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If you aren't hip to them already, Garageband is a one of the web's longest lived-and coolest-music communities. It's a place where bands can get honest feedback on their stuff, and a place where fans can discover new music. The site is now entering it's fifth year online and it's been a bumpy ride to say the least. Here I talk with their new CEO about how Garageband.com beat the odds of the dot com shakeout.

Scott Bass: You guys went down for awhile and then came back. For those that missed it what happened?
Ali Partovi: Garageband originally started as a classic "dot-com," backed by millions of dollars of venture capital. As was common and expected in those days, the company aimed for lofty aspirations without much regard for short-term revenue. While the company had a great vision and a very strong, loyal community, they simply ran out of money, and the site shut down in February, 2002.
Shortly after, I got involved and led a group of diehard employees and members of Garageband to buy the service from the previous investors and start over with a more grass-roots business model. Some of the best parts of Garageband remain the same: our commitment to supporting independent musicians, and our unique review system that enables artists to earn unbiased feedback and recognition based on the quality of their music. What's changed is the business plan. The old company's plan was to be a full record label, which entails spending millions of dollars on producing and promoting records. Our plan is to first reach break-even on revenue from advertisers and musician services. Once there, we can pursue more ambitious visions.

Scott: Are the big names that used to be affiliated with the site (Jerry Harrison, etc) still associated with the site?
Ali: Absolutely. In fact, Jerry Harrison has invested money in the company for the first time, and has taken a greater role, as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Likewise, George Martin (the guy that discovered The Beatles! -ed.) has renewed his commitment to the company as well.

Scott: Now that Mp3.com is gone how does that affect GB?
Ali: The immediate impact has been a large increase in traffic and sales, as there are lots of independent musicians left looking for a new home. In the long term, however, we don't expect a huge impact. The main function of MP3.com was always free hosting, whereas our core vision is discovering the best music. As a result, many musicians used MP3.com to host all their songs, but submitted their best songs to Garageband.
We don't offer hosting for free, and I expect that other companies will offer free hosting and have more members and songs than us (if they can avoid running out of cash). That's fine by us -- our focus is not only on quantity, but quality, and I think that's what makes us attractive to both musicians, and fans.

Scott: Quite a few GB bands have gone on to "get signed" can you tell me about some of them? Who has been most successful?
Ali: The most successful is Drowning Pool, whose debut CD went double-platinum. Most of the other bands that "got signed" are still in the recording studio, so it's to early to look for their success.
All 13 of the bands that have been signed from Garageband.com were ranked in the top 10 on our charts before they got signed. In truth, it's hard to say whether our charts helped these bands get signed, or simply predicted their success. However, as more and more people recognize that Garageband's charts can predict commercial success, it will eventually become a force that can influence success. Already there are a few bands who have succeeded exclusively because of their exposure on Garageband.com. Some examples are Roman Candle, which was signed last May, and Sci Fi Lullaby, which scored a commercial soundtrack licensing deal because of their placement on Garageaband.com.

Scott: What vision does Garageband.com have for the future? Ali: Our long-term vision is to create a new model that reforms the way music is discovered and promoted. To understand our solution, first you need to understand the problem.
The traditional record-label system has major inefficiencies rooted in the last century -- a time when tremendous amounts of capital was required to produce and distribute physical records. The only way a musician could get access to this capital was by selling their rights and losing their independence. Today, as record sales are giving to digital downloads, the labels should be looking for less capital-intensive ways to supply music. Instead, they are spending more money on fewer artists, hoping to get a bigger piece of a shrinking pie. This means less musical variety for consumers, and the artists that get selected still have to sell their souls.
The solution is a new model that takes advantage of this century's technology breakthroughs. Today, an independent musician can produce professional-quality music on their own dime. It isn't necessary to produce an entire album to start selling your music as single downloads. And as we head into a digital future, physical distribution costs will be practically eliminated. So a musician doesn't need to sell their rights just to fund the production and distribution of their music.
However, the one area that will always require capital is promotion. Why? Because as more and more musicians are able to produce and distribute music on their own, it will be harder and harder to find the good songs. This is where Garagband.com comes in. Today, our unique review process has allowed us to host the definitive charts of independent music. Today, we promote our top songs via airplay on our growing network of college and web radio stations. This is a small start, but over time, we'll raise capital and invest it into even more promotion for our best songs. We'll grow into a force that helps musicians enter the mainstream while maintaining more ownership of their music -- in other words, their independence.

http://www.garageband.com

Interview done 12/03 by Scott B. AKA Sharon Needles skillyb@hotmail.com