Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Music and software

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:9/12/2000; 7:05:04 AM
Topic:Music and software
Msg #:21226
Prev/Next:21225 / 21227

This another post to the private music list. One of the participants responded to my statement that music is software now. She said "Music is software? Music is expression. Music is art. Music is revolution." Here's my response.

Sandy, it's not mutually exclusive.

Software can also be expression, art and revolution.

Music today behaves like software. A song is a file on a hard disk. When you double-click it, it runs.

We've yet to create a really effective music environment, like a spreadsheet or a Web browser, but I don't doubt that we will. Today's music is more like a batch file, launch it, it runs to completion, and then exits.

A music environment, which we are actually trying to create at UserLand, would stay launched and would run programs (called playlists) and give you tools to create your own programs.

About programming as an artform, I've been writing about this for many years. Here's a piece I wrote in 1997, called "Programmers".

http://davenet.userland.com/1997/05/07/Programmers

Perhaps we can build a bridge between our respective artforms. That's what I'm into, bridges, and the flipside, routing around barriers. When you look inside our world you'll see something fantastic if you're a musician with a creative mind. It's a new kind of stage, a new kind of radio, hey it's just new all around.

When the dam bursts from a creative standpoint, when the best artists of each medium work together, then you will see the revolution. It will be imposssible to miss. That's art, imho, art is the disruption of the norm, it takes you to new places, or revisits old places so you can heal. But it's the newness that I create for.

Dave

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:56:39 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.