Community Edits: A Project Concept in Web3
A space for musicians to co-create tracks with their audience
With the emergence of new technologies comes opportunities to revisit how we envision things. This can be through working, creating, or playing. With the rise of crypto, blockchain, and the decentralized web I witnessed new audiences take interest in generative art. For me, this is a highlight in the space. It also got me thinking about how building blocks of generative art could be applied in other creative media like music. This is the starting point for a new project I am pursuing called Community Edits.
Community Edits is a web tool that enables musicians, DJs, bedroom producers, and bands to collaborate with their audience in a unique, interactive, and generative way. Musicians upload all the parts (e.g: intro, chorus, verse, bridge, etc.) of a track. In the tool, they can arrange these parts to make different paths the track can take. In one path, the musician sequences the intro, then the verse, and the chorus. In another, they sequence the intro then the chorus, and the verse. These paths add up to a “choose your own adventure” of the track.
With different paths in place, the musician’s audience then participates. Audience members can select segments along a particular path to reveal a new part of the track. The selection is enshrined on the Ethereum blockchain, known colloquially as a mint. With each mint, the possibilities decrease and a song begins to crystalize. When all segments have been minted, a new edit of the track is born: the Community Edit. Like an instrumental cut, a radio edit, or a remix, the Community Edit is a version of the track the musician can release alongside their music. This enriches the artistic world the musician cultivates. The Community Edit is unique in that it represents the voice of the musician backed by the spirit of their audience.
If you take a look through my working files (above) and have any feedback or suggestions, I am all ears. Happy holidays and see you in 2023,
—Jono