Interactive Music NFTs: Felice LaZae's 'Prologue'
The visual album 'Prologue' gets fans closer to the kind of Web3 experience we are looking for
We’ve seen artists get creative with their NFT drops, but we haven’t seen many drops that are thoughtful about the experience they are creating. Felice LaZae is changing that.
If you’re like me and you are seeking out user-first experiences in blockchain music, take some time to check out Felice LaZae’s Prologue: A Visual Album Experience. Join me as I reflect on the custom-made experience, provide some thoughts on areas for improvement, and compare to other notable Music NFT drops.
Save the date! Talk with Lisa and Felice on April 17. We’ll review the Prologue experience and the next iteration of the project!
The Experience
What I think Felice got right in this drop? Her commitment to creating an interactive experience. Prologue is less than 20 minutes, but I spent at least a good hour playing around with everything Felice had set up. And it got me to engage with her album at a level I wouldn’t have otherwise.
The Visual Album
First, I sat back and enjoyed the show. I got myself set up with a bubble bath and a glass of wine, then hit play. I had high expectations of the production quality of the music and the story of the video, and the soulful and jazzy album did not disappoint. It’s theatrical without going over the top, and Felice is just a pleasure to watch as the main character.
I turned my 5-song album into a murder mystery... I already write songs as if I’m writing them for a movie. I’m a huge cinephile so this was not difficult to adapt my music to a murder mystery plot. My music was actually calling for it. — Felice LaZae
The Puzzles
Once you watch the album, there are a series of puzzles to solve that get progressively harder (not gonna lie, I was stumped on the last puzzle). As you complete each puzzle, you are emailed a link to claim a POAP (which stands for Proof-Of-Attendance Protocol) which unlocks the next level. This was fun and engaging, which is exactly what Felice was trying to achieve.
Experience Summary
Overall what I think is most important is that I spent at least 3x as long watching and engaging with Felice’s video album. I woke up with my personal favorite song and album finale, Callin’ Me, stuck in my head. For three days.
Room To Improve
As is anything that is the first of it’s kind, there is room for improvement, especially when experiencing this drop as a non-Web3 native who may not be comfortable with NFTs, wallets, or crypto.
The Puzzles & POAPs
The anagram puzzles are a little basic and I would have preferred they were tied into the music and story more. Perhaps if I had figured out the last puzzle it would have answered this gripe for me better ️️🤷♀️.
I collected 9/10 POAPs for completing the puzzles. This experience was a little clunky, mainly that meant 9 emails to click-and-collect. I’m also surprised these POAPs are limited to appearing only on the POAP site even though they’re in my primary Metamask wallet so I can’t see them on anywhere other than the direct POAP website.
The Website UI
The website UI (user interface) itself could be improved as I had some issues with the video player and I am personally not a huge fan of the overall website design, but upon exploring Felice’s universe more I realize it is aligned with her website and personal branding overall.
Crypto Wallets
Then there’s the overarching complaint of pretty much all Web3 experiences — you need a crypto wallet to purchase and connect. Felice has done what many other artists have done and recorded a Youtube “Web3 Wallet Tutorial for Beginners” video.
Improvements Summary
Overall, I don’t hold Felice accountable for the majority of my grievances. The POAP collection user-flow is completely out of Felice’s hands, and I imagine the only way to solve my issues with the UI is to hire a talented developer with Web3 expertise.
I hope I can speak on behalf of all artists when I say that everyone is patiently waiting for seamless NFT purchase experiences that don’t feel like buying crypto but feel like any other online purchase.
Comparing to Other Music NFT Drops
After reflecting on my experience, I wonder how many other artists are involving gamification (game-like features). In August 2022, NFT Now published “The Top Music NFT Moments of All Time”, but I don’t see any examples of a gamified experience — most of these top moments are big sales or interesting royalty schemes.
One RCRDSHP drop comes to mind, Disco Fries’ ‘Friends of Fries’ drop, with challenges and rewards that made the experience fun and engaging. In this case, the gamification focused on the digital collectibles (burning & mixing cards) rather than around the music experience — you could have completed all of their challenges without listening to a single minute of music.
Final Notes
Taking everything into consideration, I personally feel that Felice LaZae has done something that I haven’t seen any other artist attempt to take on. The time I spent looking for easter eggs made me feel more like a Swiftie combing through the Midnights album and got me excited for what Felice has in store for us next.
I purposefully didn’t want to review the music, rather I wanted to focus on the experience. Be forewarned that the music is crazy fun and will get stuck in your head. The Prologue album is on Spotify and you can preview the visual album here:
If you want to learn more about the technology behind the visual album, check out these resources:
How Felice created the first-of-its-kind visual album in Dolby Atmos
The introduction of this TechRadar article helped me understand the Dolby Atmos technology better.
Why Felice chose Web3 and her strategy behind a token-gated experience
Re: Dolby Atmos: I noticed that Felice really promoted that this was the first visual album produced in Dolby Atmos. Now, I’m not a music producer so this didn’t mean anything to me. And when I watched the video, I was listening on crappy laptop speakers (don’t hate me, Felice), but I would be remiss to not include this as an important part the experience. I made sure to re-listen to the album with my high-quality headphones and was able to appreciate the thoughtfulness of the sound design.
Transparency: Felice and I got to know each other through my Women of Web3 Twitter Spaces series, and she did drop me this NFT to enjoy although with no expectations to promote for her or even write this article.