Meet Soundverse’s Team: Interview With Mersad Lahouti

I’ll start this interview-article off by giving some background into who I am. I’m Chris Wallace, the new Community Manager at Soundverse, and I’m very excited to be a part of this project. I’ve been a spectator of the larger crypto space for years, interested in every development and curious where this was all going. Now, I can bring my curiosity and passion for this technology to a community space and stir up the same feeling of excitement I feel when finding out about cool new concepts, such as Soundverse.

Soundverse was co-founded by Mersad Lahouti, an entrepreneur with an interesting combination of skills in his skill set and a passion to venture into spaces that are fresh and unknown. A few days ago, I spoke to Mersad Lahouti, the Co-Founder of Soundverse, to learn more about the project and the vision behind it.

Chris Wallace (CW): Hi Mersad, can you tell us a little about your background?
Mersad Lahouti (ML): That has a very long answer, I would say, but I’ll try to shorten it. I founded a software & branding agency — DyMotions, but if you want to go even further back, I was an architect that was very interested in technology. So, I decided to make a change and move myself toward technology-driven companies. Because I didn’t have any experience, I started an agency and built it up. Now that DyMotions is a known and established company in Austria and Germany. I got my experience in software and understood how everything works.

CW: Making a change like that is a pretty big decision, you seem like a determined person.

ML: I’m the kind of person who likes to observe things from a “helicopter view,” and then choose a direction and go there obsessively. That’s why I hold my position in the agency — so I can observe and experience different areas where things are happening, and see how things are rolling.

CW: A smart approach. Can you elaborate on why you decided to start Soundverse?

ML: I was always passionately into music. One day we built a startup that would build hardware boxes, and put them in clubs. The hardware was automating the music in the club into our app, so everyone who had our app could check the app and see what music is playing at which club, in which city, live. That was a pretty new and interesting concept which we adapted, and got the three biggest clubs in Berlin initially, but what we didn’t know is that Corona is coming. Corona came so hard and hit us so badly we had to stop operations.

CW: So you decided to refocus your efforts elsewhere?

ML: Well, from that point, we just had to pivot. We shifted our focus toward the DJs just as a fun project to build our community. They understand how the world of music works, and we built our connections. But, at one point, we stopped the project because first we were exposed to the weakness of our idea (it was not pandemic-proof) and second there was no financial benefit behind it.

CW: That’s understandable. The COVID lockdowns have been tough on everyone, especially people who depend on live music venues to make a living. Is that what got you interested in NFTs?

ML: I got interested in the NFT market because NFT sort of stands for “luxury of tech,” and since I was living in Dubai, back in the day — since I was 16 years old — I was around this luxury world of what’s happening there.
It just makes sense to me that you can collect a piece that is not reproducible, which is unique. This unlocked a lot of possibilities in my brain how we can disrupt the music industry with this. How this can disrupt any industry, like real estate, gaming, and so forth. So, that’s how I decided to put things together. Let’s say my experience led me to this, plus the reading I did about NFTs — I was diving deep for about 8 months into the sector.
Then I read about fractionalizing NFTs, and I realized what an opportunity we can offer in the music industry by turning every early fan into an investor for the artists, and remove the middlemen between artists and fans. The fact is, early supporters and their crowd are making the artists famous, but they can’t directly take part in an artist’s success. Instead, middlemen and record labels trying to dominate the copyright ownership is in fact a big problem for artists because, basically, music labels are fighting for dominance of the streaming companies, and they’re taking most of the value generated by artists’ popularity — up to 88% of the music’s revenue.

CW: I see. So, the entire purpose of Soundverse is to benefit fans and musicians directly, without centralized middlemen in control.

ML: Exactly.

CW: Now that you’ve explained the benefits of NFTs for musicians and your vision behind Soundverse, can you tell me what makes Soundverse really special?

ML: Of course. Soundverse is an NFT music marketplace platform, in which its primary purpose is to connect fans and artists — but there is more to it. There are mainly (as of now) 3 types of NFTs:

• Collectibles
• Access NFTs
• Asset NFTs

With Soundverse we are aiming to utilize all 3 types of NFTs to bridge them eventually into a Metaverse.

CW: Oh, so the minted NFTs have multiple purposes. Can you elaborate more on each type and how you’re planning to utilize them?

ML: Sure. Since NFTs are unique, they are the perfect medium for collectibles, since each music track is also unique. There’s a culture among music artists that they always keep their best music private for a long time because these tracks are their best works and have some sort of value. Many questions why we should collect NFTs, especially when you can’t touch them. My answer to these people comes in two parts: 1. As human beings, we’re wired weirdly, and history shows that we always had a habit of collecting whatever we feel is unique. From stones to statues and much more. Also, since when are you allowed to touch the Mona Lisa? Haven’t you seen the DO NOT TOUCH signs in the museums before?
The second use case is, since NFTs are unique they can act like a secure key, which means it can give you access to private events — private parties. Now, artists can launch their NFTs and give access to their fans through NFTs for these private events. And, since NFTs are unique, that means these are not copyable.
The third part of these NFTs is that we’re planning to turn music copyright as an asset into a Non-Fungible Token, or NFT, and then fractionalize it into 1,000 pieces, 1,000,000 pieces, whatever amount of pieces. We allow normal people like you and me, who support or are a fan of the artist, to participate in buying just a small fraction with as little as $10 or $50, or whatever amount. This will create a cashflow for you and me as supporters. It’s an asset, so we all become investors.

CW: Wow, then there are even more benefits associated with collecting and trading NFTs backed by copyright. Collectors earning passive income, which also funds the endeavors of musicians, seems like a win-win to me.

ML: Yes. The artist would get funded by initial sales of NFTs, which means it helps them to develop further, and it also means they still have control of usage of the music. They can decide how much of their copyright they want to sell and also how much royalty they want to earn on a secondary basis.
Imagine 10,000 people own your music copyright and want your track to get popular, because they will also benefit from your success.

CW: So, it’s safe to say that this is the future of music publishing. Who do you think the early adopters of Soundverse will be?

ML: I think artists who understand how the real world works will understand that technology is driving the world, and they constantly want to be on top of their game. They are the first early adopters of the platform. Artists who ignore it? They lose a huuuuge opportunity there. Without a doubt, they’re losing a huge opportunity. But, in the long term, I think every artist will drop their music as an NFT without having a third party in between.

CW: Well, thank you for taking the time to answer these questions, Mersad. It was a pleasure.

ML: Thank you.

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