Garageband.com saves musicians from the dustbin

By Christian Cascone
CNN

We've all had them: dreams of rock 'n' roll stardom, a chance at the spotlight. But for Atlanta-based rock band Chain Poets, long nights of rehearsing and longer days spent promoting are reminders of the price bands have to pay for getting signed to a major record label.

Greg Kaegen, lead singer for the band, understands what the industry is facing.

"It costs an awful lot of money to launch a new band," he said. "And record labels aren't going to just invest that much money in just everybody. And consequentially they invest in safe acts, ones that they know are going to sell based on if it sounds just like last month's hit record, and not a whole lot of chance is being taken."

Garageband.com, a Silicon Valley virtual record label, is taking a chance on technology to pick hit music. Jerry Harrison, formerly of the Talking Heads, and Tom Zito, rock critic turned tech entrepreneur, founded the company. They invite groups to upload their music to the Garageband site.

VIDEO CNN's James Hattori reports on a 'virtual record company' that helps artists sell their music (June 6) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     QUICKVOTE Are sites like Garageband.com changing the music industry for the better? Yes. They provide exposure for struggling artists.   Yes, but the major labels will still control the industry.   No, these kinds of sites have no impact.   No, everyone has equal opportunity already. View Results

"In the first 18 months, we had 35,000 bands put material on this site. For starters that is way more music then anyone in a record company could ever wade through," explained Zito.

And this, said Harrison, is where music fans come in.

"We can have hundreds of thousands of reviews to help us choose a band. So, the Internet has provided a cost effective way to reach a really large amount of people, and find out something about their taste."

Garageband is hoping to change traditional notions of what it takes to make it. Rather than having the record company "guess" what the next big thing will be, the site wants listeners to decide who makes the cut.

"Lots of bands are signed without anybody knowing what they are, if they are really going to connect with the audience," Zito said. "And that's because it's all based on hunches. Typically you then have to spend a lot of money on marketing to find out in essence if you made the right guesses. So we sort of have to say, hey, you could do this in a much more scientific way."

Zito continued, "We then sign those bands -- and then we put them through a process which we call The New Deal, in which we give them small amounts of money initially."

The top-rated bands get a $250,000 recording contract and a new CD recorded with the help of some veteran music professionals. Garageband's board includes Sir George Martin, who produced records for The Beatles.

"This is not just a couple of people who are from the computer industry who want to be musicians," Harrison said. "It's a nice marriage of people who understand that technology can make something really happen, and real professionals who have a, you might say, proven track record making music."

Chain Poets is the first group recently selected under Garageband's so-called New Deal. The groups get seed money, up to $30,000 in several installments, to start selling homemade CDs of their music. The more they sell, the more promotional money they get.

"It gives independent artists, like us, an opportunity to be heard by the public and let the public make the decision of whether or not the music is any good, rather then a guy in a suit and a bad ponytail in an office somewhere," Kaegan said.

Garageband, with the help of aspiring musicians and their fans, is hoping to change the recent dotcom track record -- by turning heads...and profits.

Correspondent James Hattori contributed to this report.