Indaba Music is an international community of musicians, music professionals, and fans exploring the creative possibilities of making music with people in different places.
It makes finding other people, and working on recording, mixing, or mastering projects easier. For fans, Indaba provides unprecedented access to artists and to the creative process.
With recording hardware and software now available on almost any budget, it's easier than ever for artists of all levels and backgrounds to record and produce professional quality music. Artists are also harnessing the internet to get their music heard by more people than ever before. We think this is a big deal for the future of music, and we built Indaba to be an environment for artists to harness these trends and create music in new ways.
We don't believe that Indaba Music will ever recreate or replace the experience of working with someone else in the same room, but we do believe we can foster a community that offers new opportunities for artists at all levels to connect and work creatively together, regardless of location.
The site is more than just a tool, it's a community of real people connecting and collaborating in new and exciting ways. As we grow, we plan to add even more exciting features, including more advanced collaborative functionality and ways for fans to experience music creation. We can't wait to see how you use the site!
Indaba is a Zulu word that invokes the spirit of collaboration and community. It refers to a gathering or a forum for sharing ideas, and it embodies concepts that are central to the mission of Indaba Music.
Read more about the story behind Indaba Music in an open letter from two of the co-founders.
In college, we realized that there was a huge need for services that student musicians didn't have access to... things like professional production assistance, concert organization, and promotion. We also saw a big opportunity to create exciting events around music, so we began a non-profit student record label to serve our local community of musicians. We recorded and produced compilation albums at no cost to artists, we freely distributed them on-campus (and beyond), and we organized release parties and concerts for our artists.
It was important to us that the label remain a student-run organization even after we graduated. We started thinking about other ways to help the larger community of musicians and music professionals, and what the tremendous changes in music, technology, and media would mean for artists in the future. We were particularly interested in the increasing availability of cheap digital recording technology and easily accessible digital distribution. Together, they enable anyone to make music and get it to people all over the world inexpensively and easily.
We wanted to empower more artists to take advantage of these changes, so in the Spring of 2005 we started work on an idea that eventually became Indaba Music. We assembled a young team experienced in startup media, with members who had successfully launched a national student magazine, started a college television station, founded a recording studio for independent musicians, and directed the technical development of the first label-released mp3 CD. Check out our work and let us know what you think - if something could be different or better, we definitely want to hear about it. E-mail us at feedback@indabamusic.com.
Welcome!
Dan and Matt
Co-Founders, Indaba Music
The People Who Keep This Place Running
Rochelle Bellin (Associate, Business Development)
- "We're not going to be nearly as nice when you work here full-time." - Dan
"That's OK. Neither am I." - Rochelle
- "I had soup dumplings the other day and they changed my life forever."
Jim Bishop (VP Development)
- "All the good things to eat only come off trucks."
- - Zen and the Art of Jim Bishop
Seth Bohen (Community Associate/QA Testing)
PJ Brindisi (Developer, Scrum Master)
- "I think your Rubik's cube is broken, I was messing around with it the other day and couldn't solve it."
- - this one is self-explanatory
- "The more I write the word 'one', the more I think it should be pronounced 'oh-ney'."
- - he'd been coding for a really, really long time
- "Bass Ale tastes like awesome."
- - again, self-explanatory
Jesse Chan-Norris a.k.a. Pants or JCN (Señor Developer, Founder)
- "Don't worry your feeble little brain about it."
- - in response to a totally reasonable question from Dan
Joe Ciesla (Chief Financial & Analytics Officer)
- "Excel isn't exactly fun, but I kinda like it a lot."
Cena Crane (Creative Director)
Chris Danzig a.k.a. Zog (EVP - Product and Technology Development, Founder)
- "That's a feature, not a bug."
- - in response to repeated requests to fix a site bug
- "Did you know that straws don't float in beer?"
- - general comment
- "My humor works at any framerate."
- - upon making Jesse laugh via choppy webcam
Mantis Evar a.k.a. Goody (EVP - Artists and Community, Founder)
- "In the desert we used to suck on rocks."
- - don't ask
- "After a few beers Chewbacca looks pretty good."
- - ibid
Ethan Fuchs (Front-End Developer)
- "I feel powerful with a hammer."
- - Ethan, standing next to a bunch of computers
Nate Lew (Director, Marketing)
- "I find that by not exercising, I don't get sore."
Ramona Mark (Executive Assistant)
- "I haven't said anything funny yet. When I do, you can use that."
Matt Palmer (Associate, Community Relations)
Ryan Roberts (Operations Manager)
- "The submissions for Astronaut are... Wow! It's like ear candy everywhere." - Ryan
Josh Robertson (Senior Director, Operations)
- Josh: "Are we canceling rooftop beers tonight?"
- Dan: "Why?"
- Josh: "Because I can't go."
Streeter Seidell a.k.a. Street (Writer, Homepage Manager)
- "There's a couple 6s and 7s on there, so don't judge me."
- - guess
Matt Siegel a.k.a. Grumpy Bear (Co-CEO, Founder)
- "Slow down. Let us go one step at a time into insanity."
- - in response to new ideas for the site
- "Is that a label maker? He's wanted one of those since he was a little boy."
- - Matt's mom upon seeing a label-maker in the office
Pete Swan (Front-End Developer)
- It's the end of the day on Friday. I got nothing.
- - as "SAY SOMETHING WITTY" was screamed at him
Colin Tierney (Marketing Associate)
Dan Zaccagnino a.k.a. Onin Gaccaz (Co-CEO, Founder)
- "She is, for a robot, relatively attractive."
- - watching video of the Honda humanoid robots
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