I’ll see you and raise you a multi-billion dollar SAAS company that everyone (in software) loves to hate yet still is forced to buy.
That said, these are exceptions that prove the rule. Experience is powerful and useful, but no guarantee of success.
(but also, if you are asking “how can I make money in music” the correct answer is to get involved with the dullest, most profitable SAAS company you can find and make music in your copious free time. Don’t get mad at corporations, get paid by them!)
absolutly true. One thing that I have learned the hard way many times is that nothing is guaranteed. Some of the surest bets I’ve made have backfired in the most spectacular way, and at times when I have just gone off instinct and willpower I have had unexpected success
or start your own. I would say that the chances of solid startup idea in tech has a far better chance of succeeding than quitting your day job and going all in on the music industry…maby not i don’t know. Risk mitigation and opportunity cost make me loose a lot of sleep.
I believe Alex used to post about his aspirations and make updates on the gearspace and then started with limited (of course) releases, although I don’t know the source of his funding and I have a hard time (but begrudgingly I will) overlapping his synthesizers using game chips to something like chorda which I want to like even though it’s mostly a black nintendo wii controller. There’s too much red tape if you say apples or oranges, in this case they’re both apples, small timers who hope to bring something into the world.
I want to clarify that I didnt say it isnt possible! Im sure we could start a whole new thread listing all of the companies that do just fine against the big guys, but I was just saying that there are far more flashes in the pan startups in the music industry vs upstarts that actually penetrated the industry in a meaningful way
Switching from musician to an operations or sales / evangelism role in a SAAS company is easier than most people realize. At a senior individual contributor level (not a manager), you would be pulling in more income than all but deadmau5-level electronic artists, with an 8-hour or less workday and just a 14" macbook pro in your carry on (instead of tens of thousands of dollars in bulky and fragile synths).
The only people who should be attempting to start tech companies (or any company, really) are those who are so driven and motivated that they MUST go do that despite the warnings to the contrary of friends and acquaintances.
END offtopic digression, feel free to DM to continue
We give children water-wings and training-wheels because we don’t want them to drown or break their necks, or otherwise suffer a scare that might forever deter them from pursuing those things.
However, when it comes to intellectual and emotional growth, we best serve them by teaching them that there are no shortcuts. Hence why you’re not allowed to use a calculator on a grade-school math exam, and don’t get dessert until you eat your broccoli, or can’t watch TV until your homework is done.
Hard lessons, to be sure, and often subject to many a temper tantrum, but the skills and perspective we acquire along the way are invaluable. We stand to lose our sense of entitlement, develop real confidence in ourselves, come to understand the value of tangible knowledge and expertise, and learn to respect others for those attributes.
The ironic consequence of anything that offers instant gratification lies in how hopeless it can make us feel when it comes time to face the challenge for real.
Music speaks directly to our humanity, and touches us all deeply. But it can’t do that if there’s no achievement in it. Hoping to move others without putting in the work is pure vanity.
Let’s be real here. There are only 12 notes in the Western chromatic scale. We teach Do-Re-Me to 3-year-olds in same way that we teach them their ABCs & 123s. When that’s done properly, on a real instrument, it becomes foundational. There’s a future in that.
So, if you’re a generally capable person, and aspire to be a musician, quit looking for shortcuts, knuckle down, and do the work.
the clincher is if this is actually achieved during the childhood years and leads to an adult who is naturally drawn towards something presenting a challenge rather than the instant gratification option.
so from my perspective, these kind of tools dont really make a difference either way, they are just more likely to end up with the people who are already more inclined towards the instant gratification option.
But the question was asked, and there are a lot of people out there leaning on apps in lieu of real knowledge, wondering why they feel empty and insecure…
Given the comments in this thread, I really expected much worse of this thing. But, I think it’s OK looking. It looks fun. Fun is OK. I think it’s basically selling itself as “make music. Have fun.”
Really - how is this much different than the OmniChord? (Which itself is descended from the AutoHarp which also did the apparent horrors of auto-playing our chords for us!)
I had a hell of a lot of fun as a teen in the late 80’s / early 90’s with things like a basic Yamaha PortaStudio (I think I had the PSS-140). Not a grand instrument by any means. But I had fun and found ways to make it interesting beyond its base sound.
Is it worth listening to all or even much of any of it? No, probably not. Is it worth making? Hell yes!
I have an apartment full of unseen paintings. They will probably never be seen. I have decades of recordings that will never be heard. Some stuff gets released, but it is certainly to an ever-decreasing audience. I take hundreds of photographs when I travel, often using Fujifilm X-Pro cameras just because I find them fun. Hardly any of those pictures get seen. But I still have fun taking them. They’re not award-winning photographs and I don’t expect to ever be a “real photographer.” So what? It’s still fun. And even when I just take pictures with my phone that no one will ever see - I still (often) find it fun.
If it keeps someone alive and engaged with life and engaged with parts of their mind that might not otherwise be active, then who is it disappointing? Maybe someone will find this Chorda thing limiting and disappointing but will find creative new ways to use it. Maybe they’ll decide they want a ‘real guitar’ after using it. Or maybe they’ll grow more interested in synths. Maybe they’ll like the idea of electronic instruments meant to be played outdoors in nature and find things like the Tocante series. Maybe they’ll get into circuit bending or building. Or they’ll get into programming in Max or Reaktor and continue to use the Artiphon thingy as gestural controller and suddenly a few years later they’re doing some kind of industrial music shows with multiple sensors on their body controlling the whole performance.
Or maybe it will just kind of be forgotten like many of these things (Casio’s XW-PD1 groovebox, for example, though I know people who deliberately go find this unloved gear and find uses for it).
I think it’s wrong to think of these tools as being “always disappointing”. “Often disappointing” or “sometimes disappointing” might be a better framing device - where do these devices fall short? What can one do when one reaches their limit? I think that’s a more interesting story.
I’m more into delayed gratification. I have the latency on my interface set so high that I can hit a note on the keyboard, grab a beer, make a grilled cheese, and then I finally hear the note while I’m eating. It usually sounds better than I imagined.
after reading the comments, I’m furious, how kickstarter can keep this up with a straight face? it’s crazy, 8 years waiting for a product that STILL does not exist? refund the people and sue these mf’ers.
