One of the cooler things that Nine Inch Nails has done in recent years is release the audio files for many of its tracks for fans to use to create their own remixes with Apple’s GarageBand software. It’s a great idea to get fans more involved in the music, but unfortunately it does require that you have a) GarageBand and as such, b) a Mac. With Aviary’s new Myna audio editing tool, bands will now be able to offer such functionality simply through the web browser.
If you haven’t checked out Myna yet, you should. Aviary released it the other day, and it’s really impressive for software that is fully contained in the browser. It’s not quite as powerful as GarageBand, but most casual users probably don’t need all the bells and whistles that GarageBand provides. Most users will find Myna more than powerful enough, and actually, it seems quite a bit easier to get the hang of as a result of being slightly less complex.
But the really cool potential for Myna lies in using its API and getting some partnerships with bands to do remixes on the web. The first such partnership is with the band Major Lazer. They’re currently holding a contest between now and October 1 for whichever fan does the best remix. There will be one grand prize winner (who gets $500 among a bunch of other stuff) and five runners-up.
In a time when everyone is talking about falling music sales, and wonder if the recording industry as it’s currently constituted can survive, this sounds like a great way for bands to create a more interactive experience with their fans.
Again, Aviary makes this very simple to do. You load up the Myna app from Major Lazer’s website and it’s pre-populated with various musical elements of three tracks that you can remix. From there, it’s simply a matter of dragging and dropping elements to get the mix you want. Cool stuff.
Update: Here’s the link for the API information.
Is that Natlaie Portman
Anyone remember Peter Gabriel’s CD ROM in 1993?
http://thegabri...r/memoCdrom.htm
That was the first time I remember seeing the remixing concept. I think Prince did one too. Maybe The Residents.
I can see the charm in this. Get people to engage more with your music, brand, etc. It’s all about engagement. Eyeballs and time spent. The more a person fiddles around with the music, the more opportunity there is to capture that “user” and market other products to them. It could be good business for bands and labels to offer this. The risk might be that a crappy mix might get more exposure than desired which could reflect negatively on the artist’s image.
Amazing! As a flash games developer I can tell you that they are doing an unbelievable job on such an unstable flash player.
There are so many applications where having a cloud solution makes a lot of sense – but trying to stream big audio files up to a server to edit them then download them back? From my hour exploring it, Myna has some solid basic features and is easy to use – but Garageband easily outclasses it, and anyone taking themselves seriously would use ProTools…
I suspect the kids will be using the Mix-O-Matic at ToonsTunes http://www.toonstunes.com (launched at TC50)
It’s first-generation software, so obviously it doesn’t have all the features of GarageBand. All software is going to be deployed from the cloud in the future, so Myna is smart for getting on the bandwagon early.
Avi is the man. My favorite site to monitor, as it reminds me of the days when Google Labs would churn out worthwhile apps!
Thanks Armen!
Aviary should work out the bugs in their existing apps before they release new ones.
I can say one thing, I had a technical issue with the photo editing app and got an email from Avi within 10 minutes helping me with it. Have you submitted these ‘existing bugs’ already?
this is great, as a singer/songwriter I am always interested in better tools, especially easy collaboration
Any thoughts on how Myna stacks up against Bojam?
Aviary is doing an incredible job “porting” apps…
Agreed. I can see a certain large search engine company in Mountain View snapping them up. Certainly would give them a leg up on Microsoft/Zoho in the cloud app space.
To see the API documentation, you can sign up here: http://aviary.com/apidocs (registration required)
Duncan Shiek also released a CD with a separate remix disk – in Ableton Live format…
Indaba Music hosts remix contests pretty regularly and they have a much more powerful digital audio workstation. It’s very simple to use, and you can even record directly to the cloud! Plus, they’ve worked with some really big artists.
You can see all their remix contexts at: http://www.inda...tured_programs/
We’ve released both of the last two Lamb of God albums in Deluxe versions that contain a 2nd CD with the stems from the entire album.
looks like this post has got spammed, MG get it to the attention of someone who can fix it
oops, looks like in the previous page load the comments hadnt loaded properly. My bad
Those who think that anything in HTML/CSS/JavaScript can be done Flash or even that HTML5 is going to completely bridge the gap should take a look at some of apps that Aviary have built with Flash. A lot of what they are doing would not have been possible in the browser alone, even with implementing the latest HTML5 spec.
The aviary guys and gals are hands-down some of the most impressive developers…I haven’t met any of them personally but they’re products are nothing short of amazing. They’re a great example of webware and ever-decreasing need for installed software. The limitation at this point is largely the Flash platform. If performance can be improved a few hundred percent, Adobe will be in a funny position. They will have developed the platform that supports their competition: online equivalents to their illustration and graphics editing applications.
i have a myna video tutorial to
http://www.yout...h?v=6m5L5SA6oV4
I wrote a quick and speculative overview about Myna on Muzicosphere blog… It doesn’t seem fully functional yet, but it already is quite powerful. Never thought I’d see such app in the cloud… But just like you I think that its most putatively powerful use will be as a new way to promote music and engage with fans.