07
Consider this…
Filed Under (Random Thought) by Frank on 07-10-2008
Tagged Under : Bands, Cover, Improve, Music, Practice, Song, Songs, Win
I’ve spent time working on a MS Windows program that I will eventually release as open source. The program isn’t spectacular — it is a hierarchical ToDo list. This means that you can have sub-tasks. I like this type of tool while I work (as a programmer).
Anyway, it got me thinking about something… Millions and millions of programmers work on open source software software each day. Some of the most notable open-source products include (but are not limited to) FireFox (the web browser) and OpenOffice (A Microsoft Office Compatible Office suite). These two programs, I imagine, have hundreds of people working on them; thousands of programmers are willing to work on free products. Given this, then why isn’t there free music? There should be thousands of free songs!
Perhaps there is? Perhaps I’m not looking in the right place? Either way, it probably isn’t wildly known else I’d have stumbled upon it by now…
I wrote my aforementioned program as a practice piece. Something to hone certain skills and to see what I could produce. I guess what I’m trying to ask is: do musician or bands create and record songs and release them for free for the same purpose? Or perhaps with the idea of getting feedback from the public in order to improve or perhaps just to hear how one sounds on a recorded and mixed song?
I know that Jonathan Coulton did something like this. He spent, I believe, a year releasing a song a week on his blog for free. You can still download those songs.
Do you do things like this?
I suppose some people do this on YouTube, doing covers and stuff. But I’m looking specificity at original material?
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What surprises me is that nobody (that I know of) has produced a site which is specifically about online collaboration. I’ve seen some stuff done on guitar.com, which seemed like a great blueprint. Maybe people do it using Garageband? Don’t know…
Here’s basically the way it would work.
You come up with an idea. Anything. A chord sequence, a riff, a drumbeat, whatever. You record it, even if it’s just humming or whatever. You post it. People listen and think ‘I can add something to that’ so they do. Maybe 10 people do and you, the originator, decide which ideas you like and which you don’t. Basically, you organically grow a piece of music through collaboration.
Like I say, I’ve seen it done successfully here and there, but I’ve never seen a site dedicated to it.
Kenskis last blog post..Absolutely Fabulous
Kenski,
Very interesting idea… Got any experience in website development or design?
I might be starting a new project!
Regards,
Frank
I have some experience, but NO TIME!
The other idea that I think is a real worthwhile one is to make a ‘my first band’ site where you can go with no experience and still get to play with other local people. Possibly have some mentoring, hints and tips (like what you do when you go to a rehearsal room etc)…
…all aimed at people who’re starting out, irrespective of age.
Kenskis last blog post..Absolutely Fabulous
Also a good idea, but Meetup could be used for something sort of like that…. couldn’t it?
A dedicated site would be good but I’m not sure one would find as much success with that…
But good idea, nonetheless.