GB members Fell Far Behind parlay radio contest win into self-released album

GarageBand.com member Mike Hak from Philadelphia's Fell Far Behind was posed with the $25,000 question. It was December 1st, 2006, and his band had survived five rounds of competition in the GarageBand.com "Face Off" challenge, a battle of GB bands that took place on a dozen FM radio stations, where listeners text messaged their vote for best unsigned band. The decision in front of him: Whether to accept a chance to compete in the final round for a six-figure record contract with Capitol Records, or to take $25,000 and run with it.

"I think we're gonna keep our music within our own grasp right now and sign ourselves for 25 grand," said Mike Hak. It was a bold move for sure, and some couldn't help but wonder what the band would really do with all that money. Even Hak joked on air, "that could buy us a lot of beer!"

All speculation was quieted last month when the band made good on its promise and self-released its new album Reaching the Red Line.

"Looking at the level of competition that we were up against, we never thought we'd make it as far as we did," Hak told us recently. He admitted that before competition started the band had already decided they would take the prize money over the record deal.

"Major label contracts can be very risky when a band has not already established themselves enough to negotiate a safe deal," he said. "We wanted to control our own destiny, and 25 grand was the perfect start!"

Right now, it looks as if the band's gamble is beginning to pay off. "Downloads and album sales have been doing great," Hak said. "The Face Off contest really helped to get our name out there, and now that our album is out, we're seeing some really good, positive press. It's very exciting. We have even heard from a few record labels who are taking interest in what we are doing. Our goal now is to land a solid deal with a label who can take Fell Far Behind to the next level. "

Though their saga may seem like an amazing feat, Mike was quick to remind GB members that it can happen to anyone.

"It's a tale almost everyone with a band on GarageBand.com can relate to. Five guys who have one
thing going for them — their band. They have high hopes and big dreams, and despite coming very close at times, they can never quite seem to get their feet off the ground. GarageBand.com is a community of people who have many of the same goals in common. Everyone benefits by giving and receiving support and honest critique."

Radiohead defies music industry with pay-what-you-want album release

Whether you like their music or not, it's hard to deny that Radiohead has been a trailblazing band of their generation. After releasing six albums on a major label, the group is now making history by cutting out all the music industry middlemen. Their seventh album, In Rainbows, will be available for download directly from the band. Most incredibly, the price of the album is up to you. Whether you choose to pay one cent or one hundred dollars, you will be able to download the album when it comes out on Oct. 10th, directly from their website.

Eager musicians and nervous industry executives will be watching to see what happens, but early buzz suggests there is a lot of excitement over the offer.

Digital music retailers gear up for the future of the recording industry

The landscape of the digital music retail industry is constantly shifting, but this month has seen an earthquake of activity and the rumblings of major announcements. Since the future of your music career may very well depend on it, we though we'd do a quick wrap-up of the most recent industry highlights:

• Disconnected - Are you familiar with Sony Connect, the media conglomerate's online music store? No? Perhaps that's why Sony is shuttering the doors on its digital music destination. After sticking to a proprietary file format that didn't play nicely with non-Sony devices, the company has finally thrown in the towel, beaten to the punch by its more popular rivals.




• Urge to Merge - Meanwhile, a partnership between MTV and RealNetworks has been announced in which both companies' music stores will be integrated into a single venture. The two music services (MTV's Urge and RealNetworks' Rhapsody) have already begun to meld as Urge subscribers are granted access to Rhapsody. The partnership will also include Verizon Wireless, which seeks to bring the service right to your cellphone. If the right marketing muscle is flexed, Apple could see some serious competition ahead.




• More in Store - Finally, Wal-Mart has made a bold move at grabbing some of Apple's market share by stocking their digital music store with MP3 files that are free of DRM (Digital Rights Management). The retail giant will sell unprotected MP3s, capable of being played on virtually any device, at a much deeper discount than the iTunes Store, which recently announced a similar DRM-free plan. Even Amazon.com has said it will get in on the act of selling MP3s as soon as mid-September. All stores will only offer MP3 downloads for a select group of songs, so it's not quite a paradigm shift, but it is big news in an industry that until recently was insistent on copy protection.

From Italy to Alabama: GB connects respected director with young composer

More proof that the Web is changing the way the music industry works: In this Birmingham News article, prominent actor and Italian director Flavio Parenti described finding 17-year-old composer Hamilton Cleverdon on iLike and GarageBand.com while looking for someone to score his next play:

"His music fit so well, it's amazing," said Parenti. "The performance started changing because of the music. He has that power when he composes."

Parenti liked Cleverdon's track "The Fall" so much, he asked to use it as an introduction to his play. When Cleverdon heard the play was about pirates, he enthusiastically volunteered to do an entirely new, original soundtrack for free.

"I still ended up getting paid," Cleverdon told us, "with a 10-day trip to Italy and a chance to see the play!"

After being featured in newspaper articles and reviews, the composer has been contacted by many interested parties and has picked up more paying jobs. But the greatest reward of the experience transcends the exposure and interest:

"Without GarageBand and iLike, I would not have been able to take a trip to Italy the day after I graduated high school," he said. "This led to me finally deciding on my major (music composition), and probably the rest of my life."

From Parenti's pad in Italy to Cleverdon's home in Birmingham, Alabama, GarageBand.com has traversed the divide to bring together creative minds to do what they do best -- inspire each other to create works which inspire others.

Gym Class Heroes go from GarageBand to heavy rotation

Back in June of 2003, the Gym Class Heroes saw their song "Decrepit Bricks" hit #4 on the GarageBand hip-hop charts. It's fitting then that they recently found themselves again at #4... only this time, it was on the Billboard Hot 100.

You probably know Gym Class Heroes through the heavy radio and TV airplay they've received for their current single, "Cupid's Chokehold". It turns out that shortly after their GB chart-topping success, indie label powerhouse Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen discovered the band and signed them immediately. After years of touring and paying dues, GCH has finally arrived.

Using all live instrumentation in a scene dominated by drum machines and samples, the group quickly set themselves apart as musical mavericks both online and off. It didn't hurt that they experimented with genres to create a truly original sound -- just the kind of thing that gets your music to the top of the charts.

"Our music is rooted in hip-hop," says frontman Travis McCoy, "but not restricted to it. We never drew ourselves into a corner which made it easy for us to play for all kinds of people -- from jam band fans to death metal fans to punk fans to hip-hop fans."

The Heroes are currently finishing up a string of U.S. arena shows before heading to Australia to open for Gwen Stefani. They are truly blowing up and we're proud that GarageBand helped put some wind in their sails on their rise to popularity.

Ten GB artists selected for major indie doc soundtrack

As a co-producer and music supervisor of the buzz-heavy indie flick A Lawyer Walks into a Bar, Evan Fitzmaurice had to match top-quality film content with a is of the highest production value and songwriting quality and every one of the bands deserves to break natisimilarly powerful soundtrack.

He began by looking online for original music aggregators, and was impressed by GarageBand's
"excellent interface and search function."

"I compiled around 150 songs... which I whittled down based on input to around 30 bands... many of those finalists I located on GarageBand," he said.

Some of the GB artists selected are top-charters, others were lesser known.

"All of the music in our filmonally," Fitzmaurice told us, adding that "in several cases, they are already doing so."

"Assuming you have the ideas and talent," he said, "you can become a one-man or one-woman marketing machine... posting your work to a Web site or to a place such as GarageBand for the world to find... if you are savvy... that can allow you to compete online as if you were signed to a top label with all of the marketing resources of a major label."

The film is "a lurid tale of layers and lawsuits and America's fascination with both" and probes the matter documentary-style with a cast of characters ranging from law professors to comedians. A Laywer Walks into a Bar is screening next week in Austin, TX an official selection of the SXSW film festival. Keep an eye out for the movie and an ear out for the soundtrack!

Here's a full list of the GB artists and songs selected for the film:

Mountain Mirrors - "Afterlife"

Phantom Music Box - "I.D. Sequence"

Draz - "Sunday Rain"

Cricket Rumor Mill - "Give Me a Day (Or Two)"

Blue James Band - "I Can Relate"

Rantings of EVA - "Paperdolls"

CM4TBLY NUMB - Beneath the Pools of Giverny

Imaginary Maps - "Fall Apart"

Seven Reasons - "Headlights"

Lo Mass Republic - "Falling Apart"

Hip-hop artist/GB member Ques rocks the commercial spots

Recently picked up for a spot by Mountain Dew, hip-hop artist and GB member Ques recently talked to us about his successes in the commercial placement arena.

"The way I was picked up from Mountain Dew was through basically networking and staying focused with my sound and music," he told us, "I previously did a commercial for Reebok through a music company named Bang Music... they would call me for slots from Miller Light to light bulb commercials. That alone gave me the opportunity to
land Mountain Dew just as Reebok and here I am."

The Bronx native remembered how when he first joined GarageBand.com, he was excited "just to go up from 70 to 65."

Charting high on the GarageBand.com charts certainly gave a boost to his credibility and his career. His song "All My Soul" is curently #2 in Rap and #3 in Hip Hop. Ques credits other GB members for providing the feedback he needed to hone his musical craft.

"Now that I am #2 and #3, I'm like, 'Whoa'", he said. "The love I get in many reviews let me know what track I should be headed towards and helps me polish what I thought was good to great."

"I'm glad I joined GB 'cause the work was all worth it," he added. "CD sales, promotion, charts, you name it thank you GB."

Today, more independent artists are getting the opportunity to share in the profit of the a booming advertising industry, and we're as excited as ever to help artists find the inspiration to jump-start their music career.

Country musician Kacey Musgraves gets national TV exposure on Nashville Star

Country music singer/songwriter and GB member Kacey Musgraves has shifted her music career into high gear with national TV exposure after her recent performance as a finalist on USA Network's Nashville Star.

Though she's no stranger to television (she got started by "yodeling her way" into appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America and the 2002 Winter Olympics), Kacey told us the experience was "amazing" despite "grueling rehearsals... late nights [and] endless hard decisions.

"You go from not knowing if you're being kicked off to having 30 seconds to get ready to sing in
front of 3 tough judges and 5 million Americans watching at home," she said.

After finishing in the Nashville Star top 10, Kacey will be returning to her roots, finishing her album and hitting the Texas live music scene. She may have the whole future ahead of her at age 18, but her words of wisdom ring true:

"My advice to other musicians out there is to use all the feedback you get! Keep in mind that they are just opinions, but take them and use them to your advantage. And don't give up! Use every tool you can."

Of course, she counts GarageBand as an important component of any indepedent musician's toolbox.

"It's been really cool to have my music on GarageBand. It's been helpful getting feedback about my music from other artists. I think it has the best music reviewing system available on the internet."

We wish Kacey the best on the release of her new album, and look forward to seeing more GB artists take over television.