Welcome to the 1st edition of my newsletter, Meagan’s Newsletter: The Gen Z POV! So happy you’re here and thank you for reading. For those who don’t know me, my name is Meagan Loyst & I’m the 25-yr-old Founder and CEO of Gen Z VCs, the largest community of Gen Z innovators globally with ~20k members. I’m known for shining a light on my generation and helping startups, the press, large corporations and more understand Gen Z, the trends we’re following, and how we think.

I left my full-time VC investing job ~2 weeks ago and wasn’t planning on writing my newsletter until I got my life in order a bit… but then the Taylor Swift / Ticketmaster fiasco happened. I experienced first-hand how broken the fan experience is when I tried to get tickets as a die-hard Swiftie (which I detailed on LinkedIn here). I spent ~4 hours in the queue and even brought my laptop on stage with me for a speaking gig so I wouldn’t lose my place in line. Still love Taylor Swift (and always will), but have some qualms with the broader industry and how we can make it better.

I believe there are ways to bridge fandom & artists together through technology to create a better experience for everyone. I’ll make that case below with case studies, data, and my thoughts on:

1. Gen Z Fan Identity & FOMO: Spotify Wrapped

2. The 3 Big Issues preventing true fan loyalty programs & fair ticket distribution

3. The 5 “True Fan” Metrics (Your “True Fan” Score)

4. What’s working for artists today… make $ and give power to the fans (Web3 behind the curtain) – if you’re in the music industry, play close attention here.

5. In conclusion… my ode to the music industry & Taylor Swift

Ultimately, we need to help mainstream & up-and-coming artists build fan communities – tying fan engagement to rewards, and allowing artists to monetize fans directly and cut out the middlemen. So to accomplish this… how do you identify your true fans? I’ll start with the Gen Z lens on music/artist fandom first.

Gen Z Fan Identity & FOMO: Spotify Wrapped

For many young fans, our favorite artists become a part of our personality and something we showcase proudly – Spotify Wrapped plays a big role here.

Every December 1st is a cultural moment in time for fans, where Spotify Wrapped lets us know who our Top Artist of that year is, but more importantly, to be able to share if we’re in the Top 3%, 2%, 1%, or even .005% of that artist’s fanbase.

• My friend Eli’s Twitter bio shares that he’s in the Top “.005% @Avicii Spotify Wrapped” and others like this TikTok user take it a step further in their bio, stating “swiftie first, human being second”

• 216k+ people liked this tweet in the past 15 hours about missing “Spotify Wrapped Day” because of the potential Twitter shutdown

• Spotify notified me that I was in the first 1% of Streams for Taylor Swift’s Midnights album & gave me prompts to share on all my socials… which I absolutely did

Gen Z is the first digitally native generation – it’s our natural inclination to share things online, and find community with others based on common interests (ie: music). We want to know who our friends’ favorite artists are, and how our own fandom stacks up against others.

This social proof is quite literally the reason why many Gen Zers swear by Spotify vs. Apple Music, YouTube Music, or any other streaming service. Myself included – it is one of the few subscriptions I will never unsubscribe to.

And again, many of us display our Spotify Wrapped Top % Fandom as a badge of honor – a nod to how dedicated we are to our favorite artist & how much time we spent listening to them that year.

Many fans believe this display of dedication to their favorite artist should reap rewards, usually in the form of priority access to concert tickets. In cases of high demand / low supply tours like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour (launched tickets Nov 2022) and Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour Tour (launched tickets Oct 2021), many “true fans” lash out on social media when that fandom doesn’t translate to access.

And so this begs the question… why aren’t artists today listening to fans & taking in a true picture of their fandom when it comes to building loyalty and selling tickets?

*cough, cough* it always comes down to:

1. Money & financial incentives

2. The gatekeepers that are big tech (Spotify, Ticketmaster)

3. Hesitation to adopt new technology or even awareness of what tools are out there

The 3 Big Issues preventing true fan loyalty programs & fair ticket distribution

1. Money & Financial Incentives

Why Spotify won’t share comprehensive listening (or user) data with artists

In part, existing streaming providers like Spotify have no financial incentive to share extensive data with artists who could take that information away from their ecosystems. For example, if Taylor Swift has the complete listening data of her entire Spotify fanbase that she can export into a CRM, she could theoretically court those users away from Spotify into other activities (online or IRL).

Spotify is trying to win the attention economy – any time consumers spend outside their ecosystem is time spent not streaming (and therefore, money out of their pockets).

Why artists’ financial interests might conflict with what’s best for their fans

Artists tend to negotiate with Ticketmaster when they go on tour – things like dynamic pricing, ways to prevent scalpers from getting tickets and reselling them for egregious prices, etc. The latter point (reselling for egregious prices) has been an unfortunate consequence of the mis-handling of the Midnights tour presale by Ticketmaster, with some tickets reselling for $100k+ (over 100x face value less) in some cities & with many real fans unable to buy tickets because the general sale was canceled / presale codes didn’t work.

When these tickets are resold at crazy prices on Stubhub, both the artist & the tour promoter/ticket platform benefit. You saw this happen with Live Nation (a tour promoter now owned by Ticketmaster) and Metallica back in 2016/17, when they would secretly help performers sell thousands of tickets on resale sites at higher prices without giving fans an opportunity to buy tickets at face value.

I don’t believe that’s what’s happening here with Taylor Swift by any means (she’s already made a public statement calling out Ticketmaster), but there have been other artists like Ed Sheeran who have prevented resellers from accessing his tickets (even clawing back 10k+ scalped tickets for his real fans) or Paramore’s “Face Value Exchange” program which has a similar purpose. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Taylor Swift make some moves in the coming weeks or months to help get tickets back into the hands of her real fans, or even launch her own ticketing platform for her next tour that gives her more say/power in the release of her tickets and how things are handled.

But again, the bottom line is artists have financial upside when scalpers are able to have access to tickets… even if that comes at the expense of real fans.

2. The gatekeepers that are Big Tech (Spotify, Ticketmaster)

We talked a bit about our besties over at Spotify (love to hate ‘em), but not the fact that Ticketmaster has a monopoly over 70%+ of live ticketed events in the U.S. – meaning they have contracts with a number of the largest venues, and artists are forced to choose them as the only option in town.

Politicians like AOC have called out for reform (saying the merger with LiveNation in 2010 was bad for consumers and should have never happened), and the Justice Department (DOJ) even opened up an antitrust investigation after the mishandling of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Pre-Sale.

The repercussions of using a platform like Ticketmaster means that you’re often bound to using their native tech for ticket sales, like the distribution of presale codes. For the Eras Tour, fans had to sign up for Ticketmaster’s “Verified Fan” program to get a presale code, and all you needed to submit was your email & the specific dates you wanted tickets for. You didn’t have to showcase or prove your fandom at all, leading to an almost entirely random distribution of the presale codes – many codes went to bots, people who submitted with multiple emails (and thus received multiple presale codes), and tickets were kept from true fans. And even then, not everyone who received a presale code even got tickets because the site bugged out.

• TikTok user @kkatherinez (187.4k followers) carries SwiftTok. Her entire channel is dedicated to Taylor Swift & she created the viral TikTok dance for “Labyrinth” off the Midnights album (17.4k videos on TikTok). Katherine DID NOT GET A PRESALE CODE.

• TikTok user @mikaelarellano has created virtually every viral SwiftTok dance, but most notably the dance for Bejeweled off of the Midnights album (281.5k videos on TikTok & a real trend). Mikael DID NOT get tickets during the Verified Pre-Sale.

• I am not as notable as the above Swifties, but have bought lots of merch this year, digital singles, and have been a Top 2% fan on Spotify for the past two years. I DID NOT get a presale code.

Because Ticketmaster so grossly mismanaged the presale codes, almost all of the tickets were sold in one day and they had to cancel the general sale… leading to many many many angry and confused fans who didn’t get a presale code at all or opportunity to buy tickets. You had a 2% chance of getting tickets during the presale if you had a code… a.k.a. it was harder to get a ticket to The Eras Tour than to get into Harvard.

Even if artists did want to find a way to build a loyalty program for true fans that would lead to priority ticket access (leveraging listening data, merch spend, etc.), large artists will likely need to go through Ticketmaster or other big tech gatekeepers in some way.

Words of advice… don’t mess with Swifties. And don’t blame the artist when things like this happen… blame the platforms.

Hesitation to adopt new technology or even awareness of what tools are out there

This comes back to traditional creator economy principles – artists are tastemakers. Any new fan-facing technology that an artist or creator uses for loyalty or ticketing will have to be introduced to their fans, which can be a reflection on the artist if things go well (or backfire).

• The world’s largest artists may be hesitant to lean in on new tech because of potential bugs when doing a larger rollout (even the largest companies with tons of infrastructure can f*ck up… look at Ticketmaster). As a result, they might want to see smaller artists adopt the technology with their fan bases before testing it out with a larger group (aka Swifties or the Beyhive).

• The music industry can also feel really intimate, with several artists under the same recording label or management team using the same technology or looking for trusted recommendations. This can lead to barriers of adopting new technology, or even awareness of what’s out there because you rely on your close network.

• There might also be negative associations with certain technology on the consumer side, as you’ve seen with Web3 and the cash grabs from large brands or celebrities.

This is a hot take, but most Gen Zers troll Web3 / NFTs on TikTok. If you work in the Tech or VC world, it can feel like a massive bubble where everyone has an NFT profile picture or is talking about Web3. Most of my Gen Z friends who don’t work in Tech/VC/Finance have no idea what Web3 is and frankly don’t care about it.

I personally love this exchange from late 2021 (peak crypto/NFT craze), where a Gen Z TikToker buys an NFT and then a bunch of people in the comments make it their profile picture and just roast the guy. Another recent comment on an NFT TikTok from August 2022 said “bro who is buying nft’s in 2022” and got ~40k likes.

The 5 “True Fan” Metrics (Your “True Fan” Score)

In a world where our digital footprint feels so concrete, it feels as though every artist should have their own CRM for fans where they:

• Track fan engagement across platforms

• Tie all engagement back to a single fan profile

• Provide a score of true fandom (“true fan score”) that can be tracked over time

• Create loyalty programs on top of these scores

This is an interesting way to make things like ticket access tied to true fan loyalty, but not in a way that’s only dependent on the ways that you spend (making it inaccessible to many). Taylor Swift rolled out a similar system via VerifiedFan in 2017 for her Reputation tour that was met with mixed reviews from fans, where it felt opaque and fans felt pressure to buy merch to be “boosted” in line for Reputation tickets. Instead, there should be a variety of factors that provide a holistic picture of fandom, but also transparency for all involved.

Basically, I’m calling for technology that enables artists to gamify fan engagement, and reward those fans accordingly. Imagine each fan having a “True Fan” score, determined by how many minutes they listen, the number of events they’ve attended (IRL and online), how they engage on social media, what they’ve bought in merch and album sales, etc. – basically everything that determines the way fans actually think about fandom.

I think there should be 5 “True Fan” Metrics that every artist takes into account when determining things like presale codes, BTS access, and loyalty programs in general:

1. Listening Data

2. Spend

3. Social Media Engagement

4. Attendance

5. Fan Upvoting (ie: Community)

Maybe in some cases it takes into account historical data. Maybe in some cases it doesn’t or resets every year to give every fan a clean slate. I don’t have all the answers, but I think the key is finding a way to make loyalty feel transparent for fans & also inclusive. No one should feel blindsided when you’re in the Top .005% of an artist’s fanbase on Spotify, yet don’t get an opportunity to buy tickets after dedicating hours of your life to your favorite artist.

For example, I think the 5th “Fan Upvoting” metric is an important one for Gen Z. Fan communities can be very uplifting, and I think in a digital age it should be easier to send notes and appreciation to other fans (as we already do in the TikTok comments section) but also let our fave artists know. This shouldn’t be a popularity contest, but rather an opportunity to shine a light on fellow fans. Like in Swiftie world right now, this might be the fans who are organizing the Fan Project (making & trading friendship bracelets at The Eras Tour) or perhaps the fans on the frontlines that are organizing tailgates outside major stadiums for the people who didn’t get tickets to their local show.

Two final important points on these metrics & fan communities:

1. This is something that should be built top-down with the artist controlling the experience (vs. starting with the fans or a fan community)

2. Rewards should be tied to behaviors and things fans are already doing on existing platforms… it shouldn’t be engagement on a separate app (as you saw with The Swift Life)

What’s working for artists today… make $ and give power to the fans (Web3 behind the curtain)

For the past 3+ years, I was an early-stage VC – so it’s my natural inclination to think about the various ways technology can solve big problems. When you think about the problem statements I call out above (fan loyalty & rewards, getting past the gatekeepers, etc.), many minds automatically go to Web3.

And there are certainly many people building at the intersection of Web3 & music – I asked this on Oct 4th, 2022 and it went viral on Twitter, with 500+ comments of people calling out various startups and founders innovating in the space:

However, I’m going to focus this section on practical case studies I’ve seen out in the world as a Gen Z fan, and my belief is the approach that is going to work best in this space is what I call “Web3 behind the curtain.” There’s Web3 technology running in the background, but fans have no idea (and frankly don’t care because they love what they’re getting access to).

• Think Starbucks Odyssey style, where the experience or community is built on Web3 but it’s not the focal point for users.

Let’s start with pop-star Fletcher, an LGBTQ+ artist with 6.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify & is signed by Capitol Records. Her new album “Girls of My Dreams” came out in September 2022 and reached #4 on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart and #15 on the all-encompassing Billboard 200. TLDR, she’s a popular up-and-coming artist… and doing really interesting things to engage (and reward) her fans!

For her current “Girl of My Dreams” tour, she did a partnership with a startup called Vault, which is a “music platform built for super fans” that allows fans to choose part of the setlist in their city. Notice in Fletcher’s announcement on Twitter, the reward of having a voice in the setlist is the draw for fans, and there’s no mention of Web3.

When a user downloads Vault on the App Store, there is also no mention of Web3 anywhere – you only need an email address & password to sign up, prices of the “keys” are in USD for $4.99, and the platform highlights the benefits of buying one of the keys (signed digital set list, exclusive content, direct influencer on the surprise songs performed in your city, etc.).

However, in the background, Vault is actually built on Solana and the “keys” are NFTs. Fans are able to collect and trade/sell their keys to other fans, and Fletcher will get a royalty on all secondary sales (in addition to keeping up to 90% of revenue that comes in from primary sales).

The Vault platform is effectively helping Fletcher to build her community of superfans – and at an extremely affordable price point at $4.99 per key. One of the benefits stated by Vault is even “VIP invitations,” so this could be a great way to surprise real fans with an even more VIP experience (ie: surprise meet-and-greets after the show) and reward them for their fandom / supporting her as an artist.

And this can translate to meaningful revenue, with up to 90% of sales on Vault going straight to the artist. Let’s do some math here – Fletcher performed 1 night in NYC at Hammerstein Ballroom for a sold-out show, and the venue has capacity for 2,500 attendees.

• If 100% of fans bought a Vault Key at $4.99 → $12,500 of extra revenue that night

• If 25% of fans bought a Vault Key at $4.99 → $3,125 of extra revenue that night

Now let’s imagine this on a larger scale for an artist like Taylor Swift with 84 million monthly listeners on Spotify (12x the listener base of Fletcher for context). I’ve seen probably 100+ videos on my FYP on TikTok with people talking about what songs they want to see on the set list, so I imagine this will be a ~popular~ offering for fans.

Taylor is performing 3 shows at Metlife Stadium, which has a capacity of 82,500 fans. We’ll subtract 25% of those seat numbers though because it’s a stadium tour & many seats are behind the stage… so let’s say capacity of 61,875 fans per show. For 3 nights, that’s 185,625 unique fans.

• If Taylor Swift were to release a Vault Key at $4.99 (like Fletcher) and 100% of fans bought one to influence the set list in their city, she would make $928,125 for her NYC shows.

Even if only 10% of her fans bought a Vault Key, that’s still $92k of additional revenue AND giving fans an opportunity to be a part of the Eras Tour in a unique way (at an affordable price point).

For solutions like this to work, you need to make fans feel empowered (with real rewards), but also help artists earn money while doing it.

Jack Antonoff is a popular known collaborator of Taylor Swift and was one of the producers on her Midnights album (in addition to being the lead singer of Bleachers, guitarist/drummer in the band Fun, and extremely talented)! After the Ticketmaster fiasco of this past week, he responded (indirectly) with a number of tweets that underpin the key problem here… artists need to earn their fair share on tour.

This is a PSA that the #1 source of income for musicians & artists is touring – not streaming, not merch – so to fix some of the systemic issues in the music industry, touring is the most natural place to start to help artists earn more. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Vault’s value-add (picking songs at your local show) is intertwined with touring & the point in time when fans are primed to spend most $$$ with an artist.

I didn’t mention venues in my “gatekeeper” section above, but in reality, they are also a middleman here – Jack calls out the venue tax on merchandise multiple times in his tweets. The music industry generated $43 billion of revenue in 2017, but recording artists saw just 12% of that revenue. Only 12%!!!!!!! That genuinely feels like highway robbery and is indicative of the sweeping changes that need to take place in the music industry.

Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” is already the highest grossing tour in U.S. history, making an estimated $400 million in gross sales from just the 2 days of pre-sales – not including merch or anything else other than tickets. The Eras Tour is still 4+ months away (launches March 2023), and I’d love to see Taylor Swift & Taylor Nation bring fans further into the touring experience in a way that helps her keep the $$$ coming in.

Artists need to have a direct relationship with their fans, and find ways to effectively engage & reward them.

In the broader Web3 space, you’re seeing artists big and small tackle this in different ways.

• Snoop Dogg has worked with Sound.XYZ, a music startup that aims to help recording artists monetize their fans through NFTs. When he released “Death Row Mix: Vol. 1” on the platform, there were 1,000 NFTs available to purchase which all sold in seconds, netting Snoop 100 ETH ($264,456 back in March 2022 when this happened). He’s minted 3 songs on the platform thus far.

• VÉRITÉ has 550k monthly listeners on Spotify, opened for Fletcher’s “Girl of My Dreams” Tour, and has been very active in Web3 (even giving fans financial upside and ownership in individual songs for buying 1-of-1 NFTs of her masters). I had the opportunity to meet her last week at Future Wave (a music innovation summit) where we were both speakers. She talked a lot about how she’s building unique experiences for her fans and bringing them into the fold, like her tech-enabled crewneck sweater (sold for $100 on her website, powered by iyk.app). Fans who buy the VÉRITÉ Crewneck get exclusive access to upcoming content from her next album by just tapping their phone to their wrist, and they were invited to the Future Wave Afterparty to watch her perform as well! IYK verifies IRL ownership and attendance, empowering artists to create new experiences – another great example of “Web3 behind the curtain” in practice.

There are tons of new startups bringing Web3 technology to music (way too many… I’d have to do an entire new newsletter edition!). But will share a few more here & resources for you to keep reading:

• The Music NFT Landscape by CoopahTroopa has a great market map outlining different tech & categories in the broader ecosystem – good starting point for newbies learning about Web3.

• Laylo helps creators and artists directly message fans about drops – track individual fan participation, build their CRM, and control access (via NFTs if needed) to exclusive content, merch, and event drops. Artists like Calvin Harris, Sam Smith, Dixie D’Amelio and more have utilized Laylo to create drops for their fans.

  • Big artists like Taylor Swift might manage this via their official management team (aka Taylor Nation) where you sign up for texts, emails, follow them on socials, etc. – they likely have their own custom CRM that helps them manage all of the different customer profiles. Platforms like Laylo make it easier for teams to manage a single profile and also track things over time – making it easy to reward those fans.

• Medallion is trying to bridge the artist x fan connection using web3, helping artists launch digital worlds to expand fan participation, actionable insights, and economic potential. I met the founders of Medallion at the Future Wave Summit last week and was really impressed with their vision – I’m excited to see what they release/announce in the coming months.

• Fanhouse launched their platform for musicians on Nov 7th and already have big acts like The Chainsmokers onboard. I think their "Listens Goal" feature is innovative... Artists can pick any song of theirs on Spotify and post it to their Fanhouse, then fans can link their Spotify account and contribute until the goal is hit. Artists can even see who streamed the song (and how many times) and thank their top supporters.

In conclusion… my ode to the music industry & Taylor Swift

Music unites all of us – lyrics bring our pains and joys to the forefront, and artists centralize our fandom around the person that brings that music to life. Music is what drives culture and trends on TikTok. We often associate songs with particular milestones or important moments. We also grow with artists as we progress through life.

I remember the first time I ever heard Taylor Swift. I was in elementary school on a flight to London to visit my aunt, and they had the tiny TV screens on the backs of chairs where you could listen to new music and explore entire albums. Taylor Swift’s debut album was featured, and I fell in love with her song Teardrops On My Guitar – when I got home, it was embarrassing how many times I watched that music video (I was pretty angsty at the ripe age of 9).

And I’ve grown up with Taylor Swift. Back to December from Speak Now was one of the first pop songs I learned to play on the piano by ear. Begin Again from Red was the song I’d start my day with on the school bus in high school. Folklore and Evermore got me through COVID and quarantine. She’s been my Top Artist on Spotify (top 2% of her listeners!) for the past few years running, I rock her merch all around NYC (particularly the Speak Now-themed purple matching top, shorts, and head scarf since it’s my favorite album), I was in the first 1% of listeners for her new Midnights album on Spotify… and the list goes on. I even listed Taylor as my “Dream Mentor” in my Forbes 30 Under 30 profile last year.

All of this to say, everyone has their “Taylor Swift” – their favorite artist that they love to listen to, support as an artist, and are ultimately rooting for. The music industry needs to change to better support artists (helping them make $ and keep their fair share) and help reward fans for their fandom.

For companies like Spotify, how can you give artists better access to their fans & data?Using Spotify Wrapped as a gateway to help artists build native communities of superfans & offer rewards feels like low-hanging fruit.

For companies like Ticketmaster, just do better – last week was an absolute mess. Have fans enter their pre-sale code before joining the queue to reduce traffic, stagger the ticket sales during pre-sale so you don’t overwhelm your systems, etc. When systems fail, it creates backlash for the artists which feels entirely unfair… and with a $15Bn market cap and plenty of resources, that’s on you.

• The Verified Fan experience should be revamped in partnership with artists to take into account actual fandom (vs. entering a random email address & praying for a pre-sale code)… hopefully there will be interesting partnerships on the horizon to make it easier for artists to control this experience.

For startups trying to tackle these problems, keep building and finding more ways to empower artists and fans alike.

For artists, don’t be afraid to try new tech or disrupt the status quo using your influence to create change. And by using your influence, I don’t mean using your platform to educate everyone on these new technologies – it’s not your responsibility to bring the next billion users or your fans into Web3. But you do have power to make changes and empower your fans.

In a perfect world, I envision every artist building their own version of a SuperFan community...

... utilizing a custom rubric of the True Fan metrics above where everything you do as a fan is attributed to your profile, and then rewarded overtime. I’ll conclude this piece with some tangible examples of what I mean. Imagine a world where:

Taylor Swift starts a SuperFan community (think Taylor’s Version of VerifiedFan) that’s owned and managed by her team (Taylor Nation), with each true fan receiving a unique code. And there are several ways to unlock it:

• Top 3% fan on Taylor Swift’s Spotify Wrapped

• Uploading your ticket receipts (& photos to prove you were there!) from previous concerts (Debut to Reputation)

• Participating in a viral trend using Taylor’s songs, past or present, (ie: the Slow Zoom trend on TikTok using Wildest Dreams Taylor’s Version when she released it, or your version of the Bejeweled dance) and uploading your video

• Unlocking her Vault tracks on her Taylor’s Version albums (as she did with Fearless & Red) the day she releases it to the public

When you’re admitted to the SuperFan community, you’re able to purchase an exclusive / limited edition Cardigan from her merch site. Trust me, these cardigans are in high demand – look at the comments on this TikTok – and would result in biiiig $$$ for Taylor Swift since they’re not sold at the venue (no venue tax!)

Fans are given priority access to tickets for new concerts/tours, can have a say in the set-list in their city (maybe using Vault!) for a surprise song of the night, etc.

Peer-to-Peer community, maybe a Discord to bring these fans together with self-organized meet-ups in different cities, or even sanctioned events.

• Taylor Swift’s team did a listening party for Midnights on Tunecast and it was wildly popular – I couldn’t even keep up with the comments during it! I’d be interested to see what the engagement would be like if that was an always-on experience for fans to interact with one another / provide feedback to Taylor’s team as well.

Transparency & rewards for the fans, direct distribution for the artists. This is the future of the music industry.

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This was 16+ pages of content… admittedly a lot for my first issue. So thank you for reading, supporting me, and subscribing to my newsletter. If you want to read more from me, check out my 26 page manifesto / breakdown on The Metaverse which has been read by 1 million+ people.

If you’re an artist or working in the music industry & the above resonated, I’d love to hear from you & help where I can. My email is [email protected]! especially if your favorite number happens to be 13, or rhymes with Baylorcation 🖤

If you’re a startup building in the space, tell me what you’re working on! Always curious to see what’s new and how artists are leveraging technology to connect with fans. My email is [email protected]!

If you’re a dedicated newsletter subscriber, tell me what you’d like to see a deep dive on next! I have a long list of Gen Z-oriented topics I’m passionate about, but would love to see what’s top of mind for you. My email is [email protected]!

About Me

My name is Meagan Loyst, and I’m a 25 year old Gen Zer who loves all things consumer, community, and culture. I’m the Founder & CEO of Gen Z VCs, the largest & fastest growing community for young people in Tech & VC with 20,000+ members and now a Gen Z movement. I was featured on the 2022 Forbes 30U30 list, am a 2022 LinkedIn Gen Z Top Voice, 2022 Crain’s 20 in their Twenties recipient, and won the 2022 Rising Star Award from the National Venture Capital Association. I love adding the Gen Z perspective to mainstream media and exec conversations alike, and absolutely love music – it was fun to deep dive into my Taylor Swift fandom and the broader industry.

Also a quick disclaimer... I am not an investor in any companies mentioned above!!!! So this is completely neutral & based on my observations as a fan and conversations with folks in the music industry :)

P.S. I included 13 images in this post... this was intentional 🙃