live your life out loud
Nominations for Mashable’s 2nd annual Open Web Awards have begun, and MixMatchMusic could really use your help! If you have a minute, please nominate us for the Open Web Awards in both the Music and Embeddable Widgets categories. If you do, we’ll love you for ever (and ever).
Nominate us here.
It’s no secret that we over here at Evolving Music, and our backers at MixMatchMusic are all about the creation of new music and ideas. From artists collaborating to new musicians picking up their first instrument, any musical creation is generally regarded as good musical creation (and no, I’m obviously not talking about Soulja Boy…). With that in mind, the newest form of video game music has come out, and as is typical of Nintendo, the platform is more than just the idea of playing along to songs someone else has already wrote.
Last week, Nintendo launched their newest interactive game, Wii Music. While the heavy hitters of the video game music genre, like Rock Band and Guitar Hero are focused on letting you copy what someone else has already done to see if you can do it with accuracy and flair, Wii Music is innovative in that it focuses on allowing players to create music and explore various means of musical genesis. More importantly to MixMatchers everywhere is that the game allows you to collaborate with friends, compare songs and bring them together. One of the things I have found most detrimental about games like Rock Band is that even though they are entertaining and educational, they stop striving when it comes to user interaction and creativity. With the ability to try new instruments and learn how to put together different musical instruments and parts into a coherent whole, Wii Music could very well be the basic learning tool for an entirely new generation of musicians.
While I could go into more detail here, I have no problem letting the creator of most high profile Nintendo games and Wii Music, Shigeru Miyamoto, speak about it in his own words in this CNET interview.
Recently, MixMatchMusic launched the Remix Wizard, a free widget that any artist can use to host remix promotions on their websites, blogs and social network pages. Artists customize what the widget looks like and provide the stems to a song (the various parts of a song, like the vocals, guitar, drums, etc) for fans to remix, either by using the online MixMaker or by downloading the stems for remixing in any music software. All the remixes are then published to the widget for others to play, vote on, and share. The widget is designed to be flexible, so that artists can sell the stems or give them away for free, set deadlines and give prizes to winners, and set the legal agreement that covers the rights to the stems and remixes made (who owns them?).
I recently recorded a new song, and have embedded the widget on my Myspace page so that y’all can remix it:
The play button next to the left of “A Little Fuzzy” lets you hear the original song. The tracks in the middle of the widget (Dark Sunrise, Now’s the Time) are submitted remixes. When you submit yours, it will be listed there. Then, people can hear it, vote for it, and share it (by making a separate, mini widget).
Click “download stems” to get the stems in your home software, and then be sure to click “upload stems” to publish it. Or, click “MixMaker” to see how the song was made and to create a mix using the online sequencer. You’ll be able to publish it to the widget directly from there. The “wanna remix more tracks” link will take to a gallery full of Remix Wizards deployed around the web!
So, what are you waiting for? Host your own remix promotion today! Or, click here for more info.
As ACtual mentioned earlier, this morning MixMatchMusic officially launched at DEMOfall ’08. Yes. We are now live. Public beta is up and running and ready for your music!
DEMO, the “launchpad for emerging technology”, is a big deal for those of us who reside in StartUpVille and we are excited to be among those represented at an event of this caliber. Video from all the presentations will be available here. Also, check out some of the initial photos on Flickr.
For those of you who are not totally dialed in to the MixMatch magic yet, check out the press release and see our About MixMatchMusic video:
You can also find this video, as well as the separate chapters of it, on MySpace, on the site, and on Facebook. Feel free to spread the word to anyone and everyone who loves emerging technology, music, and social media, and wants to help DIY and indie musicians to revolutionize the music industry.
Check out what people are saying over at CNET and Wired. You can also go to our Press Room for recent coverage.
Thanks to everyone for their enthusiasm and support. We are elated to have come this far and can’t wait to see what the future brings. For all you musicians out there, roll up your sleeves, get out your instruments, start recording and show us what you got! Non-musicians, come explore the community, discover great new music, and even make music (without knowing how to play an instrument).
A big thanks also to all our ambassadors and evangelists who spread the MixMatch love like it’s nobody’s business. Join the social music movement and help us get the word out to the people who need these tools by digging, posting, twittering, bookmarking, linking, emailing, texting or whatever your preferred social media methods are. Or for the more old fashioned among you carrier pigeons, smoke signals, bat signals, handwritten letters and what not.
The industry revolution starts now. Brace yourselves.
That’s right folks, the industry revolution we’ve been hinting at here for months has arrived and launched at the start-up mecca, DEMOfall08. While we’re sure to have more detailed posts from MMM leaders Gavroche and others over the next few days, take a look at what CNET is saying now about this new and exciting music collaboration site.
