In the beginning, Arroyo posted an original track and around seven people logged on to remix it. He then posted those seven remixes for users to remix. Every six weeks, as a new round of remixing comes to a close, the tracks on the web site grow exponentially, mutating along the way.
"What you end up with," Arroyo said, "is an ongoing chain of related works."
And if someone submits a boring or obnoxious track?
"Natural selection," Arroyo said. "If someone submits a really bad track then that lineage will die." Darwin would be proud.
Right now, the fledgling site is only in its fourth round of remix-reproduction, which will last until June 6. In the current generation of remixes, a track by popular campus band Filligar is offered up for users to have their way with.
Arroyo is hoping to "build something that can mutate as people see fit." Not even he knows how people will interact with the site -- he hopes that people will use a diverse array of music for their remixes to see how much a song can change when subjected to different creative minds.
But there are also logistical issues that plague the site. Part of the problem with creating a web site with what Arroyo calls "a self-perpetuating style" is that nobody is in control of the outcome. What if someone wants to release a really great track to the public? Licensing becomes an issue when so many people have contributed to the creation of one song. Arroyo plans to meet with a lawyer and organize a graded system to divide the rights and money, but that has its own foreseeable problems.
Although copyright threatens to be a complicated issue, the utopian philosophy of making music in collaboration with other people without worrying about profit is beautiful -- stripped bare, this site is about the love of music. Arroyo's goal is to create a music community in which people share art and inspire one another. In the works is a discussion board for visitors who don't have time to remix but want to give feedback and help shape the development of the songs.
One can imagine the future of pop music heading in a similar direction. The music and marketing industries could stop trying to guess what kind of music the public wants to hear and just let them manufacture it themselves.
Arroyo looks forward to tracing the lineage of a well-developed song back to the original -- creating a family tree of songs. But I wonder what will happen as the site continues to grow. As the lists of remixes expand exponentially, Arroyo isn't yet sure how to organize the site so that people can sort through without being overwhelmed by the number of songs. He's considering hiring editors to choose their favorite remixes from each round, but that might destroy the democratic, Darwinian aspects of the process.
Remixin.org really might be the wave of the future: Music created not by "artists" but in collaboration with the public. Imagine the top 40 radio stations playing songs you not only wanted to hear but helped create. Of course, the quagmire of copyrights and licensing could also swallow this web site whole.
In the meantime, the web site is also part of Arroyo's thesis. After graduation, he plans to move back to New York City, where he lived for six years after college. Arroyo plans to make Remixin.org his day job and to DJ at night -- splitting his time between two of his passions, computers and music.
