From the white-hot spring to the crypto-winter, we’ve been through so much mentally and emotionally in 2022. Now that we’ve reached the end of it, let’s take a look back at this journey; take a slow breath, and use the next few moments to reflect on highlights at Async Art.
Blueprints Frenzy Beginning of 2022
We opened the rabbit hole to generative art collections in December 2021, with XCOPY, Coldie, and Alotta Money as Async’s Blueprints Launch partners. Immediately following that, other top artists started creating their generative collections using our no-code builder tool. The Blueprint template we developed was a game-changer as it allowed artists to launch their own generative projects without needing a team of developers!
Since launch there's been 576 Blueprints collections published, with over 45K Editions minted. That's incredible for a product in its first year of existence!
If you’ve missed this frenzy, here are some curated favorites from our team:
Launch of Music Blueprints
First came the artwork, then in June 2022 we brought the sound, in the form of music, spoken word, and audible storytelling.
Async Music Blueprint is the all-in-one generative music NFT tool. It’s revolutionized the way we listen to and think about music. Following the success of Async Blueprint, Music Blueprint takes a similar generative creation process and applies it to music — no coding experience or developer help required from the musicians.
Here are some of the outstanding Music projects that became ear worms for us in 2022:
Async 2.0: “NEW DAWN” + “GM”
In August 2022, for the first time ever, Async Art opened up the platform to everyone!
It was a NEW DAWN for all creators. We lowered the barrier of entry for entering the web3 space by eliminating the application process and streamlining the onboarding flow so everyone could access the building tools from day one.
Then shortly after that, we added more features and functions for creators to bring the campaign to a complete “GM”:
Artist-Deployed Contracts - Artists can choose to deploy their own smart contracts for a small gas fee instead of being deployed under Async’s general Blueprints contract.
Time-Limited collections - Artists can set a time limit on how long collectors can mint from their Blueprint, anywhere between 1-4 weeks. This is a great way for artists to assess the size of their collector base.
Free-Mint - Artists can create free Blueprints! Collectors only pay for the gas fee of minting and this is a great way to reward an existing community and draw in new fans. There are multiple use cases for this, such as using it as live-minted POAPs, airdrop rewards, etc.
If you’ve purchased an Async NFT on our marketplace before December 13th, you are eligible to mint an Edition from our exclusive Async collection for free. 20 lucky minters who pull a Legendary Edition will get a bonus Blueprint from some of our favorite collections from 2022.
New Partnerships For Interoperability
From September to November 2022, Async announced several strategic partnerships with major art and music platforms: SuperRare, OneOf, HIFI Labs, and BeetsDAO. We always believed that rising tides raises all boats. In true web3 fashion, the ability to launch Async NFTs on other marketplaces and platforms is very important for long term success.
The Async x SuperRare partnership kicked off with a brand-new, exclusive Blueprint drop from crypto artist Osinachi. His collection was available for minting on Async with secondary indexing on SuperRare for the first time ever.
The 1000 Edition collection sold out in just a few hours, even as it launched in the middle of a bear market.
We then introduced Rare Blueprints: generative collections that live on SuperRare, powered by Async’s creation platform. We welcomed several beloved Blueprint collections to SuperRare and celebrated the next phase of our strategic partnership.
Additionally, we partnered with OneOf to launch on their Tezos exclusive marketplace without having to officially integrate another blockchain. With Chicago’s native Hip-Hop duo, The Cool Kids, our production team brought their iconic sound to the OneOf with their audiovisual drop- 'Pre-School'.
Led by the desire to find new and exciting ways to connect with their fans, the duo entered the web3 space to explore the creative possibilities of music NFTs. By tapping into the power of our Music Blueprints technology, Mikey and Chuck were able to do just that and dropped the first 1000 Edition generative art collection to hit OneOf.
Check out The Cool Kids Music Blueprints on OneOf. Read more on this partnership.
In November, Ricky Lake collaborated with Text Me Records and HIFI Labs, they made history by dropping the first-ever fully generative album on the Async called "Altered".
"Altered" featured the work of 30+ collaborators experienced through 11 tracks, 6650 maximum Editions, 80+ stems, and 8 Legendary Editions.
Fans were able to collect completely randomized audio and visual collectibles comprised of unique, one-of-one tracks from the album. Once minted, fans could trade their Editions with other collectors to build the "Altered" album tracklist of their dreams!
Check out Altered. More about this partnership.
Async at IRL Events
While the NFT communities are the most active online, there were also some big IRL events this year where we rallied and gathered, including at NFT LA, NFC Lisbon, MET AMS, NFT.NYC, and we had our very own local gathering, the San Francisco PFP!
At NFT LA, lots of Async Art pieces were on display on the conference floor. We co-hosted an activation at Superchief Gallery with Monaverse, XCOPY, and Coldie to show off the newly-built Mona spaces for these crypto art OGs.
Shortly after at NFT.NYC, several Async team members took to the conference stage as speakers and/or panelists, and we hosted a “Future of Music NFTs” satellite event where we showcased some of the most innovative projects.
You can read more about our time at NFT LA and NFC Lisbon here, and our time at MET AMS and NFT NYC here.
During our San Francisco PFP event, we partnered with a local meetup group, BACA (Bay Area Crypto Art), along with OG artist Coldie and Sunset Squares Pizza, to bring together Bay Area NFT enthusiasts. This was the event where we made the very first community-live-creation Blueprint, which we later launched as a free-mint for all the folks who RSVP’ed to the event.
Top Conversations of 2022
Kenny Schachter: Collecting in the New Age
We had the great opportunity of exploring creativity and collecting within the new digital age with thought leader and art aficionado, Kenny Schachter - one of the most reputable voices to straddle both the traditional and blockchain creative realms.
An incredibly passionate and inspiring conversation of the importance of creatives embracing the rebellious, “no-rules” lawlessness of this space as well as developing more physical showcases of digital art within traditional galleries. We talked about supporting artists through purchasing vast amounts of collections on different chains (as digital wallets have no physical restrictions) and even touched on the climate impact of the traditional art market vs digital.
Listeners were left with a sense that this space is truly groundbreaking and a flourishing environment for creativity, connection and opportunity.
Sparrow & Conlan: Royalties
Royalties are, for many creatives, the most inspiring part of this whole space. Over the last year, however, the NFT space realized that there will always be loopholes around blockchain royalties.
Along with Async’s founder, Conlan Rios, and OG cryptoartist, Sparrow, we delved into the technical and social structure of the topic. Since its inception, Async has been an active voice in the conversation surrounding championing artists’ royalties. We have continually pushed the dialogue, and within this conversation specifically, we highlighted the most fundamental way to ensure that artist royalties are paid (beyond platform loopholes), is to create an intimate connection with your collectors.
By creating a connection with a collector and by appreciating and highlighting their patronage- artists increase the likelihood their collectors will continue to share in the artist’s journey in the form of paying fair secondary royalties.
Async x ArtBlocks Engine: Generative Art Beyond Web3
Art Blocks and Async are well known in the generative art space. Obviously, both platforms are passionate about the future of generative creativity within the bigger web3 space so we felt it was important to host a chat between both platforms to inspire, educate and learn from one another!
We touched on generative physicals created by machines, helping expose non-digital enthusiasts to the process of algorithmic creation, and diving into the future of physical spaces for more generative-friendly presentation. All in all, both platforms believe the future of generative art is just beginning and expect new interesting use cases to spring up over the coming years, as the medium becomes more standard/accepted.
It is certainly a great time to be making historical Generative Artworks!
What’s Next?
From Async’s inception to now, we’ve pioneered in the dynamic and generative realms. Looking forward to an exciting 2023, our team will take the best of both worlds and combine it to make dynamic and generative NFTs available for creators and brands.
Every project, creator, or brand who has made a PFP-like collection and wants to reward their holders or anyone who is looking to enter Web3 space in an inclusive, interactive way, will all be interested in this shared future.
We call it: Dynamic Blueprints. Be sure to keep an eye out in 2023 for this, and to pushing onward into the future!
To keep up-to-date on the latest developments, follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Join our Discord or sign up for our email newsletter to be the first to know about new art and music drops!
