My name is Tina Rubin. I am Chief marketing officer at Wave. We are a virtual entertainment concert or virtual entertainment slash virtual concert company sitting at that intersection of gaming, music and technology. I joined Wave about two years ago.Um My background over the last 10 plus years or so has been in and around marketing entertainment and tech. I spent a couple of years at Netflix and Disney and Amazon um and started my career out in brand management marketing toys, which was really fun. Um I'm super excited to be joined by Shara Senderoff who will um give her um intro herself. But um we have been working with Shara and her company for several years now. Um We're super connected in the space and I thought she'd be a great person to have alongside me in the session just to talk about what we're seeing in the music entertainment and sort of tech space

over a year or to me, I'm a proud investor in the Wave and Wave and my, I'm my name's Shara Send off. I run Race and Space, which is a venture fund focused on music, web, three metaverse, everything. The future we launched about four years ago back to buy ripple. So in the crypto space really early and NFTS really early and big proponents of how do we unlock technology that will create the next version of the internet, which is in fact web three and the metaverse. So here we are. And, and I'm glad you started your career at a toy company. Because isn't this, you work in another toy company? It's all really fun. What we get to do now,

truly. And it's, it's interesting. Um, you know, I, I was talking with someone, I think a few months ago and I realized I started my career out marketing to little kids. And the crazy thing is, is I'm still marketing to them, but now they're young adults and, um, you know, Gen Z and it dates me, but it makes me realize like I've been on this journey with them ever since I was marketing hot wheels. So it's been really exciting to kind of see this next generation audience grow up and to be a part of that. Um, well, I think, you know, the first topic that we'll, we'll dive into, which is the topic of the session is just the metaverse. It's, it's a hugely um hot topic in the space that we work with and frankly inside and outside of entertainment. And so I thought, um, perhaps we can just first have a conversation about what we see is happening in the space. What's the opportunity? Why we think it's great for consumers, great for creators and, and where we think it's gonna go in this next phase. Um I'm happy to kind of kick off my thoughts and then I'll pass it over to you. So Wave is a, is a really cool company and that we think we sit at sort of like that entry point into the metaverse in that a lot of our concerts are typically the first time someone has experienced the metaverse. Our, our concerts are virtual.

So all of our performers who come and create a wave concert with us are essentially personified in an avatar and they're performing in this really cool, fantastical virtual world. And it's an amazing um creative opportunity for any artist who makes a wave with us because we have that conversation of, of, hey, there are no boundaries in the metaverse. You can create whatever you want. So imagine not having to confine your performance to a stage and doing it in a setting that, you know, could be literally out of this world. Those are the types of conversations that the metaverse can unlock for performance and for entertainment. And we've been incredibly lucky over the last couple of years at wave to work with some of the biggest artists in the world like Justin Bieber and the weekend and also a lot of emerging artists who are working with us to help us evolve the tech giving us great feedback about.

OK, this is awesome. Let's do more of that. Have you guys thought about adding this to your road map? And so it's been a really great um partnership that we've had at wave with working with creators and artists to figure out. OK, as we continue to develop this new format, what's going to make it better and that direct feedback from the creators is actually hugely beneficial as we figure out. OK, how do we continue to evolve the experience? Um I'll pass it over to you share to kind of talk about what you're seeing in the metaverse space, the opportunities, et cetera.

Yeah, I think you nailed it and you, you guys were really at the forefront because the metaverse is all about new, more immersive experiences. And that could mean A R and VR or it could mean new ways to interact with content that could be new ways from a commerce perspective, new ways from an ownership perspective. Most importantly, the metaverse is actually built on Blockchain technology, which is all about putting ownership back into the hands of the consumer, which is something we don't have in all of the platforms that, that we spend a lot of time on right now. Obviously, the big social media platforms, you guys were at the forefront of showing a different kind of performance experience where wherein before wave style events came into play, we all we knew was going to physical shows with some really cool immersive backgrounds and a lot of new production design.

And then even before COVID, you came in to give a new spin on how we engage with music. And I think that the metaverse as a whole is going to expand how we engage with entertainment. But for purposes of both of us, we can talk about music. It allows for more immersive and more imaginative forms of performance and forms of engagement. So as a consumer, your first experience with the metaverse with wave might be watching Justin Bieber perform in a manner that you haven't seen him perform yet where he's in an extremely creative visual environment. The second step in of that is engaging as your avatar. So once you come to the show, not as you physically in real life anymore, but as the virtual version of you, you can engage with him by way of putting up messages on a screen or purchasing different add ons that could be a part of his performance that alone is a preview of what the metaverse will become in years to come over the next five years as it really develops out.

It's, it's going to to offer up so many new ways for us to engage with the, the talent, the music artists, the celebrities we love and, and own pieces of their brands at the same time.

Definitely. And the way I often think about it just to get like I remember when I first started, I was getting my head around this space because it was truly new and emerging is I think what we're doing at wave and frankly, what a lot of um you know, companies out there who are in this metaverse spaces were taking some of the things that have been proven in all these different entertainment formats and applications and we're bringing it together in kind of like a new package.

And so when I think about our virtual concerts, we're taking the best of what you can do with live broadcasting um to be able to facilitate that real time interaction between an artist and a fan. Um That is made possible by technology, we're using real time gaming engines to create these amazing um graphics and experiences. And so we, when you start putting all those things together, we, you, you, you're essentially creating a new format and a new experience. And I think what we were helped by during COVID was there were a lot more people sitting at home open to trying new things and a lot of people talk about, hey, well, when COVID is over, are people gonna want to check out virtual concerts? We truly believe that entertainment and immersive experiences can live side by side with a physical experience or physical concert. And what we were really excited about during COVID is there was a moment in time and and a very long moment in time. Frankly where a lot of people are just open to trying new things like, oh, ok. This wave thing like that looks really crazy. But you know what, like I'm down for it and frankly, I have no other options and I have the time and so we really leaned in, um, but I also feel like coming out of CO, I mean, coming out of COVID as we slowly do, people are now seeing the benefits of what it means to have an immersive entertainment experience that's not at a live venue and what that can look like and, and what the different benefits are when you do something, um, you know, through a live stream versus something that's, um, you know, in a physical venue.

Yeah, I think COVID absolutely just changed the world. I don't think we're going back. I think we're coming into a new world and even before COVID, we were timing the NFT metaverse explosion to happen. I launched raise in space four years ago and I said in five years, I, people will stop looking at me like I have 10 heads when I speak. They still do. But at least now when I say words like NFTS crypto and the metaverse, they are at least somewhat a affiliated or associated with like what the meaning could be. And I could have never predicted that COVID would have made that possible, but it absolutely did. And so I think all of our businesses will adapt more quickly as a result. And these experiences are gonna become more frequent even as Facebook and Snap. And there's so many new A R glasses that are gonna start to come out that we're gonna see so much of this interactivity in these technologies be just in and around our normal lives, we won't be able to escape it. It will just become the new norm.

Yeah. And I definitely want, I want to shift over and talk about web three NFT Blockchain technologies because that's clearly, you know, a space that's emerging and a lot of entertainment companies including um you know, my company are trying to figure out what our strategies look like.

Um But I would say this, like, I think what's really exciting being in both of our shoes is we get the exciting job of educating and bringing some of these new, these new concepts to market. And so similarly, when we're having conversations with creators and artists and music labels, some are more sophisticated than others in terms of understanding the metaverse. And also, you know, what, what they, what um technologies can offer. And I, I think it's really cool to kind of cool and scary because we are sort of architecting our way through the space and educating and providing the thought leadership, but also creating it at the same time. And so it's been very experiential but or excuse me, experimental and we are pivoting and sort of evolving as new technologies come. And so this, this industry is not stagnant. And even when I started two years about wave, and I look at where we are today, like so much has changed and we've had to be adapt, adaptable to kind of like work through these changes. Are you seeing a lot of that, like in, in the position that you're at, in terms of talking with entrepreneurs, companies looking at companies to invest in, what is the opportunity t you see going forward?

I'm constantly educating because this is a, we are truly in the infancy of this space. And I think that there's a considerable amount of opportunity in how brands or creators who are brands or talent, who are also brands, interact with their fans and generate revenue. At the, at the end of the day, this is a business, talent is a business, no one is, is just famous just to be, they want to build some sort of brand or business around it. And so the reality is when you're doing that, your business model is what are your transactions? What can you sell and how do you grow the value of that brand? There are two ways to do it, either transactions and revenue or brand awareness as a whole and generating brand loyalty. Both come stem from how you, what, what you deliver to your audience. And that could be a content experience, that could be a product and web three. And the metaverse allow for the interactivity and the transaction to be different. And so what I I'm telling, record labels, artists managers, you name it is, this is the new frontier for you to change the way you interact with your audience. On Facebook and Instagram right now, they control your audience. If you want to leverage that audience, you have to pay them to access it.

On web three, you can get paid to access your audience because you could sell something directly to them and they could respond back and you can offer up different, varying degrees of what we call access keys, which are, if someone holds a a certain NFT relating to your brand or certain digital products, they can have access to your show.

For example, they can have access to a virtual backstage, they can receive things from holding those digital collectibles that and with that comes the data and the transparency around who what, where when and why. But even more importantly for the consumer, they can control whether the brands that they exchange a transaction with can have access to their, to their, to that data. So identity is really important. We've obviously gone through a phase of the big media companies and all through COVID.

The the conversation became, is Amazon listening. What data do they control of mine? Where are the boundaries with my privacy? Web three though early but the the focus on Web three is truly being able to control your own identity and being able to decide what you give access to within your life. And I think that's a very simple way of what is going to happen from this technology, but a really important one for consumers and how they interact with the brands that they love.

Yeah. And that's something as you know, wave, we've been slowly building out our web three strategy and figure out, OK, how do we want to navigate the space? Obviously, there's a lot of hype. Um and we want to be in it for the long run. So we want to make sure that what we're doing feels like it's added, add to the way of experience. It's, it's great for artists and it's also great for consumers. And one of the things that, that you touched upon this, this concept of identity that is in the metaverse in many ways allows people to essentially create their identities and also be recognized and acknowledged for their identities. Um My daughter is obsessed with Roblox and every week or so she likes to change up her avatar to reflect her, her mood, her vibe. And so just I I mean, people just want to be seen, they wanna, they wanna be recognized. And I think identity and what the Blockchain can do to unlock that like a world, a future state where you can take your identity from Roblox to Fortnite to wave to Instagram, right? Like your identity is something that carries with you. Versus right now, these are sort of like closed ecosystems. I do believe that in the future the Blockchain technology is such that we will see a connected kind of space digitally, it's not quite there yet.

And I think we as wave want to help architect that and create that and start partnering with other metaverse creators um and platforms to start building that um ecosystem out. Because this is still very early days. I think the other piece that I think a lot about just being on the marketing side of things is just how the Blockchain can really um facilitate and nurture fandom. Um We get so much information after our shows where fans, they just want more, they want more access, they want to be able to connect with an artist. And so through NFTS and through sort of the Blockchain and that direct access and ownership, you can start facilitating those connections between an artist and a fan in a really compelling way. Um And so we've started experimenting with that on the wave side and we definitely have some big plans going into um the end of this year and early next year to, to roll out sort of our web three strategy. But it's very much a space where if you are in the metaverse, it's, it's hard not to, you have to have a web three strategy. Everything is connected.

Yeah. And I think just to add one thing on the interoperability point. I always, I've recently spent a lot of time talking about the fact that the complexities of, of the Blockchain and which Blockchain and how, what wallet you're using, all of that should be and will go by the wayside very quickly. I, we, I, I overuse this but I think it's a great example. If I send you an email, I'm not gonna say, hey, Tina, I just sent you an email on the internet. So we're not going to say I just purchased this NFT on the Ethereum Blockchain that all of that is going to go away and it's gonna, it should be invisible infrastructure and we should continue operating the way we do. But instead of collecting physical tickets, we're gonna collect digital ones and we've seen that happen in the fact that now you scan your phone to get into a concert. It's not dissimilar from collecting a digital collectible, which is an NFT and using it to access something whether it be in real life or, or online.

I totally agree. And, and it's something I think about a lot which is there are all these companies trying to solve for the friction, right? Like I remember when I first set up my crypto wallet, I was like, so scared to do it. I thought it was, it was so intimidated. And what you're realizing is, is there are all these companies and platforms out there working to essentially obfuscate that experience. So you don't even know that you have a crypto wallet or that you're using crypto because everything's on the back end. So I think all that will be solved with all these smart companies that are in the space right now. What I think is really exciting for a company like wave is, is I want to find the killer application in in the web three Metaverse space. Like the reason for someone to want to do all these. It's because ultimately they can have this amazing concert experience or this amazing virtual entertainment experience. And even when I look at like technologies like VR, I think the big kind of unlock will be OK. What are those amazing experiences in entertainment and other applications that are going to make people want to go buy the headset and do the thing?

And I think that's like a really key part of the innovation in the space is coming up with really killer applications for these new technologies that consumers really want to, to, to use.

Yeah. Well, I believe it's going to be waves. So and my

belief, I know, I know, well, do you, I know we're almost at time, I, I feel like I've spent most of the time talking. So I'm gonna throw it over to you share like if you have any like final thoughts for this, for this audience. Um

I think what I would say and I always try to leave these types of, of events with is to explore, buying your first NFT if you haven't. And one of the people always message me on Twitter and ask for great resources. There's website called NFT now.com that has great guides for web three. That what is the metaverse? What is the Blockchain? All of the things we talked about, if any of the terms we said are, are confusing or you want more information or to explore more. Definitely, do some research and purchase your first NFT because it'll give you an understanding of how to interact with all of these spaces as they pop up very quickly over the next year.

Definitely. And I would say, you know, my final thoughts is experiment, try it out. It's not as intimidating as you would think. And I think the technology is evolving so quickly that like it, it's not going to have all that friction. And um hopefully more people, you know, we can kind of get sort of that mass to that mass tipping point where nftnfts are no longer this mysterious thing for crypto whales, but like everyone's partaking and it's a really exciting aspect of the entertainment ecosystem. Um Well, also II I think I'm supposed to like end the session. Um I was great about it. Um I know Blue, Blue Buy, it looks like uh you dropped in the link to NFT now, so feel free to check that out. And um yeah, please, you know, message us on linkedin Twitter, whatnot. If you have any questions, it's been great to kind of have this conversation and we really appreciate you attending our session. Yeah,

thanks everyone. Thanks Tina. Thank you. Bye bye.