Ericsson launched the latest in its Networked Society short film series back in October, focusing on the future of learning. The film taps some of the leading minds in education and technology, and the 20-minute video is well worth a watch just to give you a snapshot of where we’re currently at in education, and where we’re going.
This followed on from the Swedish telecommunications giant’s previous short film, Thinking cities: The challenges of urbanization in a networked society, which explored the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in a connected world.
Now, Ericsson is teaming up with DJ and producer Avicii to create a crowdsourced hit song, kicking off with a call-to-action for fans to contribute their own sounds from January 9. The collaboration is designed to show how the so-called Networked Society enables innovation and business transformation.
Ericsson is hoping to use this project “as a proof point” in conversations with other industries, tapping Avicii’s fan base which has grown largely from social media alone. Indeed, he was recently ranked as the second-most influential person under-30 in music by Forbes magazine.
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The ‘Avicii x You’ project launches globally tomorrow, and Avicii’s fans and fellow producers from across the world will contribute audio files online, with Avicii acting as executive producer, curating content like the bassline, effects, melody, rhythms, and vocals. He will then help pull everything together to try and create a hit song, with a mooted release date of February 26, 2013.
“I am thrilled to ask my fans to be part of my creative process,” says Avicii. “We’re taking music production and distribution – and probably performance – to the next level.”
“With the ‘Avicii x You’ project, we are trying again to shift a paradigm and for it to become another ‘first’ using today’s possibilities through social technology,” adds Avicii’s manager and partner Ash. “As usual, we hope to raise awareness not only for Avicii being an amazing producer, but also for the electronic dance music scene and how song producing is not exclusive to only trained musicians. It’s a world-inspiring, community-engaging and fun project.”
Ash is appearing alongside Ericsson at the International CES technology in Las Vegas today. You can monitor all our coverage from CES here.
This isn’t the first time an attempt at creating a hit song via the gift of crowdsourcing. Indeed, just last year the Reddit community came up with Reddit Top of the Pops, a subreddit constituting a collection of threads aimed at getting a pop song to the top of charts. It didn’t succeed.
But with the brawn of Ericsson, and the fan-base of Avicii, a hit song created by the world’s budding music artists really isn’t that far-fetched an idea. Getting everyone together for a follow-up album and world tour could prove a bit tricky, however.
To get things started, Avicii has provided the initial chord layout, pitch and key for the crowd to work with, which can be downloaded now. Meanwhile, check out the official teaser video below.
The online Avicci x You platform is launching on January 9.
Feature Image Credit – Thinkstock
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