Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

The early adopters tend to overvalue what’s new.  That’s fine and nothing out of the norm, it’s just what they do.  But what bothers me is when they proclaim a new piece of technology created by companies they’re fans of changes not just general consumer tech, but also industry x or y without really understanding those industries.

Case and point: Robert Scoble thinks the iPad is changing art and music.  Not the consumption, the synthesis.

His proof for this?  3 singular example videos of artists using an iPad to create their works:

1. A sketch artist
2. A hobbyist using an iPad to DJ and play around with soft synths
3. A famous pianist using an iPad on stage for a few moments

And each example is an interesting experiment, but falls short of the real thing.  A convergence device does many things, yes.  But it doesn’t do one thing well, especially in areas there are many players working hard to evolve devices for specific use over years of iteration to answer unique problems.

Let me provide an analogy.  Consider the duck:  it can fly, swim and walk on land.  In a sense they’re a true convergence animal.  Except…they’re not really that good at any of those things compared with animals who specialize.  Compared to the elegance and grace of an eagle, a duck’s flight is clumsy.  Compared with the agility of a fish, a duck’s swimming ability is poor.  Compared with a horse, a duck’s ability to walk/run on land falls short.  Comparing the iPad to devices designed to address specific solutions within verticals is like comparing a duck to any animal that specializes.

Anyway, back to Scoble’s examples – they are experiments and interesting as that, but to say that the iPad is changing synthesis of art – especially electronic art – shows a misunderstanding of it.  As an electronic musician for nearly 10 years I’d like to offer my perspective of examples 2 and 3 Scoble gives – the music examples.  The sketch artist example I’m not going to touch since I’m not actually a sketch artist but perhaps some of you can comment on that.

Let’s go through Scoble’s points:

Now that more and more people are getting iPads we are seeing just how they change everything, especially art and music.

I fail to see why a new consumer-designed device you can’t customize – which is powered by a closed platform and a crippled web browser – changes music creation or performance.  It’s a bit like saying Guitar Hero changes rock music.

Remember, Scoble isn’t talking about consumption, he’s talking about production.  Think about that for a minute.  Serious producers of digital art have studios they work in. While the right apps on the iPad might allow for the sketching of ideas on the go, this is easily possible already on a laptop (and is much more sophisticated there).  Also, the fact that a laptop can run full fledged audio production suites like Ableton Live means I can essentially have my studio on the go as opposed to stripped down applications.  Further, multi-tasking, something vital to audio production, is not even possible on an iPad.

Let’s look at Scoble’s first example – iPad DJ Rana June Sobhany

A few weeks ago I met Rana Sobhany who had gotten tons of compliments at the first iPad Dev Camp with her iPad DJ’ing system. So, she gave me a look at what she’s doing. That video went viral and has been watched half a million times. Wild.

OK Scoble, you know exactly why it went viral – someone playing around with iPads to do something interesting right during the product hype cycle.  It’s a neat experiment with what she is doing, but the fact that “that video went viral and has been watched half a million times” doesn’t really mean anything from a trend perspective.  There is no logic behind how you’ve framed this:  that just because a bunch of people watch a video with a music-lover using a gadget in a unique way is “changing everything, especially music.”

Anyway – here are some factual limitations to this setup:

• Touch screens or a mouse are not precise – that’s why midi controllers were created to work with soft synths.
• You can’t scratch with the same accuracy as vinyl (or at all from what I saw).
• Rana notes this would be a great solution for a newbie as it’s “the cheapest option when compared with CDJs”  I disagree – you can see it’s a custom setup she has (that would confuse a newbie) and there are far cheaper and simpler solutions than this that are even inclusive of a mixer (for example, you could be an iPod DJ or get an all in one kit from PSSL/123DJ).
• The audio quality coming out of the iPad is going to be sub-par when compared with hardware designed purely for music.

Even the artist herself doesn’t think her setup is changing music, as illustrated by her Tweet:

Awesome that Rana says this, and unfortunate Robert frames his argument the way he does and uses her as an example.  But lately it seems like he’d rather be sensationalistic than actually have depth to trends he reports on.  Let’s consider some actual examples of those who changed digital music:

• Pioneer of electronic music Robert Moog best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer (the first commercially-available modern synthesizer) changed the music industry and helped give birth to countless new genres of music.  Evolution of the synth continuous to this day.
• Technics set the industry standard for vinyl turntables with the 1200 which – 30 years later – is still the best device for mixing and scratching out there.  Even DJs using digital tools like Serato/Final Scratch or CDJs will admit this.  The 1200 is the device that changed the industry, virtual DJ software merely mimics it.
• Software like Ableton Live changed how modern producers create and perform and allows incredible flexibility, customization and editing on the fly that it enables musicians to create sets that previously required far more sophisticated setups.

If you’re versed in music history, it’s obvious the iPad doesn’t fit within the evolutionary path of digital music synthesis.  In all cases, change happened from those passionate about music and interested in solving specific problems.  This is not at all what the iPad is.  Also, if Scoble did his research into the wide array of DJ gear that already exists and the fact that there are many, many, many unique styles of mixing and setups (both custom and available for purchase), he’d realize this singular example is interesting but not changing the industry direction.

Scoble goes on to say:

But she’s not the only one using iPads. I met Wil.i.iam who is the music genius behind the Black Eyed Peas. We talk mostly about Twitter, but at the end he pulls out his iPad too.

The “music genius” bit aside (not even going to touch that’s what he thinks of the Blacked Eyed Peas) Scoble tries to add into his argument that this person “pulling out an iPad” during an interview means the iPad is changing art.  Except his pulling out of the iPad during the interview had absolutely nothing to do with music production.  Here Scoble is trying to add another proof point hoping no one actually watched the video.  Skip to the last 10 seconds of the video and you’ll see what I mean. It’s unbelievable he added this into the argument and makes me trust the rest of his content a lot less.

Next, Scoble gives an example of Lang Lang, famous pianist, walking out on stage and playing flight of the bumblebee on his iPad.  While it’s interesting, I highly doubt Lang Lang thinks that true pianists are going to give away their real pianos during concerts for iPads.  It’s a fun use of a new device, but the beauty of analog instruments is never replaced by digital.  I’m passionate about electronic music and I’ll freely admit there is something special about the range, warmth and beauty of real instruments that cannot be replaced by digital.  Lang Lang is having a bit of fun, but this is not a game-changer for the classic music world.

Conclusion

Scoble tries to paint a picture of a trend that iPads are changing art composition with this piece and three examples, but I’d be hesitant to say any real artists are going to start abandoning better gear to scale down for a convergence device.  Other than as a publicity stunt, as an artist I don’t see this making sense on any level.  I left a comment on Scoble’s blog noting this – which he immediately responded with “I disagree” – thus the motivation for this post and fleshing out my thoughts further.

What do you think?