Every garage band of ad hoc rock musicians dreams of a big producer driving
by, catching their strains, and signing them on the spot to big contract.
Much of the dream of streaming audio (for musicians, at least) has been a new
technology to make that dream come true.
Companies to promote just that are surfacing with increasing regularity, and
a new one debuting Monday, Garageband.com, will focus on the thousands of small
and struggling musicians and groups in the United States who have found it
impossible to sign with a major recording studio but have also discovered
that they cannot make a profit by giving their music away over the Internet.
“The company has designed a new methodology for quantitatively analyzing mass audience preferences on the Internet,” said garageband.com’s Tom Zito and Amanda Lathroum.
The site allows musicians and their fans to rate each other’s music. The company intends to
sign artists with this now proven potential, and pair these artists with
established record producers from its advisory board.”
It sounds refreshingly like the independent labels and freeplay stations of
the 1960’s — which, however, within a few short years were all eaten up by
the majors.