This Monday I installed and configured a new music wiki at the Sequenza21 web site. At first, I was questioning why bother, given my experience with MP3.COM. For those that don't remember those good old days, MP3.COM started out focussed, progressive and then slowly slipped into an anything goes type of scene which ultimately led me to start NetNewMusic and The Classical MP3 Portal. Curation seemed to be a necessity to keep every kid who had an MP3 that used a string patch from claiming their music was contemporary or classical.
Now that the site is up, I'm beginning to see some interesting differences. For one, there are a zillion places to promote your music now, so the S21 site is probably off of most spammers scopes. Perhaps another reason the S21 scene is working is that the good folks at S21 never seemed to go through the MP3.COM era of new music excitement, disappointment and then disgust. They seem to think that sharing MP3's is fun, hence the Listening Room. Ouch I had thought that after 150,000 downloads BlueStrider had been heard by everyone on the web. It seems not to be the case and from that participation, my piece is now being featured at Kyle Gann's PostClassic Radio.
As the web has become the primary music distribution system, perhaps micro-communities can thrive now without stepping on each other's toes? Is it possible that there won't be the need to have genre cops anymore because there will be super obvious places to place your links? Does that mean that these communities might actually thrive and promote each other's music in a genre-relevant manner? Wo...
You just never know where the web is going to turn or what opportunity is going to present itself to you. I see that I have to not make assumptions about how web communities are built, what they know, how they're going to react, how they work together. It's all exciting again. Who'd have thunk it?
Posted by jeff at June 26, 2005 02:34 PM | TrackBackJeff, I've been a big believer for a long time, as I think have you, that online distribution via P2P is the way to go to get new music around, discussed, and hopefully performed. I'm starting to see some traction now, thanks to your good efforts at S21, but there is still a ways to go before free music distribution sites are the predominant form of music exchange. I do think it's the way to go, however.
Posted by: David Toub at June 26, 2005 04:40 PMI was interviewed a while back on NewMusicBox about MP3 distribution and my main point was - why the hell are we worried about being ripped off when nobody is even listening?
It's a weird materialistic fear we have that our music will be stolen by thieves that don't even know we exist.
First make an audience, get them to listen, then hell, maybe try and force some dimes out of their pocket if you're so inclined. But they have to listen first. In that sense the web is like radio used to be. In the past the fear was, you'll get people taping radio programs and not buying records. Heh... turned into a huge promotional device old radio.
The community building we have on the web now, is so much better, we're all producers, consumers, promoters and critics. This decentralization can only promote audience building efforts it seems. And we won't need the print world to validate it. They'll come kissing our ass when they have to. Haha...
Posted by: jeff at June 26, 2005 04:55 PM
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