New digital music formats tend to increase sound quality, reduce file size, add surround sound channels or restrict via DRM. Musinaut’s new MXP4 format breaks the mold by re-imagining the standard, linear style of recording music in an interactive way that allows creators to pack extra beats, harmonies, genres or even artists into a single track. Users, rather than listening to a track exactly as it was laid down, can choose between various versions in a software player or online widget. In just one example, an artist could offer pop, rock, reggae and drum and bass versions of the same song.

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The idea for Musinaut germinated when Gilles Babinet, founder of the music and ringtone distributor Musiwave, was asked by a journalist in the spring of 2006, "What’s the next big thing in music?"

Musinaut CEO Trish Thomson explained, "It’s one question he hadn’t anticipated. Sohe just blurted out, ‘It’ll be interactive!’ And then spent the planeride home trying to figure out what interactive music would really looklike."

In the spirit of showing rather than telling, here’s what Babinet’s interactive music idea ended up looking like.

But the most impressive part of Musinaut’s demonstration in our offices showed several bands covering the same song within a single MXP4 file, with the listener able to select which one plays. Here’s some audio I recorded from the meeting that demonstrates the concept by transitioning between several different bands covering the Beatles’ "Come Together" as a potential cross-promotional opportunity for indie bands:





Although MXP4 files are free to listen to on the web or through the software, Musinaut MXP4 Creator will cost $400 but is free to use until December 31. The basic idea (screenshots below) is that the creator drags and drops segments of music into the software, picks the possible transition points, and then assigns a sequence and sets a probability that dictate which section gets played next. Or, a song can be set up so that the user selects which section plays.

According to Charlotte from the Belgian band Soldout, whose French label contact was an early employee of the company, it’s actually quite easy to use despite its apparent complexity.

"For us, it didn’t look so complicated because we work mostly in electronic music and we’re pretty used (it). I thought it was really fun, and it matched my opinion on the music, because when we finish a song, we never think it’s perfect. We like to have different versions of our songs. When we are in the studio, we have to choose, in the end, what we put on our CD. But it’s really nice to be able to use the things you like and you couldn’t put on the CD."

According to Musinaut’s vice president of business development Mark Collins, former owner of the Mercury Club in Austin, Texas, artists can use MXP4 Creator to mine their archives for something new to present to fans, in addition to creating new works within the software. "How many different versions or various tracks never get used?" he asked. "They end up deciding on one version for whatever reason, whether they think it’s the most commercial or it’s the one that they like the best." MXP4 allows them to release all of the versions within the same file. "Just from a composition level it really opens things up," he added. "And it can also open you up to a wider audience," because a rock oriented band could present their song as electronica, and so on.

Collins claims that hip hop mixtapes are particularly well suited to the MXP4 format. "I think that this software is going to change the mixtape and the mash-up forever," he said. "Both of those formats are already very popular, and generate a lot of buzz. Imagine if you had a mixtape (in the hip hop sense) that’s always changing — seven different versions of the instrumental track and six different MCs that have their own version. They could be completely different lyrics based on the same themes, then you can embed various hooks and harmonies, (so that) the mixtape is constantly mixing — kind of like recreating what a DJ can do live."

Here’s what the free downloadable version of the MXP4 player looks like (as opposed to the online widget):

Although the MXP4 Creator was designed to be used with other digitalaudio workstations (DAWs), you can record straight into the program, ifyou so desire. Here’s where you record and select the patterns (effects included):

You can set up pattern, skin and soundbyte transitions here. The numbers (0-100) control the probability of each option occurring:

The patterns section lets you keep tabs on what’s going on in each skin:

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