Jenkins Podcast: What is it? When Does it Start? And More…
GoodBoy is Missing!!
If you haven’t heard by now, my beloved doggo Good Boy has gone missing. I don’t know for sure who has taken him, but you know I’m no idiot. I’ve got a pretty good idea of who’s done it… So yes, I’ve left Azurbala. I was excited about the opportunity to write the story of House Calypso for Lady Vo, but alas there are some things that matter more than my career ambition. Those things may be few, but Good Boy certainly is one of them.
I say this with the utmost seriousness… There is no corner of the Metaverse that I won’t search in order to find my best friend. In fact, I desperately need your help. There are so many incredible communities throughout the Metaverse, and I come here today to ask you to help me find Good Boy. I can promise you that for your help, I’ll repay you. Initially I’ll do it with a first of its kind, gamified NFT podcast series where I visit 8 communities. I’ll learn all about them, meet their characters, and hopefully find Good Boy. Who knows what else I’ll find on this journey, but I promise that whatever it is, you’ll be brought along for the ride.
I’ve tapped the team at Tally Labs to help me articulate better what this whole journey is all about. I need to get back to searching for Good Boy, so please read on as they share more about this opportunity to join me on this journey.
-Jenkins
SALT Audio, Why Audio, and More
In short, we feel that Fiction Audio is underutilized in the NFT space! Interview based podcasts are commonplace here, but nobody has turned to the medium for immersive, scripted entertainment. There are some incredible Fiction podcasts out there in web2 (and we’re working with the team behind many) and we think we can improve upon their structure by adding blockchain technology to the mix!
Our partners at SALT Audio are leaders in the space. They’re behind many smash hits in the Fiction Audio space such as Blackout (Rami Malek), Hit Job (Pete Davidson), Edge of Sleep, Midnight Miracle (Dave Chapelle), and more. They know how to build amazing audio-first IP that has a chance to live in other forms. They’re incredibly excited about this series as it’s their first foray into web3!
SALT has brought an incredible team to this project spanning Producers, Screenwriters, Showrunners, Audio Engineers, SFX Artists, and more. There are a number of hardworking and talented individuals involved who we’re excited to introduce you to in the near future!
So, How Does the Podcast Work?
We’re taking a bit of a different strategy than we did with Bored & Dangerous where the NFT was required to read the book. For this Podcast, 95% of the content will be available wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, etc). There will be no NFT required to listen and enjoy the content. The more people we have consuming it, the better for everyone involved! This is a truly cross-community series and we want to shine as much light as possible on this incredible space, the worlds that have been birthed, and the characters that you’ve all created. Each episode will be set inside a different web3 community.
So…if anyone can listen, where is the web3 component?
Episodes will be rolling out one at a time. There will be a gamified NFT associated with the Podcast that will allow you to engage with it on a much deeper level! After listening to an episode on your preferred podcast platform, you’ll be able to take your NFT to a dedicated website for the Podcast. Upon connecting your wallet and verifying that you own a Podcast NFT, you’ll be presented with an audio puzzle pertaining to that episode. Each audio puzzle will be a collaboration between a team of professional puzzle makers and our team at SALT. The puzzles will be embedded into the audio as a true extension of the podcast.
Holders will have an opportunity to submit answers to the puzzle for each episode. Once the submission period closes and responses are locked, the correct answer for that episode’s puzzle will be revealed. If you guessed correctly, your NFT will update dynamically to reflect your correct answers. You’ll even earn extra points based on how quickly you answered. You’ll start to see your place on the leaderboard. You’ll be able to do this for each episode!
Your NFTs will constantly be updating each time a new episode is released and you’ll be able to showcase your progress and measure how you’re stacking up against your fellow holders! You can also buy, sell, or trade your Podcast NFTs at any point during the series. We’ll be curating a whole bunch of awesome prizes for the folks at various levels of the leaderboard. No worries if you don’t win — Series 1 won’t be the end of the road for these Podcast NFTs!
Which Communities Will Be Featured? How Will We Decide?
Communities will be decided largely by The Writer’s Room community voting on their top choices. However, we have a few bonus episodes where spots can be earned in other ways.
We have some incredible communities who have already committed to being a part of this (if voted in) and we are so excited to put them in front of the Writer’s Room! You can expect voting to begin in the Writer’s Room in the next few weeks.
There will be 8 total episodes, broken down as follows:
- Episode 1: Apes/Mutants set in a neutral location (Please note: This episode will not be set inside the BAYC but we will be licensing Apes/Mutants directly from holders). Unlike B&D, we have not entered into an agreement with Yuga Labs to use the IP that they own.
This will not be put up to a vote. We’ll be including Apes/Mutants. We would love to give those who licensed to B&D an opportunity to double down on their characters.
- Episodes 2–6: Communities to be voted on by the Writer’s Room. All communities in the vote have already signed an agreement with us allowing us to set an episode in their world and use their name, logos, and key lore elements.
- Episode 7: Anyone can ‘create a character’ to lend their support and help Jenkins find Good Boy. We’ll run a contest to see which community develops the most characters. We’ll reach out to the winning community to sign an agreement to have an entire episode set just in their world.
- Episode 8: We will let anyone who owns the commercial rights to a character they build on our platform be eligible to license it to a ‘hodgepodge’ episode. This will feature all sorts of different characters set in a neutral location that our writers create.
How To Create A Character?
There’s no podcast without characters, and there are no characters without you! In the next week or so, we’ll be launching a brand new way for you to create characters on top of your NFT avatars. You can think of this as an upgraded version of our original licensing platform. On this platform, you’ll be able to connect your wallet, show us your NFT avatars, and then we’ll give you prompts to build out a character based on that avatar. Next week we’ll share the 100+ different communities that are eligible for character creation.
After some time has passed and everyone has had an opportunity to create characters, we’ll open up licensing for Writer’s Room members. This will certainly be an elevated version from last time. Writer’s Room members will be able to quickly license their own characters with a few clicks, and they’ll also be able to shop for other people’s characters without the need to message on Twitter or Discord. More on this below…
We also recognize that exercising creativity to turn an NFT avatar into a character might be daunting. For that reason, we’ll be sharing tips on character creation throughout the next few weeks, and we’ll also host a special Twitter Spaces focused on character creation tips that come straight from Hollywood!
Keep in mind that as Writer’s Room members shop for characters, they’ll be able to read the bios that were written for each of them, so you’ll want to be thoughtful about what you write. But don’t worry if you don’t feel the creative juices at first, you’ll be able to edit your character backstory at any time.
And by the way… maybe one day there will be more licensing opportunities beyond this podcast and beyond Tally Labs, so the character you create today may end up having a larger life of its own.
How Does Licensing Work?
We have improved the licensing process immensely since Bored & Dangerous and we are ecstatic to share it with you. While we thoroughly enjoyed the chaos in the Writer’s Room discord before licensing closed, this time it will be way more automated. You won’t need to be emailed and you won’t need to find a partner offline.
Once a character is “created” on the platform, they will be considered eligible for licensing. Please note, owning a Writer’s Room NFT or partnering with a Writer’s Room NFT holder is still a requirement to be licensed. Writer’s Room holders will either be able to license their own characters or they will be able to “shop” the list of created characters and determine which to enter into a partnership with. The whole process will occur in a few clicks, without ever having to leave our platform.
We believe this can be the future of licensing in the NFT space and are excited to roll this out to other creators in the future.
Much like Bored & Dangerous, a percentage of Net Profits from the project will go directly to licensors who contribute their IP to the work.
So, What Are Next Steps?
The full list of communities that can create characters for our upcoming podcast will be announced in the coming weeks. We will also be opening up character creation to all these communities around that time. Stay tuned for the announcement on Twitter/Discord.
Additionally, 12 communities have already signed agreements with us and are vying for the votes of our Writer’s Room members in order to have an episode set in their universe. In the coming weeks, we will introduce them all and provide more information about each. The Writer’s Room voting on these communities will take place in early December and results will be announced shortly thereafter.
We want to give everyone ample time during this holiday season to create their characters so licensing won’t open until January, 2023, giving you plenty of time over the break.
There are many facets to a Podcast Production like this, from screenwriting to voice actor casting, production and post-production. The visual below depicts the different phases we’ll move through; we are currently about to start Phase 2. Updates will be provided via our social media as progress is made in this production timeline.
We’re very excited to embark on this journey and believe that it can be a ‘first’ in the space. Many communities will be coming together to tell this story and we will once again be licensing thousands of characters directly from holders to appear.
LET’S GO FIND OUR BELOVED GOOD BOY!
