On 08/04/2011 11:59 PM, rosea grammostola wrote:

Unbelievable that we are missing the chances here.

That's no wonder. You'll probably agree with me that there are like 4 or 5 people using Linux audio on a serious basis in the Netherlands. The Netherlands has 16,7 million inhabitants, worldwide there are 6,9 billion souls so some maths yields: (5 / 16.700.000) * 6.900.000.000 = 2066 serious Linux audio users world wide. If this would be a realistic figure we have a long way to go, it is just a too small user base.

My 2¢: social media don't work for Linux Audio. I think the only thing that does work is good video tutorials, that's really big at the moment, good blogs and decent articles on authorative sites and in printed magazines. All the other things are imho not useful. Twitter, Facebook, Google+ won't work, simply too much dispersion, people don't collaborate on these platforms, they only click on buttons and leave pointless comments. My girlfriend just bought me the latest Linux Format and the only audio related article it contains is an article by Jono Bacon who recommends using Jokosher. Ok, it's about podcasting but we can do better than that! There are so many people making music with their computers and still Linux is considered not a viable option because it's supposedly for geeks, nerds and technically savvy folks. I call BS, with the band I convinced the others to ditch Cubase in favor of Qtractor because every rehearsal session we were totally lost again on how to record a simple track. And it takes me longer to properly configure a Windows machine than a Linux one for audio usage. People need to open up and look further than what they get crammed in their mouths. And some others on the list have said it before, musical breakthroughs don't always come from talented artists but also from people who do things differently. Who cut up speaker cones to get a distorted sound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_distortion#History), who experiment with multitrack recording while it doesn't even properly exist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitrack_recording#Process) or who start using autotuners as an effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotune#In_popular_music). And you know what? Linux Audio is the perfect starting point imo for doing things differently, not only because it is different but also because it's completely free. And that's what musicians might appeal in the near future, sheer freedom. Within 50 years the record labels have managed to destroy their own businesses simply by taking away the musician's freedom, it's a matter of years before musicians start to follow the examples of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails and regain their freedom. So yes, we have to play that political card, the time is right, more and more people are considering FLOSS as a viable option (that includes Neelie Kroes, the EU Commissioner for Digital Agenda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neelie_Kroes#Commissioner_for_Digital_Agenda) and those are not just the people buying biological food or pieces of land in the Amazon to reduce their ecological footprint.

And what we really need is quality stuff, quality music, quality videos, quality live stuff. There is waaaaaaaay too little available at the moment while it is perfectly possible to create quality music with Linux. We need more Ken Restivo's, more Sebkha Chott's, more Louigi Verona's (and any other talent hanging around here that I might forget, sorry beforehand). We need a buzz, a technique, a workflow that yields something unique that makes people wonder how it was done, that makes people crave to reproduce that uniqueness so they can start destroying it again ;)