CryptoSlate recently had the opportunity to chat with world-famous producer Tony Hollingsworth. Tony is the founder of Listen Campaign, which will give holders access to exclusive social impact NFTs from the world’s greatest actors, musicians, artists, and writers.
Tony has over 30 years of experience working with companies, governments and foundations at the intersection of communications, media and popular culture. His credits range from, conceiving and producing the global media campaign that reached 600m and re-positioned Nelson Mandela from “black terrorist leader” to “black leader” to, consulting for the US White House on a public campaign in a response to 9/11.
Over the past 30 years, Tony has worked with well over 200 of the world’s top creative artists from Stevie Wonder to Ravi Shankar, from Denzel Washington to Natalie Portman, from Samuel L Jackson to Keith Haring. Interview with Tony Hollingsworth, Listen Campaign Founder
What is your professional background and how, when did you get into crypto?
I’ve produced nine of the world’s largest global broadcast events and always utilised the most cutting-edge technology to do things that everyone else thought impossible. So new tech has always interested me, and when my son—who has been investing in blockchain businesses for a number of years—introduced me to the crypto world I immediately saw how revolutionary this was going to be.
What is Listen and what are the main goals of the project? What made you decide to set up the Listen Campaign?
The Listen Campaign is an annual and global media campaign for vulnerable and disadvantaged children, of which there are 1 billion in the world. It’s an enormous problem and one we hardly ever hear about it. The campaign is bringing together major stars and creative artists, and the world’s biggest media partners, so we can ‘listen’ to the problems faced by these children and to celebrate and support the solutions that already exist and are ready to be scaled up or replicated.
I remember the exact moment I decided to set up that Listen Campaign. Having worked on many major causes including freeing Mandela and ending Apartheid, I was thinking about what issue we should look at next. Children were very much on my mind and one night whilst walking one of my children to sleep and listening to the BBC World Service radio, I heard an African mother being interviewed whose baby had just died of diarrhea. She could have saved it with a 10 cent sachet and some clean water but she had neither. The inequity of the situation just hit me; if my child was even slightly ill we could call a doctor. But this mother had nothing.
What was your experience in working with some of the biggest names in music?
I’ve got too many stories—some I can share and some I can’t! I’ve had the privilege of working with over 200 of the world’s biggest music stars including Stevie Wonder, Seal, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan, Mary J Blige, Whitney Houston, David Bowie, B.B. King, Diana Ross, George Michael, Jon Bon Jovi, Keith Richards, MC Hammer, Roger Waters, Sinead O’Connor, Shaggy, Bee Gees, Chris de Burgh, Chaka Khan and many more.
I have so many memories, and the historic moments we caught on camera are the memories that will be minted as NFTs and treasured as historic time capsules by whoever ends up owning them. When challenges came up organizing and running the events—which happened a lot!—all of them responded amazingly with creative solutions that resulted in really special moments that I will always treasure.
What do you think some of those hugely famous and successful musicians you have worked with would make of cryptocurrency and blockchain?
Well, great artists are natural innovators—I expect that if David Bowie was here he would have been one of the first to embrace blockchain technology. Visual artists and musicians are already embracing NFT collectibles, and artists like Ashton Kutcher are using NFTs in ways that is likely to transform the way entertainment shows are funded and marketed forever. Creativity and innovation truly go hand in hand.
What do you believe are the biggest obstacles for mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain?
There are three obstacles that I can see. First, there needs to be clear, authoritative and educational content. Second, there needs to be a simple and consistent wallet infrastructure that is as easy to use as PayPal. And Third, transaction fees need to be as low as credit card payments. Once we achieve all three—and achieve them we […]
source This world-famous producer tells us why he is venturing into NFTs
Protected by Patchstack