Wuki's Wobblebug is the First NFT Powered Music Producer

After hearing Andreas Antonopoulos go in-depth about blockchain technology on a podcast in 2016, Kris Barman, better known as genre-bending producer Wuki, invested in Bitcoin—it was only $600 then.

After a crypto-surge during the summer, bitcoin's value is now at the thousands mark, and Wuki still finds himself intrigued by crypto's capability to disrupt industries and grant artists financial and artistic freedom.

"I've always been kind of an anti-corruption person and I'm always looking for things to invest in," said Wuki. "I've always believed that the government and banks are pretty corrupt, so the whole idea of a decentralized financial system was really, really interesting to me."

The early adopter's first crypto project was the $WUX coin, a social token fans can invest in on Rally—the platform is the crypto-equivalent of a subscription model service like Patreon. 

Wuki's intention with the $WUX coin, he says, was to retain his audience by offering unique, exclusive content through Rally.

Through the artist's Discord, $WUX holders receive items like exclusive VIP and bootleg remixes, stems, sample packs, and producer tools. In the Discord, holders are divided into several tiers—the more $WUX one holds, the more deliverables are available.

Wuki introduced Jacqueline Rionda, who was already interested in crypto since 2017, to his $WUX coin project. Shortly after, he asked her to join his recently launched Wobblebug team as a community growth specialist and moderator for his discord servers which combined totals around 6,000 members.

As community growth specialist, Rionda bridges over knowledge amongst Wuki's online communities through AMAs, Twitter Spaces, and by hosting Q&A sessions about NFTs, Web3, and crypto.

 "When you have a strong support system established within the community everyone stays safe," said Rionda. "I'm a huge advocate of this being a safe space for producers to get into NFTs."

Artists are quickly adopting blockchain technology to cut out the middleman and utilize crypto to engage fans directly and finance new projects bypassing regular channels. 

Business-savvy producer 3lau gave away half of the ownership rights of his recent release, "Worst Case," to his fans via his platform Royal, which closed a deal with VC juggernaut A16z for $55 million on November 22. 

Australian producer Wax Motif's latest crypto project is Bizzy Bee—a large-scale NFT collection, music project, and social club which consists of thousands of randomly generated NFTs stored on the blockchain.

Crypto can become another avenue of income for artists and musicians, said Wuki, but in the near term, it provides artists freedom.

"In today's world, as an artist you have to go through so many different outlets to get to your fans," said Wuki. "But personally, I like directly getting in with them and talking with them and building out my community that way. In a way, crypto is a way to cut out the middleman and I think that's why it's so powerful."

Wuki's Wobblebug project is unique in that it's the first NFT powered music artist whose by the token holders vote on the music releases. It's a symbiotic relationship that allows fan-powered content to emerge and potentially strengthens the influence of sub-cultures.

Wobblebug co-creator and creative director Florian Tappeser created an AR filter that puts a Wobblebug head on Wuki as he streams music production and DJ sets weekly. 

The music produced by the Wobblebug persona is a creative take on Wuki's already eclectic sound.

"I make trap, house, dubstep and mash ups. But Wobblebug, his sound is distinctly alien, space-y, left field bass type stuff—kind of in the world of Rezz, G Jones or Eprom... we're even doing some techno and house music, too. But one thing Wobblebug will never do is a pop song," said Wuki.

There are currently 10,000 collectible Wobblebug NFTs. Rionda says that the Wobblebug's story will dictate if and when any other NFT launches happen.

The value of one Wobblebug NFT before the genesis minting closed was worth 0.0063 Ethereum, deemed expensive due to the timing of the launch, having landed on the date Ethereum updated.

The genesis mint has since closed, and official Wobblebug resales are currently taking place on OpenSea, because the team's focus is on accessibility and reach and not on generating as much money as possible, said Rionda.

The LA-based producer said that his ultimate goal is creating something like a community-driven album with the Wobblebug community.

"I really believe in this project and I'm so thankful for the people that have come through for the Genesis collection," said Wuki. 

"I'm gonna work my ass off to make [the Wobblebug project] as cool as possible."