Demoscene & Netaudio

WHOIS...

[1979] Hello World!
[1985] ZX Spectrum (learn about code)
[1995] PC (learn about demoscene)
[1997] started coding demos
[1998] DemoJournal - weekly newsletter
[1999] started using Jeskola Buzz
[2000] joined Scene.Org (music groups approval +++)
[2001] founded Enough Records Netlabel

Topics

Demoscene
Tracker Music Formats
Music Groups
Netlabels

Demoscene

Underground computer culture
Started in the 80s
Spin-off from cracking/piracy scene
Realtime visuals on computers

Demoscene

Floppy disk trading
BBS trading
Song data had to be small size
Tracker formats

Tracker Formats

Wikipedia sayz

Trackers are music sequencer software
Used to create and edit module files

Tracker Formats

Samples / Instruments
Channels Patterns
Sequence

Tracker Formats

Became popular with the Commodore Amiga:

Ultimate Soundtracker, 1987
NoiseTracker, 1989
Protracker, 1990

Tracker Formats

Grew more popular with PC / MS-DOS:

Scream Tracker 3, 1990
Fast Tracker 2, 1995
Impulse Tracker, 1995

Tracker Formats

Still lives on:

Renoise
Modplug Tracker
Jeskola Buzz
Schism Tracker
Milky Tracker
etc

Tracker Formats

Trackers History Graph
http://helllabs.org/tracker-history/trackers.svg

Tracker Formats

.mod => Amiga modules (usually 4channels)
.s3m => Scream Tracker 3
.xm => Fast Tracker 2
.it => Impulse Tracker

Tracker Formats

Open format
No DRM
Communitary meritocracy
Selective trading

Music Groups

Part of demoscene culture
But only focused on releasing music

Music Groups

Related to artscene (ascii/ansi)
Related to demoscene (musicdisks)

Music Groups

Spreading their own digital art
Remixes / Covers of pop songs
Original works
Soundtracks for videogames

Music Groups

MP3 and the internet

Netlabels

Not necessarily related to demoscene
Digital distribution, free for download

Netlabels

Democratization of music distribution
Netaudio is killing the music industry
Discovery != mainstream media
Just google for new music

Netlabels

Explosion of niche genres
Direct indie distribution
Curation and radio re-emerged (as online streaming and podcasts)
Creative commons licensing appeared

Netlabels

Boom of netlabels with short lifetime (1-2 years)
Study in 2012 counted over 350 active netlabels in the world
80% of netlabel releases are electronic or experimental
20% rock / pop / indie

Netlabels

Several festivals dedicated to netaudio
Hard to have current active netlabel estimate
Each year over 130 participate in the netlabel day event
Only a small % of netlabels were directly related to demoscene

Netlabels

Enough Records
396 albums, 20 compilations, 24 mixtapes

Netlabels

Active netlabels with demoscene background:

Netlabels

Commercial labels with demoscene / netlabel past:

Thanks!

Now go make a demo about it!
Demo or die!!!