"Well, remember you're not spending $200 for just an album. You're spending $200 for a revolutionary device that allows you to listen to music in a completely new way through stem separation, and that allows you to mix and make music on the go. You're also spending that $200 to become a part of a community that wants to change technology and music for the better. On top of that you’re getting Donda 2, which has enormous value. So I think that's a really important thing to stress. If I could put out one thing from this story today, that I want to make clear, is that you're getting something revolutionary. You're getting a first generation technology product that has the best reviews for a first generation technology product than anything we've seen in a decade, maybe since the original iPhone."
It was finely crafted and shaped to have the perfect ballistic coefficient to chuck at a pig's skull
capitalism has turned to completely misunderstanding technology in an attempt to make profit, selling what is physical in a useless digital form, and now selling what is digital in a needlessly physical form, all to circumvent the reality that there is no scarcity of digital goods and by their very nature there cannot be.
Someone with a Raspberry Pi without any prior experience with it can still make their own stem player in like a week lol
I think the stem player is a cool gimmick. Not worth anything close to $200 and not at all revolutionary though.
The "gimmick" is getting access to the stems and being able to mix them however you want. You could do that with just a PC if the published the stems.
I think it takes a track and creates new stems out of it. So I'm sure it's pretty imperfect, especially for more complex tracks. The thing is, most music fans aren't going to download steam for their favorite songs and import them to a DAW to mess with them. Hell I'm a huge music fan with a high-end DAW and even I'm not doing that. The gimmick of the stem player is that it simplifies it and makes it easier to mess with tracks in a limited way. So yeah, not worth the money, not revolutionary, but I kind of get it.
takes a track and creates new stems out of it
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Why would it do that if the songs are coming from the person selling the device, why not just send the stems to the device?
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How does it even do that? Best I can think of is some AI shit. But it's not like you can just cleanly separate the stems of a (compiled?) audio file where they aren't already separate, right?
Apparently there's a companion software that you run on computer and download songs to the device with. I didn't realize that!
I actually think you nailed it on the head with some AI shit haha. I've heard some of the split tracks. It works surprisingly well if the distinction between vocals, bass, drums, etc is clear, but it fails pretty hard when there are more instruments. Certainly not a clean separation, but enough for your average Kanye Stan to start looping and messing with haha.
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in a metaphorical sense, it's a phenomenon. a way of engaging with reality and exploring the human consciousness. it's the cosmos manifest in human ingenuity.
in a more literal sense... yes, it's an mp3 player with LED lights that only plays Donda and Donda 2 as far as I can tell.
why would i want to buy an album that comes on an alexa/google home thing?
Our goal is building the future of technology in media. We're creating a system that will not only cross into music, but also to other media. And this new system will encompass not only technology devices that you hold in your pocket, but also what surrounds you—the food you eat, what you wear, where you live. The vision is to redesign the world, and to do it with all of the tools that we have today, but with the lessons that we've learned over 20,000 years of human civilization, language, culture and artwork. I mean, we are ready for a radical break with the existing paradigm, but one that is fair and brings more people in, and speaks to the things about the human spirit that we've forgotten. So, those are some grand ways of describing it, but I think in practice it’s about more products, more tools, and a system that brings these democratizing, decentralizing ideas that are already catching hold in the culture to everyone in the most simple and elegant way.
:michael-laugh:
lets people manipulate songs by isolating elements, allowing them to be sped up/slowed down, reversed, and even looped
So it let's you remix tracks. I'm sure that he's gonna be cool with users uploading their derivative creations for revenue, right!?
Also, I think they should have just gone full Cronenberg with the design of the STEM player. Link
This feels like something that is already possible 20 years ago but never came to be because there's no profit incentive yet
Stem Player is dope, would recommend for upcoming producers/ music heads in general
