While the idea sounds novel and futuristic, My opinion is that every attempt to enhance music experience using our other senses (visual, physical) is counter effective.
The thing that is so great nowadays is that you can ALWAYS listen to music, and choose what is right for you at that exact moment, so that you can relate to what you hear without being limited to a screen or something else. I strongly disagree MP3 diminished the product.
All these "advances" in music are advances in the entertainment aspect rather than art. The main problems I see in the music art, are communication between creators and their listeners, and discovery of new music.
Now, personal opinions aside, I really don't understand, what are you making? Is it all about interactive covers? Are these covers the only interactive part? Comments, tracklist, album info, fans - all have been done before. Can you elaborate what are you making (not how you are thinking) that other people aren't? are you building tools to create these interactive experiences? are those ongoing experiences, or something I would like to return to like the listening experience? It's really hard to understand what are you actually doing. I wish there was a live example - the kickstarter gifs make it look just like fancy website animation.
Good luck!
@danr_4 Thanks for your comment. First I think there are different kinds of listening experiences. You can listen to music while dinning, while running or at work. I personally do all of those but also very interested in videoclips and interactive experiences as the Bjork app, Arcade Fire interactive videos and many others. What I wanted to have is a place for artists to release those kind of experiences so they don't fall into the void of daily noise on the web so quickly.
When MTV was launched back in 1981 they didn't invent the videoclip, they just created a place for artists to release it. At the time many people disagreed and said that music should be listened with eyes closed. Well... I guess many did like watching videoclips too, I was one of them. MTV allowed artists like Peter Gabriel [http://tinyurl.com/phrl9nu] to use the new medium, the television, as means of expression and that's what we try to do with Whitestone, inspire artists to use the medium for more than just releasing playlists.
Regardless of the fact that interactive music is at the heart of Whitestone, it's business model is quite unique too. We all know how a tip jar works, if you like a street artist you can throw a couple of bucks and support them - Whitestone works the same way, there are no subscriptions just your own digital wallet and you decide who to support and when. The current streaming business model is not very honest to say the least, you can read more about it here > http://tinyurl.com/od3rfjc. We have a chance to create a new kind of music industry and I believe it's about time we do it.
@thetouit I understand that, But what are you actually making? a platform only to release and publish interactive music experience? or are you also providing tools? if not, how are these experiences built, and how are they going to be incorporated into your platform?
@thetouit@danr_4 I personally find the idea of 'collecting music experiences' intriguing . Like a rich bookmarking tool for the music experience you love and would love to experience more often in your life. To be able to directly reward the creators, that's sweet as well. The tools can be minimalistic but the results of utmost personality and diverse (many possibilities).
@milann thanks. There is a lot to it obviously. We tried to cover everything on our kickstarter page, I hope people will have a close look at what we are planning. We put a lot of effort into research and innovation but people need to be open to accept it.
@thetouit you're welcome. This is such an amazing project and it deserves all the spotlight it can get. Can you, and only you tell us a bit what you're aiming at here? I always get goosebumps when I talk with you ;) and what help do you want from the awesome PH community?
@milann Thanks! To make a very long story short I am a musician and a designer who decided to try and come up with a solution to some of the major problems in the music industry. I researched the way we listen to music online for almost 4 years. I also looked into the various ways we used to listen to music in the past. Now, together with a few friends we are launching Whitestone - the first platform for interactive music on Kickstarter. There's much to tell about it, please have a look at our Kickstarter page, it unfolds our vision and plan. Part of the problem is the fact that most music startups are owned by huge corporations and major labels, therefore we decided to crowdfund Whitestone, the only way we can truly create an independent future is together. We have a chance to shake the music industry but we need everyones help to do it right - that's why we are here :) AMA
What’s the worst thing about the internet is how it simplified music to merely streaming or watching video (For the rest it’s awesome yeaaaah). This can be so much more, that’s what the founders of Whitestone (referring to the guy inventing album covers) thought.
Whitestone offers tools to artists and designers to create immersive music experience next to their brilliant sounds. Remember that time you still used Winamp (no I'm not mentioning WMP) haha and had these amazing visualizations. Whitestone is aiming to make music interactive and offers an amazing platform for collecting and rewarding these escapades. Oh and it’s all independent, screw you music monopolies!
They're doing crowd funding to keep it independent, they pre releasing the community already for backers and you can claim your name of course. I’d say back this independent project if you’re a true music fan! Let’s disrupt label CEO’s altogether!
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