Indie radio stations like First Class Hip Hop give GB artists a louder voice

First Class Hip Hop is one of the many fiercely independent radio stations that broadcast everyday from Live365.com, and also one of the many that feature GarageBand artists in their mix. We recently caught up with DJ/CEO Tha Kingpin (aka Darvio Morrow) to discuss the takeover of the music industry by independent artists and entrepreneurs.

Morrow told us the mission of First Class was to "bring a mixture of the best mainstream and underground rap and R&B artists from the past, present and future, so there's something for everyone."

To that end, he's been digging deep in the GarageBand crates for great independent hip hop to showcase, and has given equal air time to such GB favorites as Brianna, Theo Mill$, Natalie Brown, Charles Simmons and many others.

"I think organizations like Live365 and GarageBand are the forerunners of a revolution," Morrow said. "In this society of corporation after corporation taking over and bastardizing the music and the cultures that we love, its hard to compete. I've heard rock fans and punk fans tell me that the same problems that we have in hip-hop, they have in their respective genres, so it's time for us to band together and take our music back."

Rising country musician Kayla Locicero makes her way to the small screen

Just last year, country music up-and-comer Kayla LoCicero emerged from tiny town of Ponchatoula, Louisiana with a debut solo performance that brought the house down. Since then, she's released her first album, Beautiful World and was signed to Aria Records Nashville. She recently received the fantastic news that the video for her single "The Halls of St. Jude" has been added in rotation on the Great American Country (GAC) 24-hour country music cable channel.

At a young age, Kayla has a great music career ahead of her, and GarageBand.com has given a helping hand.

"The Internet has pretty much been a part of my life, since I'm only eighteen," Locicero said. "there are so many people who didn't have the opportunities we have today because places like GarageBand.com and MySpace didn't exist. Sites like these open the world up to music."

Her manager and aunt, Barbara Farkas, agreed: "Musicians today have a better chance than ever of getting their music heard by people who just love good music."

Farkas also commented on how helpful community feedback can be for a developing artist.

"As for the overall experience of GarageBand.com," she said, "one can't fix what they don't know is broken. Artists now have the opportunity to find out what is broken in their music and where they should place their efforts to improve."

In fact, the GarageBand community was in part responsible for turning "The Halls of St. Jude" into a video success, giving the track a solid 5.0 rating and keeping it nipping at the heels of the top ten on GB's country charts. "For that reason," Locicero told us, "we knew it was good enough."

And what advice does this skillful songstress have to impart on other aspiring musicians?

"Believe in yourself and find the people in your life that believe in you too. Listen to those people because they hear and see what you don't. "

Minutes Too Far debut album on Atlantic/Doghouse subsidiary B& Recordings

Two years ago, Oklahoma natives Minutes Too Far were climbing the GB punk charts and reeling in great reviews. After hearing their song "Right from Wrong", one GB user wrote back: "If you guys aren't signed yet, then record labels just simply aren't paying attention." The band hit #1 on the punk charts shortly thereafter.

Two years later, Minutes Too Far are preparing to release of their debut full-length Let It Roll after securing a deal with Doghouse Records/Atlantic Records subsidiary Band(B&) Recordings. They'll be on the same roster as All-American Rejects, Say Anything, The Honorary Title and The Get Up Kids, with a full tour planned in support of the album.

We caught up with guitarist Blake Fischer to get his take on how GarageBand factored into this major music career connection.

"I get a dozen friend requests a day on MySpace, but you're guilty of being crap until proven good," Fischer said with a chuckle. "Garageband is a step above that, though, because the ratings really weed through the junk. And I know labels are paying more attention to things like that than MySpace friends."

The man responsible for singing the band, David McIntosh, CEO of Band(B&) Recordings, echoed that sentiment.

"By making their way onto the top of the Garageband charts, Minutes Too Far caught our attention and I hope other artists can see how useful Garageband.com can be in taking them to the highest levels of the industry," said McIntosh.

Besides the obvious industry attention, Fischer credits GarageBand reviewers for helping the band reach the heights they're at today.

"Seeing our songs do well on GarageBand really helped us believe that we were doing something right. That positive reinforcement really helped our songwriting process. Its great to get feedback on what's good and bad about your music."

With a long road behind them and an even longer road ahead, Minutes Too Far embodies the spirit of GarageBand and we wish them luck on tour and online.

After topping the GB charts, 10 Years signs to Universal

In the hard rock scene, 10 Years is known to all but cave-dwellers as a household name in heavy hit-making. The band has been touring all over the globe in support of their Universal Records debut The Autumn Effect, winning fans over with a mix of blunt social consciousness, awe-inspiring performances and killer tunes. Their first single, "Wasteland" recently enjoyed its 35th week on the Billboard Modern Rock Singles chart, having peaked at #1.

Of course, such success doesn't happen overnight. In fact, 10 Years started where every other modern band starts: the Web.

"The Internet is the single biggest resource for independent acts," explained bassist Lewis Cosby. "We hit up GarageBand.com early on. Tons of people heard the track at the top of the GarageBand charts and bought the CD. Our current management had seen the track on the top of GarageBand.com and finally contacted us after also getting the full CD."

It wasn't long before the rest of the music industry caught on. Justin Eshak, A&R for Universal Republic Records, told us that "having a resource like GarageBand was invaluable in our decision to sign 10 Years."

Sure enough, when the support of a great business team met the power of a major label, 10 Years was suddenly enjoying the kind of exposure reserved for rock royalty.

"Now we're playing huge shows," Cosby exclaimed. "Korea -- huge audience, all mouthing the words, and they didn't know what they were saying!"

Props to the GB community for sending the message that helped push 10 Years to the top. We wish the band the best, and we're keeping our ears peeled for the next GarageBand.com success story. Stay tuned and play loud.

Read more about 10 Years and other success stories.

GB metal chart-toppers Threat Signal ink deal with Nuclear Blast

Two years ago, Ontario metal masters Threat Signal posted a demo of their single "Rational Eyes" to GarageBand.com. They must have been on to something, because within weeks the song shot to #1 on the GB metal charts. To this day it remains #1.

That sort of stranglehold on the GB charts can't be ignored by the industry -- a serious industry buzz started to build. Threat Signal flew to Los Angeles to record their debut album with producer and Fear Factory bass player Christian Olde Wolbers, and signed with one of the biggest names in metal: Nuclear Blast.

"At first we were in disbelief!", said guitarist Rich Howard. "After a few e-mails, it became clear it was the real deal. We posted a few songs on Garageband.com and all of the sudden we have one of the top metal labels in the world contacting us, it was unbelievable."

Nuclear Blast label assistant Mike Ruiz added, "The band had all the qualities that make a great band even when they were still a demo band. GarageBand.com is a place where we look at bands on a regular basis... It's what gets bands discovered and keeps the music strong and well!"

Dane Cook: first major celebrity to talk to fans directly via podcast

If you don't already know Dane Cook, he's the hottest star in comedy today. Dane's latest comedy album, Retaliation, debuted at #4 on Billboard's Top Albums chart, the most successful comedy album debut since Steve Martin's A Wild and Crazy Guy in 1979. He has sold-out Madison Square Garden, hosted Saturday Night Live and performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. Visit danecook.com to hear clips, they're hysterical!

Dane's response when we first told him how to use Gcast: "Love this... I think this is going to be very cool." If Dane loves it, his fans will love it even more. This is one of the first cases of a major celebrity interacting directly, and intimately, with their fans, and in their own voice. Dane is planning the podcast to give fans regular behind-the-scenes updates on his life. Dane has also embedded the Gcast player into his MySpace page, and has sent the code to all his MySpace friends (over 1 million of them!) asking them to add it too.

This really shows the power of podcasting (and specifically, Gcast's easy "podcast-by-phone" feature) for enabling anybody to easily reach a broad audience. To listen to the Dane Cook podcast, click here. And as Dane says, "And if you don't like it well suck my html code."

Salme Dahlstrom scores big with commercial and publishing deals

GarageBand member Salme Dahlstrom is a natural-born triple-threat to the music industry. After becoming a musician in pre-school, she began a prolific songwriting career that eventually landed her as an in-demand record producer.

But music is more than a calling -- it's a business -- and that's where Salme says GarageBand has helped her move ahead.

Her song "G.L.S." has been in the Top 5 of GB's electronic charts for a long time, and Salme tells us, "It's been great exposure for me and my music. A lot of movie directors and ad agencies scan GarageBand for indie talent and I've gotten a good chunk of licensing requests through GB."

These requests eventually led to Salme's music being featured in commercials for Vodafone, Miller Lite and Quiznos. And her independent production and publishing company is busier than ever, with buzz building throughout the scene.

"I've been signed to a couple of major label deals, recorded and toured," she said. "That was a great experience and I learned a lot. Now that I produce my own music and pretty much run a one-woman-band, it just made more sense to go indie."

Salme pauses, possibly thinking about her recent success, and adds with a smirk, "Not to say I wouldn't sign a major label deal again..."

DJ Flair and Storm Trooperz hit the hip-hop charts

Artist advisor DJ Flair has been working to put Jersey hip-hop on the map since old school was new. From his early days of hustling mix tapes, Flair built a name for himself and his acts by representing both online and off. As a fellow GB member, Flair took his success on the GB charts and ran with it, pushing his music career forward.

"We used the GarageBand awards for Track of the Day for two of our songs in our press kit," explained Flair. "With that, we were able to land a showcase spot for a music conference in Atlanta."

What followed was a blitz of networking opportunities and industry attention. Flair then used feedback from the GB community to choose a single for his Jersey comrades Storm Trooperz. That single -- "Rain's Fallin" -- began climbing the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Singles chart and eventually peaked at #5.

Flair said, "GarageBand gave us an avenue on where to market our music and the motivation to complete our projects, because the feedback let us know someone was listening and liked our sound."

He also dropped some knowledge on how to replicate his chart-scaling success.

"Keep using GarageBand to make sure you have a good product. Read all the comments and remarks, make your changes and market your music in the regions where you got good feedback. Look for conferences or music gatherings where other musicians are going to be and just network until you have a formula that works."

Senator John Edwards uses Gcast to interact with citizens

Most of us know Senator John Edwards as John Kerry's running mate in the 2004 Presidential elections. But besides being a political pioneer, Edwards has broken new ground on the digital frontier with his One America Committee, which uses the Web to promote greater interactivity between citizens and their political representatives.

Edwards has been podcasting since March of 2005, and he recently switched to Gcast as his podcasting platform, making the most of our phone-in feature to keep the public updated on his many political activities and encouraging the public to call in with questions and comments. His most recent message was phoned in while he was drumming up support for fellow Democrats in Ohio:

"I'm going to be calling into the audioblog frequently to update you on my travels, especially as I go around the country and focus on the things I care about," he said. "What we want to do is use this audioblog as a way to communicate with you. I want to be able to answer any concerns or questions that you have."

You can listen and subscribe to the One America podcast here.

Louisiana's Squint lands sponsorships after GarageBand success

After moving to Louisiana from the more remote reaches of Michigan, pop punk band Squint began to attract attention for their high-energy live shows and catchy song writing. They recorded an album produced by the legendary Ed Stasium (Ramones, Soul Asylum) and their song "Quite" eventually became track of the week on GarageBand.

Based on the momentum of their great GarageBand charting, sponsorships fell into place like dominoes for Squint. After their live show was selected for worldwide broadcast by HDNet, AKG microphones and Atlas mic stands took interest in singer Dane Adrian's stage antics and signed on to support the band.

Adrian recently wrote us in thanks for our help in pushing Squint's music career forward. "GarageBand is an awesome ally in this business," he told us. "You get [the listener's] first instinct based on what they hear -- not what they see -- and in today's world where 'video killed the radio star', that is hard to find. GarageBand has garnered us many new fans and supporters. It's truly a useful tool... GarageBand helped show us which tracks were strongest on our record, and that began the ball rolling."

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Multi-platinum musician Jason Mraz launches debut podcast with Gcast

The Mrazcast has launched on Gcast, and if the first episode is any indication, Mraz has a promising future in podcasting. Following the amicable departure of his band's lead guitarist Bill Bell, Mraz began auditioning replacements. In his first podcast, entitled "Show Me Your Licks", he presents illuminating and often hysterical one-on-one accounts of meeting and jamming with four prospective guitar players. Besides being chock-full of great music, Mraz delivers on-point psychoanalysis of each musician in a constant voice-over narrative. The 'cast is capped off with an endearing interview with departing guitarist Bell as he relaxes in Mraz's pool. It's an entertaining half hour even if you're not already familiar with Mraz's unique sound.

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