We’ve seen some amazing things from Google this year, such as Android Wear and the ‘Cardboard’ Virtual Reality headset, but now the company’s Creative Labs department has come up with an amazing new way to experience music videos.
This interactive music cube, which plays in your browser only when it’s the currently selected tab, features six videos which the user can dip in and out of during the song. All the videos are synced to the beat of the song, being music videos in their own right, but together form a seamless interactive experience.
Just like a normal video, you can pause and change volume with standard controls, but on the cube you are given the option to select whichever face takes your fancy, or watch them all at the same time. You can also move or swipe the cube around with your touchscreen or mouse. Each face emphasises one part of the song, such as the beat, vocals or synths when individually selected. You can ‘mix’ the song via strategically positioning the cube, for example, pointing one of the cube’s corners towards the centre of the video window will give you a sample of 3 of the videos.
Right now, the only song that works with the cube is ‘No Fun’, a single from Australian electronic duo The Presets. We have never claimed to do music reviews, but the song is pretty nice. The accompanying videos range from abstract, through to classic music video fare, all the way down to downright scary.
Google has said that for now, the cube is going to remain a design concept, but fortunately, one day, the cube will be available for users to use with their own videos and songs. It’s an interesting concept, and a great way for an artist to convey the ‘feel’ and story of their song, but since it’s only available on Android and Chrome devices and the Chrome browser, it might not go down well with those who aren’t the biggest Google fans.
Hopefully there’s not too many spoilers there, so why not head over to http://nofun.thepresets.com/ and check it out. It’s a really fun and engaging way to enjoy a song, and potentially needing to watch it 6 times to absorb the videos really gets that beat stuck in your head. Try it yourself.