GarageSpin

Interesting.  Kompoz released a beta version of an online workspace for musicians to collaborate in the creation of new recordings.  Think Apple's GarageBand audio recording software meets MySpace Band pages, where the social network revolves around song projects.

Basically, anyone can start a new "song project", choosing project attributes such as song key, beats per minute, and an appropriate Creative Commons license.  Kompoz members can then add parts to the betterment (or detriment) of the project, and the whole work in progress is both streamable and downloadable by everyone, both as a whole or in parts.  Features include:

• Artist profile pages with list of started projects, projects you've joined, and favorite projects
• Individual project workspaces for each collaboration
• Project-specific discussion forums (multiple topics/threads).
• All tracks/audio uploaded to and hosted by Kompoz
• Uploaded files automatically encoded for fast streaming playback. (Original format is preserved for downloads.)
• Uploaded files are organized into tracks and versioned.
• Support for MP3, WAV, and WMA formats.
• Download a single file, an entire track, or an entire project with one click.
• Search for projects by genre, artist, tags/keywords, license type, and more.
• Choose from multiple licensing options when creating your projects.

There's also a "Private" setting, where only invited musicians are able to participate and collaborate, but it doesn't seem to be enabled, currently.  This will be key, as many musicians will want to work with a set group of co-writers or band members.  Perhaps it's a post-beta feature, or part of a 'paid' version of the service?  I'm also wondering if there will be a way to "mute" parts of the track...  If 50 people contribute parts, it could become a tad messy unless you're able to select which tracks are being played back at any time.  Would a Creative Commons audio archive "search" module make sense here?  (I'll add an update soon with the answers...)

It's definitely a cool concept, and a nice feature set considering it's free.  I'd love to give this a whirl, and have y'all join in...

Update:  Ralph at Kompoz confirmed that the "Private" function is currently disabled, but may become a paid feature.  More features are being added in a couple weeks.  We'll wait and see...