Well my last post was obviously inspired. I saw the big picture and if you needed further proof, here it is: The hobnox audio tool. Here we have an audio application programmed in Flash which allows you to play around with a few emulated instruments and effects. Where do you think this music ends up being hosted? Not surprisingly it's on hobnox (at least some of it) as you can see here. Ok so it's not quite the fully fledged make-me-a-band style home-studio website which I predicted but it's actually not that far off. I suspect this is just the first of many to come.
What does it mean for us? Well we are like tiny grains of sand that sparkle in the bright sun. Our productive talents are now able to be exploited on a global scale. Like a grain of sand though, we can sparkle one moment and covered in seaweed the next. Will it ever take off? Well if the quality of the sequencer improves, I suspect it might. The lure of a free recording studio is there and it opens the way for a free-to-try market dominance approach with a follow up of monthly subscription fees, itunes publishing and all manner of media empire tie-ins to follow. We might have our five minutes of fame, but let it go to your head and the magic carpet will be whisked out from under you. Become the new media whore and your future is shiny until you go over into the next persons five minutes of fame. The price of success will be tied in to the EULA which you never bothered to read and it will include every mechanism to ensure that someone else reaps 99% of the benefits of all the time and effort you put into your creative work. That's something we need to think about before we embrace these services.
