Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.10.2012, Page 28

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28 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 16 — 2012MUSIC
It’s been said that music expresses emo-
tions that words cannot, but what if there
was a scale to quantify exactly how “sen-
timental” a song was? A programme
called Senti(Com)ment does just that.
Created by software developer Nikola
Chochkov, the programme analyses us-
er-submitted comments from music web
service Soundcloud, and then gives the
track a “sentiment” score using code tak-
en from Musicmetric, a data and music
analysis service. With this piece of code,
Nikola has effectively created a way to
express the heart-breaking sadness of
Nina Simone’s “Don’t Explain,” or the
sweeping, atmospheric beauty of Griz-
zly Bear’s “While You Wait for the Oth-
ers.” Granted, the emotion in these songs
can’t be fully captured in the one to five
scale the programme assigns them, but
the software is just one example of the
limitless, exciting and ever-expanding
possibilities that can occur when music
meets technology.
Nikola created his program at a 2011
Music Hack Day in Berlin. This 24-hour
“hackathon” event began in London
2009, and allows developers, program-
mers, artists and music aficionados to
come together to build the future of the
music industry. On October 28, computer
geeks and music nerds in Reykjavík will
have their own opportunity to try their
hand at creating the next big thing in
music.
“The idea is to bring together like-
minded people to hack on fun stuff re-
lated to music and technology,”
says Karl Tryggvason, one
of Music Hack Day Reyk-
javík’s organisers. “The
goal is to build some-
thing in 24 hours and
then present it. Of
course it’s only 24
hours, so it might
not be a complete or
finished version, but at
least ideas have been
moulded and connections
and programmes have been
made.”
REDEFINING HACK
Karl says despite the event’s name, there
is nothing subversive or illegal about
Hack Day. Instead, participants will be
given free access to the code and pro-
gramming that are the nuts and bolts of
some of the most popular web-based
music services, including Soundcloud
and Spotify. This code, called the appli-
cation programming interface—or API—
contains the structured data, analysis
software, streaming capabilities and
anything and everything else that makes
a music web service work. With this in-
formation, the possibilities to create are
endless.
While participants are encouraged to
use existing APIs, it’s not required. “APIs
are then introduced to the participants,
and people can use those in their hacks,
but they don’t have to. If you want to hack
on something else, it’s completely open,”
he says. “The companies attend because
they want to foster a network of develop-
ers, but it’s not mandatory to work using
only their tools.”
In this way, Hack Days are redefin-
ing an industry once closely guarded by
massive music labels and promoters. As
new technologies have been developed
and refined, the pearly gates of the music
industry have been opened to everyone,
and now anyone with coding skills can
go forth and ‘hack’ the music industry as
they see fit. Ultimately, not only does the
event redefine an industry, it redefines
the very word itself.
“To a lot of outside people, ‘hack’ has
a negative connotation. It’s not about
hacking or breaking in or breaking any-
one’s copyright,” he says. “It’s ‘hacking’ in
the sense of making your own stuff. The
event is meant to provide new ways of
looking at, thinking about, or interacting
with music.”
In an age where digital mu-
sic services are popping
up faster than the time
it takes to download
an mp3, these so-
called “hackers” are
using technologies
that would have
been unheard of five
years ago to create
programmes at light-
ning speed.
“Some years ago,
we weren't able to work that
fast, because we lacked the tools
to prototype with this rapid speed,” says
Johan Uhle, the coordinator of several
Music Hack Days in Berlin and one of
the co-coordinators of Music Hack Day
Reykjavík, in an email. “But with the
advancement of technology as well as
its drive towards open ecosystems and
APIs, it is very feasible today to conceive
an idea and build it within a weekend.”
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
While participants in Hack Day need to
have the technical know-how in order to
conceptualise and carry out their ideas,
even the non-tech savvy have a place at
Hack Day. Not all creations at Hack Day
are purely digital, and perhaps some of
the most interesting creations—including
an Amsterdam Hack Day original where
participants created an umbrella that
used sensors to play a random 8-bit tune
when hit by rain— require an entirely dif-
ferent set of skills to execute.
“Everyone should bring something to
the table. It’s not all programming. There
are designers and artists, engineers and
people who make instruments,” Karl says.
“So if you have a music and tech related
idea that you want to try and sketch out,
it can be a good place to look.”
For those who would rather observe,
there will be an opportunity to come
and see the creations at the end of the
24-hour period when each participant
gets two minutes to explain their “hack,”
which Johan says tends to have a very
positive reception with even the most
technologically inept.
Creations presented at past Hack
Days have included Tracks on a Map,
which allows users to listen and find
Soundcloud tracks from any genre by
clicking on a map of the world; Berlin
Transit Pulse, which offers a real-time
visualisation of public transit in Berlin
through an audio piece that changes with
traffic flow; and Drinkify, which allows
users to input what they’re listening to
and get a suggestion of what to drink in
return.
IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE
HARDWARE
Although it may be focused on technol-
ogy, Hack Day is not entirely about anti-
social developers sitting silently behind
their computers, pounding madly away
on their keyboards, and writing hundreds
of lines of complex code. Karl hopes Hack
Day will spawn not only new music pro-
grammes, but new friendships and con-
nections as well.
“It brings a social offline or meet
space aspect to it. I know a lot of people—
myself included—sit at home tinkering
with stuff, so it’s a good chance to learn
from likeminded people and get your idea
out there,” he said. “And then, it should be
a fun time, if a bit nerdy!”
- KIRSTEN O’BRIEN
Reykjavík Music Hack Day encourages programmers and music fans to come together
to build a new wave of music apps and programmes.
Hacking Their Way To The Future Of Music
Reykjavík
University
Reykjavík Music Hack Day
reykjavik.musichackday.org27
OCT
28
OCT
“
It’s not about hacking
or breaking in or breaking
anyone’s copyright or some-
thing,” he said. “It’s ‘hacking’ in
the sense of making your own
stuff. Hacking is negative to
many, and it’s not about
that at all.
„