As a hobbyist musician, I love seeing stories about how technology has helped empower people and get them recognized. YouTube has opened the doors for numerous artists and entertainers, with Justin Bieber perhaps being the most well-known as the world’s biggest teen pop sensation. Love him or not, there’s no denying the impact of YouTube for him and many others, finding discovery and fame through posting videos online.
There are other stories of course, like Arnel Pineda, a singer who lived in the Philipines and began posting cover songs on YouTube in 2007. Before the year was out, he was discovered, asked to audition, and then earned the role as the lead singer for multi-platinum selling band Journey.
Bay Area rockers Zed recorded a music video with three Flip cameras in an hour and a half
Beyond the stories of discovery, I’m also very impressed by the ability of musicians to take technology and create quality work of their own. The DIY (“Do It Yourself”) initiative that one can take is also very empowering. Bands these days can record their music and achieve high quality on their computers using relatively low-cost tools.
Video, as well, can be done without needing to use the most costly equipment and hire an expensive technical crew. And great results can be had in a short amount of time.
A recent example is Bay Area rock band Zed, who produced a new video using only three simple Flip cameras, and that only took an hour and a half to film. Bassist Mark Aceves then spent a day doing edits on his Mac system running the content off of a Seagate FreeAgent drive.
The resulting video for Zed’s track “Leave Me Alone” looks and sounds great and also features Seagate’s own senior social media manager (and officemate) Rich Harris behind the drums. This is DIY done well by these hard rockers – and who knows who might eventually just take notice of this talented group of musicians on YouTube?
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