Google & Arcade Fire Launch Customized Music Video

By Jason Boog 

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Today Google, Arcade Fire, and artist Chris Milk have launched a music video that actually incorporates Google Maps and Google Street View images of the viewer’s hometown into the video. The viewer enters a street address into the browser, generating a customized music video for an Arcade Fire song.

The viewing experience depends on Google’s Chrome browser, but it is a breathtaking to watch your hometown float across the screen (especially if you live far from home) as a bittersweet Arcade Fire tune plays in the background. This kind of customized video experience could have countless applications for digital books–adding better book trailers, customized maps, or new layers of story interactivity.

Check it out: “Today we’re excited to launch a musical experience made specifically for the browser. Called “The Wilderness Downtown,” the project was created by writer/director Chris Milk with the band Arcade Fire and Google. Building this project on the web and for the browser allowed us to craft an experience that is not only personalized, but also deeply personal for each viewer. “The Wilderness Downtown” takes you down memory lane through the streets you grew up in. It’s set to Arcade Fire’s new song “We Used to Wait” off their newly released album The Suburbs (which you may be familiar with, especially if you were one of 3.7 million viewers who live-streamed Arcade Fire’s concert on YouTube earlier this month). The project was built with the latest web technologies and includes HTML5, Google Maps, an integrated drawing tool, as well as multiple browser windows that move around the screen.”