Media DAOs
Note: Data in this section last updated July 3rd, 2022
What are Media DAOs?
Media DAOs are decentralized information and entertainment companies that are directly owned by creators and consumers.
Musicians, artists, game developers, independent journalists, podcasters, bloggers, YouTuber’s and social media influencers could all transition their communities to a DAO structure. By “cutting out the middleman”, Media DAOs have the potential to subvert film studios, publishers, news organizations, record labels and game development studios.
Media DAOs offer both creators and consumers substantial benefits, including:
Increase Profits: Intermediaries take a large cut out of an artist’s revenue. After accounting for record labels, producers and streaming platforms, artists earn fewer than 12% on platforms such as Spotify. Removing these intermediaries could significantly increase profit (some decentralized music services are offer a 90% share!)
Less Censorship: Companies such as Twitter frequently ban users, and Apple banned Epic Games, the creator of the multi-billion dollar game Fortnite, from its App Store after a revenue dispute. Media DAOs could free creators from this restriction, allowing them to upload any content, no matter how controversial, to any platform they so choose
Enhanced Fan Involvement: Finally, Music DAOs will likely increase the incentives for collaboration between creators and their fanbase. For instance, members could gain economic benefit from creating derivative works and remixes, or even building decentralized applications that incorporate a piece of work
The combination of NFTs – which allow personal ownership of intellectual property -- and Media DAOs is particularly exciting. One could imagine a world where a group of individual rights holders collectively organize to build the next Marvel.
How do Media DAOs work?
To understand how Media DAOs work, let’s take a look at Bankless – a digital media company that focuses on crypto education and infotainment through its flagship podcast and newsletter.
The Bankless organization was originally founded in 2020 by David Hoffman and Ryan Sean Adams. In 2021, they decided to shift the structure to a DAO by creating and distributing over 1 billion BANK tokens (30% to community members retroactively, 30% to the DAO’s treasury and 40% for future grants).
The DAO was formed to expand on Bankless’s original mission by evolving into a diversified entertainment studio. As such, BanklessDAO and Bankless LLC are technically separate entities, with the original company being just one player in a larger ecosystem (although it does own 25%).
Bankless LLC is Just One Part of a Broader Ecosystem
In many ways, the BanklessDAO runs similarly to a traditional media studio. It is organized into departments, called Guilds, that perform the basic functions that you would find in any media organization. Some of the more prominent Guilds include:
Content Creation: Writer’s Guild, AudioVisual Guild and Translator’s Guild
R&D: Research Guild and Education Guild
Sales: Marketing Guild and “DAOlationships” Guild
Operations: Operations Guild and Analytics Guild
Tech: Developer’s Guild and Design Guild
Finance: Treasury Guild
Legal: Legal Guild
Contributors to the DAO are paid in BANK tokens using a blend of bounties and reputation-based compensation methods.
Unlike traditional publishers, BanklessDAO is owned by the community. Anyone can become a member for 35K BANK tokens (~$350 at the time of writing) and make proposals, participate in discussion and vote on key issue.
Currently, there are 6.8K members of the Bankless DAO managing $2.1 million.
Key Players
In addition to Bankless, other notable media DAOs include Global Coin Research, Mirror and Rekt.
Source: DeepDao as of 7.2.22
Note: The above list is not exhaustive. Although generally ranked by size, some smaller projects may be included for illustrative purposes. In addition, while DAOs often span multiple categories, they were only included once in the vertical that is believed to represent the best fit
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