Profiles and search

Indaba users have profiles that describe their background, tastes, and interests (meet people, collaborate online, get hired, gig/jam offline, etc.). Featured sessions and a search function allow users to find each other. Messaging and comment boards are available for communication.

Sessions

Any musician can start a session and invite members of the Indaba community to join. A session provides musicians with a space and platform to collaborate with others. Members of a session can upload and download tracks, as well as do basic editing and mixing with the Indaba online console. Communication is possible through messages, a discussion board dialogue, a live chat feature and a conference call hosted by Indaba. Sessions can be public (open to anyone in the community) or private (only open to those invited).^[18]

The session owner can search for other users to join the session by using metadata such as influences, crafts, instruments and the types of collaborations they are interested in participating in (paid only, etc.). Similarly, members can search for sessions to join by entering information about the types of sessions they are interested in participating in.^[19]

In-Song commenting

When a user selects a track on Indaba, a music player pops up on the bottom of the screen. The music player displays a waveform and members have the ability to comment along the waveform to refer to specific moments in time. Members use this feature both to give feedback to other musicians as well as to make comments on their own tracks such as "still working on these harmonies" or to mark key and time changes.^[18]

Recommendations

Using a technology from EchoNest (an audio company out of MIT Media Labs), Indaba recommends its musicians to one another based on their listed skill levels, influences, instruments, location, and previously recorded content.^[20]

Creative Commons License

When Indaba members upload tracks to an Indaba session, they can choose to reserve all rights, OR they can select a Creative Commons License for the track. The Creative Commons license they choose determines how other musicians on the site are allowed to creatively use their music.^[12] This may, for example, mean that artists are allowed to creatively use another work as long as it is not used commercially or that a musician may use another work but only in its original form.

Remix contests and sessions for artists like Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), The Crystal Method, and Carmen and Camille are creating new material that is often licensed under Creative Commons.^[7]

Artist collaborations

Indaba Music has been noted in the press for collaborations with popular artists including John Legend, Rivers Cuomo, Mariah Carey,^[21] and Yo-Yo Ma. During these collaborations, users can access the stems from songs of these artists without paying for licensing. Time Magazine's website featured a video with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in which he discusses many of his duets including his duet contest hosted by Indaba Music.^[22] Rivers Cuomo of Weezer was quoted in an article in July 2009, stating: "It's [Indaba Music] like a simplified version of any of these complex professional recording programs that no one like me knows how to use," said Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, who agreed to endorse the program although he says he normally refuses such requests. "It's going to open the door for a giant population of musicians out there."^[23]

Assorted press and music/tech coverage

• Wired Magazine^[24][25]
• Ars Technica^[18]
• Los Angeles Times^[26]
• Business Week^[27]
• Washington Post^[28]
• MTV^[29]
• Rolling Stone Magazine Online^[30]

Interviews

• Billboard Magazine^[31]
• Colbert Report^[32]
• NPR^[33]
• ABC News^[34]