Robots or recitals - what is the future of live music?
By Bee
Photo: Kraftwerk in concert by Ian Abbott
Technology is the context we all live in. It permeates our lives and underpins everything that we do. It doesn’t matter if you are an acoustic musician playing the viola or if you are electronically remixing the latest hits. If you want to collaborate, record, reach an audience, produce, or pretty much do anything, you have to use technology. Why explore technology? It’s a rhetorical question, if you want to do anything as an artist you need to engage with technology. But there is a big plus in being at the front of the pack. The leading edge of technology attracts the greatest minds and the biggest thinkers and that is an exciting space for any artist.
According to Dr Stefan Hajkowicz (Chief Scientist, CSIRO), these are some of the technological trends coming down the line and my thoughts on what they might mean for musos.
People and the internet
People associate and interact with the web as a mental social and physical extension of themselves.
Most of us have social media accounts. Some of us create multiple personalities online and others link personal and professional profiles. Within this amalgam, we document our extended personality and memories. The more we post, and the more we share, the more we find people who have something in common with us - even if it is just one bit of us.
This extended social space facilitates the flow of ideas challenging geographic boundaries and traditional and cultural filters. New technology that functionally integrates the capacity to connect with others enables collaboration in ways we cannot imagine.
Imagine there's no countries/ It isn't hard to do/ Nothing to kill or die for/ And no religion too/ Imagine all the people living life in peace, - Lennon, J (1971) Imagine
Computing, communications and storage everywhere
We can interface with digital technology, data and the web anywhere, anytime on any device.
My daily train commute is valuable time. I hotspot my laptop and travelling contra-flow, I get to spread out on empty seats, headphones on, and unleash my creative juices without distraction. I can access the internet and post my content.
So what are a few of my favourite tools? Dropbox allows me to collaborate with filmmakers, music producers and other artists around the corner or on the other side of the world. Cloud storage on Google Drive lets me share material publicly or just with my key creative team. Best of all I can showcase my work to production houses on Youtube, Soundcloud and Bandcamp remotely and without lugging a pile of gear.
Our ability to access and store information is expanding exponentially and the variety and sophistication of tools for manipulating and using that information is expanding at a similar rate.
The grid/ a digital frontier/ I tried to picture, clusters of information, as they move through the computer/ What did they look like?/ Ships?Motorcycles?/ Were the circuits like freeways?/ I kept dreaming of a world, I thought I would never see/ And then/ One day/ I got in…
Used as lyrics by Daft Punk (2010) The grid
The “Internet of Things”
The ‘internet of things’ is already a part of everyday life. Embedded technology exists right now in refrigerators, phones and even cars. Musical instruments will evolve. The future offspring of products such as Ableton will communicate not just with other musical tools, but also any other performance devices. Creative ideas will be developed and expressed on a myriad of surfaces, yielding immersive, interactive performance experiences.
Wir sind die Roboter (We are the robots)/ Ja tvoi sluga (Yes I'm your slave)/ Ja tvoi Rabotnik robotnik (Yes I'm your worker)/ Wir sind auf Alles programmiert (We follow programs)/ Und was du willst wird ausgeführt/ (And the program you want is running)
Wir sind die Roboter - Kraftwerk (1978) Die Roboter
The sharing economy and distributed trust
Digitally-enabled transparency and trust mechanisms allow direct exchange of goods, services or money between parties outside of traditional establishments such as stores and banks
All artists experience the frustration of trying to sell their wares to a market that can obtain that product for free. Earning money as a music producer has always been difficult. Back in the day, many artists aspired to a three-album deal with a record company. However, while there were a few winners, those exploitive contracts condemned many artists to poverty. The workaround was to sell your CDs at gigs or through direct distribution. A lot of artists made good money doing that. I know I did!
Napster killed independent distribution because if someone bought your album and ripped it, effectively, you no longer owned it. Even big Hollywood has lost this battle as illustrated by the ongoing dispute of the “Dallas Buyers Club”. In this case, the copyright owner has demonstrated that people have pirated their product, however, Australian courts will not support their desire to pursue the lost income. It’s even worse news for musicians because accepted online channels such as Spotify give away the work of independent producers for negligible return.
These forces drive artists into a trade economy. Right now, filmmakers and musicians exchange services in kind. SoundBlend embeds this ethos into a social media platform. Artist-focused distributors such as Bandcamp allow musicians to sell and promote their work without overt exploitation. In the vacuum of Government or corporate support, Australian artists will increasingly engage in an economy that is outside traditional establishments. To be relevant, this economy will provide evermore effective tools for artists to generate income from their work.
Money, it's a gas/ Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash - Waters, R (1973) Money
The digitization of matter – 3D-printing and the creation of physical materials on the spot (personalized or on a small scale) based on digitally transmitted parameters
Don’t just download the latest software, download the device. The mind boggles where this might go. The latest DJ gizmo? A classic Brownie Stratocaster as played by Clapton on “Layla”. All this could be yours!
In conclusion...
Technology is change, and musos haven’t had a smooth ride. However, change creates incredible opportunity and as artists, we need to ride the wave. We may get dumped but we could catch an amazing break. We just need to paddle out.
About the Photograph
Ian is an amazing photographer who lives in Santa Clara, California. He has generously given the world access to his amazing work on Flickr with a Creative Commons license. You can view more of Ian's incredible photos here https://www.flickr.com/people/ian_e_abbott/. Thank you Ian!!!
Want to read more??
Dr Stefan Hajkowicz (2015). Seven Patterns of Change Shaping Our Future. CSIRO Publishing
Ben Gilchrist “The internet of things (IoT) is here and it’s going to change everything (Again)”. blog.firebrandtalent.com. [online] Available at: http://blog.firebrandtalent.com/2014/12/the-internet-of-things-iot-is-here-its-going-to-change-everything-again
Chris Rezends (16 June 2014) “What exactly is the internet of things? IoT at Tuck school with Chris Rezendez". [online] Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylqa5am19T0
