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An artist on music on-chain and a platform closing.

Filmed by We Them Media · New York · 8 min · filmed June 2026

Shot in June 2026; cut from 8:10 of tape, 1 raw clip in 4K.

Eight minutes in New York with a songwriter who records under the name Hashdrown, mostly about what happens to music platforms when the money runs out. It opens with the question the channel puts to people in crypto, and the answer comes back with no pause at all: “Don’t fuck this up. Be good, I guess, if you’re going to get rich.”

Then the introduction. “Dora. I’m Hashdrown. I’m an artist, songwriter, and I write and record alternative anti-vogue Americana music.” She lists where the music lives, Instagram, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Nina, and then stops on Nina, because it is closing. “Yeah, but they’re getting shut down. They ran out of money. It’s really sad.” The interviewer says he met the founders of that project. She thinks the thing itself worked, “It was working for a long time”, and that what it lacked was money coming back in: “it just needs more ways for it to generate.”

Her read on why it did not last is the best part of the tape, and it is not about technology. “I think a lot of the traction was more so musicians getting excited to upload to it, and then not as many people being excited to find it.” She uploaded her own music there after watching friends do it, and she describes the economics plainly: when you do pay, “they add like a dollar to take or something like that, and then the rest goes to the artist. So I think it’s like a paid Spotify.”

From there it becomes an argument about who should have bought it. She floats Bandcamp; the interviewer argues for SoundCloud and for the Patreon model, and says the audience is already there, “There’s people who already spend money, right, on Bandcamp.” She is not sold, because “there are a lot of people that don’t understand crypto or the blockchain.”

Which turns the interview around. She asks the question the video is named for: “how does it make sense to, like, put a song on the blockchain?” The answer she gets is busking, and then a walk through wallets and how the money lands: “So then that money, how does it get to the artist?”

The last stretch is work. She is staying up for a day as a movie extra, booked through Central Casting, “You just sign up on there, and then it’s a bit of a process, but it’s free”, and the day is standing around in the right clothes with a tattoo covered. It ends on the plug, and her name spelled out.

What is in it

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Transcript

Who speaks, by their own introduction on the tape: Hashdrown at 0:13. Transcribed and speaker-separated with AssemblyAI from the original audio, so nothing is masked. The letters are the model's speaker labels, not names; fillers are dropped by the model. Names corrected. Published in full so it can be read, searched and quoted. Search every transcript →

0:00ADo you have a message for the people building in crypto?

0:02HashdrownDon’t fuck this up. Be good, I guess, if you’re going to get rich.

0:10AI like that. I like that. So what’s your name?

0:12HashdrownDora. I’m Hashdrown. I’m an artist, songwriter, and I write and record alternative anti-vogue Americana music. Where can people find this? Hashdrown. My Instagram, on Spotify, SoundCloud, on Nina, but Nina --

0:33ANina Protocol?

0:34HashdrownYeah, but they’re getting shut down. They ran out of money. It’s really sad.

0:38AI met the founders of that project. You know those crypto projects? Those blockchain-based projects?

0:42HashdrownYeah, it’s all on blockchain. Yeah. It’s really cool. It was working for a long time, but then I don’t think -- it just needs more ways for it to generate.

0:51AI think they might have been like the -- they might have had the biggest market penetration out of any Web3 project in music.

0:56HashdrownYeah.

0:57ABecause you’re the second person, right, you mentioned it to me?

0:59HashdrownYeah, it just started making a bigger splash recently, I guess. But who was it? Did someone else mention it?

1:06AOh, this guy who was going to like USC.

1:09HashdrownYeah.

1:09AMy friend Nam’s like doing a graduate degree out there. Maybe it’s not USC.

1:13HashdrownLet’s see.

1:13AI got no clue, it’s a shame. But one of his friends I met at his birthday party, or one of their friends at their birthday party. Uh, brought a Vina Burger Vault to me, and I was pretty surprised.

1:25HashdrownYeah.

1:25AAnd because I got started in crypto in the music NFT space, actually, I was very familiar with those projects and protocols, and I learned about them very early. But they didn’t really penetrate crypto. Like, they didn’t really focus on trying to get people in crypto to care. They focused on, like, real people and music. And that’s interesting. And, like, for them to have run out of money, I don’t know. I think maybe they would have -- maybe they were trying to, like, get acquired or something. They didn’t get acquired. Uh, that could have been somebody probably, like, guilted internally because Like they, like you said, they had traction. So yeah, it’s to keep lights on, I guess.

1:54HashdrownYeah, I don’t -- I think a lot of the traction was more so musicians getting excited to upload to it, and then not as many people being excited to find it. It was like on social media, like, yeah, I think my -- one of my musician friends was posting about it, and then their stuff started to blow up, and they got on like They need a front page. They made this song, Quick Trip. Did you hear this song? It’s like they’re from Minnesota. Yeah, no, they’re not. They’re from Milwaukee. No, not Milwaukee. St. Paul and Minneapolis.

2:31AIt’s all right.

2:33HashdrownOkay, that’s cool. Yo, all the wrong city. Um, but they were boasting about it and they were like, don’t use Spotify anymore, blah blah blah. It’s true. And then I was like, oh, I could put my music up there. And I was seeing more of my friends upload their music there. I was like, fuck it. So I did. And then I think I didn’t -- I never like paid for people’s songs because you can’t listen to it for free. And then when you do pay, like, they take -- they add like a dollar to take or something like that, and then the rest goes to the artist. So I think it’s like a paid Spotify. Yeah, the free model, like, it works really well, but then I think there’s not too many uploads. Yeah, it was like costing more money to like --

3:24AYeah, yeah, yeah, SoundCloud doesn’t work for free.

3:26HashdrownYeah, they -- but they do let you get like, um --

3:30AAnd if SoundCloud weren’t struggling, they would be the people to acquire them.

3:33HashdrownWhat?

3:35AI think if SoundCloud weren’t struggling, they would be -- they should be the people to acquire like Nina Voda.

3:39HashdrownYeah, that makes sense. Like I said, maybe like Bandcamp though, but I don’t know, like, I just feel like --

3:47AMakes sense.

3:48HashdrownIt’s different, it’s different styles of music that are just like attracted to the different live tours. I feel like --

3:53ABut I think Patreon is important no matter what.

3:55HashdrownYeah.

3:56ABandcamp has a Patreon model, whereas SoundCloud doesn’t have one at all.

3:59HashdrownThat’s true.

4:00ASo I feel like it would actually be a new revenue stream for them.

4:03HashdrownYeah.

4:03ABut I don’t disagree with you.

4:06HashdrownCrazy.

4:07AThere’s an existing demand. There’s people who already spend money, right, on Bandcamp. So they would just now be able to use blockchain.

4:13HashdrownYeah, but I don’t know, definitely they’d be cementing themselves in the future economy. Yeah, I feel -- I don’t think -- because there are a lot of people that don’t understand crypto or the blockchain, so there was issues, especially in the skeptical About it.

4:32AWhat? Do you have questions about crypto?

4:35HashdrownYeah, I guess, like, how does it make sense to, like, put a song on the blockchain? Is that how that idea essentially, like, you got a song that’s, like, on the blockchain and that’s what people can own parts of it? Or are they just like, oh, they just buy them?

4:51AIt’s just Bandcamp. It’s just Bandcamp on-chain. They’re like, wow, I love your music. Take my money. It’s like busking. And then busking is the best analogy.

5:00HashdrownSo then that money, how does it get to the artist?

5:04ALike, it’s like they just peer-to-peer transfer.

5:06HashdrownIt creates an account for them, or like they already have an account?

5:08AThey connected their accounts to the website and they set up their profile.

5:11HashdrownTheir profile is linked to an account, and that’s their banking, like their checking account.

5:15ABut yeah, it’s a crypto wallet.

5:15HashdrownIt’s a crypto wallet. Exactly. So then from there, the crypto wallet is like a Google login.

5:20AIt’s everything.

5:22HashdrownBut like Is it kind of crypto you could just like spend or like easily?

5:27AYeah, you could sell it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could like sell Bitcoin or Ethereum for cash. That was always -- oh, like Coinbase or Kraken or Robinhood.

5:38HashdrownYeah, true.

5:41AGemini. I don’t know, but yeah, I keep that checked.

5:47HashdrownOh, look out, I got a light.

5:49AOkay, very same, very same. Do you live here in New York?

5:52HashdrownYeah, I do. I live in Berkeley, but I’m just going to like go under the sun.

5:57AOkay, perfect.

5:59HashdrownAnd then I’m gonna stay up all night because that guy booked to be an extra in a movie. Okay, one day, and it’s in New Jersey. It’s really far, so I’m gonna have to take a -- there’s gonna be a van that’ll pick us all up.

6:13ABreaking bread. Yeah, that’s it.

6:14HashdrownYes.

6:14ASo how does that work? How do you get that kind of gig?

6:16HashdrownUm, Central Casting did that one, so they’ve been around for a really long time. You just sign up on there, and then it’s a bit of a process, but it’s free. You just need like someone to like sign your I-9 document or something, and then after that they’ll just like send you gigs that you can take or not depending on if you like fit the criteria. And then you just go and you stand there for like a whole day. Sometimes they have you move around and go to different places and be on camera or not. It’s mostly just -- you got to bring the right wardrobe, so I brought all these clothes. And then sometimes they’re like, depending on the tattoo, they don’t care. Like, you see this one? It’s like a small spot, but they don’t really care because it’s just like An eyeball. It’s not really specific, but I think this one they were telling me to like cover it up.

7:17AOh yeah.

7:17HashdrownIn the, in the preparation, they had a really long details list. So I think that’s just to get you in the, in the mindset. They’re like, oh, fuck this up, break a right clothes. Like, we don’t have time to accommodate everybody. We’re not going to cover up your tattoos for you. You’ve got to do that this time. Who are they? I’ll just get like some braces or something, or my friend can make a varnish so she could, she could cover it up more.

7:45AHey, I heard you say -- oh yeah, well, it’s nice to meet you. Welcome to the We Done Media YouTube page.

7:51HashdrownWe Done Media, everybody should subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow on Twitter, wedonemedia.ethhq. Do it. Follow me, I’m Hash Realm. That’s H-A-S-H D-R-O-W-N-E-D. Sorry, that’s me.

8:09AAnd, uh,

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