Related link: http://www.garageband.com/
Last week, as an experiment, I uploaded to garageband.com a song by an independent country artist whose CD I produced. Given that there are thousands of artists on the site, I assumed that not much was likely to happen, but I was interested in learning about how garageband works. Tomorrow (March 17, 2005), that song will be featured on garageband's home page as track of the day. This happened because in the course of a few days the song leapt from the bottom of their country charts, down around about #1800, to #35.
With no promotion whatsoever. How?
Well, as near as I can figure, a lot of people just thought the song was good. And, better than many similar sites, garageband.com has built a system where that's just about all that matters. It's a well-designed digital meritocracy, a large online community of people who vote on music based solely on how it sounds: when you review a song there, you don't know what the artist looks like, or even his or her name, until after you express your opinion. And then, your review gets reviewed! Just to make sure you're being conscientious about it. (Garageband.com describes the process like this: "Our complex algorithms, known as the LPE (Lathroum Preference Engine), rank all songs based on listener ratings... the best songs receive more reviews and move up the charts.")
Utopia? Maybe. A business? Open to question.
The artist I mentioned is named Bo Billy, and his song is called "For The Life Of Me." If Bo Billy were on a major label and things were being done the traditional way, the radio promotion budget alone for "For The Life Of Me" would probably be well into six figures -- just to persuade major radio stations to play it at least a few times. That, along with a national tour, a publicity campaign (interviews, articles, talk shows), a video and some advertising, is commonly understood as the cost of trying to get the market's attention. More to the point, though, it's the cost of turning an artist into a celebrity.
On garageband.com, you can join for free, and then you can upload a song for free. But before you upload you have to review 30 other songs first. Then you essentially join a giant conversation about merit, among your peers.
But the point of our celebrity-driven music business is that the celebrity is not your peer. And while he or she may well have merit, merit is not what makes a celebrity. A celebrity is a forever-receding object of desire, and acts out a role in an ancient, atavistic ritual based on sex, death and transcendence.
I love garageband.com, but I'm not sure they can compete with that yet.
Can anything?
In its first iteration, garageband.com flamed out in the dot-com crash. It had been offering a $250,000 recording contract to its top artist every two months. That may sound great, but it also dropped that artist right back into the old music industry, and that $250,000 (plus a bunch of other expenses) was not going to be recouped unless that artist became... a celebrity. New CEO Ali Partovi says that the old strategy was unsustainable, and that the new one emphasizes promoting top garageband.com artists to Internet radio, bypassing the expense and inefficiency (and, for now at least, revenues) of physical CD sales.
Note: This is a corrected version of my earlier posting. Thanks to garageband.com CEO Ali Partovi for getting in touch and correcting my mistake.
Will technology really make celebrities go away?
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Track Of The Day
Garageband does offer an artist to get some honest feedback on their music. I found the experience useful for tweaking our product before going to final production.
The large majority of reviews are pretty mindless. However, I have met some killer musicians and some promotional contacts.
Here is a list of bragging rights our band has earned.
Gary Gray with Funky Blues
Awards! Track of the Day on 29Nov2005 in Jazz
Best Guitars in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Drums in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Bass in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Keyboards overall, week of 28Nov2005
Best Keyboards in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Production in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Melody in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Beat in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Mood overall, week of 28Nov2005
Best Mood in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Best Mood in Jazz, week of 12Dec2005
Most Original in Jazz, week of 28Nov2005
Chill-Out Track in Jazz, week of 12Dec2005
Awards! Best Keyboards in Acoustic, week of 7Nov2005
Best Beat in Acoustic, week of 7Nov2005
Best Mood in Acoustic, week of 7Nov2005
Grooviest Rhythm in Acoustic, week of 7Nov2005
Grooviest Rhythm in Acoustic, week of 14Nov2005
Awards! Track of the Day on 25Nov2005 in Blues
Best Male Vocals in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Female Vocals in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Drums in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Bass in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Keyboards in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Production in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Lyrics in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Melody in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Beat in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Best Mood in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Most Original in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Feel Good Track in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Grooviest Rhythm overall, week of 21Nov2005
Grooviest Rhythm in Blues, week of 21Nov2005
Awards! Track of the Day on 3Dec2005 in Blues
Best Drums in Blues, week of 28Nov2005
Best Mood in Blues, week of 28Nov2005
Most Original in Blues, week of 28Nov2005
Awards! Track of the Day on 1Dec2005 in Jazz
Awards! Best Guitars in Pop, week of 5Dec2005
Same amusement level here...
Okay, my day came and went. A review of other songs that end up as TOTD might indicate they garner similar "awards" prior to placement as TOTD.
For example, it looks like I submitted in time for enough people (or an algorithm) to catch a new track (mine) and nominate it for three other things prior to my notice of being TOTD
Track of the Day on 30Mar2005 in Electronic
(7 magic days?)
Best Programming in Electronic, week of 21Mar2005
Best Beat in Electronic, week of 21Mar2005
Grooviest Rhythm in Electronic, week of 21Mar2005
It was a fun ride while it lasted ;-)
Still, I can't help but wonder if this is all just another (creative) ploy to generate additional revnue via the ego stroke services
https://www.garageband.com/gold/order.html
Same amusement level here...
Congratulations! Cool song, too.
I think it's viral marketing with some well-designed push added, since by design all songs posted to garageband.com get listened to & reviewed by other users. These users tend to be other musicians of course, so it's not really representative of the market at large. But I guess garageband.com sees itself as both a filter and a launch platform for the larger market. Their recent partnerships with live365.com and MSN fit into this strategy.
Same amusement level here...
I was wondering what made my track show up as Track of the Day as well. I'm going to be the TOTD for March 30.
Now, the track has been around for a while but it has only been on Garageband.com for a much shorter duration. Maybe this is some kind of viral marketing thing?