should music be a product? should it be free? The distinction will be radically blurred as music becomes increasingly customizable and responsive to specific environments. The musician will become a designer, creating the source code for a family of infinitely variable, yet related music. The choice will become whether or not (or to what degree) to release the code.
how do you define the "original" code so that it is recognizable as a unique entity created by the musician?
ReplyDeleteby code i mean, literally, software code, or genetic code, if you will. musical code would be an algorithm for generating a family of music, in response to certain specific inputs or cues. this algorithm would, to a varying degree, maintain the authorship of the musician.
ReplyDeletethen again, the notion that a guy punching away at a computer could entirely replace someone strumming a guitar seems unlikely and downright undesirable. this is only useful when kept in metaphorical terms, but then, is it useful at all?