Future Of Music Production
And Creative Collaborations
I am super excited about the future of creative collaborations, especially in music.
And if you are a musician or an artist of any kind — you should be too.
Here’s why.
Crowdsourced tracks
Canadian musician deadmau5 is quite popular for being absolutely transparent about his creative process, to the point where he would stream everything he does in the studio to his fans.
Once he was working on a track and felt something was missing, so he posted a rough draft on Twitter to get feedback from his fans.
Within an hour, one of the followers sung over his rough draft and re-uploaded it back to Soundcloud.
What happened next was captured in the video that went viral among his fans and other music producers (warning: a lot of strong language as he was stunned by what happened, but it’s hilarious).
So this spontaneous collaboration through Twitter and Soundcloud eventually ended up on deadmau5 official record and opened up plenty of new opportunities to otherwise obscure vocalist. Amazing.
New tools
I find stories like this fascinating and ever since I came across this video I was convinced there should be an easier way to discover musicians and collaborate on music remotely.
Just think about all the serendipity of creative collaborations that would happen if there would be a platform with:
- technical capabilities for real time recording and mixing
- social network connecting musicians that are interested in collaborating with each other.
So when I had a chance to meet up with Fredrik and Per of Soundtrap, I knew they’re onto something.
Soundtrap is a new platform which allows musicians to collaborate in real time in web browser and across multiple devices.
Idea of crowdsourced music production isn’t new, but surprisingly there was never a platform in place that would make recording an audio track so easy and seamless. With everything stored in the cloud, anyone involved in the project can contribute on laptop, tablet, iPhone and pretty much any connected device with a web browser.
Soundtrap is steadily gaining traction and building trust as more musicians see it as a viable alternative to tools like Garage Band + email, Dropbox or Infinit.
It was highlighted during Google I/O conference last year and is on the way to become an important tool for collaboration among audio creatives across the globe.
You no longer need to search for musicians next door, you can get that much needed ukulele arrangement from someone sitting in Buenos Aires — in real time.
And just the thought of that brings me joy as I can clearly see how many new opportunities arise for talented musicians worldwide.
In fact, Swedish singer LIA recently released a single which was recorded and produced using Soundtrap. I would encourage you all to check it out here.
There has never been a better time to be an artist. Thanks to new music tech and platforms like Soundtrap there’ll be even more opportunities for creative expression and collaboration.
Happy producing!
I am UX designer and music producer currently based in Stockholm, Sweden. You can get in touch with me on Twitter @pavelc
