New music technology for would-be DJs
The story of Last.fm seems like every start-up’s fairy-tale dream: a bunch of music fans start up a personalized radio and social media network in a small East London office. It catches on worldwide. Then, the site is bought out by CBS. When Last.fm dropped its coveted on-demand music streaming service in April 2010, though, spectators worried that CBS was running the service into the ground. Now, a new partnership with music technology developer MXP4 has them back in the newsand could be changing the way the online radio industry works.MXP4 produces audio-mixing software which lets people manipulate their favorite songs by adding instruments, stripping away backing music, or blending songs together. The technology is now available on the websites of licensed artists and on MXP4′s website. Record execs believe this could be the key to reintroducing or repackaging artists’ back catalogues. Last.fm also believes the technology will have a positive financial effect. They hope that the brands which promote on the site will use the technology in their ads. This will let users mix any music used in the promotions.The partnership with Last.fm may be more exciting for MXP4 than for Last.fm, as it’s the first time MXP4 has licensed its technology for commercial use. Previously, a free MXP4 app was released for K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag,” the World Cup theme song. The developers are hoping to attract more record labels to their product, and are also in talks with Spotify and other online music distribution outlets. As the face of the music industry changes, it will be interesting to see how users react to increased interactivity. Perhaps it will inspire a new generation of music mash-up artists, but will it allow record labels to compete with the alternative (and sometimes illegal) modes of music sharing? Only time will tell.
