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mikehelland edited this page Sep 8, 2016 · 1 revision

A big part of understanding OpenMusic.Gallery, is understanding open music.

What is Open Music?

Open music is music that is free for you to use and modify for any purpose. Open music is distributed in a "source code" format, so remixing and rearranging music is easy for both human users and computers programs.

What does this mean to me?

I guess that depends on who you are.

I make Internet videos

Then you probably want some music to go in your video. Most music isn't free to use and modify, and you might be breaking the law if you didn't pay for the right to use the music in your video. With open music, this is never an issue. Open music is meant to be played and changed and shared.

I have a store, restaurant, reception area, etc

Are you playing music from your personal collection for the customers? That may lead to the same problems as using music in a video. Getting the proper license for playing music in your establishment can cost you money and time. Open music can save you that time and money.

I just like to listen to music

You can listen to the creations of people around the world by browsing OpenMusic.Gallery like any traditional library of music. But listeners of open music can do so much more. They can use computer programs to generate whatever type of music they are in the mood for. Listeners can also discover music that literally no one has ever heard before, as computer programs take elements out of the gallery and create new works of art.

I create music

With open music, the digital audio workstation (DAW) becomes connected to all the other users in the gallery. Say you are mixing a track and need a great drum break. All the drum breaks in the gallery are available right in the DAW. Enter some keywords and find the drum break you need. Need a cool horn part? Find one in the gallery. Because the parts of music are stored in a "source code" format, a trumpet part in F major at 130 bpm can effortlessly be turned into a saxophone part in F# minor at 80 bpm. With open music, your music workstation has a built in library that grows as it is used.

I perform music live

Me too! As I was making apps that create music in the OpenMusic.Gallery formats, I realized some of the apps can be performed live in front of an audience. The touchscreen guitar is a project to make an instrument that can be played live, and the performance is automatically integrated with the gallery and DAW. Another project is OMG Live, which transforms the audience and their smartphones into an orchestra that generates music and visuals. The audience and venue is not limited to a single geographic location thanks to the Internet.