Garageband.com

[drstawl]

Here's a spot to upload .mp3 samples of your "band" with a twist. They run a contest where they give away some sort of recording contract to the winner. And even if it's a contract that's less than worthless (like that horror story article that Dragon posted about a band getting screwed by the label
and earning less than minimum wage for going on tour and recording albums) before you'll ever get near the top, you're assured of a lot of downloads of your music.
http://www.garageband.com

[This message has been edited by drstawl (edited 11-13-1999).]

[Beyond Reason]

I'm fairly new here so I was looking through some past threads and came across this one.

I was wondering if anyone used this site since it was posted? If so, any feedback?

[CMiller]

Yeah, I've been on Garageband for quite a while. At first none of my tunes would get reviewed, but then they came in like a flood. Now I'm getting them maybe once a week if I'm lucky.

The deal is that you must earn upload credits by critiquing several sets of tunes. For example...I want to upload my newest tune. I must critique ten sets of songs before they'll let me upload one of mine. Your tunes are ranked by the greatness of your reviews and the band with the best reviews gets a $250,000 recording contract.

In theory it works well. But there are your run of the mill boneheads who are more interested in knocking you down so their band can rise in the rankings. That's not the worst part though. The worst is the people who don't even care enough to write a review at all. I've gotten reviews that look like this...

"Rock It!"

That's all. They give you the power to reject the review or accept it, and I pretty much accept anything that took time to write. If someone writes that my tune is the worst tune on the planet, I'll decline it. But if they tell me why they think it's the worst tune on the planet, I'll keep it.

Something else that's interesting is that every week they have a different member of their advisory board critique seven songs. These guys have names like George Martin, Jerry Harrison, etc. You can choose who you want to review your work. Needless to say, the odds of getting reviewed by one of these guys is poor.

My overall view of Garageband is that it's a nice place to upload a couple of tunes, you know it'll get heard by other musicians. But if you're banking on winning the $250,000, you'd have better luck buying lottery tickets.

On a side note, from time to time they have a deal with some movie of TV show to use songs from their collection. Our own Teddie was in the top ten for the new Adam Sandler movie. He didn't win though.

Here's a link to my page. Feel free to read the reviews. I think they're probably pretty typical.

http://www.garageband.com/register/b...589sxBQhztn128

Mark
Alpha Dog
http://www.mp3.com/alphadog
http://alphadog.iuma.com

[Teddie]

Originally posted by CMiller
On a side note, from time to time they have a deal with some movie of TV show to use songs from their collection. Our own Teddie was in the top ten for the new Adam Sandler movie. He didn't win though.

Ah... yeah man... that was rough when I found out I didn't win... but, I thought, "hey, I made it into the top-ten out of hundreds of bands... and I got submitted to New-Line Cinema, they just didn't feel it was right for the movie, no sweat."

But... oooh, everytime I see a preview for the Little Nicky movie... I get kinda sad and icky inside ... haha

It's all cool though, cuz it was a fun competition... and actually the song that won was actually a pretty kick-ass tune.

Teddie (Smart Apple) http://mp3.com/smartapple

[CMiller]

No kidding, I was upset too! It was a pretty exciting thing to be considered...what is it they always say? "It's an honor just to be nominated?"

I haven't heard the band that was chosen.

We're still proud of ya Teddie!

Mark
Alpha Dog
http://www.mp3.com/alphadog
http://alphadog.iuma.com
http://www.musicbuilder.com/Alpha_Dog/

[dobro]

Well, I went over there and had a really good time listening to music and writing loads of reviews.

Question: is it possible to do a review of a song you pick yourself? Can I review Alpha Dog's stuff, for example?

[CMiller]

I'm not sure, Dobro. I tried doing that with some other band but couldn't. My guess is no. If they're trying to get people to critique everybody's tunes, then enabling listeners to choose what songs they critique probably wouldn't work too well toward that goal.

Although I'm not too convinced that everything is on the up and up with Garageband's methods. But then I'm a real cynic, so don't listen to me.

Mark
Alpha Dog
http://www.mp3.com/alphadog
http://alphadog.iuma.com
http://www.musicbuilder.com/Alpha_Dog/

[dobro]

What a blast. I clocked up about 200,000 points in reviews - real reviews, not dogsnot oneliners. I've listened to about 25 tunes, and I've heard two that I think are really good. More variety than a radio station. Pity about the sound quality - why does it shift from all bassy to small radio treble suddenly?

I should probably put something of my own up there to see what happens.

How does it work? Highest number of hits per month gets the prize, or most enthusiastic reviews? Does country/folk stand a chance against pop/rock for example?

[CMiller]

Yeah, put your stuff up there! The beauty of the site is that they try to pair up songs that are fairly close in genre and I believe that you specify what you want to critique, that way a Punk fan isn't forced to offer reviews on Bluegrass for example.

I'm not exactly sure how the record contract is doled out. From what I understand they use the reviews to determine a fan favorite, but who knows for sure.

Good luck though!

Mark
Alpha Dog
http://www.mp3.com/alphadog
http://alphadog.iuma.com
http://www.musicbuilder.com/Alpha_Dog/

[dobro]

They changed the prizes at garageband.com from teeshirts and guitar cables to CDs. Twenty reviews and you get a CD. Except for the fact that the quality of real audio is pure and unadulterated shit, it's great - imagine a radio station devoted to amateur music - loads of variety, loads of mistakes, and what a relief from commercially familiar, culturally sanctioned material!