Collaboration as a general idea has been present on the Internet since the World Wide Web’s inception – Indeed, it more or less came to exist thanks to an open dialogue of ideas between the technologically creative, and it was built to the size it currently is in much this same way. One would assume that under such an environment, other forms of collaboration would find a use for this global information service. Indeed, musical discussion lists and tablature sites popped up very early on in the history of the Internet, and the sharing of written ideas was easily possible, but the fundamental barrier of transferring sound across the web had to be broken down before true digital collaboration would be possible.
Enter the development of the MP3 file format. The sharing of files across the internet had been possible prior to this, but files were generally either too large to be realistically exchanged or of too low a quality to serve any real purpose. With this pioneering digital format, however, the metaphorical wall holding back true online musical collaboration came down, and this field took of with alarming speed. The first site to establish itself as a hub for online musical collaboration (as opposed to the method of seeking out collaborators wherever you can and exchanging ideas via email or Peer-to-peer services) was called the Rocket Network. Initially a mailing list and an FTP server named ResRocket, which was dedicated to exchanging music and ideas in a pre-mp3 environment (and therefore sacrificing much quality); the venture was spearheaded by British musicians Willy Henshall and Tim Bran, and Canton Becker and Matt Moller, both Software Designers at the university of Chicago as well as musicians. Businessman Paul Allen saw promise, and injected capital into the concept in April of 1998, almost simultaneous to the widespread MP3 explosion. Utilising innovative software, an online studio environment was created, leading to much intense creative development including the world’s first online band. Much was made of the promising future such an environment yielded, and so there was much surprise when the Rocket Networks venture dissolved due to financial instability in early 2003.
In the wake of the demise of such a pioneering venture, many other alternative services operating in a number of ways have emerged on the online music scene. The biggest of these would certainly seem to be Collaboration Central, Loopwise and 96 decibels, all of which occupy very specific territory in this fledgling scene. It is worth noting this territorial specificity, as it is perhaps a reaction to the demise of Rocket, and an attempt to limit ambitions to the mostly-realistic. For all the good that Rocket did, it is also worth noting that it held singular power over the domain of serious online collaborative recording for quite some time. Rather than forcing those interested in online music to fall into a specific mould, these varied sites offer a variety that Rocket, as a monopolising figure, had held back. For more information on these sites, their histories and their pros and cons, please see the section entitled Collaborative Resources Online.
--Nick Smethurst 17:11, 21 Oct 2004 (EST)
