Dean Wilson is the CEO and Founder of SEVEN20, a technology and entertainment company. SEVEN20 was originally founded in 2018 to overturn the traditional music management model in favor of a partnership-based approach that fully empowers its artists, but in the time since, the company has adopted even bigger goals. Through the freedom of the blockchain, SEVEN20 seeks to push the entire music and entertainment industry forward with new IP and equity deals only possible with this technology.
FMM: You are an influential and innovative figure within the electronic music industry as well as the longtime manager for GRAMMY Award-nominated electronic music phenomenon Joel Zimmerman— aka deadmau5. Share your background and what led to SEVEN20.
I started selling records out of the back of a van in London which led to producing records like Daniel Bedingfield’s, “Gotta Get Thru This” which was #1 in the UK. Throughout the years I began helping people out and it morphed into becoming a manager. Things started to explode with several business partners. At the time, I was managing Chris Lake who found another artist by the name of Deadmau5. He went out to Toronto to work with him. After working with him for a couple of days he asked me if I could mange him.
Then my business partner at the time Mark Gillespie found Calvin Harris on Myspace and our company exploded. We handled artists like Nero, Deadmau5, Chris Lake, Calvin Harris, Feed Me & Swedish House Mafia. It was an amazing ride but, as with many partnerships, we decided to go in different directions and from that came my company Seven20. I wanted to get back to finding great producers, artists, and songwriters and get back to my roots and back to how I got my start in the music business.
FMM: Tell us about the NFT boom.
The NFT boom and what we have seen has been a lot of file art. Many thought it was a get-rich-quick thing, but the bubble quickly burst due to oversaturation. We have been in the space for a while and up until that point and the technical use case of the technology is what excited myself and Joel (Deadmau5.) We have always had a blockchain strategy. Web3 and getting into the metaverses is what really gets us focused. Joel has always been an avid gamer, for us this was an authentic and logical step as he has been creating his own game for the last 2 or 3 years on Epic Unreal engine.
What is an NFT and how can we use the technology? The technology within the ERC file itself is what’s really great. For one, especially in the music IP sector, there is no secondary market or very little. The secondary market within the NFT space is going to be massive for IP owners.
One thing that people have not touched on too much is the technical use case of NFT’s that you can gamify and have experiences in them, locked in them, burn two NFT’s together to create another experience or event. There are so many different use cases now. Utility NFT’s are still exploding and no one is rally talking about it yet, and that’s where we are.
We are about to sell our VIP Red Rocks tickets on the blockchain. I think that’s what is coming and that’s why it’s really amazing. It all leads into one place within the blockchain technology, this metaverse of utopian de-centralized everything and that’s what we are all looking forward help build.
FMM: You are known as “The Goat Herder,” shepherding the Mau5 flock. Tell us more.
Well, Deadmau5 is known as the goat lord, I suppose that makes me the goat herder. I haven’t heard anyone say that but if that’s what somebody wants to use that’s hilarious! Joel has two goats on his farm, one called Goat and once called Stuff.
FMM: Taking what you and deadmau5 have learned from years of owning and controlling your own masters and publishing, how are you giving freedom back to artists?
Wow, that’s a great question. This is still a very complicated business to unravel and nobody has all the answers right now. What we are trying to solve with all of our blockchain projects and friends is how to get music onto the blockchain, into the metaverse. Then make it usable and get it monetized in real time so everyone understands instead of taking a check from someone else to sell my IP I can now make money from my IP and I can see it happening in real time. You can’t get real time data as in what you’re actually earning from companies like Spotify. None of the DSP’s, publishers, or PRO’s are giving you that.
FMM: What’s the next big explosion in crypto and blockchain technology?
The metaverse. Without a single doubt. That is our focus. What you’re going to see next is being able to build on game engines with triple A style graphics in real-time. We went from 8-bit style boxes to game developers being able to build games in roadblocks, What comes next are Companies like Manticore & Hiber are going to be able to take it to the next level.
This is going to be the start of what metaverses truly are.
FMM: What’s the next big explosion in crypto and blockchain technology?
We are looking to partner and work with as many blockchain companies that make sense to the core of the music and IP rights. Those companies that you state were the first to develop music platforms on a blockchain which will keep expanding and exploding. It’s like when we went to CD’s and everyone said that would never work and then streaming everything and once again people never imagined how important and normal it would become. You need to look where we come from to understand where we will go.
We are just seeing the birth of what’s next in the music space. It’s always been 7-10 year cycles from CD’s, to DSP’s to what is coming next.
FMM: What blockchain-based projects does the Mau5 machine have up your sleeves for 2021?
We have partnerships with the Sandbox, Blanco’s block party, and Manticore. We are finishing building out Joel’s video game Oberhasli which will be a digital venue and game all in one where he will be able to perform. This is all being driven by our new Company Pixelynx – www.pixelynx,io – The Portal into the Metaverse
FMM: How will it affect music and gaming?
There’s been a massive disconnect between music and gaming because gaming moves at lightning speed and music is stuck in the old way of doing things. Too many rights holders, too many people own too many chunks of IP. No one is working together. What we have to solve is music and the metaverse which comes along with blockchain video games. We have been missing billions of dollars. Video games have in-house musicians that write music for them for speed / ease. One of the big reasons why Joel and I work so hard to own our own IP is because we can work at the same speed that they want to work and cut deals that make sense for them & us.
FMM: What excites you the most about SEVEN20 and your vision for the future?
Where we are heading with technology. I look at my 11 and 8-year-old kids and they are already tech-savvy from such a young age. Kids are already ahead of a lot of their parents in how to use technology. Where are we going with technology within the music and entertainment space – that’s what is exciting. Everything will change. Nothing will be what we consider normal anymore, whether it’s visual or audio. The evolution and explosion of being able to buy a NFT of a major sporting event or being able to buy the initial source code of the internet. When you look at those situations and stories that is just the start of a whole new universe. There’s always people who don’t want to change. We have to prove this is why you need to own your own IP and be in control of your destiny.
