An International Smoothie

What You Make Doesn't Matter

Chatroulette is the latest shiny social thing that people in advertising are trying to figure out how to destroy with zero original thought and buckets of 'brand messaging'. As fate would have it, a dude in a hoodie playing the piano is the diamond in a rough that mainly consists of boys playing with themselves. 

Once again this only goes to further reinforce that it's not what you make that matters, it's what people do with it that's the key.

Listen Up RIAA

Awesome photo courtesy of G.M.B

It's been almost ten years since Napster opened up a can of worms (or whoopass) and attracted much grief from Metallica as well as the hugely intelligent *cough* RIAA. And while it seems that in the soon to be decade since, the RIAA has learnt nothing and is still acting like a bunch of power-hungry school prefects (some proof of their total lack spine and moral fiberage here), it's heartening to see artists roll with the changing times and do some awesome stuff with the way they make their music.

The changes in the way Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails release their music have been well documented, and lauded by many. But for me, one of the coolest things that a band is doing is what one of my favorite acts, Third Eye Blind is trying out for their new album Ursa Major.

Rather than fiddling with the model of distribution (how much, where/when you can get it and all that), They're putting up individual instrument tracks online, and giving people the chance to mix them into songs themselves, adding whatever they want. So you get the 'real' song (well before the official album release) as well the ability to do a pimpin' remix - the best of which will be made into an album that will accompany the cd release. Awesome. And everybody wins; the band builds hype with the hardcore fans, and we get to hear new choons from a band we dig. Boom.

You hear that sound sucka music execs? It's the future. And it's gonna be fantastic.