida: So why did you guys choose the name Tamago?
Clarian: It was actually a friend of ours who suggested it. Since I love Japanese synthesizers and Tamago sushi, it sounded great to me. On Tamago we don’t use the App tech to make NFTs, we use the NFT tech to make music royalty payments transparent, virtually instantaneous, and more substantial. Tamago means egg in Japanese so it flows forward in that way.
You can use the platform to sell music with crypto which already is rad in itself or you can mint songs and sell them as minted tracks. If people start to buy other tracks on the platform artists get paid out directly and immediately in turn. This type of market transaction may not hit you right away, but I think that the power behind that is actually revolutionary for the music industry.
Clarian: Speaking of NFTs, nudge nudge, I’m really curious as to what inspired you to make this NFT track to begin with and also, who is Kalitya?
Paramida: Kalitya stands for Anitya & Kali, my two beautiful cats. Both names come from Sanskrit, Anitya means Impermanence and Kali is the Hindu goddess of destruction, renewal and creativity.
Paramida: What do you think will make this NFT auction that we’re doing successful for the Tamago project?
Clarian: It’s really proof of concept, I think… This auction is history in the making for our humble littler community. We’re aiming to demonstrate to artists how useful and the ease of access is to release on a carbon neutral blockchain like NEAR and when you do this with your music, you can track all the royalties with incredible ease compared to traditional standards, and set up the royalties in ways that nobody can get between you or hide the data.
Clarian: The EP and the NFT track sound amazing, do you have a particular favorite piece of gear you used on this?
Paramida: I sample my records and use the samples to make my tracks in Ableton.
Paramida: What would say makes Tamago different from other NFT Platforms?
Clarian: In that, Tamago is not an NFT platform. Tamago is a music streaming platform which bakes in hybrid NFT and blockchain technology in order to track royalties for artists. We’re much more interested in how we can leverage blockchain to create better payouts while proving to giants like Spotify how advertisements and gatekeeping monetization models need to be deeply reexamined.
Clarian: I still have another question about your NFT that I’ve been wondering… Where do those cosmic beach bird rave sounds come from on Kalitya’s Theme?
Paramida: I found the beach bird sounds on a record with collected sample sounds. I use a lot of samples from that record to add atmosphere to my tracks.
Paramida: So futuristic bird sounds aside, where do you see Tamago in the future?
Clarian: Hopefully with more of your music on the platform! Everyone is excited that we have a live and running underground streaming Alpha up on tamastream.io (you don’t even need an account to start listening and exploring). We have been very careful about building an initial community not based on numbers and mediocre distribution deals but on the authenticity of talented underground artists, independent labels, cultures, minorities, and their fans directly. We just think there is much more strength in cultivating a vibe that resonates in a more real way if we’re going to succeed in producing a positive long-term impact on the airwaves.
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