Christopher Dunn // Blog

 

‘Hero’ by Christopher Dunn on Thursday, October 18, 2007 6:50 PM

 

If my world ended yesterday

I’d like it very little.

I’d’ve asked, if I had had the time,

“Why big, and yet so little?”

How came we here to while away this game

With no known ending?

We care for this but not for that—

‘Stay.’ We say, then run away.

We see the trees with all those leaves,

We see the endless water,

And look above and see the stars,

The suns that we are lost among,

And cringe, when love we oughta.

‘Hero’ by Christopher Dunn on Thursday, October 18, 2007 6:50 PM

This was originally a 300-word class assignment at the New School Online class in 'Writing for Media': Come Together Indaba is a Zulu word that invokes the spirit of collaboration and community. At www.indabamusic.com, that spirit is alive. Its members can find like-minded musicians to collaborate with, upload tracks to 'sessions', mix those tracks on a session 'console', and download the completed recording mix as an mp3 file. Members find each other by Craft, Instruments, Genres, Influences, Experience and Equipment. At Harvard, Matthew L. Siegel and Daniel J. Zaccagnino began a non-profit student record label to serve the local community of musicians. Upon graduation, they handed over the reins to other students and, in their words, "We started thinking about other ways to help the larger community of musicians and music professionals...[by]... increasing availability of cheap digital recording technology and easily accessible digital distribution. Together, they enable anyone to make music and get it to people all over the world inexpensively and easily – we think of this change as a democratization of the music production process." When asked which styles of music have been most drawn to the site in its five months of operation, they replied, “We welcome all styles of music – one of our original goals was and continues to be to make Indaba a place where musicians of all types can come together to make music with one another. In fact, some of the most interesting collaborations so far have been between users from very different genres, and it’s exciting to see these people working together.” There was a time when young musicians had to earn hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars to produce a demo, to sign with a label--the only place to be professionally recorded. Occasionally, a rock star would become so wealthy as to have a private recording studio. Now, with IndabaMusic.com, we are all rock stars.

Chris – Below are mine and Dan’s answers to your questions. Hope this is helpful! 1. Why did you create Indaba Music? In college, Dan and I realized that there was a huge need for services that student musicians didn't have access to... things like professional production assistance, concert organization, and promotion. We also saw a big opportunity to create exciting events around music, so we began a non-profit student record label to serve our local community of musicians. We recorded and produced compilation albums at no cost to artists, we freely distributed them on-campus (and beyond), and we organized release parties and concerts for our artists. It was important to us that the label remain a student-run organization even after we graduated. We started thinking about other ways to help the larger community of musicians and music professionals, and what the tremendous changes in music, technology, and media would mean for artists in the future. We were particularly interested in the increasing availability of cheap digital recording technology and easily accessible digital distribution. Together, they enable anyone to make music and get it to people all over the world inexpensively and easily – we think of this change as a democratization of the music production process. We wanted to empower more artists to take advantage of these changes, so in the Spring of 2005 we started work on an idea that eventually became Indaba Music. Ultimately Indaba is a marketplace and community for musical creation and collaboration. 2. Do you expect Indaba's character to change as its membership grows larger? Hopefully the core attributes won’t change – positive people who want to make music with each other, no matter where in the world they are. As the community continues to grow however we expect it to get increasingly diverse, with more types of people from more geographic locations. We also hope that genre and skill-level diversity will continue to increase, so that Indaba members can continue to make new music with other musicians they are comfortable with and also continuously learn from one another's experiences. 3. What percentage of members become active users and how long does their activity last, on average? We are proud to say that a large fraction of our users are also collaborators – not only do they have accounts on Indaba, but they actually use it to make music as well. The site has only been live for about 5 months, so most of the people who were using it to make music at the beginning are still doing so. We are continuously working to improve our site so that our original users and new users alike will keep using it on into the future. 4. Are they any music styles that Indaba Music would like to see more of? Is there a preponderance of any particular style? We welcome all styles of music – one of our original goals was and continues to be to make Indaba a place where musicians of all types can come together to make music with one another. In fact, some of the most interesting collaborations so far have been between users from very different genres, and it’s exciting to see these people working together. 5. What part do you see Classical Music playing in the music of today and tomorrow? Classical music, in mine and Dan’s opinion, will always be a cornerstone of music and we believe people will continue to study, compose, and perform Classical music both in the traditional sense, and also in new ways. There are many contemporary musicians exploring Classical music, and many Classical musicians doing innovative things with the genre that make it very exciting to us. Hopefully Indaba will be a platform for contemporary musicians looking to explore what classical music has to offer, and for classical musicians who are interested in collaborating with non-classical musicians. 6. What plans are you considering for adding to or augmenting the existing program? Will there be more 'live' get-togethers? We’re always working to improve our existing product, and that includes making what we already have better, but also creating completely new features for our users as well. In particular, we’re going to continue to make it easier for our members to find the people and music they are looking for, whether it’s to locate a collaborative partner, or just to discover some new music you might enjoy. There will definitely be more “live” get-togethers – these meetings are a great way for us to connect with our users, and to make sure we’re building the things that they will find most useful. We’ve heard a lot of great suggestions for making the collaborative process even more functional; things like adding support for greater media sharing, which we will be launching this week on all Indaba profiles. 7. You mentioned a desire to increase access to the disabled. What more could you do? We’re still at the beginning of that process, so we know there’s certainly a lot more we could do. Indaba has obvious use for those whose mobility might be limited, and we’re starting to think about ways that we can make it even more useful. For those who can’t travel, Indaba enables connection and collaboration with different musicians all over the world, and we’d like to make that even easier. In the coming months we will be working on ways to reach out more directly to communities of disabled musicians so that they can enjoy Indaba Music. 8. Are you familiar with i-music and, if so, what is your opinion of this and other, older music sites? We are aware of and use many other, older music sites. A lot of them have done amazing things to empower artists and listeners; for example, music discovery services like Pandora and Last.fm have given fans completely new ways to find music that they might not have otherwise listened to. Many older sites, but in particular newer ones like Pandora and others are leveraging changes in technology to do lots of exciting things for music, and we think all of this is a good thing. The more companies that can provide new services to artists and fans the better – it’s an exciting time for the industry and we’re thrilled to be a part of it. 9. Do you think the internet and commerce have mutually exclusive goals? Definitely not – the internet is a tool – and one of the most powerful and exciting tools we’ve ever seen. Like any tool, it can be used for different purposes, whether they’re commercial or not. The internet has been very beneficial to organizations and people with commercial goals, but it has also been extremely useful for those with completely non-commercial goals as well. 10. Do you perceive a gap between amateur musicians and professionals in the music industry? And, if so, do you think this is changing music for better or worse? Historically, there has certainly a gap in terms of the tools and resources that are available to varying levels of musicians. It used to be that in order to have a record you had to pay serious money for studio time. Now that anyone can get access to recording and production software/equipment at home, even amateurs have an easier time making their own music. Combine this trend with online networks and applications like Indaba, and amateurs can also gain access to professionals, communicate with them, learn from them, and even make music with them. We think these trends will continue to accelerate and close the resource gap between musicians and hopefully expose more people to more music.