Transforming Digital Music: Investigating Interactive Playback

改造数字音乐研究项目是开发一种独特的互动音乐专辑格式，可以改变我们收听和接触数字音乐的方式。这项创新技术将允许用户以前所未有的方式操纵音乐并与之互动，为音乐艺术家和整个音乐行业带来新的用户体验，并打开许多艺术和商业机会。如今，音乐主要通过数字平台消费；然而，数字播放媒体的真正艺术力量从未得到充分评估或开发。现代数字播放系统，包括移动设备、计算机、平板电脑和联网的高保真系统，对于简单地播放音乐和音频来说，是极其过度设计的。通过利用现代数字音乐播放设备的全部功能，我们假设可以实现新的和更高水平的参与度，为艺术家释放更多的创造性表达机会，并为听众提供更好的用户体验。探索这一创造性和变革性的机会对于巩固能够重振全球音乐产业的模式至关重要，自推出基于网络的数字音乐以来，全球音乐产业经历了相当大的动荡。特别是，我们希望将我们的调查重点放在流行音乐具有活力和互动性的机会上，同时保留和推断音乐家的艺术愿景。交互式音乐的一个例子是可以由消费者以多种不同方式收听的歌曲的形式。这首歌可能是一首乐观的摇滚曲目，包括鼓、吉他、人声，可能还有弦乐部分。然而，考虑到听众可能想要以一种更轻松的方式欣赏歌曲--一种基于听众当时情绪的独特体验。他们可能更喜欢听简化版，也许用原声版取代了电吉他，鼓变成了手打击乐，弦在混合中扮演了更重要的角色。它仍然是同一首歌，保持了音乐家想要的艺术性，但它已经改变，给了听众不同的体验。同样，听众可能会选择歌曲的电子版本，它动态地引入编程的鼓点和合成的声音。现代数字播放系统具有实现这些交互功能所需的多个音频流的实时呈现的处理能力。此外，在将数字交互音乐系统带给广泛和广泛的受众时，有必要考虑音乐家、音乐制作人以及更重要的是唱片公司开发自己的交互音乐所需的工具。因此，我们的项目探索和开发了一种可操作的范例和简单的内容管理系统，使他们能够从自己熟悉的音乐材料中构建定制的交互输出。为了示范这一功能集，将开发一款应用程序。这款应用程序将作为一个工作模型，整合了上述所有功能，并将作为一个配置文件，任何未来的商业开发可能会从中衍生出来。它的发布(免费)将证明其可行性，并收集消费者的反馈和意见。我们的项目旨在扩大内斯塔资助的罗布·图尔森博士和脚本有限公司的作品，该作品专注于识别和评估流行艺术家和观众之间的新参与模式。我们的研究目标集中在研究高级数字音乐复制的两个具体方面，即对于1)艺术家(和唱片公司)和2)音乐消费者或听众来说，互动音乐播放的机会和能力是什么。通过与一位公认的音乐艺术家和音乐行业代表合作，我们将定义和评估这一音乐发行的潜在未来。

The Transforming Digital Music research project is to develop a unique interactive music album format that could transform the way we listen to and engage with digital music. This innovative technology will allow users to manipulate and interact with music in ways that have not previously been possible, bringing new user experiences and opening a number of artistic and commercial opportunities for music artists and the entire music industry.Nowadays, music is predominantly consumed through digital platforms; however, the true artistic power of the digital playback medium has never been fully evaluated or exploited. Modern digital playback systems, including mobile devices, computers, tablets and networked hi-fi systems, are extremely over-engineered for simply playing music and audio. By utilising the full power of the modern digital music playback device, we hypothesise that a new and heightened level of engagement can be achieved, releasing greater opportunities of creative expression for the artist and an enhanced user experience for the listener. Exploration of this creative and transformative opportunity is essential in order to consolidate models that could reinvigorate the global music industry, which has experienced considerable turbulence since the introduction of web-based digital music. In particular, we wish to focus our investigation on the opportunities for popular music to be dynamic and interactive, whilst retaining and extrapolating the artistic vision of the musician. An example of interactive music is in the form of a song that can be listened to by the consumer in a number of different ways. The song might be an upbeat rock genre track including drums, guitars, vocals and maybe a string section. Consider, however, that the listener might want to enjoy to the song in a more relaxed manner - a unique experience based on the listener's mood at that moment. They might prefer to listen to a stripped down version, perhaps with the electric guitars replaced by acoustic versions, the drums become hand percussion and the strings take a more prominent role in the mix. It is still the same song, maintaining the artistry intended by the musician, but it has changed to give the listener a different experience. Similarly the listener might select an electronic version of the song, which dynamically introduces programmed drumbeats and synthesised sounds. Modern digital playback systems have the processing capability to perform the real-time rendering of multiple audio streams required to implement these interactive features.Additionally, in bringing digital interactive music systems to a wide and far reaching audience, it is necessary to consider the tools required for musicians, music producers and importantly, record labels to develop their own interactive music. Our project therefore explores and develops an operational paradigm and simple content management system to allow them to build bespoke interactive output from their own familiar musical material. In order to exemplify this feature set, an app will be developed. This app will serve as a working model that incorporates all of the above features, and will serve as a profile from which any future commercial development might be derived. Its release (for free) will demonstrate feasibility, and harvest consumer feedback and opinion.Our project is designed to amplify the NESTA-funded work of Dr Rob Toulson and Script Ltd, which focuses on identifying and evaluating new modes of engagement between popular artists and audiences. Our research objectives are focused on investigating two specific aspects of advanced digital music reproduction, i.e. what are the opportunities and capabilities of interactive music playback for 1)the artist (and record label) and 2)the music consumer or listener. By working in collaboration with a recognised music artist and music industry representatives, we will define and appraise this potential future of music release.