Feb 19, 2010
I’ve had an idea, and I need your help !
There’s quite a buzz at the moment about Derek Siver’s talk at TED, Leadership lessons from a dancing guy. If you haven’t already seen it, check out the video above – it’s fantastic !
Despite the great response he got to his idea of the “First Follower”, he immediately decided that he wanted to “give it away” – as he wrote in his post First follower idea is all yours. He wants people to take the idea, and run with it.
And people are – in clever, interesting ways.
For example, Andrew Dubber has come up with what he calls The other way of following first by choosing to give away ideas of his own – one a day, every day throughout March. I advise you to keep an eye on these ideas, I’m pretty sure many of them will be very, very good.
And already, Andrew has his First Follower – well, sort of, anyway. Andrew Wicklander has commited to choosing and implementing one of Andrew’s ideas, within 30 days, as he explains in his post Dance Party.
So, by now you’re probably thinking that I’m going to jump on this bandwagon, too ?
Well… no.
At least, only in the sense that I’m jumping on in yet another, slightly different way.
Because yesterday I had what I think is a really, really good idea.
It was inspired by reading a great post by the inestimable Seth Godin, called Invent a holiday. His suggestion is that if you have a cause you want to promote, or an “emotion that needs social approval in order to be easily expressed”, you should make a holiday for it.
Yesterday, I realised what holiday it is that I should invent.
And, inspired by all these leaders and First Followers, I will have to become my own version of Shirtless Dancing Guy !
What’s the idea ? Simple…
Dynamic Range Day
This is a day that I hope social media and the blogosphere will use to promote the issue of the Loudness War. I’m guessing that if you read this blog, you probably know what that is, by now :-p
(If not, click that link and watch the video – it’s only a few minutes and will bring you up to speed.)
How can we achieve this ? Easy.
On Dynamic Range Day, I want you to SHOUT ALL DAY. I want you to SHOUT IN YOUR BLOG POSTS. I want you to SHOUT IN YOUR TWEETS. I want you to SHOUT ON FRIENDFEED, I want you to SHOUT ON GOOGLE BUZZ, I want you to SHOUT IN YOUR EMAILS, I want you to… well OK, you get the idea. I have a headache already. Hmm, maybe this isn’t such a great idea after all…
(In case you’re not as much of a geek as I am, I should just explain that typing ALL IN CAPS is known online as “shouting”)
All the SHOUTING is of course a witty analogy of excessively compressed, distorted, dull, lifeless Loudness War collaterally-damaged audio. EVERYTHING FLAT OUT AND RELENTLESS.
In fact, you don’t just have to SHOUT – you can distort your words in any way you see fit. Maybe your blog will suddenly turn a violent shade of lime green and orange. Maybe you suddenly use a ridiculous gothic font (all in caps, of course). Maybe your avatar will suddenly be massively over-contrast-y and hyped. Anything you see fit.
And also, you explain why you’re doing it. Tell people about the Loudness War, and why you’re opposed to it. Point people at media coverage of Death Magnetic, at TurnMeUp.org, at the TT Dynamic Range Meter, at DynamicRange.de, at this blog post, at your own blog posts, at whatever you like to get people talking about it.
Let’s get #DynamicRangeDay trending on Twitter. Let’s get the media talking about the Loudness War. Lets get this issue everywhere.
(And yes, I know I just posted about How to make your music loud, but in case you didn’t get it, the hidden message was: Don’t. And if you have to – do it it well. And don’t overdo it.)
I was so excited about this idea that I immediately blurted it out to Dean Whitbread, who laughed hugely and straight away announced that he was going to post “the shoutiest blog post ever”. Which is quite a gauntlet to throw down and means, if he wants it, that he must be my First Follower!
(See ? There was a point to that long introduction, after all…)
Dean also helped me decide:
When is the first Dynamic Range Day ?
At first I thought the obvious choice would be the anniversary of Death Magnetic’s release, but that isn’t ’till the 12th of September, and I just can’t wait that long. So, the choice is:
March 20th, 2010
Suggested by Dean, this is the Vernal (Spring) Equinox. It’s also about a month away, which seems like enough time for this idea to succeed – or, fall flat on it’s face. And, to swing the deal, it’s polar opposite, the Autumnal Equinox is on… drum-roll please… September 22nd.
Well… it’s close enough 
So why do I need your help ?
Because at the moment, it’s just me, dancing in a field, SHOUTING to myself.
(And maybe Dean)
I need your help ! I don’t have a plan for this, I only thought of it yesterday.
I need your ideas, I need your blog posts. I need someone to design a logo, and a Twibbon, and one of those banner things that you can put up in the corner of your site, and the code to make it work.
I need you to talk about this idea, to tell your friends, to blog about it, and to spread the word.
Are you in ? Tell me in the comments ! Sign up to the RSS feed so you’ll get any news as soon as I post it. Follow me on Twitter and tell me your ideas.
I know people who read this blog want an end to the Loudness War – let’s SHOUT ABOUT IT !
…so, clearly I can’t be Shirtless Dancing Guy – that’s already been done. I suppose that makes me… Quietly Spoken But Asking People To SHOUT Guy ?
.gif "Dynamic Range Foundation - Active Member")
YEAH! ,,, I’m warming up
YES. IT IS GOOD.
Great idea. Love it.
Hi Ian,
Awesome idea – count me in.
Kind of ironic to end the Loudness War by shouting about it.
Ha! I’m in. In fact, I’m going over now to put a reminder on my my Outlook.
Also, that video was hilarious.
Dude.. This idea is so freakin’ awesome that I might just have to start shouting straight away once I can figger out how to get my iPhone caps to lock!!
Thanks guys, glad you like it !
Now, we need to spread the word – I’m going to do another post, but if any of you have blogs, Facebook pages or other “online presence”, please put something up about this, even if it’s just a simple link back to here.
We need to go viral !
@Tung – Just keep your finger on shift – or, you can tap and slide to the letter you want. Not quite as good as caps lock, but it works
Finally a way to fight back.
@Tung double tap the capital button it needs to turn blue. If it doesn’t work there’s a setting in the setting app/general/keybored/caps lock
http://TurnMeUp.org is on board!
I think Kanye West already does this everyday in his blog. There’s serious brickwall limiting, compression, and make-up gain in his characters:
http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/index.php?em3106=231840_-1__0_~0_-1_5_2009_0_0&eM
I have some ideas:
1- We need to establish strict rules regarding fonts, colour, size, etc. if we want the cause to be recognised and remembered: letting everyone do anything as they see fit would be like the people in the video dancing to the music on their personal iPods one kilometre away from each other. I’m thinking: the default font type of the site you are writing on with no emoticon or adorment of any kind on the whole page (since the Loudness War makes everything dull and lifeless), with the size of the letters fluctuating between paragraphs (as in the parts of a song); the brightest red letters (as in the VU meter going to the red) against a slightly darker red background to make the letters barely legible (because thanks to the LW you can’t tell a guitar from a bass); the avatar should clearly show the person who’s writing, because people have a better chance of relating to that than to a faceless organization; a lot of typos (distortion).
All of this applies to everything but the Loudness War hard info and links, which should be completely understandable and at the top of the page (by the end of it people are tired).
2- “Dynamic Range Day”? Really? We might as well call it “No Intersample Peaking Day” or “E=mc2 Day”: we need a simpler, catchier name as well as a simple, catchy slogan (everybody listens to music!). I’m thinking: Peace for Music & Ears, because it sounds big, like a Bono charity campaign…
3- If we only celebrate it twice a year we should expect the first mainstream dynamic record in 2020. I’m thinking: the first sunday of every month, because it’s easy to remember as it marks a new period of time, plus people have all day to do anything. The day right after, people should do exactly the same they did the day before but in the way they normally would.
Maybe for Death Magnetic’s anniversary we make it the “Peace for Music & Ears Week” (still not feeling the name).
And yes, I say WE cuz: I’M IN!
I’m not imposing, just excited…
Great idea. I’m in…
Thanks again folks !
I don’t feel like I’m Shirtless Dancing Man on my own, there’s already a group of us ! Now we need to make it a movement
I’ll post again tonight, but for now, I’ve created a Facebook event that we can invite people to:
http://tinyurl.com/dynamic-range-day-facebook
I don’t do mySpace, but @simonhowes has created a group: http://groups.myspace.com/dynamicrangeday
More later ! I think it’s a priority to get a logo sorted out, any suggestions ?
@ Iain LOL !
@VIOZ Thanks for your suggestions, it’s fantastic that you’re so excited – I’m excited too
Personally I don’t think there should be any rules except ALL CAPS – I want it to be as easy as possible for people to get involved. A strong banner and a proper page are essential, though – plus we need to link back to consistent places to stay “on message”, if possible.
What does everyone else think about this ?
As far as the name goes, maybe it’s not the most catchy, but it “does exactly what it says on the tin”. And, I like the alliteration ;-p Personally I think things like “Peace and Music for the Ears” are a bit too too general and vague – but again, let me hear what YOU all think.
It’s a great idea that we could do something every month to help keep this in people’s minds, but I want this to be really big – how great would it be if we could get newspapers talking about it ? I think to achieve something that’s widely visible like that it needs to be a single, focused event. But, let’s do this, and see where it takes us !
ALL CAPS is all it needs. The rest is fine, IMHO…
Great idea Ian, I’m in.
I AM SO … er, excuse me. I mean, I am so in. I love it!
Alright then: good luck making the last two geeks who didn’t know about the Loudness War aware of it, and have fun thinking you can do with that little what all the media coverage of the “Death Magnetic” controversy didn’t. You gotta love the Web 2.0: one can pretend that a hundred people are one’s friends, one can pretend that a hundred people care about what one ate for breakfast, and one can pretend one can change the way the world works by writing in caps.
…damn, I forgot to write all of this in magical caps so you all would agree with me.
Global Warming… green font… WOW! I just had the greatest idea…
I’m not a jerk, just mad from seeing a great opportunity wasted like this.
[...] explains the whole idea here and I certainly couldn’t do a better job, so I won’t. The basic premise, however, is [...]
Hey Victor,
I’m sorry you’re upset
I’m not saying we’ll change the world by writing in caps – it’s just a way of raising awareness.
But I also don’t think it will succeed or fail based on what we call it or exactly how people “shout” – it’s all aout how many people get curious and agree with us.
I really like the idea of doing something regular on Twitter to keep it in people’s minds, I’m definitely going to try and get that happening.
I hope you’re wrong and that the opportunity won’t be wasted, and I hope you’ll still feel you want to take part…
Ian
Hey Ian, great initiative!
I am all for it, as I have been for years. But one question, why fight fire with fire?!
My idea on this is that on March 20th I am going to be silent. I will block all music from playing on the web that whole 24 hrs. Isn’t there already too much shouting going on? But, hey, that’s just my idea on things and I still applaude you’re every effort to get this under people’s noses! I really do!
Thanks for protecting OUR MUSIC!
Eddy_litE
[...] Bigtree, Its the idea that was presented in the video posted on the link embedded in the article Joe provided at the top of the thread. What inspired Dynamic Range Day ? [...]
[...] Ian Shepherd from the awesome productionadvice.co.uk had the great idea to start a movement. [...]