Dee Cook reports – Remember liner notes? They were the best on double albums because you could flip open the album cover like a book and read it. This is vinyl, back in the days when everyone knew how to squeeze a little more life out of a phonograph needle by putting a dime on top of the cartridge. Anyway, lots of times the liner notes would have little tidbits about the songs, sometimes the lyrics, and always the credits for each song – Lennon/McCartney, perhaps, or maybe just Harrison, and in one memorable instance, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr.

Fast forward a few generations. Do liner notes even exist anymore? Do people go out and buy CDs in music stores? When someone looks at the song credits for Rivers Cuomo’s song, “80’s Radio,” which he hopes to release on an upcoming album, will it be a surprise to see over 20 names listed?

What Cuomo has done is collaborate with basically all of YouTube on a song. He presented an idea – a mood – and invited his channel viewers to come up with a title and post them via video response. He chose his favorite in the next installment of the series, which went on to ask viewers for ideas on chord progressions. And so on. There are 16 steps (so far) in Cuomo’s carefully-crafted online songwriting process, each interacting with viewers and incorporating their ideas into the final product.

Not only has Cuomo proven that he’s net-savvy (which was never really in doubt, if you’ve seen Weezer’s meme-packed Pork and Beans video), but he’s really cemented a relationship with several fans. By making these fans stakeholders in an upcoming song that Cuomo hopes to get published, they will feel a personal investment in what he does in the future – “Hey, I worked with that guy!”

It’s very smart to give people some one on one time in such a public format so that even those of us who aren’t musically inclined can sit back and enjoy watching the process behind the song. In an atmosphere where the most that many companies, bands, and other entities can aspire for is “Don’t be evil,” Rivers Cuomo’s fan interaction is a refreshing change of pace.

RiversCuomoAlone Playlist: Let’s Write A Sawng.

Dee Cook was elated to discover the world of interactive storytelling because, at that moment, she finally discovered what she wanted to do when she grew up. A fish out of water with lofty ideals and meta-theorizing, Dee finds herself most at home with her sleeves rolled up and the grease of a good story under her fingernails. In the last several years she has written, designed, and consulted on over a dozen alternate reality games, extended realities, and marketing campaigns, most recently World Without Oil, True Blood, Dead Space, and My Home 2.0.