A Chat with Jake Murphy, Co-Founder at Ape in Records: A Crypto Project Empowering The Next Generation Of Music Talent

Ape In Records was founded in order to support and educate music creators around the world whilst seeking to build a more equitable global eco-system. Decentralisation ( web3 ) appeals to me as it is fundamentally an opportunity to redistribute equity around the world. When you apply context in the fact that 88% of the worlds youth sit outside of the Western world the opportunity is huge. Add in the ability to log metadata, music rights and royalties efficiently on chain it really does change the way you look at everything. 

The first product we launched was our own native token ( $AIR ) which was designed to pay out to music creators and community music initiatives around the world. Upon launch, it was the second fastest growing crypto project in the world and we subsequently have paid out $1m to creators globally since its launch.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for Ape in Records and what makes what you’re doing unique?

 
There’s a touch of irony to the whole thing as we definitely aren’t currently a record label by any means but the name felt good and $AIR is essential for life, which we will continue to build upon. We like elements as ways to explain what we will be doing as if this is all done correctly it really does breathe life into individuals and communities to such a massive extent. Music is that beautiful intersectional point that brings people together and actually new technology learnings and discussions being centred around that makes loads of sense. 

We are definitely playing the long game and that’s really how organisations need to think about the whole thing. We hosted a workshop recently which we titled “How to act ethically in an irrational market?” Ethics are critically important in this space now more than ever  ( something not often found… ) and that guides our vision.  We are also truly cognisant of building a solution that is equitable for all (not just within the Western world ) and creating an environment where our community feels loved. Education, support and acceleration. That feels like a good combination for progress.
 

How has the company evolved over the past year?

 
We started out by launching our own native token which was the fastest growing crypto project on day of launch ($0-21m market capitalisation in 13 hours ) paying out $1m globally in the process. Now we move into our second stage of this which is creating some additional utility and using our first 3D NFT collection as a way to identify our community better and be able to open up new opportunities for music creators.

This will shortly be followed by the real play directly linked to that more equitable music eco-system we mentioned earlier…
 

What can we hope to see from Ape in Records in the future?

 
We genuinely feel that we can build a more equitable ecosystem for music creators around the world. Don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet but know that is the ONLY play.

You can learn far more from giving than receiving and we intend to always use those learns to inform our next moves.