Does Mobile Music Making Matter?
Submitted by SynthWise on Fri, 2011-08-19 22:29 Ashley Elsdon – the writer and musician behind the blog Palm Sounds - has posted some interesting thoughts on why he thinks mobile music is important. He mentions three main reasons why he thinks mobile music making matters. The first reason is immediacy and access: Inspiration doesn’t appear on a schedule, and doesn’t recognise when you have [...]
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Episode #01 of the Touch Sound Podcast, a new audio show focusing on mobile music making, is now available. It’s hosted by Nick Platers (Touch Producer), Greg Pritchard (MiniJack Music), Sean Walker (iOS Musician) and Ashley Elsdon (Palm Sounds). Here’s what they have to say about the first episode: We discuss WWDC and Google IO [...]
Mobile music blog Palm Sounds is celebrating their 4th birthday in style, with a sweet mobile music-making synth cake.
I’ve got no idea what app that cake frosting is running but it’s pretty clear that there is some tasty mobile music making involved.
If you’re not familiar with Palm Sounds, its constantly updated with info on mobile music making and other cool topics.
If you’re in the camp that hates Synthtopia’s iPhone music software posts because you use some other mobile platform, check out Palm Sounds, because they have broad coverage of Palm and WinMo platforms, too.
Apple today introduced the iPhone 4 – an update to its innovative series of mobile computers.
Now – every time I mention the iPhone or the iPad on this site, it brings on the hate.
We’ve got a few readers that don’t give a damn about mobile gadgets, think we’re complete Apple fanboys and that we should rename the site to iPadTopia.
We know where you’re coming from. You love synths and electronic music, not the iCrap.
But mobile computers are rapidly becoming essential tools for musicians, and the new iPhone 4 is the best of the bunch.
And spending a couple of hundred bucks on an iPhone could be just as important to your music as getting a new soft synth, effects pedal or synth module.
Here’s why.
Five Reasons Musicians Should Get An iPhone 4
- The iPhone is the leading mobile platform for mobile music making. There are more music apps for the iPhone than for any other mobile music platform. There are drum machines, MPC-style workstations, synth, 24-track recorders, audio editors and more. These apps range from fun ways to pass some time to sophisticated musical tools. With the iPhone 4, mobile music apps are only going to get better, because the new iPhone has a higher-resolution screen, more sensors and a more capable processor. And development of music apps for the iPhone is only going to accelerate, because the iPhone is currently the most profitable platform for mobile developers.
- The iPhone lets you connect with friends and fans from almost any location. Social networking has become an essential tool for musicians. If you look at some of the most savvy electronic musicians, they’re using social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube to update their fans all the time. The iPhone has apps for updating fans and friends on these platforms from your car, your most recent gig, from your studio or from wherever you happen to be. Need to update your website on the road? There’s an app for that, too.
- The iPhone 4 gives you access to the de facto industry standard for digital music. Apple succeeded where other companies have failed in building the iTunes music store and turning it into the top music store in the world. iTunes is just another app on the iPhone – but it’s an important one and one that you won’t get with other phones. That means you can access the world’s largest library of music, download any podcast and do a quality check on the placement of your own creations, right from your phone.
- The new iPhone lets you shoot good looking HD video and upload it to YouTube. Is it as good as an HD video camera? No – but it’s still pretty amazing. And Apple also announced iMovie for the iPhone, which lets you edit HD video. It’s a little insane that you’ll now be able to shoot and edit HD video on a $200 (with contract) phone – which means that you can video blog videos wirelessly to YouTube, without worrying about digitizing video, copying files to your computer or any of that junk.
- iPhone 4 features the world’s most sophisticated mobile computing platform, iOS 4. iOS 4 features intelligent multitasking that won’t run down your battery, threaded email, folders for organizing apps, Facetime video chat and the iBook digital book platform. iBook now reads PDFs, too, opening it up to all sorts of documents. iOS 4 is, arguably, the most advance mobile computing platform around, but also manages to be one of the most intuitive. Other mobile platforms have their relative strengths, but iPhone’s iOS 4 excels at just about everything it can do. Why does this matter? Because it opens up a lot of options for you – you can record demos anywhere, upload tracks to SoundCloud, carry your latest video in your pocket and more.
Over 2 years, an iPhone will cost you more to own than cheap cell phones that don’t do much.
But your time is worth something. And using your spare time to make music, update your fans, video blog and update your website – not to mention getting directions, reading your mail, maintaining your schedule and making phone calls – could make that iPhone look like a bargain.
What do you think of the value of the iPhone 4 for musicians? Is it an important tool – or just another piece of iCrap?
Leave a comment with your thoughts!
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