music, culture, discourse, new media
convergence
Music Video as Interactive Art: Arcade Fire
Aug 30th
Arcade Fire, seminal indie band with the #7 record in the country (previously at #1), has teamed up with director Chris Milk and the good folks over at Google Chrome Experiments to create an interactive music video for the single We Used To Wait.
The first of it’s kind, the video utilizes Google maps + HTML 5 video, audio and canvas to present a multi-window, choreographed experience.
Simply enter the address of the house you grew up in and the feature takes it from there.
The experience was designed to work in Google Chrome, but seems to work in Safari too.
I’d rather not spoil anything – check it out for yourself, here!
http://www.chromeexperiments.com/arcadefire
The first HTML5 album, from Francis and the Lights
Jun 30th
Muxtape founder Justin Ouellette is back with a design created specifically to play on the iPhone 4 and iPad. This is a great workaround as both operating systems notoriously don’t stream Flash. You can listen to the full album, embed it, and download tracks directly from iTunes all while multitasking (a new feature for the iPhone). Pretty cool!
A Rant on Accessibility, Part 2: Gimme Gimme
Jun 25th
Music Technology is slowly changing. It’s adopting to consumer needs by giving music fans access to music anytime, almost anywhere, from anyplace.
New models like Rdio and Spotify allow us to search and listen for pretty much anything as long as there’s a solid network connection + computer or smart phone. We can easily create playlists and share them with friends. We can discover new music and in the case of Spotify, collaborate on dynamic playlists and create artist or decade-centric radio stations.
Old models like Rhapsody work like a storefront while granting us access to music in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. This model, although advanced at the time, still doesn’t allow us to see other users’ playlists or collaborate in an interactive way.
MOG is a strong contender in the marriage of content with editorial. With a firehose of musical content coming at us constantly, it’s nice to have direction from tastemakers to learn about what’s worth checking out.
Most notably, portability has become a reality with the development of apps for the smart phone. On the open-source Android platform, music specific apps like iMusic and Chompin make listening to music on the go a breeze – and are possibly the cleverest of the new breed.
Both apps aggregate music from blogs rather than hosting the content locally.
iMusic snags it’s musical database from what users are already listening to, similar to how Last.fm agreggates possibly one of the largest collections of music metadata on the internet simply by leveraging the data provided by its users.
By aggregating music from blogs, both services eschew potential legalities of making music available that hasn’t been officially released to the marketplace yet. It also broadens search.
Crawling blogs makes the odds of finding the exact track one is looking for – a b-side, remix, or live version – much greater.
This is particularly important because music fans take pride in discovering something new and/or exclusive. We invest our time in these sites. It’s disappointing when we can’t get access to music we know is out there. We can’t play DJ, or personalize playlists on your site as much as we’d like to.
What iMusic and Chompin are doing is brilliant, not only because it makes the user experience better – but it’s also indicative of a newer and perhaps broader way of purchasing music.
Labels are still hesitant to leave content in the hands of consumers. Sure, we download illegal promos, search for torrents of leaked albums, and unflinchingly pass along un-licensed mixtapes. But in truth this isn’t a bad thing.
Here’s why: music fans do it feverishly. They do it with a passion. They chomp at the proverbial bit for these leaks.
We want to be tastemakers. We’re eager to be the first to tell our friends about something new. And when we like it, we’re telling everyone we know. Hyperdistribution, anyone? Even according to the old business model, this remains the single best way to acquire a superfan.
If a record has stickiness, it can be released into the wild and it WILL be noticed.
It might not be picked up on the traditional charts but you’ll see it on Hype Machine. It’ll appear on We Are Hunted. You’ll see friends dedicate singles to one another and watch viral videos over and over again. Let these users decide what they like. Give them access to everything, and keep an eye on the numbers. If the music is good and the marketing power behind the band is smart enough – the revenue will follow.
The concept of music ownership is affected by the aforementioned technologies anyway. Why would I want to tend to my un-wieldy music collection when I can queue up a playlist in the cloud?
To be clear, ownership is not going away. It’s simply changing.
If I can listen to a full, lo-fi version of a amazing record on repeat – for free – I’ll gladly shell out my hard-earned moolah for hi-res WAV files.
I’ll buy a ticket to the show when the band comes to town. If I’m in love with a particular record (which tends to happen every week with die-hard music fanatics), I’ll see them again and again. I’ll be inclined to purchase vinyl or limited-edition items like prints and other merch.
Make music more accessible – and let the fans decide.
If it’s good enough, they’ll tell their friends. And buy concert tickets. And a hi-res copy of the album. And subscribe to the fan club.
And so on, and so on.
related:
Media for Everyone
Aug 3rd
Some say the decentralized nature of online communities creates an environment conducive to so-called socialist behavior. I wouldn’t say these tenets are examples of a new socialism* by any means. I think the medium contains too many overarching constituents to take into consideration before assigning it any sociological value.
Given my own experience with online communities I’d lean towards more of a populist approach* – and I also wonder:
Are there any underlying marxist elements at play when we think about how content is consumed?
Rapid technological advancement leads to costly hardware from iPhones, to gaming consoles, to media storage. On top of that, monthly bandwidth and data plans are required to make those things work.
Comcast employs a tier-based system of pricing models for various downstream and upstream bitrates. It’s recommended to have at least have a 1.5MB pull to watch video, a step or two above the most basic monthly package.
This ultimately leads to a pyramid of who can afford what. Are we leaving out those who have limited to no accessibility?
If so, how large will the rift be between the informed and uninformed?
In the print editon of July’s Wired, President Obama’s newly appointed CIO Vivek Kundra references online communities as the new public square where people will discuss government info soon to be released online.
He says that “...by democratizing data, the American people will be able to hold their government accountable, based on evidence rather than talk.”
This is great and the internet does act as a public forum – but only for those who know how to use it. Will this create an elitist class of those who have means to access this information?
We live and work more efficiently than we did 5 years ago. We have the ability to get more done while constantly staying connected to each other and the rest of the world. In this seemingly decentralized and transparent public sphere we can stream documentaries for free under public domain, read about issues that affect us at the local and global level and then participate. We can even download a free weekly video update from our President.
Information we choose to receive is free and widely distributed. However hi-bandwidth is required to download podcasts, stream video, and move quickly from window to window. We need speedy hard drives and vast amounts of storage space with software that frequently needs to be updated. Not to mention the occasional tech support.
Will those who don’t have these things be left in the dark?
In an emergency, would people with the pricey smart phone have an advantage in avoiding a crisis situation?
If I were part of a Union and there’s activity happening online whereby I can participate in issues that matter to me, firstly I would want to know where to find about it. Secondly, I’d be inclined to participate.
Who are the technological evangelists empowering people of all classes to leverage the internet to their benefit?
The Media Access Project (MAP), Public Knowledge groups are just two of the public interest groups fighting for issues like the expansion of broadband, open access and net neutrality. The Center for Social Media encourages the promotion of a dynamic and engaged public through social media. There are many similar organizations out there (see links to a few below).
Maybe before taking on the herculean task of making government documents public, we should take additional steps to set up programs for public access and consumption.
Content-holders should be encouraged to offer lower bitrated streams of their media. Cities should create a rock-solid plan for municipal wi-fi. Community colleges can offer free classes showing people how to navigate RSS feeds and publish online. We need to leverage new media to somehow to become a voice for all, rather than a privileged novelty for some.
More:
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org
http://www.publicknowledge.org
http://www.media-democracy.net
http://www.democraticmedia.org
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/magazine/17-07/mf_cio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Kundra
*-
http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/10/hacking-the-debate/
Trackback for Facebook readers: http://www.nicolecifani.com/2009/08/media-for-everyone
The Media Access Project (MAP) and Public Knowledge group are just two of the public interest groups fighting for issues like the expansion of broadband, open access and net neutrality. The Center for Social Media encourages the promotion of a dynamic and engaged public through social media. There are many similar organizations out there (see links below).
Maybe before taking on the herculean task of making government documents public, we should take additional steps to set up programs for public access.
Content-holders should be encouraged to offer lower bitrated streams of their media. Cities should create a rock-solid plan for municipal wi-fi. Community colleges can offer free classes showing people how to navigate RSS feeds and publish online. We need to leverage new media to somehow to become a voice for all, rather than a privileged novelty for some.
More:
http://www.mediaaccess.org/
http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org
http://www.publicknowledge.org/
http://freeculture.org/
http://www.media-democracy.net/
http://www.democraticmedia.org/
http://www.freepress.net/
http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/magazine/17-07/mf_cio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Kundra
*-
http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/11/twitter-facebook-and-fox-news-oh-my-or-how-i-was-seduced-by-the-internet-on-election-night/
http://www.nicolecifani.com/2008/10/hacking-the-debate/
I want to Spotify
Jun 12th
Spotify, a music service currently only available outside of the US, is a social streaming site that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums.
Users can easily share their library with friends and collaborate on playlists.
Although ownership of music is important to users in general a more pressing issue is accessibility. Sites like Hype Machine and Imeem allow us to share songs with friends, but we can only share the content that those sites have available to us.
By employing the peer-to-peer model like Spotify does, I can upload those special gems and curated playlists I spend weeks agonizing over. My friends can then stream the music and click-through to purchase for legitimate ownership of the song.
Spotify takes advantage of the “cloud“- data living over the internet as opposed to locally on your computer. We can peruse music quickly this way without downloading it first. Then, if a user wants ownership of the song, it can be purchased – supporting the artist rather than jacking it from a blog.
Makes sense to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify
A Look at Miro
Mar 15th
Note: This article is syndicated at made this for you.
After spending time with Boxee, I decided it was time to explore alternate options for streaming online video to my TV. The back-and-forth between Boxee and Hulu had started to get a little nuts – and ideally I’d like one place to go for all my content without worrying about it unexpectedly going away. In a perfect world, all content owners would offer an RSS feed for me to ingest content wherever I’d like it to go. If the bulk of the advertising lives within the video playback itself, video can freely travel – and the container itself shouldn’t make a big difference.
Cue Miro.
While trolling my Google reader late one night (as nerds like us are wont to do), I discovered the free, open source HD video player that quickly and easily serves up video streams. You can stream videos from sites like YouTube, Comedy Central, CBS, or Hulu (for now); and Miro will upscale to HD wherever it’s offered. The app offers full playback of content from within my media library too; making it a great one-stop for video playback. Very cool. Miro’s real strength though, appears to lie in the ability to host and organize multiple video feeds from a variety of sources.
The simple layout and navigation process resembles iTunes. A sidebar located on the left allows easy navigation of your content whether it be online or local. You can subscribe to RSS feeds and set them to automatically download new episodes as they become available- just like subscribing to a podcast in iTunes. You can even subscribe to a torrent, allowing you to keep all of your vids in one place (I chose a “Miro” directory under “Movies” to keep it clean). After Miro grabs your new episodes, you can easily port them to your device of choice.
The open-source nature of the program means that you can participate in the continual build to improve it. The website offers information for those who would like to write code, become a bug tester, or simply help others get started.
Miro 2.0 is currently free for Mac OSX and created by the non-profit Participatory Culture Foundation. It’s open source and licensed under the GPL (general public license), with the goal to decentralize online video by making it free and open.
Get it: http://www.getmiro.com
Read the blog: http://www.getmiro.com/blog
Musings: Crafting Mixtapes in a Digital Age
Mar 2nd
At the end of each month I make a mixtape and send it to a small group of friends. It’s a mix of new, old, and remixed music, with some fun rarities like unreleased b-sides or cover songs thrown in for good measure.
15 years ago I made mixtapes using a different methodology – cassettes. I taped songs from the radio or dubbed songs from other tapes or CDs. To my friends’ dismay I would cut in and out of songs, looping bits, chopping about to create my own customized mix. I decorated the CD case with felt-tip markers and distributed the batch from a tattered, blue plastic Gap bag that weekend or whenever I saw someone next (In other words they didn’t receive the mix right away. You can see where I’m headed with this).
Technology has made it innumerably easier to create and distribute a digital mixtape. However, these mixtapes are frowned upon by the powers-that-be because rights for each song need to be cleared prior to streaming them.
In a digital age of advanced marketing and cross-promotional tactics – why can’t a mixtape become a promotional vehicle, a flipped funnel so to speak – rather than totally shut out as a viable way of sharing music?
Hyperdistribution can work for an artist, not necessarily against.
15 years ago an optimal distribution method would be me sharing a song that I’m crazy about with, let’s say, 10 friends. Great case scenario, 5 of those 10 friends go out and buy the CD and even tell another friend or two about the band. Fast forward to now and this translates to quick dedications, sharing, tagging, and embedding with hopefully the eventual intent to buy the single or album.
I understand the popularity of widgets to share and track music. But I think there’s a need for something even more nimble; a universal technology that can allow a song to travel further by becoming directly associated with the content.
Perhaps something along the lines of an embed code could travel with each song, containing an accompanying click-thru link for users to purchase the content. The code could incorporate tracking so promos intentionally leaked to blogs could be followed and music could become legitimately spread by fans on a viral level. The code could be user or label assigned and registered in a database somewhere, like a Gracenote vox populi.
By tracking content but allowing it to travel freely everyone wins. The artist gets marketing feedback, promotion, potential sales and recognition, and I can safely put together a mixtape that rocks, all the while knowing that I’m not only telling my friends about this cool artist but also making it super-easy for them to buy the work or tell someone else about it.
This kind of technology could potentially legitimize sites like Muxtape, a playlist-building site that allows users to upload their playlists and share them with friends on a streaming-only basis.
Playlist building sites like Imeem are great because they clear rights from the labels up front – allowing users to stream, share, and embed content hassle-free. But what about us die-hard music fans who want to share the remixes, rarities, and b-sides – stuff that”s just not out yet?
DJ’s and music fans have been clamoring for decades to be the first to drop that unreleased promo or song that is bound to make everyone go nuts. The digital age hasn’t changed that. if I get my hands on a hot new song, I want to tell everyone I know about it. That’s the job of the DJ. It’s the job of a music fan. And that won’t change now or 15 years from now.
A rant on accessibility (or, i left that perfect song at home yet have 3 iPods on me)
Feb 14th
I’m a sucker for streaming content and the possibilities thereof. Not just because having ‘content in a cloud’ sounds sexy or because I don’t have cable at home and want to scratch a pop culture itch.
I believe that media should be accessible anytime, anyplace, from any device of choice.
From a user perspective it’s just convenient that way.
For example I want my music library with me at all times. I want access to my eMusic, Rhapsody, Last.fm, Blip and Slacker accounts and my purchases from Amazon Mp3 and iTunes. In a perfect world I would have all of these things with me at all times so I can cue up a song in the car, at the gym or at home. I want to tag a song on the go, share it with friends, and add it to a playlist to listen to later.
I want to tag a song I hear and reference it later quickly and easily.
I realize that there are many hurdles from both biz and tech standpoints for this to happen anytime soon. But do I think that syndicating content across platforms and creating ops for ad revenue there could be a good thing.
Unboxing Boxee
Feb 13th
Boxee is an open source media center that allows you to enjoy your movies, tv shows, music and photos in one place and pull more streaming content from the web. You can recommend items to friends – and see what your friends have recently watched or what they recommend.
I installed Boxee on my Macbook Pro running Leopard OSX 10.5.6. Boxee automatically discovered the music, movies, tv shows, and pictures on my hard drive, allowing me to navigate by format of choice.
One of the great simple features about Boxee is that I have the option to go online within each category seamlessly. For example, under “movies” I can access my Netflix account and stream movies from my instant queue. Under “music” I can log in to my Last.fm account and stream a station. Also cool is the ability to discover content from CNN, CBS, Comedy Central, Hulu, etc under “television”.
I can set up RSS feeds to add niche-specific shows that I prefer. This is where it gets interesting. Should I feed in a TED video podcast? How about CNN breaking news clips – or a torrent of Gossip Girl?
Extremely intuitive, sleek design. Awesome. Now how do I get this from my mac to my television?
For picture I connected my laptop to a Samsung 36″ HDTV using a DVI-D to HDMI adapter. For audio I used a basic Y Cable running from the laptop’s digital output to Onyko 5.1 Surround. Still looks sleek. In settings I can check real-time details to monitor how close I’m getting to 60 Hz.
Pretty cool. Now how can I control Boxee remotely to make the experience akin to watching television?
I discovered that the Boxee remote app is due any day. In the meantime, found an app called AirMote and installed it on my iTouch running 2.2 software.
All of this sounds fine and dandy. But, how does Boxee handle streaming? I can have access to all the content in the world but if the streaming quality is bad – buffering does not a good movie watching experience make.
Speakeasy.net tells me that I’m clocking in at a 1.5MB pull. Not bad. I watched a few trailers from the apple site and it looked great. I then went to Hulu to catch the latest episode of 30 Rock. Halfway through I almost forgot that I was watching over the internet. The stream was crisp and there was no buffering at all. The quality was about the same as watching television but higher bandwidth paired with more HD offerings could easily solve that. Streaming a movie from my Netflix instant-queue was different. It didn’t buffer but the video occasionally dropped a few frames.
I skated over to the music category and streamed music from my library then visited Last.fm. Would love to pull in music from other sources such as Pandora or Slacker, too.
Boxee allows me to friend other users and see what they’re watching. I can recommend programs to my friends and view items recommended to me on the Boxee homepage. At friendfeed, Twitter, and Tumblr I can share my recommendations, what I’m watching, and what I’m listening to.
I like having all of my digital media in one place. It’s fun albeit a little strange to lifestream what I’m watching. However I can’t multi-task and surf around on my computer while I watch. Time to save up for a Mac Mini! Then I can network all of my media somehow…. Which makes me wonder how I would go about backing it all up…ahh there’s always something.
Anyway, 2 thumbs up for Boxee.
note: thanks to Andy Sternberg for the Alpha version invite.
Lawrence Lessig and Hybrid Economies
Jan 12th
Lawrence Lessig on the Colbert Report, 1/8/09:
“Artists have gotten no more money, businesses have not gotten more profit, and our kids have been turned into criminals.” – Lawrence Lessig
I agree with Lessig. Remixes and mashups aren’t going away. It’s time that Congress developed ways to address the new medium rather than fight it. Artists including Yo Yo Ma have warmed to the idea and encourage remixes of their work. Great collabs crop up daily on the music blogs and beyond. See last week’s Jaydiohead, a Jay-Z and Radiohead mashup by Minty Fresh Beats that, despite what Pitchfork had to say, had people including the likes of Carson Daly talking it up.
I enjoyed hearing Lessig briefly explain his “hybrid economy” theory. Hybrid economies are seemingly more prevalent than we think. This blog is a hybrid. Particularly if I chose to sell ad space on it. So I feature content from other places like Comedy Central on this blog which is hosted by WordPress - a platform that I did not partake in the creation of. When the copyrighted content is fused with the editorial I write, it creates a new piece of work with additional opportunities for revenue.
I believe that artists should get paid for their work and all derivatives thereof. Just as Comedy Central tracks the embed of the above video and WordPress hosts my blog, each creator deserves a fair share of what is rightfully theirs. If Congress could learn to move forward with that idea instead of fighting the very idea of a collabration, remix, mashup, or hybrid project…well…that would be good.
