HEN.Radio ~ Discover Original Music Minted as NFTs on Hic Et Nunc

At the intersection of music and NFTs, Working Group 7.2 worked tirelessly to develop HEN.radio and bring the music tool to the forefront of people’s attention in the metaverse. 

Starting from the idea of a minimal standalone gallery during the May Hicathon that would allow users to display their Hic Et Nunc works more easily, the group wondered if they could expand the gallery to include audio and music NFTs in a simple way as well.

The group decided then to switch focus, and this formed the start of HEN Radio, a platform for musicians to share directly with their fanbase and collectors to discover music minted on the H=N smart contract, with the aim to make it easier for people to discover, listen to, and reward NFT music artists.

Credit: HEN Radio

This is an important milestone in NFT history as it marks the inclusion of audio and music NFTs into a major NFT platform on Hic Et Nunc, allowing underrepresented music artists the opportunity to take ownership of their creations and potentially transform the music industry. 

Comprising a small but talented team of musicians, developers, designers, and marketers from around the world, every day in the group’s Discord channel is filled with friendly banter. Ideas and feedback are flying back and forth, and positive encouragement overflows whenever one team member completes a task, no matter how small. 

Credit: HEN Radio

It’s not all chaos, though. 

The dynamic spirit of the group and their spontaneous ideas and energy also translates to organised post-its on a MIRO board where each member then picks the task they are interested in working on in a self-organising yet fully transparent manner. 

Credit: HEN Radio

@lauzaki from England took on the challenge to work on the mechanism of rewarding music artists whenever a track is played, despite not having a background in smart contract development 

@v5mt from Poland crafted a social media strategy and championed the cause of HEN Radio on Twitter. She created multiple images, gifs and posts to spread the word and attract more artists; her community engagement was vital in getting useful early feedback that eventually shaped the team’s direction and approach to building HEN Radio.

It was not all smooth-sailing, especially when it comes to starting a new account on Twitter from scratch. There were some tough moments due to the sheer amount of work involved and low engagement in the early days, but the team quickly banded together to offer encouragement and solutions to move forward.    

Credit: v5mt

@BabyCommando from Brazil helped generate creative marketing ideas to recruit artists for the platform and created a sleek music player interface that made for a more intuitive user experience on HEN Radio. 

On the backend, @__orderandchaos from England tackled the infrastructure underlying HEN Radio with a technical migration to Next.js and preparing the platform to be social media friendly with Twitter cards for greater shareability. 

Besides curating music for the playlists on HEN Radio, @uvdsc from Croatia  was ever-present as the cheerleader and morale booster of the team; his cheery and upbeat spirit was also essential to keeping the team’s energy high and as lively as possible.

Each team member worked independently yet collectively at the same time to bring the HEN Radio platform from a prototype to a production-ready version by the end of the post-hicathon.  

Credit: HEN Radio

This camaraderie and the shared goal of making HEN Radio a reality through the hard work and efforts of the group did not go unnoticed. 

Slowly but steadily, the team’s efforts were recognised and acknowledged by the wider music community, with increasing numbers of music artists inquiring about the platform on Twitter about how they can be involved and play a part as well.  

Towards the end of the post-hicathon, as part of the team’s content marketing outreach, @timongty also wrote The Rising Tempo: An Intro to Music NFTs published on Hacker Noon to raise more awareness about HEN Radio with the general tech community. 

At the Post-Hicathon Finale live stream, the team’s presentation by @lauzaki was received with thunderous applause too, with many creators excited at the live demo showing how music artists are rewarded with the diezDAO when their track is played.

Credit: HEN Radio

Shortly after the Hicathon ended, Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park minted “Memento Morphi”, his first music NFT created live on Twitch, which sold out almost instantly. This was a big win for the credibility of HEN Radio, with the first celebrity musician and record producer coming on board. Together with the music NFT community, the HEN Radio team celebrated this special moment on the Twittersphere

Looking to the future, the team envisions HEN Radio as the most popular marketplace for audio NFTs. Even after the Hicathon ends, the team will continue fostering an engaged and positive music community by organising events and supporting promising music artists.

Using the split contracts developed by Hicathon Working Group 3.2 where royalties are automatically disbursed to multiple parties registered on an NFT, the team is also excited to facilitate more collaborations between music and visual artists. This would raise the profile of music NFTs and enable them to be accepted by the crypto community gradually.

If you want to be a part of the pioneer group making waves in the music NFT space, look no further and join this Working Group on the Hic Et Nunc Discord. We’re always on the lookout for more volunteers and Dapp developers who can help to grow HEN Radio even further. 

The genesis of HEN Radio is a pinnacle example of how a group of passionate and multi-talented individuals can come together in a decentralised yet cohesive manner and impact thousands of artists worldwide for years to come. 

Kudos to members of WG7.2:

@lauzaki @v5mt_tv @BabyCommando @uvdsc @__orderandchaos 

Written by: @timongty