KOR

Congratulations to Kapsule, winner of the IMS Accelerator 2026. This year’s IMS Accelerator brought together an incredible group of founders building the future of music, nightlife, and live events. With over 400 startups applying from around the world, the quality of ideas, execution and ambition across the cohort was genuinely exceptional, and we want to thank every team that took part. Kapsule (Joey Tadiar) stood out for its vision around artist ownership and direct-to-fan commerce, building a platform where discovery is driven by the music itself, while helping artists keep more of their earnings and own their fan relationships. Their approach to sound-first discovery and artist monetization represents an exciting new direction for the music industry. We also want to recognize the outstanding finalists who presented alongside them: → EventSynth is building an AI operations layer for event production teams, helping festivals and touring operations transform operational chaos into structured intelligence through workflow automation and smarter coordination tools. → UPTAK®️ (@uptak_official) is rethinking safety within nightlife and festival culture through a bold consumer product designed to help tackle drink spiking while creating a new lifestyle-driven approach to confidence and protection in live environments. The future of music innovation is clearly being shaped by founders working across creator tools, fan engagement, live operations, safety, commerce and AI, and this year’s accelerator was a reminder of how much talent is emerging globally across the space. Thank you to all KOR Protocol, Inder Phull, and all founders, judges, partners and attendees who made IMS Accelerator 2026 such a special experience Stay tuned as the next edition of the IMS Accelerator will be announced soon.

IMS in Conversation with Inder Phull. From winning the IMS Visionaries Award to developing the IMS Accelerator, Inder’s journey shows how ideas grow when the right community is around them. In this interview, he reflects on what IMS unlocked for him, the value it brings to founders and creators, and the moments that have stayed with him across nearly a decade of attendance. Write your own story at IMS Ibiza in 2026. Badges on sale now: https://lnkd.in/e_Pk6BmB Read Inder’s full interview on our site: https://lnkd.in/dnr2Jffa Mentioned: KOR Protocol | PIXELYNX | Ben Turner | Roberta Hickey | UNESCO Presenting Partners: AlphaTheta EMEA Limited | Beatport | Association For Electronic Music | Areté | EarthPercent

What if you could own a piece of Black Mirror? What if the next big shift in entertainment wasn’t another streaming platform, but a new ownership model? For decades, intellectual property (IP) has been the crown jewel of global media. A blockbuster series, a music catalogue, a gaming franchise—they generate billions. But here’s the paradox: the fans who fuel that value rarely share in the upside. At best, they buy merch or tickets. The real ownership—royalties, licensing rights, creative influence—remains locked behind corporate doors. Web3 is changing the status quo and you can see it beginning to crack. This is where the Black Mirror Experience ($MIRROR) comes in. ✅ Black Mirror’s Season 6 drew 1.6 billion views ✅ $MIRROR ecosystem registered 500,000+ signups before launch ✅ 58% of token supply allocated directly to the community Not a spin-off. Not a marketing gimmick. But the first-ever officially licensed AAA franchise token, built in full partnership with IP holders and powered by KOR Protocol. Here’s what makes it different: • Fans can co-own and co-fund official productions—from episodes to comics to immersive apps. • Reputation scores reward participation, turning engagement into real influence. • Physical activations—Times Square events, Brooklyn Mirage launches—connect the digital with the tangible. • Backers like Animoca Brands, Avalanche, and Republic signal that this is more than an experiment. Why this excites me? Because it shifts the role of the fan from spectator to stakeholder. It’s not about jargon like TPS or DeFi mechanics. It’s about cultural equity—giving fans a direct seat at the table of the stories they love. → Direct IP-to-fan connection → Ownership that extends beyond merchandise → Shared upside in future creative outputs → A repeatable blueprint for other global brands When you zoom out, the implications are enormous. Just as tokenization of real-world assets has opened access to real estate and commodities, tokenization of IP could unlock a participatory model for culture itself. Entertainment, music, publishing, gaming—all could evolve from passive consumption to active, shared ownership. That’s why I believe what Inder Phull and the team at KOR Protocol are building is more than an innovation. It’s a shift in how cultural value gets created, captured, and distributed. And while I’ve had the chance to work with the team directly, what excites me most isn’t just the tech—it’s the vision of making fans true participants in the IPs they love. This feels less like a product launch and more like the start of a new ownership model for culture itself. The bigger question isn’t whether this model will scale. It’s which major IPs will be next to follow suit. What IP do you want to see unlock its value to fans?