Real-Time Collaborative Music Creation on the Web: exploiting Web Audio Modules for Interactive Performance and Composition

Overview & Synopsis

Advances in web technologies have opened the way to real-time collaborative music applications, enabling musicians to co-create and perform music from anywhere in the world. This paper focuses on the use of Web Audio Modules, an audio plugin standard for the web (WAMs, aka "VSTs for the Web") in such applications, with a particular emphasis on sequencer.party, a web-based platform for collaborative music creation. We explore how WAMs can form the basis for modular, real-time music composition and performance, enabling users to manipulate audio, MIDI and generative processes in a collaborative way. The presented platform integrates real-time collaborative music installation creation, state synchronization using conflict-free replicated data types (CRDT) and a flexible, track-oriented workflow for live music performance. Through this case study we demonstrate how WAM-based tools can support both educational and performative contexts, offering a new approach to collaborative digital music creation that bridges the gap between traditional environments and web accessibility.