racOS Turns Web3 Social Tokens Into a Living, Evolving Artist Platform For Fans and Supporters

Grammy-winning musician RAC was one of the first artists to issue a web3 social token in 2020. Upon release, his most dedicated fans received a direct stake in his success along with the ability to contribute meaningfully to his career. Now RAC is pushing this innovation further, teaming up with HIFI Labs to launch racOS, a web-based home linking all $RAC holders.

A platform that is artist and fan controlled and created, racOS provides a space where token-holders can engage with each other and access a variety of experiences. From the homepage, fans can connect their wallet to verify their $RAC token holdings and unlock several immediate benefits, including exclusive music playlists and a portal to a Decentraland experience for token holders only. The major feature, powered by Coinvise, is a service that enables RAC Patreon subscribers to claim $RAC tokens each month commensurate with their Patreon membership tier.

$RAC and racOS serve as a model for artist DAOs: how artists can build and own their own platforms. “The term ‘direct-to-fan’ has been overused and under-delivered on for too long; and for the first time in the history of the internet, we’re finally seeing this lofty idea begin to materialize for artists,” says HIFI Labs CEO & Co-founder Joe Barham. “At HIFI Labs, we’re building for a future in which artists – not platforms – own the networks, communities, fan experiences, and relationships that revolve around their artistic vision; and we believe that DAOs offer artists the first true opportunity to build, manage, and collaborate with their fans."

“I’m so excited to unveil the latest update to $RAC,” says RAC. ”It’s another chapter in reshaping the creator economy and engaging with my fans in the most direct way without a sea of intermediaries. This is just the beginning.“

When RAC noticed during the pandemic that his audience on Twitch was exploding, the success proved to be another Achilles’ heel for his community. This wasn’t the first platform RAC built a large following on: Starting in 2007, RAC had amassed followers on everything from MySpace to Soundcloud, where he amassed a following of over 5.5m.. Yet, with each new platform, RAC struggled to connect his whole audience.

To help bridge this gap, RAC announced $RAC in October 2020. $RAC was minted on the Ethereum blockchain as a way of connecting RAC fans independent of any one platform. RAC created a record of fans who had supported him in some way over more than a decade, including music purchasers on Bandcamp, merch customers, Twitch subscribers and Patreon supporters. A program was built to allow these fans to come and collect $RAC, commensurate with the support they provided.

Right away, RAC saw the onboarding of many new people to Ethereum who had never interacted with a blockchain or a crypto wallet before. Holding $RAC tokens became a requisite to join certain channels within the RAC Discord Server. Using the open-source Ethereum tooling now popularly known as “web3,” RAC created a permanent record between him and his most avid fans, more akin to a cookie in your browser than a coin on a blockchain.

At the same time, popular “social clubs'' emerged in the web3 ecosystem. They became known as DAOs, and some act as instigators and investors in promising experiments like $RAC. In 2021, the Ethereum-based community known as The LAO made a contribution to the $RAC community in exchange for an organizational role. Using this contribution, the RAC DAO, the decision-making body of the $RAC platform, leveraged their relationships with the music and tech idea incubator HIFI Labs to build out a new experience for fans.

Called racOS, this new experience is a web-based browser app that will serve as RAC’s main website - but also as another congregating place for $RAC holders. Inspired by a 90s operating system aesthetic, ripe with its own “applications,” racOS is a nod to the endless flexibility of web3 enabled experiences but perhaps even more so - reaffirming this idea that the artist is at the center of all experiences related to them.

“RAC is showing how tokens allow us to add a new layer to the technology stack of the internet —and this is what web3 is all about,” explains HIFI Lab’s Head of Crypto Jack Spallone. “Future experiences for $RAC holders are only limited by what is built to integrate with them. There is now an entire emerging ecosystem compatible with this layer of the internet, making RAC and the corresponding token a pioneering example of how artists can find durability in the technology they use to connect with their fans going forward.”

About HIFI Labs

HIFI Labs is an artist incubator and creative technology studio on a mission to help musicians grow their careers sustainably and own their success via web3 technology and classic artist development. With a focus on ArtistDAOS, A&R and Web3 utility, HIFI Labs is building tech, tools, and custom systems that empower artists to optimize their fanbase, create their best art, and break through the noise while retaining control of their careers. The overall company vision is that one day, musicians will own their art, control their career, activate their own ideas, and make the decisions that shape their creative identities with direct support from their communities and fans.