Garageband.com Review

www.garageband.com

Overall 5.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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Saxguy
Skokie, IL

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Great source for independent music

music lover, Internet User, tenor sax is my primary instrument, a saxophone and clarinet player

Pros

it's free, musicians can upload music for review, plenty of good music and musicians, sales link to CDBaby.com, music is linked ti Ilike.com

Cons

occasional amaturish songs, occasional amateurish reviewers, some techincal site issues

JUL

2008

Garageband.com is a site that features lots and lots of independent music. It's free.

I've used Garageband.com for my original recorded music to get comments on the songs, the mix, etc. I figure it's low-cost market research before I go into the studio to mix the music and to decide about what's on the CD.

Garageband only allows original (non-cover) music, so they don't get into the thorny copyright issues that other sites have. They have basically every genre imaginable.

There is a contest that rates current songs within each genre. Musicians can buy entries for $19.99 or earn entries by reviewing 15 pairs of songs. This is valuable for me as I can get reviews without paying for them on music before I commit to issuing a CD.

The top songs I've heard in each genre are solid professional musical efforts and are quite enjoyable.

I've gotten great comments on particular songs, how they are mixed, etc. For example, I put up two songs from my live recording on June 22. I thought one was better than the other. At Garageband, the one I thought slightly worse is charting considerably better.

As for cons, well, there are a good amount of amateurs here with reviews and music to match. I've been revenge rated by one hack. And, I've gotten some reviews that, whether they liked me or not, didn't provide much information. On the other hand, I have gotten good, usable information on every cut I have entered into the contest and that, again has been for FREE.

Another con is that I've gotten a few more site error issues lately. Plus, it takes a few days to get responses to technical support issues

There are a lot of places where you can get paid reviews by "industry professionals". Garageband.com is the only place I know where you can get good information for free.

Garageband has links to CDBaby so musicians with CDs for sale at CDBaby can sell at garageband. Also, Garageband musicians can get a page set up for free at Ilike.com that can be linked to facebook. The link isn't perfect - I put up two songs on Garageband a couple of weeks ago and they aren't on Ilke yet

Please check out details on my upcoming LIVE CD release at www.jazzobsession.com

Any reader who has questions can contact me through www.jazzobsession.com or my Viewpoints member page.

Last edited on Oct 05, 2008