Teach it and they will come: two co-founders create a DAO to educate a new generation of Middle Eastern and North African artists 

After more than a decade of writing about the music industry in the Middle East, Ammar Manla Hasan has become deeply familiar with its woes. 

From censorship to absence of royalties he has reported on the struggles of the independent and underground music scene in the region. Then, in January 2021, he came across the news about the GameStop short squeeze. Organizing through Reddit, a group of retail traders bought and held their beloved video game company stock, costing sophisticated hedge funds millions of dollars in losses,

“I was immersed in the story, and the technology that that empowered regular people to compete with giants,” Hasan told me recently. Following the rabbit hole of democratized finance, he was introduced to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. 

“I was so fascinated that I did not want to work on anything else,” he said. 

He quit his music journalism job and co-founded Taxir, an initiative that promotes blockchain adoption in in the Middle East and North Africa region as well as producing research and educational material to push it forward. Based in Lebanon, Hasan strives to build connections with blockchain enthusiasts across the region. His latest project is a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, for musicians, called Mous DAO, which he co-founded with Sarah El Miniawy, an Egyptian music manager he has known for years. 

A Cultural Fund

“Streaming platforms created an open-buffet model,” Miniawy told me. “Streaming corporations have devalued recorded music” to the point where they “made albums nothing more than promotional material for live concerts.”

Her search for a solution led her to the possibilities offered by blockchain and web3, which she believes is still in the early stages. Still, it may offer musicians a pathway to connect with their audiences directly, protect their intellectual property and profit. 

El Miniawy is the founder of Tarkeeza, and educational platform that teaches the business side of the music industry. It offers online courses covering topics such as an intro to the science of sound and managing artists’ public relations.

Recently, Hassan’s Taxir and El Miniawy’s Tarkeeza joined forces to create Mous DAO. The name rhymes with Mouseka, the Arabic word for music. It’s received funding from a prominent pan-Arab program dedicated to supporting fairer digital economic models for artists. 

The Plan 

Mous DAO is creating a three-course curriculum targeting do-it-yourself artists as well as artist managers. The first course will cover the basics of blockchain, metaverse, smart contracts and other technical concepts. The second course will focus on blockchain applications and their potential in the music industry. 

“A band may crowdfund the production of a new album by selling fractional royalties to the fans via non-fungible tokens,” Hasan said. “A metaverse concert may one day be an answer to the mobility problems some Arab artists face today.” 

The final course will be a hands-on approach to evaluating the market and trying out different technical tools. The course will include networking and collaboration with other artists in the in the region such as Wizara, and Oasis X. 

Once the first cohort graduates, they get invited to join the DAO, pool their resources and take their shot turning what they learned into reality. 

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Both founders are aware this is all easier said than done. 

“Some people are naive. They think blockchain is the ultimate solution to all the music industry’s problems,” said El Miniawy. “If a model is proven successful, big corporations will move to the space and maintain their dominance,” she said. “You will see Spotify trading NFTs.” 

“Moreover, the blockchain space has always been filled with scams and abusers,” Hasan said. He insists that attracting more good actors and evangelizing the cause is the only path forward. El Miniawy believes the technology is still promising and ripe for trial and error. 

“We should not wait till someone else figures it out,” she said. “Our goal is to take the lead and be pioneers.” 

It would take an army of believers, creators, artists and builders to make a new just alternative and decentralized market for music production. For the two founders, they’re recruiting for it one course at a time.