Posted in Industry Talk, Music Talk, tagged CC, colbert report, lawrence lessig, remix on May 1, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Lawrence Lessig just released his well awaited REMIX book in CC for free. You can download the book on the Bloomsbury Academic page.
A lot of hype accumulated around this release when Lessig pitched it on the Colbert Report in January. I you haven’t heard about this story, I really encourage to check out our post on the matter here.
Woof.
Posted in Industry Talk, tagged art, commerce, copyright, copyright law, hybrid economy, indaba, lawrence lessig, mix, music, ree culture, remix, stephen colbert, user generated content on January 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Ok I’m kind of late on this but it’s still worth mentioning.
Larry Lessig, crusader for new copyright laws, was invited on the Colbert Report 5 days ago to discuss his new book ‘Remix. Making Art And Commerce Thrive In The Hybrid Economy‘, which deals with new ‘hybrid’ economies (where “commercial entities leverage value from sharing economies”), how they are thriving thanks to user generated content, and how this needs to affect current copyright legislation.
I have already had the chance to read one of his older books, Free Culture, and recommend it to all of you who have the least bit of interest in the copyright issues of the 20th century. You might not agree with all Lessig says, but still, it’s a very good read (download for free and legally on the Free Culture website)
Anyways, so Stephen Colbert invited Lessig not so much to discuss, but rather to fuss about and take the piss out of his new book:
Colbert is a funny guy, no doubt about it, but pretty obnoxious. Of course you must take into account the fact that he plays the role of a right-wing reactionary in his Colbert Report who reflects the reasoning and the understanding of the un-educated.
He does this marvelously with Lessig. When he states “[To camera] Never, ever, ever, ever take anything of mine and remix it. For instance, I’ll be very angry and possibly litigious if anyone out there takes this interview right here and remix it with some great dance beat and then it starts showing up in clubs across America” he’s cryin’ for the online communities to have a go at it. It was a good call ’cause people got to work.
There is currently a session going on on Indaba until the 22th of Jan dedicated to remixing the interview. If you wanna have a go at it, or if you just wanna have a listen, there are some very good mixes in there. On the due date, Indaba plans on inviting both Lessig and Colbert to the session. This promises to be pretty entertaining if they do show up.
The ccMixster community is also hard on the job. Check out their session here.
mruff.
Posted in Industry Talk, tagged harrowdown hill, in rainbows, iTunes, jazz, obama, radiohead, remix, the guardian on November 7, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Thom Yorke celebrates Obama’s victory by humbly donating ‘a remix of harrowdown hill that was finished ages ago during the band webcasts’. A pretty gloomy musical piece as a ‘small reminder of the dark days of Bush’s….’
That’s not the only remix news Radiohead has to offer. Uk’s The Guardian has addressed five renowned jazzmen to perform interpretation of the song ‘Nude’ out of Radiohead’s latest album, ‘In Rainbows’. You can listen to the versions here.
Beautiful results for a beautiful song. For those of you who still haven’t given In Rainbows a shot, I urge you to do so. The album is breathtaking.
A couple of weeks ago the band’s publishing firm released the numbers behind its success, and those too are breathtaking. In Rainbows to date, has moved more than 3 million units, across box-sets, physical CD sales, and downloads via iTunes and the band’s website. The physical CD itself has moved 1.75 million since its release in January.
The ‘pay what you want’ model did pay off big time, even after Radiohead got criticized for dropping it after three months. We all agree that very few are the bands that can pull this off, but these numbers proove that quality of music surpasses the prestige of a band’s reputation. Their previous album ‘Hail to the thief’ moved less copies even as it was label-supported. This goes to show that top-notch major label executive marketing and promotion isn’t necessarily the answer to healthy success.
We are at a time where people can listen to whatever they want from whoever they want whenever they want. My take on this is that only the artists who concentrate more on their art then on anything else have better chances at getting noticed and appreciated for what they do.
mruff.
Posted in Music 2.0/Networking, Recording/Mixing/Tech, tagged artist collaboration, ccmixster, indabamusic, jamglue, music collaborations, music collabs, remix, remix sessions, remix website, remixing, remixing tracks, wemix on June 25, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Ever recorded a 
guitar riff that you really liked but just couldn’t find the proper vocal melody to make it come to life? This is part of my daily frustrations as a songwriter, and vocals are far from being the only ones responsible. The better question is: ever recorded anything that hasn’t reached completion due to lack of motivation or inspiration? I’m guessing the answer is yes if you have a recording setup and use it. Usually these incomplete musical extracts are left behind and stored in an amazingly disorganized bottomless pit of sub folders somewhere in one of your many hundred-something-giga hard-drives. In other words, they usually get lost and forgotten. You can always fall upon them one day browsing through your data and give them another shot, but chances are you won’t. What I recommend for these type of ideas is either hook-up whatever instrument you got on the spot and start playing experimental free-jazz to loosen up some ideas, or just upload your tracks to a remix and collaboration site like CCMixster.
Remix and musical collaboration websites are becoming extremely popular nowadays and CCmixtster is a well respected one. Very simple concept: upload your tracks for others to remix and arrange them. You can upload an a cappela track indicating the key and tempo in which you’re singing and have someone produce the instrumentals. You can upload that guitar track we were talking about and have a singer give it a try. Basically these sites makes it easy to get your music in the hands of others for the purpose of collaborating and sharing talents.
I would recommend checking out these sites as well:
This new approach to creating music goes far beyond just needing extra inspiration for your songs. It’s more about finding the right people to work with and creating real interaction with musicians from around the globe. You can see it as a supply and demand type of relationship. Whether you’ll need a tabla player, a swing drum beat, a guitar-hero style tapping technique for a tune, all these websites will make it a hell of a lot easier to come by. Heck, you planning on playing a show in a town and need an extra guitarist to fill up some songs, find one in your target location ahead of time and send him your tracks. This could be a great way to diversify your style and have him bring his friends to your show. Unlimited possibilities are coming our way so let us embrace them in the name of the doggy.
Mruff, miaou, roar.
