As I get to know more about MOA (Music Online Alive), which is a platform for artistes from the world of music not just to be able to independently create market and distribute their virtual albums online, but even interact with their fans and fellow artistes, I discover that my journey is endless.
It's like an artist lets loose his canvas midway through his journey to an ocean of enthusiasts and other better or worse peers, to have a go at walking some distance with him. Or then a film maker putting up half his film shot and loosely edited online and inviting whoever wishes to, to jump into the process with him/her to take the story further. If you are an artiste as secure with his craft as Peter Saltzman is as a pianist, then you can let float an idea online, and enjoy while others take it from one level to another, as you take the same idea, through your own interpretation.
Man, the
world is getting closer than I thought and art can now be, not just experienced
collectively, but even created collectively by varied people from different
corners of the world without them even having met each other.
As I revel in the possibility as an artiste myself, who can't wait to
release an idea in my head online, and create one piece of fiction while
people I don't know, but who may be interested, take the same story I am
writing forward, in different forms and styles, I choose to chat with
Peter, who I find on Skype almost immediately after the thought crosses my
mind.
I want to know what Piano Diaries, his blog, on MOA is about. And you can read
his answer in an American accent, as I reproduce it verbatim for you here.
"The inspiration for Piano Diaries... umm... ah! well, actually, the
very first album I thought of, for MOA, the virtual album platform, when we
were developing it was Piano Diaries... and it was even in my
prototypes of images which I developed and we did an early alpha prototype
back in 2008 before I met all the people in India..." (he takes
a long pause)... "and that was the very first album... and the idea
is that, unlike a conventional album, or CD... the virtual album is
of course a dynamic ongoing album, and the obvious candidate for that from my
standpoint, as a musician, composer and pianist, and singer, songwriter was
Piano Diaries, like a Piano Blog... that I could just add entries to, whenever
I felt like it... I think ideally on a daily basis, in reality that
does not happen.... but the entries are essentially all improvised,
kind of whats on my mind... musically that day, and I then, try to tie in
some little pithy remark about that... sometimes there's some connection
going through my mind with the music and I put that down in the track
notes, so, it's really like a piano diary... its just... not structured, not
planned... just kind of what goes on in my head musically on any given day...
and thats the history behind it..."
Peter, the founder and CEO of Music Online Alive smiles as he relaxes back in
his chair and continues, "now... interesting thing is, I believe
that this is a really a great prototype for MOA, not only from artistic,
but a commercial standpoint, and I think artists need to think about... you
know... in a dynamic format like the web... where things are constantly being
reinvented... redone... what can you do with it? What can you to with a format
which is not static like the CD and the LP... but can grow all the time?... And
this is just one idea... I'm sure a guitarist could do the same thing, or a
songwriter could put down short songs everyday... different kinds of things
that you could rethink the formats that you could put your music in, in as
dynamic a format as the web..." he trails on... and leaves me thinking of
the painters, writers, film makers, singers and creative people from all forms
of performing and non performing arts who are missing out on so much because
none of us has a Peter who has actually put together Music Online Alive for
musicians, composers, songwriters from all over the world to experience what it
is like to play with people who love their art as much as they do, and a fan
base which appreciates it as well. Check out Piano Diaries on