Zcash Promotional Song & Music Video

Yes that can be done, I can add an end screen to another Zcash educational video in the music video’s end screen!

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Talking about genre, can we go full “Jai Ho!” for Zcash? :rofl: @HanuDixit

Maybe the catch phrase could be “Shields Up!” for Zcash. :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

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I would nix the part about dodging taxes. ZCG is part of ZF, and Bootstrap, are both 501c public charities in the USA, and can’t be seen as encouraging Zcash users to not pay legal obligations.

Does this mean you plan to continue to apply for an additional $30k for every song? What is the average revenue you generate from advertising per song currently?

Seems like a low benefit/reward ratio for the average ZEC holder for the amount of funds being requested. Perhaps if it was a multi-song agreement for that amount it would be a better deal.

Just my 2 zec.

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You are definitely talented and are very good at what you do. Your music is very creative and songs are catchy.

I dont want to be the party pooper. I think we need a bit more fun and energy in the Zcash Community (I supported @tm3k parachute jump)

But I share @zorg5 PoV

As to the why:

From the ZCG Website: ‘‘The Zcash Community Grants program (formerly known as ZOMG) funds independent teams entering the Zcash ecosystem, to perform major ongoing development (or other work) for the public good of the Zcash ecosystem.’’

IMO this proposal doesnt benefit the Zcash ecosystem. It will at most expose the ppl who listen or watch it to Zcash and there is no way to know if that is even of interest to your audience. As @Shawn said

(If the amount was lower I would maybe consider the cost to be nearer to the expectations of the benefit of the proposal) I dont think that writing a song about Zcash is something that ZCG should fund it may be a better fit for a collab with ECC Marketing.

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Indeed, Zcash ethos encourages individuals to follow local law & taxation regulations. But a dialog around “paying many taxes” to be assumed as “dodging taxes” is a far-stretched one.

It might be easy to misinterpret Hanu’s comment, but discussing taxes is the right of the people in a democratic country, and “why an individual is paying so many taxes” is a common theme within Indian media following the current government’s excess taxation since 2020 due to mismanagement of funds. Additionally, there are several proposals working towards increasing the 30% crypto tax rate in India, before it even goes live on April 1st!

Discussing crypto taxes is an active topic in the crypto community in India & encouraging the public to think and take part in policymaking is good, even if the encouragement comes from a music video.

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I think you misintrepret what I have written, please go through proposal once again in detail to get a better clarity.

  • The Song will be released under creative commons license or public domain. There won’t be any more additional costs or expenses for any further videos or derivatives created around it. Anyone will be free to reuse the music and video for their edits on Instagram/Youtube/Tiktok anywhere.

  • India is currently among the highest taxed Countries in the World. As @aiyadt explains so well in his comment below about it, you can read more on that. I never said anything about dodging taxes but I meant excess taxation. Even on the funds that I receive if this proposal goes through - I’ll be paying close to 35% tax on the received funds and I’m not even including other taxes beyond that like GST & TDS that is applicable in my country. Discussing taxes is part of being in democracy. A relatable theme in India currently hence has higher chances of striking a chord with Indian audience in a Song. Still that will just be 1 percent of the Song, the entire Song will be focussed on the freedom that Zcash gives and what a revolution it is in money technology.

  • The average estimate cost of making a good Original Song + a high quality Music Video can come close to $50k- $1M. (You can Google this as well). I’m charging 30K in which over half the amount I’ll pay in taxes with close to 31 percent crypto tax at the start alone.

  • My channel has a ready Subscriber base of 142k and by the end of the year the pace it is growing at I’ll be sitting at a Subscriber base of over 1 Million People. (You can Google this as well on any of the Social stats website, it gives you an estimate).
    Some of my most successful Songs have garnered over 11 Million hits on my Channel.

  • The crypto market in India is growing at the rate of 641%. Among the fastest in the World. Read more about it here -India’s Crypto Market Grew 641% Over Past Year, Chainalysis Says. India is more ready for Zcash than any market of World especially with current socio political climate. And half the target age group that use Crypto in India are young adults which is my primary audience on my Channel. @gottabeJay

  • I have a prior experience of over 10 years where I have created song for among the biggest Brands in the World across sectors from Google to Clash Of Clans (Supercell).

  • I’m charging much much below, almost 50 percent the rate to what I usually charge from other Brands here. And that is because I believe in Zcash. I believe more than any other Country, India needs it at this point.
    I passioanately believe that Zcash can change the World and it can change India because it is that revolutionary. I have felt that freedom when I used it and it can’t be expressed in words alone and thus I want to create a Song around this. To bring a movement.

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I like idea behind it but I don’t think its a good use of funds.

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I personally, am in favor of this proposal, best of luck with it @HanuDixit

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I’m a bit confused about this here:

Because the original proposal said this:

I also understood this to be a theme song/jingle for Zcash. I get that there’s hefty taxation qualms in India, but Zcash does not solve this. It is not relevant to Zcash. It should not be even 1% part of a Zcash theme song funded by a Zcash entity. Having that in a Zcash theme song creates a lot of room for misinterpretation that could result in regulatory issues, as is clear from this thread. (Opinions are my own)

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Not to beat a dead horse: but the Indian Government has plans to try and ban privacy coins. Imagine producing a song about Zcash that also speaks against India’s tax regulations:

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  • I haven’t added any of the crypto taxes of 31 percent in this proposal. I’ll be paying that out of my own pocket :slight_smile:

  • The 15% taxes added in this are GST and post service taxes that I have to pay over this crypto tax on my income for this track which I have added in the proposal.

  • I believe in the community decision, and I’m happy to create a Song that is in sync with the community ethos. So if a single line of 2 seconds about excessive taxation in a full song bothers the community I can always edit that part out. As I have said before this Song is a celebration of Zcash for what a remarkable revolution it is and that is the core theme and will remain that way.

  • Some of the biggest brands in the World have been known and remembered with their Sound. That one Song. That one tune that stays in your head forever. That’s what I plan to bring to the table for Zcash. Rest like I said I believe in the community and I know it will take the right decision.

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On the one hand, there could be a sense of frivolousness. My initial response was similar because of the high cost and the result being not related to technical development.

On the other hand, adoption is currently a major ecosystem concern. I think the potential reach over time may be a lot larger than just Hanu’s subscriber size. After thinking it over more, it seems more valuable to me than it did on first blush, especially if it directly leads to more viewing of the more “serious” educational Zcash Media material.

I like the idea from @tokidoki of starring Cypherpunk Zero.

Edited to add: The point about it perhaps being more appropriate as a collaboration with ECC marketing is worth thinking about, especially if it does end up involving Cypherpunk Zero.

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I think this is an interesting and valuable proposal as long as it is part of a long-term marketing strategy that will require the participation of the ECC, ZF and other related projects (maybe Zcash Media?).

Music, and sound linked to a brand, has enormous convening power as long as you know the global audience to which the marketing proposal is directed from the purpose that drives that brand.

It would be good to also think about an audience beyond India, an important market for cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology and Zcash, but not the only one.

If we think about a broader, more complex and long-term marketing strategy, perhaps we should think about how to create a song and video representative of Zcash as a brand that allows to capture its essence and that can be understood by anyone in the world, without particular relations to a specific culture.

I believe that this proposal is part of a broader and long-term community dialogue that should be thought in terms of a marketing strategy that allows building a global brand vision around Zcash built in the same way that other big brands have done in the past when they have sought to sell an idea, product or service to a global audience of users. This goes beyond a song, a logo or a slogan. It’s several pieces of a huge puzzle that need to come together to get a deeper perspective on how you want others to view Zcash and how you can reach them by taking into account various elements, of which music is key.

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Completely agree with you the vision for the Song will be global and beyond India. I’ll be sticking to English as well for the language so it can have broad reach and can be distributed across Countries as more and more people can use this Song freely as it will be released under creative commons to create their own videos around Zcash, Blockchains and Crypto currency. The vision is Global and long term :slight_smile:

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Hello @HanuDixit & Zcash Community, I am happy to announce that @ZcashGrants has unanimously voted to approve this grant!

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I’m extremely grateful to the the Zcash Community for giving me this opportunity :slight_smile:
I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress of the track and the music video here. Thank you all so much!

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This is incorrect. The Indian government considers every non-government (public) sector digital asset as a private cryptocurrency. See Private currency - Wikipedia

Digital currency, Cryptocurrency, Virtual currency, and Private cryptocurrency are all used interchangeably. As far as I’m aware there hasn’t been a single mention of privacy coins under Indian Government bills yet. When the bill was first released in 2019, the broader crypto market wrote it off as a regulation against privacy coins, but that was not the case. Privacy coins, centralised cryptocurrencies, or being currencies — India is yet to explain what it means by ‘private’ cryptocurrency | Business Insider India

With the right documentation and education, the Government of India might actually prefer privacy coins like Zcash to enable secure transactions for Indians.

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Thank you for the clarification Adi! My point overall was that I understand that hefty taxation is an issue in India. (I have my own opinions, by the way, on some tax policies, as someone who studied monetary economics, and so I wholly empathize with the issues surrounding that and especially how this can undermine innovation).

I just think though that writing a song that complains about India’s tax laws, while promoting the Zcash cryptocurrency could provoke the Indian government to act negatively from a regulatory perspective. And regardless of whether they mean all cryptocurrencies or only privacy-focused ones (when referring to private cryptocurrencies), Zcash would still be affected by such a negative crypto policy.

I also fear that such messaging may create some confusion since the song is about Zcash, a privacy cryptocurrency, and now all of a sudden, there’s talk in the song about “why are we paying high taxes”. That particular message was wrongly understood when presented even in this thread and so my fear is that that misunderstanding will extend to the public - and worst of all, to government officials who already have it in their agenda.

TL:DR: I think we just need to be a bit careful about what is communicated through the song, and Hanu agreed to factor in feedback from the community, which is great. (And lastly, congratulations @HanuDixit!)

(Opinions are my own)

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Hold on…

There seems to be ongoing debate about this song referencing indian tax rates.

But I thought the target audience was more global?

For the record I’m okay with India being the target audience and probably would prefer it since I think it is a strength @HanuDixit should play into. I personally think a mixed English + Hindi jingle would be cool. But I think we need to choose the target audience before we can even start to debate the meaning of a lyric (e.g. tax). A global song, funded by ZCG, being used mainstream in America, referencing taxes in a negative way might come across differently then it would in India.

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Personally I think the solution is obvious. Sing the tax reference in Hindi :grin:.

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