Archive for October, 2008

Progress at last

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Quite a lot has gone on since I last posted. I wrote and handed in my dissertation proposal, I doodled a lot and spilt ideas into my sketchbook, went through several more concepts, and then finally landed on something that I think could be pretty unique.

For a while I had this urge to produce some big illustrations based directly on information. LastFM have an API that I thought I could use to gather user details and produce some pretty complex diagrams on, based on their interactions with each other and music recommendations. However, I soon discovered that it was really only designed to be used for applications, and therefore I could only gather information on individuals, rather than groups of people. That was the end of that idea.

Following this I stayed with the ‘Information Visualisation’ theme and began thinking back to a piece of work that I completed last year. I attempted to illustrate a song, in quite an abstract form, where I created graphics based on the lyrics, the story behind the song, and also peoples’ opinions and emotions relating to the music. What if I take this concept and almost turn it on it’s head? What if I create illustrative diagrams based directly on the notation of an album – assigning a coordinate to each note in a song and plotting these on some sort of graph? This would surely create some very interesting visuals and maybe some correlation would be seen between the complexity of the diagrams and the mood/tempo/style of each song…but again, this idea didn’t last long…

The idea that I have decided to run with is off on a complete tangent from my dissertation subject, only linking by a thread…but I’m getting quite excited about it…

I am going to create an artistic viral comedy series. There will be no set and no props, it will be shot entirely on green-screen, and each episode will only be approximately 5 minutes long. The sets will be still images inserted behind the actors and the props will be superimposed onto the characters. In my head this looks good, however some testing will have to be conducted to determine the final ‘look’.

I am drafting in all sorts of help in terms of script writers and actors and I will become a project manager/editor, but also have input into all the other aspects of filming such as storyboarding and music production.

Better get going!

MySpace Music filtering – Beaten to it!

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

The Digital Music Report 2008 (DMR2008) states that:

“There are more than 1.2 million rock acts and 1.7 million R&B acts alone clamouring for attention on MySpace. This overwhelming number of new bands and music available to consumers also highlights one of the key roles for record companies in the digital space. The need for filtering, selection, marketing and recommendation is greater than ever.”

So I think, ‘Great!’ let’s make an application, or even better a website that taps into that problem and utilises it to make discovering new music easy. No one has the time these days to be searching around with no clear direction. We want things quick and easy, no fuss. Then I remember that MySpace has just launched a new music player, and come to agreements with three of the top labels to promote their music by letting users create playlists (similar to LastFM I think), and purchase tracks too.

My head is still spinning with crazy ideas of what my new website could do, pull band information, categorise them, pick up on influences and keywords, link through to the music player, and have easy ‘Add as friend’ buttons. But as a Facebook user, I am a little out of touch with all the new features that MySpace are implementing, and due to my inner celebrations about how I’ve finally landed on something that could possibly be a solid project, I totally overlook the glaringly obvious ‘Filter Results’ box on the Search page. Damn.

Is there still something that they aren’t doing quite as well as they should be? I don’t know…

Back to square one.

Hot topic

Monday, October 20th, 2008

The future of music was being discussed only this Thursday by leading figures of the digital world at the ETRE08 conference in Stockholm. In this short article published on the DigitalArts website on Friday, Mikael Ricknäs reports that Ian Henderson, vice president, EMEA Digital Music Development at Sony BMG Music Entertainment, sees three major trends emerging in the next year or two.

‘Two of them are à la carte downloads in a non-copy protected form and selling music bundled in with other products (including Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets, broadband or mobile access packages). “The consumer pays for a device or a telco tariff, and the music is bundled in,” [...]

The last trend is free for the user ad-supported music. “MySpace has an element of that, and there is a fantastic company right here in Stockholm called Spotify, which I think is going to be a leader in this space,” said Henderson’

It was also suggested that the record companies will have to adapt to the changing environment, but that they will never be lost, there will always be a need for them at the core of making artists huge stars and propelling them along with the cash and expertise needed to sell a lot music.

Read the article here http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?email&NewsID=11590

“Internet is the new radio”

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Over the weekend I read a very interesting transcript of a presentation by a guy called Seth Godin on ‘The Future of the Music Business’. It was originally delivered to representatives of the record industry to try and open their eyes to a new way of marketing to consumers; ‘Tribal Marketing’.

The presentation is witty, relevant, and has some very intelligent suggestions that I would be tempted to agree with.

This ‘Tribal Marketing’ that he is talking about is a way of marketing to niches, rather than the masses, and getting people to talk to each other and talk back to the record industry, and trying to get the record industry to listen rather than just ’shout’ things at people…because people won’t listen anymore.

People like to have something in return, they like acknowledgement. One very true point that Seth makes is that if he asked the representatives that he is talking to, to name 50, 000 of their best customers, they couldn’t do it. He suggests that the industry should give something back, or even better, that the artist should give something back. If I own every single Radiohead album, or Cure album, and I’ve been to their concerts and supported them for years then I want Thom York or Robert Smith to say “thanks mate, I really appreciate it”, because then I feel involved, I feel a part of that ‘tribe’ and I’ll probably be willing to pay for that persons music even if I can get it for free, because I feel like they deserve it.

Nowadays there are so many avenues for promoting music, and in turn a fair few ways of listening to it, they should be being used to culture these ‘tribes’. If I’m in a tribe, and I’m loyal to an artist, then why not treat me for it? If my favourite band is working on an album and they finish a few tracks then what’s wrong with them saying “Hey! You’re a good fan, what do you think of this?”…and releasing me a mastertone for my mobile or something similar of one of their new tracks? Now that isn’t a full song, it’s just a ringtone version, but I can still get a feel for the track and maybe I’ll give my feedback to the artist, and maybe it’ll be useful, but most importantly I’ll feel valued and I’ll be anticipating the full release even more, and I’ll most likely buy the album the minute it hist the shelves…

Finally, just to relate back to my title of ‘Internet is the new radio’, Seth makes the point that in the past all that record labels did was fight for radio airtime, the top 40 was what mattered because that’s where all the money was generated. This is not the case anymore, no one cares about the top 40 (and the majority of the top 40 sales are digital anyway, i.e. from the Internet), so the industry needs to use the Internet as a way of reaching the people that need to be reached. You have INFINITE airtime, you don’t have to fight anyone for it anymore, so why not use it to develop and culture your tribes? You shouldn’t be restricting the music that people hear, you should be using the net to let the people that matter hear as much music as possible, so they can tell people about how great it is and your tribe can grow and grow.

Inspirational Video

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Just found this video on the net and thought it was a brilliant idea and very well executed.

678 footage files required to render this composition are missing.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Images task…

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Asked to find 20 well thought images that have a relation to my studio project I came up with the following…

It was a little harder than expected and as I don’t yet have a solid idea for the project I decided to relate them to my areas or research.

We all listen to music, as designers we probably do more than most. The progression and advancement of the music industry is something that needs to happen.

We all listen to music, as designers we probably do more than most. The progression and advancement of the music industry is something that needs to happen.

Radiohead were one of the first to put the ball in the consumers court, letting them pay however much they wanted for their latest album 'In Rainbows'.

Radiohead were one of the first to put the ball in the consumers court, letting them pay however much they wanted for their latest album.

The current online music revolution is being referred to as Music 2.0. There are over 500 websites that allow users to listen legally to music on the web, through most people only know of a few.

The current online music revolution is being referred to as Music 2.0. There are over 500 websites that allow users to listen legally to music on the web, through most people only know of a few.

There are many new technologies emerging for listening to music that also combine internet access and purchasing options such as the iPhone and Microsoft Zune Player.

There are many new technologies emerging for listening to music that also combine internet access and purchasing options such as the iPhone and Microsoft Zune Player.

The biggest legal online music provider is iTunes. They have battled to get DRM-free music to their customers and were recently granted by EMI to do so.

The biggest legal online music provider is iTunes. They have battled to get DRM-free music to their customers and were recently granted by EMI to do so.

With the launch of the new MySpace music player they hoped to improve on one of the web's most popular ways of listening to new and undiscovered artists.

With the launch of the new MySpace music player they hoped to improve on one of the most popular ways of listening to new and undiscovered acts on the web.

LastFM is another very popular ways of legally listening to music online which enables users to share playlists with friends and push their favourite artists up the 'charts'.

LastFM is another very popular way of legally listening to music online, which enables users to share playlists with friends and push their favourite artists up the LastFM charts.

Music visualisation is also something that I am interested in. Desktop music players such as Windows Media Player and WinAmp have these in-built, however there are much more advanced ones available.

Music visualisation is also something that I am interested in. Desktop music players such as Windows Media Player and WinAmp have these in-built, however there are much more advanced ones available.

An interesting diagram that I found which attempts to display one persons CD collection in a circular format. It is separated by genre, by album, and even by tracks.

An interesting diagram that I found which attempts to display one persons CD collection in a circular format. It is separated by genre, by album, and even by track.

If music is destined to be consumed by the digital revolution then are we whitnessing the death of album art?

If music is destined to be consumed by the digital revolution then are we witnessing the death of album art and the design that comes with it?

If we cannot put a stop music piracy and making music free is the option, then with emerging technologies will we see a progression in the live concert experience?
If we cannot put a stop music piracy and making music free is the only option, then with emerging technologies will we see a progression in the live concert experience?
New ways of controlling illegal file sharing are desperately in need. ISPs are beginning to notify customers that they are under survalance in a bid to scare them off downloading illegally.
New ways of controlling illegal file sharing are desperately in need. ISPs are beginning to notify customers that they are under surveillance.
Copyright infringement is a huge problem and is causing a decline in CD sales and revenue generated for the record companies.
Copyright infringement is a huge problem and is causing a decline in CD sales and revenue generated for the record companies.
Software such as Bit Torrent and Kazaa that have emerged through the development of Napster are largely responsible for much of the illegal file sharing.

Software such as Bit Torrent and Kazaa that have emerged through the development of Napster are largely responsible for much of the illegal file sharing.

Jumping back to the idea of a revolution in watching live music performances, will future technology allow us to experience a whole new level of involvement from our own home?
Going back to the idea of a revolution in watching live music performances; Will future technology allow us to experience a whole new level of involvement from our own home?
The first of 5 pieces of work that I have chosen for their qualities in relation to music, or the music used. This piece of motion graphics is a prime example.
The first of 5 pieces of work that I have chosen for their qualities in relation to music, or the music used. This piece of motion graphics is a prime example of music and video sync.
An illustration which to me displays life revolving around music. The execution and detail of this are fantastic. http://www.behance.net/Gallery/The-music-nature/51596
An illustration which to me displays life revolving around music. The execution and detail of this is fantasticly inspiring.
Another piece of motion graphics that talks about music in a very aspirational and asthetically pleasing way.

Another piece of music related motion graphics that displays it's qualities in a very aspirational and asthetically pleasing way.

This obscure and very dark music video overlays illustration on video in a unique way that really portrays the feeling behind the song.

This obscure and very dark music video overlays illustration on video in a unique way that really portrays the feeling behind the song.

Finally, this piece of abstract art gave me the feeling of being encapsulated by the sound, feeling every beat and rhythem right through your body.

Finally, this piece of abstract art gave me the feeling of being encapsulated by the sound, feeling every beat and rhythem right through your body.