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Comment by pmichaud | Hacker News Reader

What I’d actually like to see is more “dynamic” music. the format of a song used to be limited like a book is limited, but then we invented hypertext. Paintings are limited, but then we invented video games. Why can’t music have various interactive parameters, or at least be able to loop to arbitrary lengths? I bet there’s a lot of untapped potential here.

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Vinyl records and tapes experimented with this, especially with the ability to have intricate groove paths that allowed songs to have alternate parts that the needle might "randomly" select or loop, or tapes designed to perpetually loop.

Some of those practices are still in use today, on those formats: Jack White's label published his Lazaretto album with a number of vinyl tricks, including two different intro grooves for one of the songs,[1] and the recent milder resurgence in cassettes has gotten people experimenting with old tape-loop styles again.[2][3]

1: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/07/jack-white-ult...

2: https://www.guerrilladigital.cc/2021/03/10/i-spent-the-last-...

3: https://store.crypticcarousel.com/products/6-minute-endless-...

And, of course, there's always video game music which often shifts in reaction to player actions.

now I want to work on a music app that changes your playlist based on heart rate

Björk isn’t the only artist who’s explored this space, but she did an album that’s highly interactive. Less interactive but more chaotic, the Flaming Lips did an album that famously was designed to play on four sound systems. There are other examples I’ve omitted because they’re either speculative or lightning rods for the wrong kind of conversation here, but there are definitely musical artists who’ve either explored this kind of interaction or embraced it as their audience explored it.

If you haven't had the pleasure: https://www.incredibox.com/demo/ may be the band/demo/dynamic music you are pursuing? But much agreed, I think we're at the forefront of exciting new mediums in the audio space.

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