Justin Frankel, the programmer responsible for Winamp and Gnutella, has just introduced a new software, NinJam for both OS-X and Windows machines. Amazing use of broadband pipes – collapsing the distance, time and space for the most local of all activities – making music.
> … is a program to allow people to make real music together via the Internet. Every participant can hear every other participant. Each user can also tweak their personal mix to his or her liking. NINJAM is cross-platform, with clients available for Mac OS X and Windows.
via Billboard PostPlay who got it from News.com., which writes, “He’s thinking about opening up a paid hosting service a little like multiplayer game sites, where musicians could pay a small fee to jam online together.”
I had a similar thought about setting up a webcast music studio, scheduling the bookings with a pre-decided tracklist (with accompanying music notation) and serving out the result via shoutcast and inviting musicians to lay their parts over the top. The final result is recorded and is then a “Hey kids, you know I once jammed with Prince. I’ve got the session on tape.”
The complexity of creating the propritary software seemed a little far fetched for the gimmicky nature though…