The Technograph

With a lower success rate than weight loss, starting a band is probably one of the most difficult things most people will do. At least... it used to be. Like anything of importance, musical talent can now be found via the internet, courtesy of services like “Musefy”.

Started by University of Illinois engineering student Jake Chen, Musefy lets you find musicians based on location, desired instrument, or even preferred genre. However, it is only a small part of the veritable flood of whimsically named, web 2.0 start-ups with one goal in mind; helping people be their own music industry.

Bands may have once required a contract with a record company to produce a hit album, but now virtually every step in the road to fame can be traversed via the web. Record your tunes in your parent's basement, using the equipment you rented on Craigslist. Have that extraneous audio,

“contributed” by the local cat, removed on the cheap by an expert at Fiverr.

Then use TuneCore to get your bands music on iTunes, and most of the other big names in distribution. Now all that is left is promotion, basically what the internet was made for, let Youtube and Facebook hear how hard you rock.

Like most independent artists, you probably won't get rich, but you will be doing what you love, making a little extra cash, and impressing your friends along the way. More people will hear your music, and you are more likely to break even, especially considering the cost of a publicist.

Most of the next decade's famous bands will tell a story similar not unlike this one. Already, artists such as Jill Sobule have started making music a community affair. Using telethon-style donations, she has funded and produced her latest album, soliciting donations from her fans. By cutting out the middle man, artists are doing less negotiating, and more performing.

If the web can make music easier to find, buy, and share, why can't it make music just as effortless to make? So next time you and your friends have had a few, using the web could make your “revolutionary” punk-folk string quartet an ear-screeching reality.

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