If you like independent music, you’ll love GarageBand. Garageband is a site that allows music lovers to log in and discover up and coming unsigned and indie-label artists. If you are an artist, you have the opportunity to upload your own music, have it rated by other users and gain exposure to the industry.
GarageBand is owned and operated by parent company iLike, which is most recognisable from its Facebook application. Founded by twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, iLike boasts some 50 million registered users between its various platforms, which include apps on iPhone, iTunes, Ticketmaster, MySpace and Bebo.
As a non-musician user, you can sign up for an account and get your own personalized “garage”. From there, you can choose what kinds of music you would like to listen to and review by genre. It’s easy to scroll through the top charts or to find your own artists to follow, and GarageBand posts a track of the week so that you can find new bands to enjoy. Once you start listening, you can then tag the music with the “sounds like:” feature. Tag for tempo, style and artist recognition, so that other users can find their preferred music more easily. After that, you can review the music as well. The site likes you to review the music that you find, and so do the artists themselves. Bands with better ratings move quickly up the GarageBand chart, and therefore have a better chance of being noticed by the industry. Playlists and podcasts are easy to post and share. You can also sign up to receive email notices about upcoming concerts and events in your area, so that you’ll never miss a concert again!
Let’s say you have a band, and you want to put your music on this site. Great! Just sign up for an account and away you go! You can upload your own tracks to be rated by other site users. The site will also allow you to promote your shows and get in touch with potential fans in your area. Not only that, but there are forums where bands can go for advice on topics like radio promotion and legal issues and support from other bands. Some of the features are pay features, for example, GarageBand allows you to buy some radio time, but it is a $200 one-time fee. GarageBand offers contests to its artists as well, for which you can either buy entries or, even better, you can review other music and earn your entry. The current contest offers a number of incentives, including written feedback for bands, online marketing tools and guaranteed exposure to new audiences.
All told, I think GarageBand is a pretty cool site! I had a blast listening to music I’ve never heard of before. If you’re a music lover like I am, make sure you check it out!
GarageBand is owned and operated by parent company iLike, which is most recognisable from its Facebook application. Founded by twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, iLike boasts some 50 million registered users between its various platforms, which include apps on iPhone, iTunes, Ticketmaster, MySpace and Bebo.
As a non-musician user, you can sign up for an account and get your own personalized “garage”. From there, you can choose what kinds of music you would like to listen to and review by genre. It’s easy to scroll through the top charts or to find your own artists to follow, and GarageBand posts a track of the week so that you can find new bands to enjoy. Once you start listening, you can then tag the music with the “sounds like:” feature. Tag for tempo, style and artist recognition, so that other users can find their preferred music more easily. After that, you can review the music as well. The site likes you to review the music that you find, and so do the artists themselves. Bands with better ratings move quickly up the GarageBand chart, and therefore have a better chance of being noticed by the industry. Playlists and podcasts are easy to post and share. You can also sign up to receive email notices about upcoming concerts and events in your area, so that you’ll never miss a concert again!
Let’s say you have a band, and you want to put your music on this site. Great! Just sign up for an account and away you go! You can upload your own tracks to be rated by other site users. The site will also allow you to promote your shows and get in touch with potential fans in your area. Not only that, but there are forums where bands can go for advice on topics like radio promotion and legal issues and support from other bands. Some of the features are pay features, for example, GarageBand allows you to buy some radio time, but it is a $200 one-time fee. GarageBand offers contests to its artists as well, for which you can either buy entries or, even better, you can review other music and earn your entry. The current contest offers a number of incentives, including written feedback for bands, online marketing tools and guaranteed exposure to new audiences.
All told, I think GarageBand is a pretty cool site! I had a blast listening to music I’ve never heard of before. If you’re a music lover like I am, make sure you check it out!
