Fandom 2.0

Fandom 2.0: When Supporting Artists Becomes a Real Job

Let us imagine for a moment: what would happen if all the time, energy and love you spend on your favorite singer, actor, anime or sports team were no longer invisible, but instead fully accounted for, recorded on a secure network and gained economic value?

You are probably asking what this means. To understand this topic, let us go back a bit and examine a fundamental concept.

What is a Fandom and Why Does It Matter?

Before examining the upcoming changes, we must understand what a “Fandom” really is, because this phenomenon is economically much more powerful than the general public imagines.

Simply put, a fandom is a community of passionate fans who have a deep and active loyalty to a phenomenon. This phenomenon can be an artist, an idol group (young music and entertainment stars), an anime, a sports team or a video game. The word fandom is made from combining the two words “Fan” and “Kingdom”. The metaphor of a “kingdom” is incredibly appropriate for this concept because fandoms have their own specific language, rituals, hierarchies and even an independent economy.

The key point is that fans are not merely spectators; they practically “work” and put in effort:

• Organic Discovery of Artists: Every day, millions of fans around the world cause the natural discovery of novice artists by publishing posts on social networks.
• Fan Content Production: They draw pictures, edit videos and create content that keeps communities alive and dynamic in the interval between the release of albums or new works by the artist.
• Million-Dollar Trends: They trend hashtags and generate attention in a way that cannot be bought with any advertising budget in the world.
• Financial Support and Continuous Streaming: They participate in events, buy merchandise, stream songs continuously and attract new supporters by introducing works to their friends.

These activities create unparalleled economic value. The value of these actions in marketing, community building and keeping a cultural trend alive is estimated at billions of dollars. Without the existence of these dedicated fandoms, most artists would face serious problems for their long-term professional survival.

The Bitter Truth of Fandom 1.0: Despite this huge volume of dedication, the fans’ share of this system has been invisible until today. Streaming platforms (like Spotify) only measure the play count, ticketing sites only record purchases and social networks track views. None of these systems record the share of participation and loyalty of the fans themselves in this success. Fans create the value, big platforms pocket the profit and fans receive, at best, nothing more than a thank you.

A loyal fan of Japanese idols may spend years making daily supportive posts, managing fan channels and translating content. In practice, they perform the work of an entire marketing department completely for free and without any economic return.

Entering the Era of “Fandom 2.0”

In Japan, there is a deep culture called “Oshikatsu”, which literally means “supporting your favorite person”. This culture is the most intense and organized version of that same Fandom 1.0 in the world. Fans of Japanese idols inject mountains of time and money into these communities; however, even here, fan participation has always been invisible to the financial system.

But now a new ecosystem has stepped in to change this equation. Relying on a combination of artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and strategic investment from the Sony Group, four large entities have come together to build a model where fan participation can be measured, recorded on the blockchain network (On-chain) and connected to real rewards and influence. This means the dawn of the “Fandom 2.0” era.

This innovative structure consists of four main layers that fit together like puzzle pieces:

These four pieces together create a self-reinforcing cycle:

Fan Activity => AI Analysis => Recording on Blockchain => Flow of Rewards => Deep Fan Interaction

This logic works correctly only if all four layers are active together. Culture without infrastructure is only a passing event and infrastructure without culture will merely be an empty database.

First Layer: YOAKE Entertainment (Cultural Authenticity)

YOAKE Entertainment (established in December 2023) is the first point of contact for fans with this ecosystem. Technology alone cannot create love and fandom; it is culture that builds fandom. The role of YOAKE is to provide this exact cultural layer.

This entity is not an ordinary startup in the crypto world, but rather the result of an alliance of Japanese entertainment giants:

• TWIN PLANET (Talent and star management)
• ASOBISYSTEM (Art agency supporting stars such as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)
• W TOKYO (Organizer of the mega festival Tokyo Girls’ Collection)
• Y&N Brothers (Large entertainment productions)
• Direct strategic partnership with Sony Group

The flagship project of this company is the IDOL RUNWAY COLLECTION (IRC) event; the largest combined idol and fashion festival in Japan. To understand the scale of the work, the 2025 version of this event had more than 11,800 in-person participants and attracted more than one million online viewers. The March 2026 event was also held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium with the presence of popular groups such as Nogizaka46.

In February 2026, YOAKE received a dedicated strategic investment worth 3.2 million dollars (500 million yen) from the Sony Innovation Fund, which shows Sony’s high strategic alignment with this idea.

Second Layer: IRC Application (Fan User Interface)

The IRC application (which was previously known as YOAKE SPACE) is where the theoretical ideas of Fandom 2.0 become tangible for fans. This program is built on the Soneium network and integrated with the Record Protocol.

The strength of this program is its incredibly simple user onboarding. It is activated simply by connecting an X (Twitter) or TikTok account. There is no need to create a crypto wallet, memorize complex recovery phrases or pay network fees (Gas Fees). The blockchain infrastructure works completely invisibly in the background so that the masses and general users can use it easily.

After connecting the account, the IRC application records your interactive history through three ways:

• IRC Score Points: The application’s AI system (which gets its power from the Record Protocol) evaluates your public activities on social networks in three dimensions: the positive and supportive nature of the content, the consistency and continuity of your activities and the level of participation and harmony in the community. This score is recorded transparently on the Soneium blockchain.
• Membership Ranks: Based on your score, you are upgraded from the Regular level to Silver and Gold levels. Higher ranks unlock benefits such as priority in buying concert tickets, VIP experiences and access to exclusive content.
• Fan Vote: High-ranked fans can have a role in the actual decision-making of events; for example, choosing the opening groups or the clothing themes of fashion shows.

This application has so far attracted thousands of dedicated fans from the fan communities of big groups like Nogizaka46, AKB48 and FRUITS ZIPPER. The importance of this application is that it has connected the blockchain infrastructure to communities that were already deeply active, rather than trying to forcibly build a community around a token.

Third Layer: Record Protocol and Redefining the Value of Intellectual Property (IPFi)

The Record Protocol is responsible for converting fan effort into verifiable data. This protocol was initially developed inside the YOAKE entity itself, but it now operates as an independent infrastructure that goes beyond the IRC festival.

At the heart of this protocol lies the key concept of R.E.C. (Record of Emotional Contribution). The logic of Record is simple yet revolutionary: human passion creates economic value (it causes the discovery of works, secures the livelihood of artists and turns the wheels of industries); therefore, this emotional value must be measured and recorded exactly like material assets.

Instead of measuring the amount of money spent, the Record Protocol uses AI to measure the fan’s authenticity, continuity and emotional impact on the community over time. Then it records the results on the blockchain to create a permanent resume for the fan.

The Bigger Vision: The Field of IPFi

The real value of this data becomes clear when we examine its financial potential in the form of an intellectual property asset. In the entertainment world, any creative work, song, script, character or even an artist’s brand is called IP (Intellectual Property). These IPs are the most valuable assets of artists; however, their valuation in traditional financial models has always faced a major challenge.

Traditional financing in the entertainment world always looks backward; studios first look at a movie’s sales volume or a singer’s streams and then sign contracts. The problem is that by the time data confirms this success, it is too late and a large part of the bargaining power of independent artists is lost.

The long-term goal of this protocol is to solve this fundamental challenge by creating and leading a new field called IPFi (Intellectual Property Finance or the financialization of intellectual property). The IPFi system offers a futuristic and attractive alternative: if fan engagement can be measured before launching or building a project, artists can prove real demand before production begins. The Record Protocol calls these data “Verified Demand Signals”, which are blockchain proof of a loyal community’s support for the artist. This allows investors to invest based on future potential, not just past data.

• The $REC Token: This is the native and utility token of the network, designed to reward contributions, create liquidity for intellectual property (IP) assets and govern the network.

This protocol is designed to be structurally “credibly neutral”; meaning that any artist in any field can use it. The current focus is on J-Pop music and Japanese idol culture, which is a smart starting point because Japan has one of the most active and economic fan cultures in the world and is the best laboratory. But their long-term plan is to expand this system to the fields of anime, gaming, film and global music.

Fourth Layer: Soneium Blockchain (The Invisible Backbone)

The foundation of this entire chain is the Soneium blockchain; a network developed by Sony Block Solutions Labs. The Soneium mainnet was launched in January 2025 as an Ethereum Layer 2 network, offering very fast and cheap transactions.

By using the “Account Abstraction” feature, Soneium has made it easy for users to work with the application without getting involved in complex crypto concepts. For users of the IRC application, the blockchain is completely invisible and this is exactly the key to the project’s success.

This project is a win-win deal for Sony because the more fandom takes place on Soneium, the more this network becomes a valuable database for the entire Sony entertainment empire. The presence of Sony changes all calculations; because this project has direct access to large infrastructures, top-tier artists and decades of Sony’s experience.

How Does This Project Differ from Previous Efforts?

• Difference from Fan Tokens: In previous systems (like football tokens), capital determined influence and voting rights; whoever was richer had more votes. The Record Protocol has reversed this game; it is the level of real activity and participation that gives you influence, not financial power.
• Difference from SocialFi Platforms: On platforms like FriendTech, interactions were easily manipulated by fake likes and followers. However, Record focuses on meaningful, authentic, and continuous participation.

In previous models, everything centered around buying and selling access to people and seeking profit, but in Record, the focus is on measuring the fan’s effort and activity within a fandom.

Challenges and Big Question Marks

This attractive ecosystem simultaneously raises important questions:

• Possibility of Cheating and Bypassing the System: Can AI really distinguish heartfelt fandom from robotic behaviors designed solely to increase scores? When scores gain financial value, the motivation to cheat rises sharply.
• Commercialization of Pure Emotions: Do financial incentives not ruin the pure love of fandom? There is a danger that fans will turn into emotionless employees working just to gain points.
• Privacy: Permanently recording the AI analysis of your emotional behaviors on social networks on the blockchain brings serious privacy challenges.
• Sustainability of Tokenomics: Can Record, unlike many Web3 projects, build a sustainable economic model that does not collapse with token price fluctuations?
• Financializing Fandom: Should financial value even be created for fandom at all? Some say this project finally gives fans their rights back after years, but others believe that materializing these relationships stains the pure nature of entertainment and art.

The Fan Experience Process and Action Cycle in Fandom 2.0

Publishing a supportive post on X or TikTok by you => Analysis of the post’s tone, continuity, and impact by Record AI => Increase in IRC Score and recording on the Soneium network => Upgrade of fan rank and unlocking of VIP benefits and voting rights => Real impact on the structure of the artist’s festivals and events.

Your history is stored forever on the blockchain and proves that you supported an artist from their first day of obscurity. A digital proof of your authenticity and resume. The more fans enter, the more valuable this database becomes for YOAKE to better plan events, for artists to know their real army, for Sony to invest in future projects and for the emerging market of IPFi.

Looking to the Future

The long-term goal of Record is to become a global and neutral standard for measuring fan engagement; such that any studio, broadcasting company or singer in the world can connect it to their system.

If this idea bears fruit, years of fans’ effort and love will gain real value, artists will have more powerful bargaining tools against companies and the entertainment industry will achieve an accurate metric for understanding deep human connections.

The coexistence of money and love is not an easy task; but the problem that Record has put its finger on is completely real. The combination of Sony’s credibility, Japan’s passionate culture and AI technology makes this project one of the most exciting experiments in the entertainment world.

Article Sources and References:

For further review, data verification and access to the project’s official documents, you may refer to the following references:

• Official website of the Record Protocol: **recordprotocol.xyz**
• Technical documents and the IRC Score platform (IRC Application)
• Official announcements from the Sony Group (Sony Innovation Fund) regarding the investment in YOAKE Entertainment
• Technical development documents of the Soneium blockchain (Sony Soneium Ecosystem)
• Yoake entertainment website: **yoake-entertainment.jp/**
• Soneium website: **soneium.org/**

The IRC application can be downloaded right now on Google Play and the App Store.

Authors’ Note:

This analytical article has been prepared and compiled by members of the “Unofficial Soneium Persian Community”. As part of a larger and active team in this field, we continuously and professionally monitor the events, infrastructure and development of the Soneium ecosystem to provide the most accurate and up-to-date localized analysis for the Persian-speaking audience.

Address of unofficial Soneium Persian Telegram channel: **t.me/Persian_Soneium**

Authors:

- Madlimen : linktr.ee/madlimen

- MrBahman : linktr.ee/MrBahman