The Definitive Daft Punk...Visualized!

Cameron Adams, aka “The Man in Blue”, created a live visualization of the audio mashup he created between 23 different songs from Daft Punk.  The Definitive Daft Punk Visualized combines a circular waveform of each of the songs concurrently being played with an audio map timeline at the bottom showing each song color-coded.

In order to explain the layering and interplay that goes into something like a Girl Talk album or The 139 Mix Tape I decided to take my own mashup of Daft Punk’s discography – Definitive Daft Punk – and reveal its entire structure: the cutting, layering, levels and equalisation of 23 different songs. By dividing up the sound data for each song and computing its appearance in realtime, the resulting visualisation gives you an understanding of the unique anatomy of this particular mashup.

The entire piece is composed from the latest HTML5 and CSS3 technology (canvas, audio, transforms & transitions) so you’ll need a newer browser to view it in. I recommend Chrome because it pulls off the best performance with my mangled code. All of the waveform and spectrum visualisation is performed in realtime, so your browser is rendering a music video on the fly!

Hopefully it gives you a new insight into the artform of the mashup, otherwise you can just stare at the pretty shapes.

Found on Twitter via @kmcostello

The Present and Future State of Music

A State of the Art, The Present and Future State of Music (long title, I know) from 3GM.hu looks at the current statistics behind music streaming and consumption.

Personally, I can’t believe the statistic that 85% of listening is still consumed from the Radio?!?  I haven’t listened to an actual radio station for years!  I listen to everything through my iPhone.

Hop On, Hop Off The Jefferson Airplane

Hop On, Hop Off The Jefferson Airplane is a visual history of the band Jefferson Airplane by Italian infographic artisan Gino Selva.  The colored lines show which performers were involved in each album and which instrument they played.  A guide on the left side shows which band name was used for the different albums.

It’s fairly complicated, but that’s the reality of the band’s history and why needs an infographic to help simplify it.

Nice job Gino!

The History of Apple’s iPod: An Infographic

From DigitalSurgeons comes The History of Apple’s iPod, an infographic timeline.  This one has been sitting in my submissions inbox for months, and I’m only now getting around to posing it (sorry guys).

I specifically like the multiple levels of information included.  Of course you can see images of the iPods that were released every year, but surrounding that is some of the information that was shared by Apple about the iTunes business, how many iPods were sold, how many songs were sold, when new services were offered (like HD video) and more recently things like apps and Ping.

Nice job guys!

The Music Industry and Online Piracy, infographic by the numbers

Music And Piracy Infographic by =curseofthemoon on deviantART

Great infographic by D. Israel Peralta, The Music Industry & Online Piracy by The Numbers does a good job at examining at the different ways that online music has impacted the music industry.

You can see more of Israel’s work on DeviantArt.  A high-resolution version is also available.

Link found on Chemicalism

How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

From David McCandless at Information is Beautiful, is a great infographic about How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?  This is a fantastic topic for an infographic because the information is so confusing and difficult to find.  I also really like the comparison of how many songs an artist needs to sell to equal the U.S. monthly minimum wage.

This image is based on an excellent post at The Cynical Musician called The Paradise That Should Have Been about pitiful digital royalties. (Thanks to Neilon for pointing that out). I’ve taken his calculations and added a few more.

As ever, this was incredibly difficult to research. Industry figures are hard to get hold of. Some are even secret. Last.Fm’s royalty and payment system is beyond comprehension. (If you can explain it to me, please get in touch)

Found on both Information is Beautiful and Social Media Graphics

Pink Floyd Timeline of Band Members

I really love this timeline of Pink Floyd’s history.  The colors actually show the time periods that different members were active in the band.  This would make a great poster!

Designer known as 802.11, and available on Flickr

"Meet The Elements" - infographic video for kids

Found on BoingBoing and Information Aesthetics, a infographic music video, "Meet The Elements", from They Might Be Giants from their new kids album titled "Here Comes Science". Video directed by Feel Good Anyway.

Illinois: Visualizing Music

Jax de Leon just graduated from the graphic design program at SUNY Purchase College School of Art and Design, and was kind enough to share some of her senior project work called Illinois: Visualizing Music. Jax focused on one music album (illinois, by Sufjan Stevens), and visually analyzed different aspects.

This project is an experiment in taking an audio recording of music that is beautiful and personally meaningful to many listeners, deconstructing it from different vantage points, rearranging it, and building it up again into visual interpretations. This project visualizes lyrics, instrumentation, notes, patterns, and word usage. Hopefully these interpretations will provide another way of experiencing this album, although no amount of analysis can adequately represent the visceral response one gets when presented with a compelling piece of music.

Above is one of the word usage circles, and below are a visual of the instruments used in the album and a visual of lyric content. Check out all of her different visualizations and photos from her final exhibition here.

Great job Jax!

Stay the Same (Infographic Music Video)

Laurie Thinot directed this infographic music video "Stay The Same" by Autokratz.  She just earned recognition at the 19th Annual New Directors Showcase at Cannes.

A warped kalidescope of music video animation from the album Down & Out in Paris & London.

Links to videos from all of the winners are here.