CryptoSlate recently had the opportunity to chat with world-renowned producer Tony Hollingsworth. Tony is the founder of the Listen campaign, which will give owners access to the exclusive social impact of NFTs from the world’s greatest actors, musicians, artists and writers.
Tony has over 30 years of experience working with businesses, governments, and organizations at the intersection of communications, media, and popular culture. His credits range from, conceptualizing and producing the 600 million global media campaign and repositioning Nelson Mandela from “black terrorist leader” to “black leader” to consulting the US White House on a public campaign in response to 9/11.
Over the past 30 years, Tony has worked with more than 200 of the world’s top creative artists from Stevie Wonder to Ravi Shankar, from Denzel Washington to Natalie Portman, and from Samuel L. Jackson to Keith Haring.
What is your professional background and how and when did you get into the crypto world?
It has produced nine of the world’s largest global broadcasting events and has always used the latest technology to do things that everyone thought was impossible. New technology has always taken an interest, and when my son – who has been investing in the blockchain business for a number of years – introduced me to the crypto world, I immediately saw how revolutionary this would be.
What is I hear and what are the main objectives of the project? What made you decide to create a listening campaign?
The Listening Campaign is an annual and global media campaign for vulnerable and disadvantaged children, of which there are one billion children in the world. It’s a huge problem and we rarely hear about it. The campaign brings together top stars, creative artists and the world’s largest media partners, so we can “listen” to the problems these kids are facing and celebrate and support solutions that are already in place and ready to scale or replicate. .
I remember the exact moment I decided to create a Listen campaign. Having worked on many of the main causes including the liberation of Mandela and the end of apartheid, I was thinking about the issue we should look at next. The kids kept me busy and one night while I was walking one of my kids to sleep listening to the BBC World Service radio, I heard an African mother give an interview to her child who had just died of diarrhoea. She could have saved it with a 10 cent bag and some clean water but she didn’t have either. I was unfair to the situation. If my child has a slight illness, we can call the doctor. But this mother had nothing.
What has been your experience working with some of the biggest names in music?
I have a lot of stories – some I can share and some I can’t! I have had the privilege of working with more than 200 of the biggest music stars in the world including Stevie Wonder, Seal, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Mary J Blige, Whitney Houston, David Bowie, BB King, Diana Ross, George Michael and Jon Bon Jovi, Keith Richards, MC Hammer, Roger Waters, Sinead O’Connor, Shaggy, Bee Gees, Chris De Berg, Chaka Khan and many more.
I have a lot of memories, and the historical moments captured in front of the camera are the memories that will be minted as NFTs and will be considered historical time capsules by anyone who ends up owning them. When challenges arose organizing and managing events – which happened a lot! All of them responded amazingly with creative solutions that led to truly special moments that I will always cherish.
What do you think that some of the successful and famous musicians you have worked with might be cryptocurrency and blockchain?
Well, great artists are innovators by nature – I expect that if David Bowie was here he would have been one of the first to adopt blockchain technology. Visual artists and musicians are already embracing NFT collectibles, and artists like Ashton Kutcher are using NFT in ways that potentially change the way entertainment shows are financed and marketed forever. Creativity and innovation really go hand in hand.
What do you think are the biggest obstacles to mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain?
There are three obstructions that I can see. First, there should be clear and reliable educational content. Second, there should be a simple and consistent wallet infrastructure that is as easy to use as PayPal. And third, transaction fees should be as low as credit card payments. Once we’ve achieved all three – and we’ve achieved them we will – mainstream adoption is only a matter of time.
What does listening do that others do not? Do you think more projects will be created to try to use blockchain for good?
Listening is the first project to bring exclusive and iconic historical content to the blockchain by creating NFTs from performances by the greatest creative stars of the past 40 years. Then, from March 2022 onwards, we will then have a pipeline of star content from the annual listening campaign that we will transform into a steady stream of rare NFTs that we will auction off and market our listening collectibles over the next decade.
How important is it to improve blockchain usability, cryptography, and user experience?
Well, the end user has very high expectations. They are used for the ease and simplicity of making PayPal payments, ordering Ubers and booking Airbnbs, all with just a few simple clicks and swipes, without knowing the underlying code or data structure. For a cryptocurrency to achieve the same level of mainstream penetration, user experiences must be at the same high level.
We’ve designed our collectibles auction and shopping from the ground up to make the process of buying NFTs as easy and simple as possible for a non-crypto audience. This is why we decided to build on the Flow blockchain, because it is very fast, and therefore users do not wait for transaction validation and have small transaction fees, so ordinary people can bid on NFTs without having to spend $50-100 each time. Flow also allows for original legal payments, so users can pay with their credit cards. We expect to reach an audience of 500 million people every year, many of whom will never master coding, and so we had to make sure that our NFT platform would be really easy for them to use.
Do you think simplifying the way people experience and use cryptocurrency will lead to adoption?
When we want to get something done, we all want to take the shortest and easiest way. Beautifully designed user experiences do this for the user, and allow them to do what they want in the fastest and most intuitive way possible, whether it’s a clear and simple user interface, the user can navigate easily or hide many complex operations in a single swipe. The simpler the use of encryption, the more widespread its adoption.
What is your most controversial opinion regarding blockchain and/or cryptocurrency?
Probably my most controversial opinion regarding cryptocurrency is that Ethereum is old, Overrated and environmentally damaging. The majority of projects still choose
Ethereum is the virtual technology that is being built upon, although there are also superior quality blockchain solutions out there.
Do you have any blockchain and/or crypto predictions for 2022 and beyond?
Yes really. I believe that by 2023 the majority of NFT projects will run on the Flow blockchain.
Connect with Tony Hollingsworth
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