Tag Archives: Crowdsource

RecordTogether – Crowdsource Tracks For Your Recordings

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Name: Record Together
URL: http://www.recordtogether.com

Think of all these albums in which bands couldn’t afford to hire extra instrumentalists. Just how good would they have been if a service like Record Together had existed back in the day? What if The Who had managed to hire cello players for “A Quick One, While He’s Away” (the mini-opera after which their second LP was named)? Would real cellos have sounded better than the jokey “cello, cello, cello” the guys ended up chanting in the finished record? Would that have taken away from the charm of the piece? That could be debated for longer than it took Brian Wilson to release “Smile” as he had originally conceived it, and we’d never come to any kind of agreement. Integrity, ingenuity, imnocence… the people who would veto using outside instrumentalists always end up talking about such things.

Yet, they have to admit that some classic albums could have been nothing short of perfected if artists could have had access to accomplished session players. If The Smiths had hired a full orchestra to play on their epic “The Queen Is Dead”, the end result could have been even better than it was. When the album was originally recorded, the band had to hire the services of “The Hated Salford Ensemble” (IE guitarist Johnny Marr playing everything using a keyboard) to get the accompaniment they wanted for songs like “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” and “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”. Continue reading →

Wilco Crowdsources Fan Videos For Its US Tour

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Wilco Is Touring The US & Europe In Support Of Its Eight Album, "The Whole Love". And YOU Can Be Part Of It All.

Wilco is currently touring the United States, and the band has taken a novel approach for bringing its shows to life.

The Illinois-based alternative rockers are asking fans to submit videos of all the cities they’re going to tour. The idea is that these will be projected behind the band when its playing live.

These videos can be uploaded to the band’s Vimeo page (Wilco Fan Video Project), and the band is specifically interested in “footage of settings and places that really say something about the area, its people and/or history, geography, whatever.” Wilco is on the road in support of its eighth studio album, “The Whole Love”.

This is similar to something LCD Soundsystem did recently, when the band asked fans to upload footage of clouds shot from airplane windows to use as the backdrop of its final show at Madison Square Garden.

Crowdbands – A Record Label Run By The People

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crowdbands

Name: Crowdbands
URL: http://www.crowdbands.com

Record labels as we have always known them are on their way to extinction. Well, that is what the team behind this startup seems to be screaming at the top of its voice.

Crowdbands is a collaborative platform that to all intents and purposes resembles a record label whose decisions are taken by the public. Which songs will be recorded by which band, when will any of the bands on the roster go on tour, what the artwork of albums and singles will look like, which late shows they should play… These are the kind of decisions that users of Crowdbands are allowed to take. We are talking about one of the clearest examples of crowdsourcing yet applied to the music industry.

The one and only drawback something like this has, now, is that it effectively puts an end to songs like the Sex Pistols’ “EMI” or XTC’s “I Bought Myself A Liarbird”. As Johnny Rotten himself once commented, lousy record companies make (and have always made) for terrific compositions since the dawn of time. Well, I guess composers now will have to do without one of the most devilish sources of inspiration ever. We’ll see if the tradeoff (IE, the sense of communion) will suffice. And say what you wish, but I think we are losing a certain dose of malice that has always kept the scene entertaining to begin with.

Kristian Dupont (Minimum Noise) – Interview (Part 1)

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As you probably recall, last week I reviewed (and was very impressed) by a startup named Minimum Noise. I was lucky enough to interview co-founder Kristian Dupont, and I am extremely grateful for his insight and advice. I have split the interview in two parts, the first is found below and it deals with the company, whereas the second one is the “Music & You” section that you are probably familiar with already if you are a MusicKO regular. It is found here.

Enjoy!

Kristian Dupont

Mr. Kristian Dupont

Full Name: Kristian Dupont

Age: 31

Startup: Minimum Noise

Position: Co-founder

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

Sammy (my co-founder) and I have worked with tv-production and video games for many years. We love all things media. Having seen the crowdsourcing model work well for design sites, we wanted to apply this to media production in general. Minimum Noise does this for music. The concept is simple: if you need music production, you post a “project” on Minimum Noise. This project describes your requirements and how much you want to pay. Musicians can then upload mp3’s with sketches of how they would make it. You pick a winner, pay the musician and get the audio material. Continue reading →

MinimumNoise – Crowdsourcing Music Production

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MinimumNoise

Name: Minimum Noise

URL: http://www.minimumnoise.com

This site defines itself as a music marketplace that lets people crowdsource music production on the Net. The way it works is really simple: you just create a project and explain how much you are willing to pay for it. Once you have done so, producers can access your project’s page and take part of it by uploading audio clips for you to weigh up. When you come across one that fits what you had originally envisioned, it is a mere matter of transferring the money and receiving the full audio.

When creating your project, you can (and must) include a couple of reference files for the community of producers to easily realize what it is you are after. That is only suitable – it is almost impossible to transmit music verbally, and a short clip is certain to transmit the concept 100 % accurately and in no time at all. Continue reading →