Community
Modern-day fan forums: The renaissance in online music communities
June 30 2023

Next-gen ventures such as the metaverse, interactive livestreaming, and chat apps want to re-center the music industry around fans — a move that could make artists and businesses more financially self-sufficient.

Community
How to use Discord as an artist
June 22 2023

Millions of musicians, fatigued by the algorithms of traditional social media, are turning to the community-first platform. But how does it work? And how do you get the most out of it?

Community
Amber Atherton (investor, author) on building virtual communities: Start small and niche
May 31 2023

Amber is an investor and founder (her community software startup Zyper was ​acquired​ by Discord) and author of the book ​The Rise of Virtual Communities​.

Community
Wavelengths 004: Building sustainable music communities
February 25 2023

On February 21, 2023, Water & Music partnered with DC-based music company Phlote to host our fourth in-person Wavelengths: A roundtable discussion on the future of financially sustainable music communities.

Starter Packs
Starter Pack: New music communities
February 06 2023

The concept of community has risen to a new level of prominence in the last few years as a critical source of social and commercial resilience in artists’ careers.

Fandom
Wavelengths 003: Crafting superfan experiences, from the physical to the digital
February 02 2023

As touring and streaming increasingly fail to present sustainable revenue streams to middle class artists, it’s never been more critical for artists to find their true fans — fans that will follow their artists throughout their careers, across projects and platforms.

Web3
Wavelengths 002: Web3 for whom?
February 01 2023

Our panel of passionate builders of community and culture in Web3, co-curated with our partner Refraction, discussed the nature of cultivating a diverse Web3 landscape for artists and their communities around the globe.

Community
Attack / Decay / Research / Release: Mapping community with FWB
December 08 2022

From August 12–14, 2022, Water & Music and Friends With Benefits (FWB) joined forces to explore the nature of IRL <> URL communities through a collaborative workshop at FWB Fest, where attendees came together to document how they would map the communities they are a part of.

Web3
Sidechain: Web3 presave strategies, the death of FWB Local, and influencer disclosures
November 09 2022

Capturing the W&M community’s unique, early-adopter, critical pulse on the music/Web3 landscape, backed by ongoing reporting from our Web3 research team that you won’t find elsewhere.

Careers
CC: Hiring trends across community management, TikTok strategy, metaverse affairs, and more
September 07 2022

Introducing our new, collaborative editorial vertical about the future of work in the music business. On a biweekly basis, our research team highlights the most interesting jobs emerging in music — “interesting” defined as involving new technologies, skill sets, strategic priorities, and cross-industry synergies like in gaming, fitness, and podcasts — as a vector for charting potential futures for the music industry as a whole.

Metaverse
Choose your own adventure: A music metaverse path finder
July 13 2022

A self-directed guide for artists and their teams to explore the diverse set of entry points into musical metaverse experiences.

Metaverse
Meeting in the musical metaverse: Expectations vs. reality
July 11 2022

Cutting through the hype to present tangible, focused opportunities for growth and improvement around one of the most in-demand and fundamental use cases for musical metaverse experiences today: Having fun with friends.