🥽 YouTube reveals AR TV concept, Musicians not getting their NFT dues, and WildEarth launches a big game conservation token: Content3 Weekly Wrap 👾

Praise be, we've completed January! 💯

Here's the round-up of what's been getting us excited in Content3 this week:

WildEarth.tv's NFT project supports African animals

One of the recent criticisms of the recent craze for Bored Apes, CryptoKitties and Hypebears is that they are nothing but overpriced JPEGs, being flipped by a small set of canny tech advisors who are making fortunes from thin air, without giving back.

So it's refreshing to hear about a project that seeks to help preserve the wellbeing of actual animals in real life.

Sale of animal-linked NFTs raises conservation funds for South African reserve

Tlalamba, a four-year-old leopard, has achieved much in her short life. She’s queen of her mother’s old territory, borne two cubs and, so far, is the most sought-after animal on her reserve among buyers of a new project selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to raise money for conservation.

ReutersEmma Rumney

For many years, WildEarth.tv has been streaming live safaris from Africa to audiences around the world, both via digital platforms like YouTube and for broadcasters and OTT platforms.

CEO Graham Wallington now has announced the creation of 25 NFT animal collections which form their "Genesis Collections" project.

The idea is that buyers will directly support animals through their investment in the tokens.  Further income from secondary sales on Opensea will fund ongoing conservation.

With a significant set of fans and viewers via their existing video distribution channels, Wildearth has a great chance to funnel their fans journey through to direct NFT sales.

And by choosing the Polygon blockchain, the environmental impact of minting the tokens is much reduced.

You can find out more, and mint your own Wildearth NFT right now by visiting the link below:

https://wildearth.tv/nft/

We are looking forward to Graham explaining how he made this all happen, and taking your questions on the next Content3 forum Zoom call which is at 1700 GMT on Wednesday, February 16th.

To join the upcoming Forum call, please register here for free

YouTube showcase their AR screen

Now, THIS is an exciting video!

I am the happy owner of an Oculus Quest 2 headset, which has given me many hours of gaming and fitness fun.

But I've never wanted to watch videos on it, because of the disconnect I feel from the world around me, due to the fully immersive nature of wearing a VR headset.

Although far from perfect, when I saw the video below on my Twitter feed, I gasped out loud.

Being able to create a virtual big screen anywhere you like, whilst still being able to see and hear your surroundings is a brilliant vision.

Check it out:

As headsets and hardware become less cumbersome, and viewing becomes a higher quality experience, this surely shows us the way to a super convenient new way to watch TV.

Congrats to the YouTube teams who have put this together.

Music NFT site shuts down after artist backlash

Thanks to @M Alim for the heads up on this one in the Content3 Discord.

HitPiece has shut down its website after coming under serious pressure from musicians:

It seems like the site had connected up to Spotify's API to access a huge number of tracks which appeared to be up for sale as 1/1 NFTs...

HitPiece Wants to Make Every Song in the World an NFT. But Artists Aren’t Buying It

The new platform achieved sudden online notoriety as artists like Jack Antonoff, Eve 6, and Deerhoof accused it of selling their music without permission

Rolling StoneJon Blistein

...Cue lawyers busily sending emails, and a swift takedown of the site.

There is a significant wider challenge here.  How can users trust that the content they are interested in is real?  It's almost like NFTs have the same trust issues that journalism experiences through fake news.

Even on Opensea.io, the Johnny Depp collection we discussed recently has disappeared, to be replaced by a huge number of lookalikes.

It would seem clever for NFT platforms to learn from the pain of Web2 and start with proper safeguards around copyright and trust from the get-go...

TV starts to NFT

Thanks to @JaseMitch for flagging this one up in the Discord.  It's a helpful article that explains how the television industry is taking its first steps into NFTs, mostly around the issuing of tokens to pay for production and the release of NFTs as fan extras for established large show brands.

Why are TV people talking about NFTs? – K7 Media

If you're interested in the types of approaches that producers and networks are taking then it's well worth a read.

A world of possibilities

And finally, from one of the OG's of Web3 Twitter, check out this amazing vision of how NFTs will take over the internet:

Thanks, frens for all your eyeballs and contributions!

Don't forget to register for the next zoom call here