Today we unveiled our take on a better way to fill the promotional gap in the music industry. It's been a long day, so I only have enough energy to post the press release right now.
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GarageBand PODCAST STUDIO IS UNVEILED AS First CONSUMER ONLINE Tool to Record, Mix and Publish Podcasts
American Idol’s Bo Bice is Featured on First Track Ever Released
by a Major Artist for Podcasting
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – May 23, 2005 – GarageBand.com, the leading independent music community, today announced “GarageBand Podcast Studio,” the world’s first Web-based tool to record, mix and publish a podcast. This new tool also offers consumers greater access to GarageBand.com’s 40,000 active podcasts, which represents the world’s largest catalog of podcast-ready music. In conjunction with this launch, long-time GarageBand.com member and American Idol finalist, Bo Bice, is featured on Papion, a new single now available through GarageBand.com and the first track ever released by a major artist expressly for podcasting.
“We’re on the forefront of a wave that will make personal broadcasting a reality and redefine how music is discovered and promoted,” said Ali Partovi, CEO of GarageBand.com. “With the GarageBand Podcast Studio, we’re proud to cement our lead in the podcasting space, making us not only the #1 provider of music for podcasts and the #1 hosting service for podcasters, but also the first complete solution for recording, mixing and publishing your own podcast.”
To make podcasting accessible to everyone, GarageBand Podcast Studio offers innovative features to encourage mass adoption. For artists, GarageBand Podcast Studio provides a simple way to license and distribute their music to podcasters. For podcasters, recording, mixing and publishing become as easy as pointing and clicking. For subscribers and listeners, GarageBand Podcast Studio provides easier ways to access podcasts for free, without an iPod or special software.
“Speaking for Bo and the rest of the band, we’re delighted to share our music with the world via the podcasting community and the GarageBand Podcast Studio,” said John Cooper, bassist for Bo Bice & Sugar Money. “We’re especially grateful to the podcasters who have already added Papion to their stations. Podcasting is a natural online promotion channel for any musician, and I expect to see more major artists embracing it in the future.”
World’s largest catalog of podcast-ready music
Thanks to its award-winning charts and unique collaborative-filtering system, GarageBand.com is widely recognized as the number one source of music for podcasting. With thousands of bands posting new music every day, GarageBand.com hosts the world’s largest catalog of podcast-ready music, now enhanced with “one-click publishing” to add a track to your own podcast. This catalog includes Papion, the exclusive track written and composed by American Idol Bo Bice and his hometown band, Sugar Money. This new single is already one of GarageBand.com’s most popular tracks, airing on podcasts and webcasts across the Internet. Within weeks of release, it reached number three on the Live365 Internet Radio Network’s “Top Sideloads” chart. Other top artists in the GarageBand.com catalog include Jenna Drey, currently number 23 on the Billboard Radio Airplay chart, and Geoff Byrd, who was recently recognized by Live365 and Radiowave as Internet Radio’s Most Successful Unsigned Artist of the Year.
Record, Mix and Publish
The new GarageBand Podcast Studio is a simple but powerful tool that enables anybody to create a podcast. Users can upload their own recordings and mix them with music from the GarageBand.com catalog using a point-and-click Playlist Manager. Once a new playlist is published, it is immediately available to listeners for streaming, download and subscription from GarageBand.com’s servers. Hosting is free and GarageBand.com intends to support the creativity of podcasters with advertising, as well as offer premium ad-free options in the future.
Phone-casting
As a result of an innovative new service developed with Tellme Networks, the GarageBand Podcast Studio will soon feature a convenient option to record by phone. Podcasters can save their telephone recording for mixing later, or immediately publish their podcast by phone – without ever touching a computer! Recently-signed Geoff Byrd, GarageBand.com’s top-rated artist of all time, intends to use this system to run a podcast-by-phone from his nationwide radio tour.
More accessible to listeners
GarageBand.com is bringing podcasting to the masses. While the penetration of iPods and special podcasting software continues to grow, GarageBand.com now allows listeners to subscribe to their favorite shows with more familiar options, including MyYahoo, MyMSN and even email.
Now playing: over 40,000 active podcasts
GarageBand.com's existing catalog of user-created playlists is now available in the form of thousands of podcasts that any listener can subscribe to for free. Similarly, every band on the site now has a free podcast, where listeners can receive new songs (and other audio messages), gig listings, and news posted by the band. GarageBand.com announced that 40,000 active podcasts are live today and more will be coming online in the near future. GarageBand.com also plans to issue additional podcasts of its own, such as a "track-of-the-day" feed for each musical genre.
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About GarageBand.com (www.garageband.com)
GarageBand.com is the world’s largest community for podcasting and independent music. Since 1999, twenty-one of its highest-ranking bands have been signed, including double-platinum recording artists Drowning Pool. GarageBand.com’s top-rated artist of all time, Geoff Byrd, is rapidly becoming the first pop star born from the Internet. GarageBand.com uses collaborative filtering to let ordinary people identify and promote the best songs, generating the definitive charts of independent music. Widely recognized as the ideal filter for emerging music, GarageBand.com is the #1 provider of music for podcasting, with a growing network of radio partners in addition to the tens of thousands of people who host their own podcasts at GarageBand.com.
Recognized by Time Magazine as one of 2003’s “50 Best Websites,” GarageBand.com’s mission is to redefine how music is discovered and promoted. GarageBand.com is run by CEO Ali Partovi, whose previous startup, LinkExchange, was acquired for $265 million by Microsoft in 1998.
GarageBand is a registered trademark of GarageBand.com. The best of GarageBand.com music is available for sale on the iTunes Music Store, but GarageBand.com and the GarageBand Podcast Studio are not otherwise affiliated with Apple Computer or Apple’s GarageBand software product. For more information about the trademark agreement between GarageBand.com and Apple, visit: http://www.garageband.com/htdb/companyinfo/pr010704.html.
media Contact:
Brooke Hammerling
Zeno Group
415-596-5428
Brooke.Hammerling@zenogroup.com
GarageBand PODCAST STUDIO IS UNVEILED AS First CONSUMER ONLINE Tool to Record, Mix and Publish Podcasts
