Melanie Droubay; Stefan Benz; Manny Mijares; Charlie Walk; Grace Gong

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to a Moment of Zen.Time to sit back and relax. As
model, actress, mentor and supermom, Zen Sam's takes you on a sexy
and wild ride, covering the latestin film, fashion, pop culture,
cryptocurrency, fintech, cannabis, andentertainment from the millennial mom's perspective. Here's
your host, Zen Sam's. Hello, my beautiful Tristate area. Welcome to

(00:24):
our one hundred and seventh episode.That's right over two years on the air,
always going strong, God bless It'salways such a pleasure to spend my
time with you on the airwaves.Thank you for listening and interacting with me
on social media. That truly doesmake it all worthwhile. Please make sure
to follow me at Zen Sam's That'sZen with an X not a Z.

(00:45):
And also remember that we're now liveon at Traverse TV Sundays at one pm
Eastern Fintech TV Wednesdays from seven toeight pm. And of course all episodes
of A Moment of Zen are nowstreaming twenty four seven on Kathy Ireland's Home
TV. And of course you canalways find us on our YouTube channel at
Zen Sam's. We have such agreat show lined up for you today,

(01:07):
very very exciting stuff in our DisabilityAwareness segment brought to you by Navvy Travel.
Today we're featuring Down syndrome advocate influencerMelanie supermama to five kiddos, including
her youngest Hudson, who has Downsyndrome Now. Melanie goes by a handle
called our Hutty Buddy on Instagram Now. When Hudson was born two years ago,

(01:32):
she started the Instagram page to helpshare the beauty and joy of Down
syndrome. Today, we're chatting disabilityawareness, down syndrome advocacy and demystifying the
stigmas. In our Hello Open Metaversesegment brought to you by Animoca Brands,
we have a real treat from ourvery own Fintech TV studios, live from
the iconic New York Stock Exchange.We'll be joined by sixteen year old teen

(01:56):
sensation recording artist Stephan Ben's coming offhis releases Fastened and Babysitter, and of
course let's not forget his amazing debuton this season of ABC's American Idol.
Stefan was hailed by US Weekly asone of the hottest young rising stars to
watch out for in music he's botha singer and a songwriter. He joins
me with his manager, Manny Mihades, co founder of Hits Music Partners,

(02:20):
at the Stock Exchange and we're gonnabe chatting about where the music industry is
headed in Web three point zero andhow the blockchain is empowering artists all over
the world. Will chat about theimpact of digitalization of the music industry and
how NFTs are reshaping artists payouts.In our Music Madness segment brought to you
by Ogpa dot Com, we arelive in the WR studios at iHeart Headquarters

(02:46):
chatting with the legendary Charlie Walk,CEO of Aspen Music Company, former president
of Epic Records, hosts of thetop rated Walk This Way podcast. Today,
we're chatting about the influencer to Artistspipeline and how fans and social media
are leveling the playing field for allmusicians. And in our Innovation and Tech

(03:07):
segment, brought to you by CaldwellPsalms, we're featuring the amazing Grace Gong,
founder of Smart Adventure Media and thehost of Smart Adventure Podcast, a
top ten VC podcast. Grace isfeatured on the list of LinkedIn top voices
in Finance twenty twenty two. Todaywe're chatting generative artificial intelligence in the workplace,

(03:28):
what it means for your job andshould CEOs and companies be embracing it.
Stay tuned for our disability awareness segmentfeaturing a down syndrome advocate influencer by
the handle our Hutty Buddy Supermama tofive kidos, including her youngest Hudson.
Today we're chatting disability awareness and downsyndrome advocacy. We'll be right back after
this. You're listening to a momentof Zen Right here on seven ten wore

(03:52):
the voice of New york iHeartRadio.A Moment of Zen is brought to you
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(05:03):
back, beautiful Tristate Area. You'relistening to a moment of Zen right here
on seven to ten WR the voiceof New York iHeartRadio. I'm your host,
Zen Sam's coming up in our disabilityawareness segment brought to you by Navvy
Travel. Today, we're featuring adown syndrome advocate and influencer, Melanie Drew
Bay, supermama to five kiddos,including her youngest Hudson, who has Down

(05:27):
syndrome. When Hudson was born twoyears ago, she started an Instagram profile
with the handle r Huddy Buddy tohelp share the beauty and joy of Down
syndrome. Since then, she hasmade it her goal to help educate,
advocate, and celebrate differences and toteach others how to do the same.
She was a labor and delivery nursefor over ten years, but now a

(05:48):
stay at home mama with a newpurpose to spread the joy that Hudson's life
brings to her family. Every singleday, she delights in using her platforms
to shine a light on the beautyof Down syndrome and all those who are
marginalized in society now. Down syndrome, also called tristany twenty one, is
the most common chromosomal condition in theUnited States. This genetic condition happens when

(06:11):
there's a problem in one or morechromosomes. Simply put, chromosomes are the
structures that hold genes, and genesare part of our bodies cells that store
instruction for the way our body growsand works. Genes are passed from parents
to children, and about one andseven hundred babies is born with Down syndrome
now, many children with Down syndromelead healthy, active lives. They can

(06:33):
go to school, participate in activities, and enjoy being social with others.
Today we're chatting disability awareness, downsyndrome advocacy, and demystifying the stigmas.
Here to shed some light and educateus is super Mama Melanie. Welcome to
the show, my friend. Thankyou, Thank you for having me.
It's a pleasure to be here.Thank you. So let's just jump right

(06:55):
into the realities of this. Soyou found out about Down syndrome in a
natal screening and decided to keep yourbaby. Talk to me about this decision
and what was that like. Yeah, So, receiving the news that our
baby would have Down syndrome was ahuge shock. We had been trying to
get pregnant for a few years andit had never really even crossed my mind
as a possibility, so it wasvery unexpected. But we knew that terminating

(07:21):
wasn't an option for us. Wewould move forward with a pregnancy no matter
what, and that we would lovethis baby and support him however we could.
And honestly, there isn't a daythat goes by now that I'm not
so grateful for that decision, becausehe is such a blessing in our life.
I love it that you stuck throughand held on to your faith and

(07:43):
family and really saw this through andloved this little boy. Now, each
year, we know statistically about sixthousand babies are born with Down syndrome in
the United States, and like Isaid earlier, it's the most common chromosomal
disorder in America, yet the moststigmatized. Now, when we talk about
the must here and we break itdown in terms of what it means genetically,
we know that each person has twentythree pairs of chromosomes or forty six,

(08:07):
and all for each pair, youget one chromosome from your mother and
one from your father. Now,babies with Down have an extra copy of
this chromosome twenty one, and thisextra copy changes the way the brain and
body really developed. Now, Downsyndrome affects everybody and everyone a little bit
differently. How is Down syndrome affectingHudson's health and development at this point?

(08:30):
Yeah, So I've been really reallysurprised by how well Hudson is doing.
He's walking and talking as a twoyear old. He likes to do the
same things that a typical toddler likesto do, and that's been a surprise
for me. I think coming intothis, I had a lot of misconceptions
about what he would or wouldn't beable to do, or how delayed he

(08:54):
might be, and so it's beena pleasant surprise to see that he's really
not that far behind and he's doingreally, really well. And that's one
thing I've learned on this journey,and just by learning about down syndrome,
is that each of these kids areindividuals, and how that chromosome affects each
of them is so different. Somemight have significant health problems and some might

(09:18):
not have any, Some might havesignificant delays, and some might be right
on their milestones. So you reallydon't know, and it's been a pleasant
surprise to see Hudson have a lotof success developmentally. It's funny how there's
so much misinformation and so much stigmasurrounding this, and so many naysayers out

(09:41):
there that this contributes to the misinformationand miseducation around this. Now, this
was certainly not what you envisioned.What is the hardest part. So the
hardest part has been dealing with thejudgment of others and hurtful comments. There's
a lot of people out there whoare misinformed about down syndrome, and they

(10:03):
judge based on the diagnosis before theyeven know him. And you learn quickly
as a mom how to advocate,and you learn quickly how to get a
tough skin and to stick up forthem. And that's I feel like a
huge part of this journey. Well, that's the truth, right, You've
taken a strong stance in being hisvoice when he doesn't have one, and

(10:26):
when he does finally have his ownvoice and he's able to advocate for himself,
it's going to come from that strongmom a bare place because you're paving
the way for him. So you'redoing amazing, incredible things already. Now,
how is the situation effecting Remember I'msaying effecting, not affecting the rest
of the family. And how arehis siblings adjusting? Yeah, so I

(10:50):
think a lot of time, whenyou get an unexpected diagnosis like down syndrome,
as a mom, your first instinctand question, how is this going
to affect our family? How isthis going to affect you know, my
other children, How's it going toaffect their lives and our future? And
that was a big worry for me. I have four other children, and

(11:11):
I worried about how this would affectthem. And I realized now that that
is a worry I did not needto have. Hudson is just such a
blessing and if anything, it's causedour family to be closer together. It's
like we're a little family unit now, all centered around him. It's just

(11:33):
been amazing to watch each of mykids develop a relationship with him, and
they all adore him, and theyare some of his biggest advocates now.
And you know, Hudson just makesall of us smile every day. And
it's interesting because Hudson has this infectioussmile. He has the most glowing,
beautiful eyes. There's something about himthat is just so charismatic. And that's

(11:56):
how I found you. I foundyou on Instagram and I stopped at his
photo. He was just the cutestdarn thing I'd ever seen, and I
thought to myself, Wow, whois this beautiful little boy? And that's
what's interesting to me. At firstglance, I didn't realize he had down
syndrome until I started looking at otherphotos and reading through your posts. And
that's what made it so unique thathe just capped he had me at hello,

(12:16):
he captured me in one of thosevideos. Now, it's interesting because
the other children are probably developing theirown relationships with him, and he probably
has his own unique relationships with hissiblings, and it's probably different with each
one of them. But more froma broader view as a mom, you
left your career as a lay Burners, you were pretty established, and now

(12:39):
you've dedicated your whole time to familyand really Hudson and making sure that Hudson
has everything he needs. Because ifHudson's okay, everybody else is okay.
Right. It's it's just kind ofit. It's a ripple effect. But
what has this journey really taught you? I think the thing I've learned the
most about on this journey is actuallyabout myself. You know, when I
first heard the news, I wasso devastated and just so scared of all

(13:03):
the unknowns, and I really questionedam I capable of this? You know?
Am I strong enough to do this? I felt so inadequate. You
know, there's no training book,there's no guide on how to deal with
this, and there were a lotof times where I just felt like I
wasn't capable and that I couldn't dothis, And so this journey, you

(13:28):
know, it teaches a lot aboutyourself. I've learned that I am strong
and that I am capable, andthat you know, with help and with
love, you you can do anythingfor your children. It's funny when you
hear people say he's going to bea burden. Why would you do this?
You know, in all these terriblecomments out there that I've seen posts

(13:50):
on and you know, it's funnybecause you can't judge until you're in somebody's
shoes. Only God could judge.But the people out there that are saying
these negative things about you know,dominating a pregnancy early on, or even
the doctors that are not shepherding theprocess along in an honest, transparent way
and instilling fear in the patients oncethey get a diagnosis like that. I
mean, that's where we really needto look at to demystify the stigmas,

(14:13):
because it really does begin with theproviders, with the community, with the
friends and family, but really justthe broader education on what it means to
carry a down syndrome child to termand to really see that child through through
life. You know, there's alot of misconceptions. What do you feel
is probably the biggest misconception about Downsyndrome. The biggest misconception is that there

(14:35):
will be a burden, that theycan't live independently, and that they'll ruin
your marriage or ruin your family.I mean, there's just so many misconceptions
out there, and it's why Ifeel so strongly about sharing on social media
the joy and the beauty and theblessing that Down syndrome can be. Does

(14:56):
it have its challenges, Yes,of course it has challenges that can come
with it, but I also havechallenges with my other children who don't have
Down syndrome. So it's really importantto help inform people about the misconceptions and
to share with them. You knowwhat a real family looks like that is
dealing with Down syndrome every day andin the meantime, we just are going

(15:20):
to ignore all those naysayers. Yeah, amen to that. Thank you so
much for coming on. What apleasure chatting with you. You are so
inspirational. Take my hat off toyou. You are doing it all one
savvy mama. You are Mama Bear, protecting the family, taking care of
them and really spreading love and JoyHudson is very lucky to have you.
Ah, thank you. I actuallyfeel like I'm the lucky one. Oh.

(15:43):
Well, you know what, Godhas many plans in store for you
and your family, and they're allbeautiful. Thank you so much for coming
on to a moment of Zen.Well, thank you so much for having
me. It's been a real pleasure. Absolutely. That was your disability awareness
segment brought to you by now Travel, And that was the amazing Melanie drew
ba Instagram handle our hutty buddy.Check her out on Facebook and TikTok at

(16:07):
that same handle. You're listening toa moment of Zen right here on seven
ten war the voice of New YorkiHeartRadio, will be right back after this.
A Moment of Zen is brought toyou by Caldwell Solmes Incorporated, investing
globally and transformative businesses like Original DigitalCorporation or ODC. ODC develops advanced consumer
and commercial fintech solutions such as Ogpa, which will transform the way you manage

(16:30):
your money from sending or receiving moneyglobally for free, paying for goods and
services in person and online pay bills, buy and sell digital currencies, all
while earning interest. OGPA is easyto set up, FDIC ensured and your
information is secured. Check out ogpaydot com. Welcome back, beautiful Tristate
area. You're listening to a momentof Zen right here on seven ten war,

(16:52):
the voice of New York iHeartRadio.I'm your host, Zen. Sam's
up in just a few minutes.In our music Madness segment, brought to
you by ogp dot com, we'rechatting with the legendary Charlie Walk, CEO
of Aspen Music, former president ofEpic and Republic Records, host of the
top rated Walk This Way podcast.Today, we're chatting about how fans and
social media are leveling the playing fieldfor all musicians, specifically the DIY do

(17:18):
it yourself indie artists on the rise, growing forty percent in twenty twenty two.
Now independent artists are becoming successful bynew ways of releasing and rereleasing and
promoting their music. Now, Itry to connect with artists as much as
I can. I love hearing abouttheir journeys and what drives them. And
lately, more often than not,I find that we're talking about social media

(17:41):
and virality. Having a song goviral is like catching lightning in a bottle,
rare, but very exciting. Overthe course of the last few years,
independent artists have emerged as the fastestgrowing sector of the music industry.
Specifically, it's DIY indie artists whoare on the rise. Now, these
artists that works with our artists whoare not bound by the rigid structure of

(18:03):
the old school music industry and whoare releasing music on their own terms.
Today's indie artists are uniquely positioned tomaximize the advantages that digital music platforms provide,
and companies like Aspen Music have theagility to accommodate these artists in a
way that major record labels cannot.Welcoming now to the show is the amazing

(18:25):
Charlie Walk Welcome, my friend.Thank you for having me. First of
all, I love watching your show. I know it's audio and video and
iHeart and WR but you're just amazingand to do your homework and if I'm
going to go on one show,it's going to be yours. So thanks
for having me. Oh, thisis exciting. I love having you,
especially in person. This is abig treat for me. So let's chat
about how social media is increasingly wherediscovery is happening. We've been talking about

(18:48):
this. Take for example, TikTok, with over one billion users, three
times the amount Spotify has. Lastyear, about one hundred and twenty acts
were discovered on TikTok and then toomajors, I mean, seventy five percent
of tiktoker's say they discovered new artiststhrough that platform, and sixty seven percent
of them, Charlie, were morelikely to seek out a song on a
streaming platform if they heard it onthe app. And this is according to

(19:11):
music Perceptions research conducted by MRC Data. This is real stuff. How do
you weed out the artists that arehere to stay versus these one hit wonders.
Well, I've said repeatedly, asyou know, stars are born,
not made, And you know Ialways go back to you remember that song
rocks In, Rocks In that itblew up on TikTok, Right, Yeah,

(19:33):
I even forgot the name of theartist, and I think it was
a ten million dollar record deal andall the labels went crazy because this one
song was blowing up. But theartist is over now, right for the
most part, Or maybe the artistsare doing something no disrespect, But that
was a typical sort of one hitwonder data driven signing. Everyone's going crazy
for market share for the record.They do a huge deal with a guy
and maybe they broke even maybe theydidn't. But I don't think I'm in

(19:57):
that business. I think we're inthe star business, where we chase the
artists, not the song. Andif you chase the artists, you end
up with long term, successful starsthat actually affect culture and grow over time,
versus the one hit wonder game.And I think there are those that
want to play both. Maybe themajor labels from that game for me that

(20:18):
wants to partner with deploy capital forartists, make that bet. Prior to
I just run into Maxwell from Zone hundred the hallway here and we just
talked about a story with one ofmy artists, and you got goosebumps.
Yeah. I want to be inthe goosebump game. I want to be
in the gut game. If youcan't look at an artist and feel and
get goosebumps, well, how thehell is that going to translate to a

(20:40):
stadium or an arena or get thousandsof people, all different types of people
globally to get behind or a songor a t shirt or a ticket or
the whole process of someone's social socialmedia community. That's that's kind of the
game that I want to be in. But I also think there's blockage.
Right, So although all those artistsor songs have broken, how many real

(21:03):
artists have broken from TikTok? True? Come on, give me give me
a name, Okay, little Nazaks, give me another. It's it's it's
small. Yeah, And that's becausewhat TikTok sort of puts out there with
their amazing algorithm is you can sortof throw a Hail Mary and put your
thing out there and pray to Godthat something goes viral. Well, what
if you do go viral? Areyou ready? You've done the work?

(21:25):
You're a fan? I mean,do you think these stars that you go
see Harry Style has been doing thissince he's fourteen years old. When you
go see him in the staining Romina. There's a reason why he's great.
He was born that way, buthe's practiced, he's done the work.
He's done the work. Now let'schat the solution. So to your point,
if the music is good, fanswill find it and crowdsources. It's
popularity. Right, So one thingthat major record labels have that independence.

(21:49):
Don't our huge promo departments whose onlyjob is to push records to radio.
And right now we see a shortform videos are on the rise on platforms
like TikTok, YouTube, Shore andreels. They continue to grow in popularity,
and the importance of music discovery intraditional media channels like radio is actually
declining. I mean, these days, music discovery is happening on social media

(22:11):
and if the music is good toyour point, fans will find it and
crowdsources popularity feels like fans are thenew CEOs. What do you say to
this, I've been saying it onso many podcasts, including Walk This Way.
You and I have had these conversationsoff Eric, because I know how
fascinated you are an understanding artists discovery, because you want to meet these artists
and help them grow as well.That's your part of your DNA. So

(22:32):
yes, I say that artists discoverytoday is the most critical thing, and
the way they're discovered really are byfans. So when you think about a
streaming service, streaming is not radio. It doesn't play songs for you over
and over. It's a place whereyou go. It's a digital record store,

(22:52):
right, and you go to typein what you want to hear repetitively
and you put them in your playlist. So what makes you do that something
happens off platform, off the streamingplatform. I call that the context of
everything that happens happens off platform inculture. Thus it goes back to basically

(23:14):
the traditional game of discovery, someonetelling somebody, somebody sharing something, except
instead of being local, it's global, right, It's a global music business
because everyone around the world now cango onto a YouTube or a DSP which
is a digital service provider and listento the same thing. And social media
is global. It's shareable globally,and that's the beauty of it. So

(23:36):
what do we say? Fans arethe CEOs of new songs and new artists,
and they will hire you and blowyou up. It's true. And
now at aspin music, you alwaysput artists first, and for you it's
an ongoing priority. You want tohelp more indie artists become working musicians,
and I respect that tremendously. You'reconstantly challenging yourself to build solutions that make

(23:56):
your artists' lives better and actually solvetheir problems. How are you apting to
the digital process and what does artistmanagement look like in the face of social
media and influencership. Well, there'sa couple different ways I do it.
First of all, from being atyou know, when I go back and
look at the labels that I ran, I think our biggest successes were the
ones where I got in the biggestfights with the with the boardroom or I

(24:17):
call them committee. It's Diane Warren, who's a huge writer, used to
she came up with the term committee. It's when you go into a room
and play a song for a bunchof people, do you think everyone at
the same time, I's gonna say, yeah, it's amazing if it's new
and different. We had Shaka hipstoneIe that we redid with Wycleff. I
remember playing it for my entire companyand they all thought I was crazy and
no one would look at me inthe eye, and I left pissed off.

(24:37):
And so I always have that scaron me where like, I don't
care what anyone thinks, And Ithink part of our job is to go
out and discover new and believe Andto the to the question you asked me,
You asked me about what's a managertoday, or what's even a production
deal? And so when you thinkabout what I do with artists before they
break, I call them I liketo get involved in the net next on

(25:00):
the verge where you see that gutbefore data hybrid sort of situation developing.
You know you're sitting on greatness,but they haven't broken yet, may not
necessarily have the fan base or thesong, but you, your team,
me and others around know how topull out maybe their greatness and push it
further quicker. And what do youget for that? You get a piece
management, You deploy capital. You'regiving someone money that maybe a major label

(25:23):
will do. I'm providing now thecapital that a major label will do,
but I'm taking a bigger risk.And with that bigger risk, maybe you
have more ownership or a different typeof deal because you're making a bet predicting
the future, right or thinking aboutwhat can happen versus oh, this is
already happening. It's very easy foreveryone to look at the same data and

(25:45):
write that check. And you knowwhat's interesting, You're on the money because
when you look at the figures,right, the figures released in ifpi's Global
Music Report show total trade revenues forlast year, we're twenty six billion dollars
and subscription and audio streaming revenues increasedby ten percent to about thirteen billion,
and there were about five hundred andeighty nine million users of paid subscription accounts

(26:08):
at the end of last year.Specifically, it's the do it yourself indie
artists who are on the rise,like I said, growing over forty eight
percent last year alone. Now,what this ultimately represents, Charlie, If
course, as we know, itis a c change in the A and
R process. And unlike the majorswho spend tens even hundreds of thousands of
dollars promoting artists songs, indie artistsdon't have those resources. But what they

(26:32):
do have is the opportunity to uploadmusic directly to social media platforms and seek
fan feedback before investing in the promotionof the song. Well, we're out
of time, Charlie, Thank youso much for hanging out with me today.
Was awesome. Thank you. Thatwas our music Madness segment brought to
you BYOGPA dot com. That wasthe legendary Charlie Walks, CEO of Aspen
Music, host of the Walk ThisWay podcast, and of course you could
check them out on the gram atCharlie Walker. You could head directly to

(26:56):
Aspen Music dot COO, you're listeningto a moment of Zen right here on
seven ten war the voice of NewYork iHeartRadio will be right back after this.
A Moment of Zen is brought toyou by Anamoca Brands. As a
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(27:19):
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(27:40):
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That's Anamoca brands dot com. Welcomeback, fearful of New York City
area. I'm your host. Thensans here on Fintense TV on the floor
of the iconic New York Stock Changedright here in downtown Manhattan, and just

(28:02):
a few will be joined by sixteenyear old recording artists Stefan Benz, coming
off his fresh release of Fastened andBabysitter, and of course let's not forget
his amazing debut on this season ofABC American Idol. Stefan has been hailed
by US Weekly and quoted saying he'sone of the youngest rising stars to watch
out for in music right now,both as a singer and songwriter. He

(28:26):
recently became the youngest artist in thehistory of South Africa to have a number
one hit. Momentarily, he joinedme with his manager, Manny Mahattis,
co founder of Hit Music Partners.Today we're chatting about where the music industry
is headed in web three point zoand how the blockchain is empowering artists all
around the world. We'll chat aboutthe impact of vigitalization of the music industry

(28:49):
and how NFTs are reshaping artists payougs. Irrespective of the industry, it's widely
agreed that artists and those creating contentshould be the ones that profit the most
from the consumption of that content.In actuality, however, the biggest pieces
of the pie are eaten up bythe platforms that host this content. The

(29:10):
music industry is one of the mostingregious examples of this, which is why
many music artists are now trying totake control with the integration of blockchain and
decentralization. These are the primary cornerstonesof Web three movement. Walcoming out to
the show are Stefan Ben's and mattingme Heads want to do a show of
superstise. Congrats on all your success. Absolutely, are you excited to be

(29:32):
here? We're very excited. Lookscrazing here and by the way, it's
a very exciting time in the musicindustry, So thank you for having them.
Yeah, there's a huge shift,but you know you've made it when
you're sixteen and you're at the iconicyear Stopped Exchange. Yeah. I didn't
know what to expecting them at walkinghere, but it looks crazy and here.
Yeah, I'm glad to be here. All right. Well, let's
get to it. So, manny, let's talk. How is blockchain.
I want you to tell us howis blockchain and decentralization revolutionizing the music industry

(29:56):
and this time in Spain. That'sactually a great question. And like I
said, it's a very exciting timein the music industry. And I think
traditionally there's been a resistance between theevolution of music and how people consume music.
I think that from the very beginning, music was always born with a
black eye and self inflicted the othereye, you know, just just getting

(30:17):
beat up. And it's there's beena hard shift. When you had the
record, you know, people didn'twant to accept the tape. When you
had the tape, people didn't wantto accept the CD. But now it's
very fascinating that music industry and labelsare accepting NFT, they're exploring Web three,
and even from a company like Spotify, which is a web to company,

(30:41):
now everyone's shifting into Web three.So I think that it's it's a
very exciting time because of the waythat people are accepting the inevitability of the
music in yeah, without a doubt. I mean, at this point,
when you look at smart contracts,right, smart contracts are one of the
most attractive features of the technology.You know, get paid as a creative
is not always easiest thing. Thefund you're going to figure this out very

(31:03):
quickly, and all too often upand coming posicians like yourself are just you
know, fifth on their royalties,just not paid. And smart contracts are
going to in fact to help revolutionizinga revolutionized and paved the way and of
course mitigate that that big misperception,ensuring that creators are of course not being
cheated and getting paid up front.Now stefunt. At the cornerstone of wet

(31:26):
Greenpointo lies what we call community,and this will drive of course mass adoption
because community is at the core ofit all the same way that you have
a community on social media that youhave now collectively into you know, you
have a quarter million followers talk tobe intoday's market. How are you going
to manage to get your following fromyour current platforms on social media to follow

(31:48):
you into your blockchain and metaverse project. Yeah, I mean, I'm really
lucky to have a big chunk ofmy following on stable platforms such as you
know, instagramming, YouTube and thosethings, which is less of It feels
like it's more stable than something likea TikTok, where I feel like it's
harder for creators on TikTok to getthose fans onto other platforms and to support

(32:09):
the other things they do. Sothankfully I have most of my fans and
that and I really have a loyalfan based so I have some crazy,
some super fans that I love,and you know, I'm very blessed to
have those fans that I think,no matter what I do, will will
follow into that. And would yousay that those fans are fully aware of
what's happening in the blockchain and theshift that we are now moving into Web

(32:30):
three point to oh gamification? Areyour fans aware of these verticals? I
mean that they could practice the paidin Yeah, I mean the thing is,
um, I think I think allkids are kind of getting more aware.
I mean, my little sisters probablywouldn't know what to do with the
CV. She's just all on herphone and working with other stuff. So
I think the second something like thatis available to everybody, I think they'll
be able to figure it out inno time. Especially my fans aged demographic,

(32:52):
you know, twelve year olds tolike, you know, twenty or
something. I think that age racewill definitely be able to follow into that.
Just to tell that, I thinkwith Web three and just having something
more stable is going to help artistsand help them. I have longevity in
the music industry. So if youtake things like Vine for example, where

(33:12):
where the artists had their fan base, they had their their people there and
some had millions of followers. Butwhen Vine just went away, you know,
they lost a lot of Yeah.So I think I think with web
three and the blockchain and you knowa lot of these artists NFTs, you're
going to be able to have adirect relationship with your fans, and that's
going to change the game and revolutionizeartists and their Yeah, I mean you

(33:36):
just said it. I mean NFTshad the potential to ensure that musicians are
more fairly compensated for their work.I mean, with NFTs, musicians don't
need to relinquish ownership of their contentsof platforms from then get bo to your
point, And some of these examplesof NFTs, we've seen artists are now
making money. They're monetizing outside ofjust their music income in other areas.

(33:59):
I mean, the NFT market,if you look at it as a whole,
started in twenty twenty three with ahuge bang, scoring over nine hundred
and forty five million in sales andtrading volume. In January alone of this
year, and this comeback means greatnews for collectors and traders after last year's
harsh to their market. And what'smore is NFT sales increased might accourty two
percent compared to the December of twentytwenty two, and then numbers cheap on

(34:21):
rising. So this is amazing stuff. Now, Stefan, what do you
think is the biggest mistake young artistsare mating today and what kind of attraction
does the metaverse really provide for yourgeneration? I see a lot of people
my age trying to succeed in themusic industry exactly like I am, right,
and I think something that's missing asso then I'd talk about a lot

(34:43):
is going back to basics in asense to be able to go into this
more futuristic route of it. Right, if you go into this futuristic route
of all the Web three stuff andyou know, and it becomes more digitalized,
if you don't have a backing,which is the foundations of music and
actually being able to be a musicianand play guitar are and being put in
these situations, I don't think you'llbe able to succeed. So I think

(35:04):
what's lacking today is really just developmentof talent instead of just being thrown into
the defense of the music industry,which a lot of artists are being bunted.
Yeah, without a duneen, whatdo you think is the most attractive
thing about the metaverse for your generation? I mean, I think it's I
think it's very intriguing for for youngpeople, something new whenever anything comes out.
You know, when when TikTok cameout, I was like, what
is this new app? And Ithink something like this integration with the metaverse.

(35:28):
I think it's just the shining newflash of toy for young people to
be able to experience the metaverse,and definitely a flashing new toy, not
for just petives many. Um,all right, let's move on, so
manny. For decades, musicians havenot been effortably compensated for their music,
and this has been particularly apparent inthe music industry. We know this and

(35:50):
is reported by Fortune. The typicaltotal revenue split is fifty fifty, with
only fifty percent of revenue going tothe entertainer and the rest shared among agents,
lawyers, and distributors. Now,this reality is even grimmer when it
comes to musicians who distribute their contentvia streaming services. Now most of Spotify's
top eight percent of artists earn lessthan fifty thousand dollars in streaming revenue,

(36:14):
and that of the top point eightpercent. But the digital process is a
very different landscape, Manny, artistsstill need labels going into this digital transformation.
I think yes or no. ThenI think that's what's the most exciting
about this is that now you canimagine artists getting paid instantly. I think
with performing rights organizations like GASCAP andVMI and SOKEN, traditionally you've had to

(36:38):
wait sometimes years before you get yourfirst red sent before you hit your first
dollar, and that's not count hitsdid go internationally. So I think that
what can happen and with possible verysoon, is that imagine you're in a
mazing and you hear your song inan envelope where Stephan is at the mall
and he hears his song in anelevator and then get the ping on his

(36:59):
cell phone that he just got paid, you know, So imagine not waiting
years, not waiting months, butgetting paid instantly. I think that I
think that that's very powerful, andI think that this isn't with Web three
in the blockchain. I don't thinkit's how it's been in the past,
which is versus the labels versus Spotifyit, you know, the labels versus

(37:21):
this technology. I think for thefirst time in history, it's coming together.
Yeah, so I think that Ithink that the labels haven't been as
reluctant to take on change, whichcoming from experience, is very fascinating.
So I'm actually interested to see howthey join and merge in the next you
know, ten years. Well,I mean, look, it's amazing that

(37:42):
you have a young artist like tofind his sixteen and who understands the value
and the business proposition of not justbeing able to control the community of fan
base, but then leveraging that community. That community will show up for you
in the metaverse. That community willshow up for your NFTs. Talk to
me about the project that you havecurrently going on right now in the metaverse

(38:02):
with the blockchain and the NFT,is that Stefan is a part of.
Yeah. No, I think thatone of the things that make this so
special is that you can attach itto other things. Right if if Stefan
has an NFT and you know it'savailable you can attach it to a car.
You know, we're we're actually workingon a project where we're giving a
royalty Masters share royalty and his newreleases. That comes along with us also

(38:27):
donating to a charity and being ableto trade that and can keep that value,
I think is something that's and what'sthe name of that platform? I'm
sorry, what's the name of thatplatform? Which platform that you're collaborating with
for the NFC problem? Okay,so there's there's actually a couple a couple
of different platforms, but right nowwe're working with obviously Ethereum, but it's
hits directly on our mata verse onhe's a partner's art I'm Music Partners dot

(38:51):
com. There you go. Soeverybody has jumped on the van wagon here,
Stefan, thank you so much forcoming. We are so happy that
you came here to hang out aboutthis morning. Definitely different, you know
one, definitely not your average studenttie, yes, but you are definitely
paving the way for your generation,going where there is no path and leaving
that great big trail. Mannie,thank you so much for coming on pleasure

(39:14):
absolute la guys, thank you forjoining me here on Fintech TV live from
the York Stock Exchange. That wasteen sensation recording artist the fun Ben,
and that was his awesome manager MannyWe had his co founder of Hit Music
Partners now despight these challenges. Theuse of NFTs in the music industry is
a very exciting development that have thepotential to greatly benefit both artists and fans.

(39:36):
As the technology continues to evolve andimprove, we can expect to see
even more innovative and creative uses forNFTs in the world of music. I'm
your host is then fans live fromthe Stock Exchanger will be right back after
it. A moment of Zen isbrought to you by Caldwell's Solmes Incorporated,
Investing globally in transformative businesses like OriginalDigital Corporation or ODC. ODC develops advanced

(39:58):
consumer and commercial think tech solutions suchas OGPA, which will transform the way
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ensured and your information is secured checkout ogpay dot com. Welcome back,

(40:19):
beautiful Tristate area. You're listening toa moment of Zen right here on seven
ten w R, the voice ofNew York iHeartRadio. I'm your host,
Zen. Sam's up next. Inour innovation and Tech segment, brought to
you by Caldwell Songes, we're featuringthe amazing Grace Gong, founder of smart
Venture Media and the host of smartVenture Podcasts, a top ten VC podcast.

(40:43):
Grace is featured on the list ofLinkedIn Top Voices in Finance for twenty
twenty two. She is the authorof The Last Key to Success, which
features twenty one founders on Forbes thirtyUnder thirty, and How to Be a
VC, which ranked number one newrelease on Amazon's VC category. Today,
we're chatting generative artificial intelligence in theworkplace, what it means for your job,

(41:05):
and should CEOs and companies be embracingit now. Artificial intelligence describes algorithms
such as chat GPT that can beused to create new content, including audio,
code, images, text simulations,and video. Recent breakthroughs in the
field have the potential to drastically changethe way we approach content creation. That's

(41:28):
why chat GPT is receiving so muchattention right now. Chat GPT. The
GPT stands for Generative pre Trained Transformer. It's a free chatbot that can generate
an answer to almost any questions it'sasked. Developed by Open Ai and released
for testing to the general public backin November of twenty twenty two. It's

(41:50):
already considered the best AI chatbot ever, and it's popular too. Over millions
of people have signed up all overthe world now. While much has been
made about AI's potential to destroy ourjobs, workers whose tasks overlap with capabilities
of software like chat GPT are embracingthe technology to do away with drudge work,

(42:10):
to be more creative, and tolevel up their skill. Will your
job eventually be replaced by a robot? What two experts have to say about
AI in the workforce. Welcoming nowto the show is the amazing Grace Gong.
Welcome, my beautiful friend. Hi, Thank you so much for having
me, Thank you so much forcoming on. This is the second time
and we're excited to feature you again. So marketers are using AI to write

(42:36):
better copy, programmers are using itto take on projects that were previously out
of their league, or read codeand unfamiliar languages, and it seems like
everyone's now using it to summarize orwrite emails in boilerplate documents. Tell me,
Grace, should employers be embracing agenerative AI in the workplace? And
it's so, what kind of boundariesshould be set? Totally, I think

(43:00):
that's such a great question. Um. I think, first of all,
like my in my personal opinion,I definitely feel like CEO and leaders should
definitely look into the sector to studyit and like learn about, like you
know, number one, what islike the best tool for them? Like,
you know, what are the toolsthat you could be leveraged into your
workspace. I've heard of big companiesthat are starting to, like um kind

(43:23):
of like replacing human workforce with acertain type of um, you know,
certain type of AI tools for example, let's say legal or like you know,
any any type of like research drivenjob. And then even like you
know, in the restaurants, likepeople who are serving the customers. And
I feel like, um, alot of things are already starting. You

(43:44):
can see the switch of like peopleare leveraging the tools instead of like human
being. However, that does bringup a lot of different challenges and problems
right, Like, so I don'tthink like you know, AI will entirely
replace like oh kind of human workforce. A lot of a lot of things
are with have to have to bedealt with a lot of nuances, um,

(44:07):
like AI is there to help usand like instead of like us uh
you know, getting replaced by it. Um. I think one of the
good benchmark to set about that,like to set about gutline is to um
maybe look into like what are likebreak down the task of like your current
employee and you know what they're doingright now, and then what are something

(44:28):
that's you know, doesn't really requireany kind of like ethical judgment because of
like a lot of these AI toolsthat are although they're trained by large amount
of data, but the data setshave different kind of qualities, so um,
it's really hard to tell until likethey made a mistake. UM.
So to avoid that, I feellike it's really important to kind of like

(44:51):
separate your you know, what aresome like um traditional kind of like judgment
that that sound like particular ethic ofrelated things to you know, like set
that to like the human being orlike people setting some sort of protocol for
the human to implement it instead ofjust leveraging machine. You're one hundred percent
right. You have to really putin a certain level of judgment and it's

(45:13):
really up to the core management andthe top tier management and trickles down on
how they're going to implement this acrossthe workforce. Now, all these artificial
intelligence enthusiasts posted examples of the chatbot producing computer code, college level essays,
poems, and even halfway decent jokes. Others among this wide range of

(45:34):
people who earn their living by creatingcontent, from advertising copywriters to tenured professors,
are kind of shaking in their boots. Back in January, over forty
percent of Americans said they were usinggenerative AI technology at work and that that
rate was going to likely get higher. And at the same time, about
half of Americans think that AI couldnegatively impact the number of jobs in the

(45:59):
US. So you know, it'sa double edged sword. But you know
this is in its infancy right now. So Grace, my question to you
is people say they're using these toolson tasks they hate that allow them to
focus on what they love. It'sa sentiment white collar workers expressed over and
over again, and it's part ofwhy companies like Microsoft are leaning into AI

(46:22):
so heavily into the workplace tools.Now, not all work, to your
point, is good work, andsoon Microsoft says workers will be able to
ask AI powered tools to make Excelperformed complex equations, to have PowerPoint build
presentations, and to summarize outlook emails, all within seconds and by you know,

(46:44):
talking to them like you would aperson. So which career end or
industries grace in your opinion, willbenefit the most from artificial intelligence. I
think in a broader level, it'severy industry in a way, because think
about like let's say, like weuse PowerPoint as example, right, like
recently I've traded with a thunder inthe bar area. Then they create it

(47:05):
as sort of like auto generated powerpoint or like auto generated storytelling too or
two for people to uh, youknow, showcase their ideas. So you
can basically type in one sentence oflet's say we want to write, uh,
we want to write a pitch checkfor your show. And like so
like let's say I want to pitchmyself to your show as a guest,
and then I will write a onesentence of like pitching myself to then show,

(47:30):
and then like then within like onesecond, it will generate like a
fifteen pages pitch checked to like youknow, and then so I can like
directly sent it to you or likewith some kind of minor editing and that
I can send it to you.So essentially like a lot of these two
are already um kind of existed outthere and then like without even people,

(47:51):
without people even noticing it. Forexample, let's say you you got recommended
it by you know, certain foodapp and then like those are those worms
are getting more and more intelligent UM, so they are generated by data instead
of generated by like a human selectionon you know, we vote to this
is the best food in our area. So I feel like a lot of
times like people don't really notice thatwas behind the behind the scene. So

(48:15):
I feel like every category of workcould be just like automatically changed by these
tools and in the nature of UM, like in the nature of like the
technology shift. I feel like inthe future, we'll see more people's job
are focusing on like you know,uh editing or like based on you know,

(48:36):
how do you write the best promptfor AI to help you generate something
instead of like you know, inthe past, like people up in the
past people have to manually write apitch back and then manually edited and then
manually send it to you or sendit to someone else. Yeah, this
is definitely taking taking the taking controlof the situation in a very progressed way
and cutting out that middleman. Now, it's interesting because has artificial intelligence.

(49:00):
Of course, as we know,is a fast evolving technology with all this
amazing potential to make workers more productive, to make firms more efficient, and
to spur innovation in new products andservices. I mean, that's at the
core of it all. And atthe same time, AI can be used
to automate existing jobs to your pointand exasperate inequality, and it can also

(49:21):
lead to discrimination against workers. Though, So what should employers and CEOs be
mindful of to avoid misuse of thetechnology? I would say, like set
yourself like basically like setting a trialgroup first, Like so, for example,
maybe you test it within a smallergroup of employees that are like,

(49:44):
you know, more experienced or likepeople that are like knowing that they're just
testing these tools out before you launchit to your whole company. I think,
like number wise, like you know, testing out what can be what
can go wrong before you implement intoyour co workspace. And and number two,
it's like just be mindful of likeyou know, these are tools.

(50:04):
These are not technically you know.It's sort of like you know, sometimes
when you drive a car, youcan crash it because of some certain of
the issues, and like you know, it's not because of the car or
it's not because of like the road. It's sometimes it's because of the human
who are driving it. And thenlike just you know again like as a
leader, you are in the driver'sseat, so like you know where to

(50:28):
go and then how fast you wantto go m are all depends on you.
So just just be mindful of likeyou know, you can control this
and then like you know, thisis all within your control if you really
want to. So I feel likethose are things that I have to be
in the driver's seat. Yeah youcan. You can't let the robot control
you, and you gotta definitely knowhow you're dispersing this across your workplace.
Couldn't agree more. Well, listen, we're out of time. Thank you

(50:51):
so much for coming on. Itwas so insightful. Always a pleasure chatting
with you, smart and beautiful.Thank you so much. Then, guys
that was the amazing Grace Gong.That was our innovation and Tech segment brought
to you by Caldwell Psalms. Thetruth is that we don't know how artificial
intelligence technologies will impact work. Thefear is that if tools make existing tasks

(51:13):
take hours instead of days, employersmight hire fewer employees to get the job
done or make their work part time. The hope is that while the new
technology could cause some disruption and whatpeople do, it will ultimately and I
truly believe this will lead to moreand better work, much like previous technological
advancements such as the personal computer orhey, even the Internet didn't spell the

(51:37):
end of white collar jobs now didit? So for now, we know
that Americans who've chosen to deploy thistechnology at work seem to like it.
They certainly don't feel like frogs boilingin a pot. That was our in
Innovation and Tech segment brought to youby Caldwell Songs. That was the Amazing
Grace Gong, Founder and CEO ofSmart Venture Media and host of Smart Venture

(51:58):
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