{"id":5310,"date":"2020-05-14T13:17:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T17:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=5310"},"modified":"2020-05-14T14:08:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:08:06","slug":"journeys-in-blockchain-3lau-dj-producer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/05\/14\/journeys-in-blockchain-3lau-dj-producer","title":{"rendered":"Journeys in Blockchain: 3LAU, DJ and Producer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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That\u2019s it for the weekend. Party over. Time to head back to class.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not.<\/p>\n

After years of studying finance, Justin Blau decides that it\u2019s time. Time to walk away from his college degree and turn down a job offer in asset management at BlackRock.<\/p>\n

His plan? To pursue a career in music \u2014 his greatest passion. Not the kind of news likely to bring joy to the average parent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to decide on that path or the DJ path. The DJ path was the choice at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It looks like he made the right decision. Blau is now 3LAU, a world-renowned DJ and producer who has remixed artists including Adele, Justin Bieber, Rihanna and Ti\u00ebsto \u2014 as well as released his own successful album and started a not-for-profit record label.<\/p>\n

He never abandoned his business roots. But with the help of emerging technologies, he has unleashed his energetic creativity in both worlds: music and finance.<\/p>\n

Entertainment <> business<\/h4>\n

\u201cMy dad had a similar life path in the sense that he originally started in entertainment and then moved into finance. That\u2019s always been a guide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blau\u2019s mother was a successful choreographer and dancer on Broadway. She met his father while working for his entertainment company, which organized corporate events, weddings and parties for high-profile clients in New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt runs in the family,\u201d Blau says, listing off his multi-talented family members. Further up the family tree, his grandfather (a recording engineer for Jimi Hendrix), while his brother is a successful magician working with the likes of David Blaine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of a mixed family of entertainment and business. No doctors, no lawyers, nothing like that. Just entertainment and business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Blau grew up around New York, the events and repercussions of 9\/11 prompted his parents to seek a change of scenery. He describes their move from Long Island to Las Vegas just as he entered his teen years as \u201ca very interesting choice\u201d.<\/p>\n

During high school, he loved studying language. His teachers were the first to recommend he explore \u201cnon-mainstream music\u201d, encouraging him to get into reading Pitchfork and indie music blogs. And that\u2019s where he discovered electronic music.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\u201cHere was this music that was really foreign to anything I knew, foreign to what my friends knew, but I just loved electronic music and became obsessed with the potential that technology could have in influencing music in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing music served as an effective stress-reliever: \u201cIt was a necessary escape from reality.\u201d Listening to music and learning all the classics was his hobby of choice. Blau expanded his musical horizons, moving from classic rock to more experimental artists.<\/p>\n

Bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis used electronic elements in their music fifty years ago, and although electronic dance music (EDM) had stormed to the forefront of the European club scene before Blau was even born, technology continued to become an increasingly integral and pervasive part of musical creation by the time he was playing the drums, guitar, and keyboard. \u201cI just latched onto that and fell in love with being able to program sounds with my computer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

\"Justin
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Loving what you do, doing what you love<\/h4>\n

While music was always Blau\u2019s greatest passion, he still felt a need to pursue business as a career path. He always knew, he says, that he\u2019d be involved in traditional things like finance, \u201cjust maybe not in a nine to five capacity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Studying finance at Washington University in St. Louis, Blau began playing DJ gigs on weekends. He started making enough money to cover any salary he would have earned out of college, but his grades were suffering.<\/p>\n

During his junior year he traveled every weekend to perform, returning to school only to get mediocre marks. He questioned the purpose of staying in college. \u201cWhy finish school if I\u2019m not going to get great grades?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the turning point. I was making enough money and I had to make a choice. I couldn\u2019t pursue both. I couldn\u2019t be a great student and a great DJ at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a difficult choice,\u201d Blau says. \u201cAt the time, my goal was just to do what I love, and make enough money to survive doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying in front of a crowd, playing a song that I spent six months to a year working on, it\u2019s the best feeling in the world. If I could do that and make money, then wow, I\u2019m gonna do that. It was a no-brainer\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

His parents weren\u2019t happy with the decision initially, but his teachers were supportive. \u201cI was lucky to be at school on a full-merit scholarship, so my parents really couldn\u2019t tell me \u2018no\u2019 because they weren\u2019t paying for college.\u201d His economics professor assured his parents that he could keep his scholarship for seven years if he took a leave of absence.<\/p>\n

Blau\u2019s professor convinced the parents to back the decision, telling them that the opportunity cost was not extremely high, that he\u2019d never know if he had a shot if he didn\u2019t give it<\/em> a shot. And that if it didn\u2019t work in two years, they could send him back to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I never went back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blau is thankful for his parents’ support \u201cafter the initial insane decision that I made to leave school and pursue this full-time\u201d.<\/p>\n

He says he has maintained an involvement in finance, whether that\u2019s in real estate, equities or derivatives. \u201cI\u2019ve always maintained a closeness to the financial world in some way, shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years ago, Blau started his own scholarship at the school to support a student who has both creative and academic ambitions. \u201cI didn\u2019t finish in school. They gave me a merit scholarship, so now we\u2019re hopefully paying it forward to another student who can accomplish both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Introduction to Bitcoin<\/h4>\n

At a DJ gig in Mexico Blau was introduced to Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the cryptocurrency pioneers who founded the Gemini exchange. They became friends and Blau stayed with the brothers in Los Angeles during Grammy week. At the time, they were focused on building out Gemini and while he admits he knew nothing about blockchain tech, conversations with the twins piqued his interest.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt was so revolutionary, right?\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blau explains that after reading the Bitcoin whitepaper and diving deeper, he discovered things he never would have questioned about money, including the problems associated with fiat currency. \u201cHundreds and thousands of years ago, people would trade gold coins for cattle and there were real intrinsically valuable assets moving between parties. Think of the intrinsic value of the dollar\u2026 It\u2019s just this kind of pretend value, at least since they took the dollar off the gold standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The limited supply economics and immutable history of blockchain technology fascinated him. \u201cThe Treasury can just snap their fingers and print money. Bitcoin doesn\u2019t work that way. Here\u2019s this alternative financial system that I\u2019ve never really thought about before. All of a sudden I was like, huh, there\u2019s something here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expresses frustration at the fact that it\u2019s impossible to send money directly to someone across the world without depending on intermediaries and becoming vulnerable to counterparty risks. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so clearly the future in some way shape or form. I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to manifest, but when you think of transferring value this way, it\u2019s so much more efficient than thinking about a dollar or another foreign currency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tokenization: Our Music Festival<\/h4>\n

In early 2017, Blau noticed a bevy of Initial Coin Offerings \u201cpopping up,\u201d and saw how much money they were raising. \u201cThis is crazy. There are all these music projects worth sixty million dollars but I don\u2019t know who any of these people on these teams are. Why don\u2019t we start something?\u201d<\/p>\n

He soon began conceptualizing a team project called Our Music Festival, or OMF. \u201cThat\u2019s when I started to dive deeper. While I\u2019m not a programmer or a coder or software engineer, I\u2019m a sound engineer, so I was always fascinated by the technological component of currency… The whole token world became fascinating to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blau began thinking about how to use tokens to reward micro-transfers of value, something that would be impossible with traditional financial systems. \u201cLike, if a fan tells their friends about a show I\u2019m performing at, how can I compensate them for that? How can I incentivize them to tell their friends about a show I\u2019m performing at?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow about a smart contract that automatically says if you connect your social accounts to this show, and share the show with friends, I\u2019ll give you five cents, or fifty cents, or whoever refers the most friends gets a backstage pass? That really got me excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing the potential in smart contracts, Blau started thinking about what the music industry might look like in the future. The technology could improve business with the streamlining of royalties, money wiring, and complex accounting processes.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Blau decided to work with friends in the music business to launch OMF. \u201cIt would be so cool if fans could select a lineup for a music festival and have ownership,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

While the system would need a centralized entity for logistics, fans could pick the lineup and even enjoy profit-sharing. \u201cThis was before the whole security token issue existed. No one was even questioning that. Everything was a utility back in late 2017, early 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n

With \u201cgreat lawyers from the music side,\u201d Blau and his team figured out how to create a token-driven music festival. After pitching the project vision to the Stellar and Interstellar engineering teams, a mobile wallet was launched for the festival.<\/p>\n

The simple wallet app could be used to scan QR codes and earn token rewards which could then be spent on merchandise at the festival. \u201cIt was a great test case to show people just how easy it is to earn and utilize digital currency.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Francisco event promptly sold out.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"3LAU
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(3LAU \/ Taren Smith)<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But soon after the highly successful festival, the project was shut down. As the broader token industry fell under scrutiny by securities regulators, the legal environment was growing too uncertain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an amazing learning experience for me,\u201d he says, explaining that he built incredible relationships and has since invested in many other projects in the blockchain space. Following his experience with OMF, he has advised and consulted with several projects at the intersection of music and crypto tech.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe in our original concept. I still think it will happen at some point in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets, please<\/h4>\n

He focuses on the tech side these days, he says, focusing on how blockchain technology will revolutionize distribution in music. He continues exploring the idea of letting fans invest in his catalog via security tokens \u2014 buying or earning ownership of his music through a token economy.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s particularly interested in ticketing, especially with the advent of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which could be used as digital tickets. Rewards could be attached to the tokens, such as enabling access to artists\u2019 music catalogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are obvious applications in the music world. To this day, I\u2019m still learning about new applications. There are always new ideas and new things popping up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has learned a little about the limitations of the technology, too. \u201cI\u2019ve done many one-hour phone calls telling people why their product isn\u2019t going to work.\u201d People in the tech industry tend to assume they understand the music business but, he says, the two are different worlds. \u201cI\u2019ll help a lot of new founders re-frame their thinking about how to penetrate the music business, which is a difficult one.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his passion remains with music. \u201cAs an artist, I ended up realizing I\u2019m not a CEO.\u201d Blau says he would rather advise and help companies achieve their goals. \u201cBeing an executive would take up an infinite amount of time and would of course, prevent me from doing what I\u2019m supposed to be doing, which is making music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long Bitcoin<\/h4>\n

For 3LAU, the artist, it always comes back to the music. As a huge fan of Radiohead, he draws his inspiration from lead singer and songwriter Thom Yorke. \u201cHe developed from a pop-leaning one-hit wonder to one of the most respected talents of our generation. How he integrated technology into his style inspired me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll have a Radiohead relapse every year and go through all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to blockchain and music, Blau says he will continue exploring how to utilize the tech in music as things become more clear on the regulatory front. His goals are mostly music-based at the moment; finishing his new album and making live performances more unique than in the past. \u201cMoving forward, my goal is becoming a better musician. That\u2019s my number one goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blau continues to work towards including more people in the blockchain industry \u2014 he recently participated in the crypto-community virtual \u2018Dance, Donate, Decentralize\u2019 concert to raise money for charities supporting COVID-19 relief efforts. The concert ended up raising around $200k.<\/p>\n

Despite the focus on his music, Blau reiterates he is long on Bitcoin. \u201cI just believe in the technology. I think it\u2019s crazy that the Treasury can just print money and pay people more on unemployment than what they\u2019d get regularly. There\u2019s a lot of things happening today that prove a necessary use-case for these decentralized currencies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Treasury can just snap their fingers and print money. Bitcoin doesn\u2019t work that way. Here\u2019s this alternative financial system that I\u2019ve never really thought about before. All of a sudden I was like, huh, there\u2019s something here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":5320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[154,156],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1458,1463,1466,1464,211,216,1469,1468,1460,1470,275,512,1467,1461,1459,168,1465,642,1462,205],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5310"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5324,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5310\/revisions\/5324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5310"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}