Harkive: Gathering The Globe’s Musical Moments
(UPDATED) By Craig Hamilton, founder Harkive.org
Can you remember the music services, technologies and formats you used 10 years ago? If, like me, you are struggling to remember, here’s a little help: You would not have used YouTube, or Spotify, or listened on a smartphone, or shared music choices on Twitter. Why? None of these products and services existed in 2003. So, what did you do?
I was struggling with this question last year, and it became the germ of an idea that would eventually become Harkive. But more on that in a moment…
At the same time as wrestling with my memory, I was also becoming frustrated with what I was reading about music consumption. The narrow definitions that music fans were being corralled into, ‘pirate’, ‘vinyl collector’, ‘Spotify user’, seemed too simplistic, as did the conclusions that were being drawn around them. I felt that music consumption was more complicated than was being reported, and I began to think about a way of addressing this.
My solution to both of the problems outlined above has been to develop Harkive.
On 9th July 2013 Harkive will ask music fans to tell the story of how, where and why they listen to music on that day. The aim is to capture for posterity a global snapshot of the way in which we interact with the sounds and technology of today. So, ten years from now, if you find yourself wondering how we listened in 2013, Harkive will tell you.
Furthermore, by aiming to capture the complex and highly individualised ways in which people listen to music, and by asking people to explore the reasons why they listen in the way that they do, it is my hope that Harkive could begin to steer the music consumption debate in some new and fruitful directions.
Since March Harkive has been gathering some example contributions to demonstrate the many ways in which music fans can contribute. These examples make for interesting reading and offer hints at what Harkive could potentially tell us.
I’d like to share some initial observations I’ve made with the Hypebot community, and to invite you all to take part in Harkive on 9th July.
Multi-format, multi-technology
The respondents use a range of technologies, formats, and services, and bounce from one to another with incredible speed and dexterity. This makes them difficult to pin down and raises the question of how useful it is to consider listeners in limited frames such as ‘vinyl collector’, or ‘Spotify user’.
Location, Location, Location
Moves from one technology to another are often dictated by place. Even a short walk from the living room to the kitchen can alter how we listen. It is interesting that we sometimes choose an ‘inferior’ technology over an available ‘superior’ one depending on where we are.
We Improvise
We are sold on the convenience and advanced nature of the music products and services we use, but there are examples of improvisation, a sense of ‘make-do-and-mend’, that hint at a level of dissatisfaction with, or limitations to, certain technologies. These ‘life-hacks’ could help us think about the development of new products, services and formats.
Unlimited choice and limited choices
The music we hear in the shared spaces we inhabit on a daily basis should not be ignored when we consider music listening. That we may choose to situate ourselves in spaces where we trust the music choices of others expands the notion of what we understand taste-making and music recommendation to be.
Online technology is interwoven with how and why we listen
Our use of online technologies and services are becoming as deeply embedded in the way we communicate about music as they are in the way in which we listen. It is interesting that ‘listening to’ and ‘communicating about’ music are increasingly interlinked; it may be helpful to begin considering this process as a cyclical whole.
It’s hugely complex and endlessly fascinating
Finally, and even though the example contributions represent a mere handful of responses, they nevertheless reveal a baffling level of detail. If, like me, you find this sort of thing interesting then the potential for what Harkive might be able to tell us about ourselves is hugely exciting.
