Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Broadcast yourself

http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=115838

http://www.tronme.com/

So here is an interesting advancement of interactive media. Very similar to another website I had found a while back called www.outshouts.com. Where you can record your own personal responses to your favorite music and share it with the world. The difference here I believe is that this can be used with YouTube, Skype, MSN, Facebook, and Myspace.
I think this is a great example of how our culture has enraptured itself with it's relationship to music. Our generation and the next has been consumed with the idea of defining themselves by their musical identities. To go even further, have they also become obsessed with defining themselves by the way they purchase/steal their music? by the way they react to it? the way they can relate to it and share the experience with their favorite musicians? Almost like they were friends, sharing stories.
With this interactive software, music lovers everywhere can become even more a part of the music that defines them. It allows them to be inspired and creative as well, which I think is great for those who are learning to write and compose their own music.
My one real question is, what is the copyright limits here? are there any? has tronme.com covered all the bases, or will consumers pay for having a little fun with their favorite tunes. The concept is definitely fed by the culture. A need to be as much a part of the musical society as possible. It fuels a great sense of creativity but also a sense of belonging, while still trying to be an individualist. Also, a great piece of a culture, becoming the same while attempting to separate yourself. It seems so time consuming to ensure your 15 minutes of fame and making every effort to slap your face on every online community site possible. It encourages a generation of people expressive and confident enough to share they're musical relationships with the world. And as much as I love to advocate confidence and creativity and making sure you share these things with people, I myself feel a bit too humble to truthfully promote it. I must admit though I am a bit of hypocrite with that statement seeing as I do write for this blog, so I clearly felt confident enough concerning my opinions, education, and writing ability. I also have a music myspace, which took a lot for me to eventually post, but I did because I wanted to be able to tell people "yeah I sing, check out my page", but then run for the hills as they type the URL.
I too am a part of this society, a part of a generation that defines itself with its musical relationships and its individualistic nature. It's a great feeling to be able to make yourself such a part of larger communities. I grew up in a small town and the only "big community" that I could say I was really a valuable member of was the high school choir, and mostly so because of my last name and the fact that my sisters and I were the towns famous singers. Then you leave your small town and realize that you're really not a part of much of anything.
Myspace, Facebook, Youtube: these online communities give our attention hungry generation more and more opportunities to feed. We become a part of the music, we can communicate with musicians and people we admire, we can show our support and love. Personally, I think that's important, to be able to feel close to people you look up to. When you feel disconnected from people you admire, the admiration becomes meaningless and whatever inspiration you would've gained is lost.
Has our need to be a part of these large communities created a loss of the sense of self? The loss of the ability to stand on our own without relying on others for comfort or validation could create a constant feeling of being alone and thus also fueling our need to create those relationships with our music. These moments that we make for ourselves with such resources as Myspace, Facebook, etc. makes us a part of these larger communities, and requires no self reliance. And although, as I previously stated, I encourage these great opportunities for people to express themselves and share it with the world, I also advocate our independence as a young generation fueled by creativity, education and exploration.
So let's define ourselves.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You said: "My one real question is, what is the copyright limits here? "

I found this: "Don’t forget that when you buy a song from the TronMe website you are then free to produce as many versions of that song as you wish. It is yours to play around with for as long as you want and, of course, the revenue from the sale of the track will be shared with the artist and writer of the music."

Ref: http://www.tronme.com/help.aspx

3D Solar is part of the MCPS alliance in UK

Sue Cabot said...

Thanks!