Beck's new album, no vinyl, cd, nor mp3: play sheet music

[timcoalman]

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/29/168263920 ... themselves

"Song Reader is 20 new songs presented only as sheet music, in the hopes that enterprising musicians will record their own versions. Scores of them have, and Beck has been collecting their contributions at his Song Reader website. He says that after a dozen solo albums, crowdsourcing seemed like a way to make the process of releasing music a little less lonely.

"When you write a song and make a recording and put out a record, it's kind of [like] sending a message in a bottle," Beck says. "You don't really get a lot of feedback. This is a way of sending that song out, and you just get literally thousands of bottles sent back to you."

[RoyMatthews]

I read about this. I really, really like the concept.

[tonewoods]

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/beck- ... d589513536

[kslight]

Its kind of a funny concept, but I can't help but feel like he's taking the next step of ego-maniac rockstar at the same time...for example "I'm done playing even my OWN music, you have to do it." And I hope that's not exactly how he's thinking, but I'm just saying I can't help but get that idea. If he really wanted to be cool about this, he'd give everyone stems of his rendition of the album, AND the sheet music, so they could replace/reinterpret/remix the songs. Maybe I don't want to hear x performing Beck? Maybe I really only want to hear Beck do it? Just sayin..

[Nick Sevilla]

I heard the interview done on NPR, he seemed genuinely into the idea of allowing others to interpret the songs as they wished, and it did not seem egotistical on his part. Just an (old) new idea... remember, sheet music was WAY popular in the 18th through the early 20th centuries, especially piano accompaniment.

I worked with him many years ago, but due to my being sick as a dog, that gig only lasted a few days. Nice guy. Quiet, hard working.

Cheers

[fossiltooth]

I am 135% sold on this.

[T-rex]

A good friend of mine bought it and we are going to record at least one song. I doubt we will even submit it, but we just want to do it for the fun of it.

I think its a cool idea. From what I have read it does seem like a genuine move and not necessarily a calculated one. My friend who has been going through the songs said they are are really simple and he could see how this might actually motivate some people to pick up a guitar or keyboard and learn the songs, people who don't normally play.

We are definitely not listening to any of anyone's playing of the songs before we do. I mean when was the last time you picked up sheet music of a song you have absolutely never heard before and learned it or played it? I think that is a really cool thing. I mean a studio or classical musician, sure; but Joe Public? That used to be a real thing and its been gone for a long time.

[dfuruta]

As much as I dislike Beck's music?and, I can't stand a single thing I've heard by him?I think this is awesome. Music used to be a social, participatory experience; now it's a bunch of dweebs listening to shit with headphones on their ipods. Seems like a step in the right direction.

[nobody, really]

Brilliant. Now I can't pirate it. I have to actually get off my arse and do something...

[Gregg Juke]

Very interesting. It is either a brilliantly earnest out-of-the-box retro-forward thinking epiphany, or the ultimate in apathetic cynical publicity-stunt marketing... So hard to say. If that many people are already into it to the point of creating unique versions, this could become a huge trend, for better or for worse.

It certainly would make the songs stand or fall on their own merits. Publishing income guaranteed. How much does the "album" cost?

GJ

[floid]

before capture and reproduction technology came along, pop music intersected with commerce in the form of sheet music - with such context, couldn't this just be considered an echo? plenty of threads in these archives that discuss the arc of music over the course of the past century or so in terms of something like an historical bubble...
but, knowing nothing of this other than the current thread, still it probably boils down to one thing: are the songs any good?