Revolution Isn’t Content. It’s Connection.

Aug 12
3 min read

By Chad Gerber

In An Age of Infinite Output, Connection Is the Only Input That Matters

I didn’t set out to invent technology and launch two tech companies. One in spatial computing and the other in deep AI tech. I’m just a musician… or was… am?

For most of my life, I’ve lived between hotel rooms, planes, and green rooms, writing music, scoring films, building immersive shows that blurred the lines between art and experience. I love it. But I’ve also felt something slipping away from the creative process. The more tools we were offered in and out of the studio, the less present we became. File transfers replaced in-person flow. Threads replaced the carefree vibe of collaborating in a studio. What used to feel electric and exciting started to feel cold and lonely. Music went from creative freedom to working solo in a self-imposed cubicle.

As an artist in both the major label world and now someone who creates deep tech, I got tired of tools that were designed for productivity but stripped out the soul. The more “connected” we got, the more fractured everything became. During one of my many musings sandwiched between people on a flight, I thought, what would technology look like if it truly connected us?

That question turned into a full-blown obsession.

I didn’t wait for permission. I taught myself game engines, 3D environments, AI pipelines, whatever it took. I wasn’t looking to build technology for the sake of technology. I wanted to design a new layer of reality, a space where creative people could plug in, see each other, hear each other in studio quality, and collaborate in real time without latency or loss.

That’s how Meloscene was born. But it’s not really about Meloscene. It’s about a deeper mission.

To reclaim creativity from tech bloat and algorithmic noise. What’s the point of having fans around the globe listening to our music if the payouts from streaming don’t pay for us to go see them on tour? How do we actually connect with them?

I didn’t want artists beat down once again having to adapt to tech. I wanted tech that bends to the way artists work, intuitively, in rhythm, together.

That meant unlearning a lot of the Silicon Valley dogma that has seeped into society. I didn’t care about feature lists or AR hype, I wanted to build something you could feel, something you just stepped into and created, with your actual tools, your actual team, and zero friction.

And while building it, I kept hitting the same wall: bandwidth, infrastructure, latency. So I decided I needed to break that too.

Through my second venture, ShadowGen, I built a new audio system, transforming audio to 0.6% of its original size without losing any clarity. It wasn’t just a technical flex. It was a way to remove the last barrier between presence and possibility. When you drop the weight of the system, creativity moves faster and deeper.

But I wasn’t trying to win a spec war. I don’t care about buzzwords. I care about what happens when two people lock in and make something meaningful together. Or make nothing at all but share ideas and actually talk face to face. No doomscrolling or internet trolls. That’s the future I want to live in.

And I’m worried we’re losing it.

Right now, generative AI is flooding platforms with synthetic content. The average independent creator is outpaced by bots trained to mimic them. Artists are burning out trying to “stay relevant” in an algorithmic landscape designed to keep them replaceable. The whole system is gamified, but nobody’s winning.

So we made a decision. We released Meloscene free on the Meta Quest. Because the real competition isn’t between companies. It’s between connection and collapse. The more disconnected we feel from each other, the easier it is to give up. We wanted to build the opposite: a tool that reminds you why you started creating in the first place.

I’m not building platforms. I’m building exits.

Exits from the noise, from the cubicle version of creativity. From tech that looks exciting on paper but feels empty in practice.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned through navigating major labels and giant tech companies, it’s that innovation isn’t about stacking features. It’s about removing barriers.

I want to inspire the next wave of creators not to chase trends but to build worlds. Not to optimize engagement but to design environments where creative energy actually thrives. That’s what we’re doing with Meloscene. With ShadowGen. And with every conversation that moves us back toward what matters.

If you’re building something that people feel in their bones, not just in their timelines, you’re one of us.

Let’s create a future that actually deserves to exist.

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