the general public recording music

[Malcolm G]

The general public can buy art supplies and make paintings and drawings, but they don't go flooding internet sites with their stuff.

DeviantArt?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Damn, beat me to it

[debra1rlo]

deb, maybe they didn't get yer joke because they couldn't link the beat with general public

Probably would have helped if I had said the right song.

[whyterabbyt]

interesting to see folk think that what they do, almost certainly nothing more than the excercise of a little bit of harmony theory and some gestural repetition, constitutes some form of art. the actual art world almost certainly doesnt concur.
its like a bunch of brickies complaining about someone designing their own house on the grounds that they dont have the right to get involved in architecture.

[insaneacyde]

i'm afraid the cream thats risen to the top is, although lavishly packaged...

ARTIFICIALLY FLAVOURED

[Melkor]

f**k art ....... lets just crank the amps and ROCK !!?!!

[DWb]

The obvious flipside to the question is: if you don't think it's a good thing that every schmoe has access to the tools to make music, how would you propose to decide who gets the tools and who doesn't?

For my part I'm happy to sift through the crap to get to the good stuff. Particularly since the internet's given us a definite headstart on the crap-sifting process.

[mhemnarch]

The thing about music today (like just about all information today) is that now that the general public has access to information desemination, as people have pointed out, there's too much stuff for anyone to dig through. (It's exactly the same with things like, say, VST plugins, to a lesser degree.) Some people think this is a bad thing, but I find it a good thing because it allows you to search for what you want through whatever standard you want. You can listen to the radio or the tastemakers blindly just like you could decades ago, or search through webforums and follow their majorities, or dive into netlabels and search through things for yourself. It's all up to you.

The future, though, belongs to the people who make it easier to find the information (the music) you want.

[blatanville]

The general public can buy art supplies and make paintings and drawings, but they don't go flooding internet sites with their stuff.

Music is different. Everyone wants to show off what they made.
For some reason they think it is cool.

I think that eventually there will be websites that will take uploads of music and only keep what they consider to be good according to their taste.
Different sites will have different taste and styles.
You will then find the ones that you like and there will be less to wade through in order to find things that you like.

Some people are offended by the idea of a gatekeeper, but how else do you filter out the garbage.

I have given up trying to find interesting music because of the flood of amateur, talentless work that is out there.

these gatekeepers exist: they're called "labels"
The real, noble purpose of a record label is the search through what's "out there" and make more-broadly available that which they believe in.
Unfortunately, that which succeeds draws the attention of business people who grind off the noble, but not-necessarily-always-maximally-profitable, intentions and focus only on the bottom line.

Back in the 80s, if you were into "industrial" music, and you liked what Wax Trax was putting out, you could somewhat count on that as a guide or measure of the quality of the music.
Same could be said of early Sub Pop, or C/Z, or Alternative Tentacles, Merge, etc.
The "label identity" was part of your filter mechanism.
Internet-based labels can and should, perhaps, follow the same creed: only offer that which you stand behind, musically.
Unfortunately, most internet labels, at this stage, are probably so keen to build large stables of artists (and artists being somewhat "fluid" in who releases their product), that the standard for entry is probably lower than it should be.

You want voluminous crap? surf through myspace
You want more focused offerings? find the labels you like, and stick with them.

that's me point of view...

[emdot_ambient]

The general public can buy art supplies and make paintings and drawings, but they don't go flooding internet sites with their stuff.

Oh yeah?

http://www.deviantart.com/
http://artcritiquegallery.com/cgi-bin/d ... ouncements
http://www.fanartreview.com/
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/
http://www.wetcanvas.com/
http://wickedmoon.com/cgi-bin/forum/gfo ... Igod5ka4TQ
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/
http://www.foundmyself.com/
http://www.artvitae.com/newartists.asp

I'm sure there's tons of it on MySpace and personal blogs, too.

[dan_s]

I don't really care if everyone makes music and puts it all over internet/myspace, just don't shove it down my throat and don't bitch if I say its shit.

and yea, not every sound you make or picture you draw is art. I dont even know how to define 'art' but its subjective anyway and you'll know it when you see it.

i've never had to sift through thousands of records to find what i like. thats the beauty of myspace, et al. its really easy to find new good stuff without spending cash or time.