Music Broadcasts for 21st Century?
Another Big Like. For the launch of “We’re New Here” - the recently released Jamie XX remix album of Gil Scott Heron’s “I’m New Here” - they undertook a location based pre-launch broadcast of the record. The idea being that you can bring your laptop, smart phone, or tablet along to to a certain locale, connect to a site, and listen to an online radio broadcast of the album. Why do I like this? Well, I think it’s a great way to connect a whole bunch of stuff together - primarily you got the music and the listener, but you have also got all the things encompassed with the place of that locale AND the online platform as well. So as a listener (or fan like me!) your experience encompasses the atmosphere and architecture of that location your in, the characteristics, look or feel of the people there, perhaps the cafe from which you might listen to it, and the businesses and brand that make up part of places narrative - like record shops or clothes shops that help plot out that particular broadcast area. So I like it because I think it has the potential to create a really rich experience for the listener - and perhaps reinvigorate music broadcasts again. Just a shame there wasn’t a broadcast in Shanghai because the album is fantastic.
