• This week, Vice asked how much has been paid out to the charities and other organisations the funds were planning to support. The answer is complex.
• Warner’s fund has paid out $5.2 million in donations. Universal’s has paid out 'close to $5 million'. Sony’s has paid out $25 million.
• That's around $37m: around 16.4% of the promised total.
• Caveat: the labels did not specify a deadline – although WMG has since said that it will be investing its money over 10 years.
• Executives stressed that their commitments are designed to be meaningful and long-term – "We're talking about literally generations of racism and systemic racism and power dynamics. This work is very deep, and it has to be thoughtful," is how Yvonne Moore, who works with WMG's fund, put it.

This week, an Italian artist sold an “invisible sculpture” – literally nothing –  for more than $18,000, and thousands of people made the same joke, drawing a parallel with NFTs and non-existent art. NFTs have captivated many because it seems like sudden riches can easily be made, if only you get in fast enough.

This week, we learnt that the NFT market has "collapsed by 90%" from its (admittedly very spiky) peak, and it was a bubble all along – according to this analysis, anyway.

As the music business, tech, and commerce start to mush even closer together than before, it feels like there’s pressure for us all to become mini Wall Street investors, getting in on the ground floor to make huge, fast gains.

But is this the right way to build your music business? There are rapidly exploding businesses everywhere – like the instant appearance of multiple ultra-fast grocery delivery companies with enormous values after just a few months of business. 

Adding to the pressure are a few outsiders who agitate huge, disproportionate movements: Elon Musk tweeted about Baby Shark and the shares of the parent company leapt, and r/WallStreetBets sent the shares of AMC and BlackBerry soaring just because they can.

Back to the business of music: a few months ago Clubhouse was so hot that it had literally dozens of competitors, and marketing teams scrambled to have a live audio strategy – and then downloads of the app slowed dramatically. And now, NFTs’ wild, early-stage speculation might be over.

Does that mean we were wrong to get involved with those new platforms?

Well, not really – depending on how you did it. Certainly, rushing to get in early might reap huge rewards, but it’s a high-risk strategy: can you afford to invest the time and money and get it wrong? And yet the new opportunities that Clubhouse and NFTs provide are great, giving artists nuanced ways of connecting with audiences.

A thoughtful, patient, holistic approach might pay off better in the long run. What if NFTs simply become a useful protocol layer allowing fun and desirable low-price fan interactions, rather than a plaything for the hyper-wealthy and amateur day-traders?

The downside its that you won’t be able to brag about wild STONKS riches on Twitter. And that's probably considered success for most people.

– Read more about startups in the Archive.

TikTok is now the launchpad for new artists, for viral hits, and for breathing life into old songs. So how do you get the most out of this tricky, fast moving platform? This module will give you a deep understanding of how TikTok works for music; walking you through how to best engage with its culture and audience. 

Why is TikTok so good at launching viral hits? It's the platform's spookily accurate "For You" feed:

• When opening TikTok, users are presented with the famous For You page: an endless feed of algorithmically-selected videos just... for you.
• The For You algorithm is constantly learning from the user over time, and shows you more of what you like to watch.
• The New York Times compared it to Instagram but focused entirely around its “Explore” tab, or Twitter built around viral tweets: “Imagine a version of Facebook that was able to fill your feed before you’d friended a single person. That’s TikTok.”
• TikTok users can't help but be drawn into this never-ending rabbit hole: it's highly addictive.
• Viral videos featured of the For You page gain even more organic exposure, so every TikToker’s goal is to make it onto this page. 

OK, so how do you do that? This module helps you figure that out. Knowledge subscribers get a frankly monstrous 50% DISCOUNT on our TikTok Ecosystem: Understanding TikTok module, which addresses TikTok's opportunities and challenges – and explores other platforms that incorporate short-form video and music.

• Shed Of The Year finalists announced.
• The live-action 1980s Super Mario Bros. Super Show is... something.
• Those Captcha things to check you're not a bot? There's now one based on Doom.
• Important data journalism right here.