Apple updates GarageBand for iOS with exclusive RED Loop Pack, available for limited time

Posted:
in iPhone edited November 2014
Apple on Sunday released an update to its GarageBand music authoring app that activates an option to purchase the (GarageBand)RED Loop Pack, an exclusive collections of hundreds of new instrument loops, with all proceeds going to charity.




An in-app purchase branded in typical RED fashion, the (GarageBand)RED Loop Pack features 300 guitar, bass, synth and drum loops spread over a number of musical genres. To mark the occasion, Apple changed GarageBand's app icon background from a sunset gradient to red.

The new option is available only until Dec. 7 and Apple notes all proceeds will go to the (RED) foundation's Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Usually, only a portion of sales income goes toward the special fund, as is the case with RED-designated iPods.

In a tweet from its official Twitter account in April, RED revealed contributions from Apple had reached a total of $70 million since the introduction of special (Product)RED iPods and accessories in 2006.

Last year, Apple SVP of Design Jony Ive teamed up with industrial designer and recent Apple hire Marc Newson to design one-of-a-kind products for a (RED) benefit auction. Items included solid rose gold Apple EarPods and a red Mac Pro, which sold for a combined $1.4 million.

GarageBand for iOS comes in at 628MB download and can be purchased through the iOS App Store for $4.99, while the (GarageBand)RED pack costs $0.99.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32

    This donation to fight AIDS fits in well with Cook's recent revelation.

  • Reply 2 of 32

    This donation to AIDS fits in well with Cook's recent revelation.

  • Reply 3 of 32
    This donation to AIDS fits in well with Cook's recent revelation.

    What a fucking ignorant comment.
  • Reply 4 of 32
    What a great idea. Nice to have something other than a song on iTunes or red case/iPod. Plus having extra loops for garage band is always good, especially at that price.

    Also it's great that all the proceeds go to the charity. That doesn't even happen with iTunes songs.
  • Reply 5 of 32
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    I don't really use garageband much anymore, and I'm also not a big fan of pre-made musical loops. It leads to lazy people making lazy, generic, boring sounding music. It's like writing a book using a program or app that allows people to copy and paste using pre-written paragraphs and sentences, without having to come up with an original thought or idea by themselves. It takes no talent at all.

     

    I'm liking Korg Gadget right now. That's one of my favorite music apps at the moment.

  • Reply 6 of 32
    Where did my post go? I can see editing or removing the original post (which was offensive), but deleting a follow-up comment about it?
  • Reply 7 of 32
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post

     

    I don't really use garageband much anymore, and I'm also not a big fan of pre-made musical loops. It leads to lazy people making lazy, generic, boring sounding music. It's like writing a book using a program or app that allows people to copy and paste using pre-written paragraphs and sentences, without having to come up with an original thought or idea by themselves. It takes no talent at all.

     

    I'm liking Korg Gadget right now. That's one of my favorite music apps at the moment.


     

     

    Quite.

     

    Resorting to loops shows a lack of imagination, a failing that can be attributed to Tim Cook and Apple generally these days.

  • Reply 8 of 32
    apple ][ wrote: »
    I don't really use garageband much anymore, and I'm also not a big fan of pre-made musical loops. It leads to lazy people making lazy, generic, boring sounding music. It's like writing a book using a program or app that allows people to copy and paste using pre-written paragraphs and sentences, without having to come up with an original thought or idea by themselves. It takes no talent at all.

    I'm liking Korg Gadget right now. That's one of my favorite music apps at the moment.

    I think you're missing the point of loops - not to create final versions of songs, but to allow beginners to learn how to use tools at their disposal. This is what my kds do with their iPad "recording studio".
  • Reply 9 of 32
    I'm sure that there'll be lots of people happy that Cook is donating all the proceeds of this IAP to the AIDS charity (RED) and not just a portion, as has been typical in the past. GarageBand all year has kept me inspired with the arpeggiator and the synth sounds. As to the loops, I'm with Apple more than Eric. Yes, children can muck about with them, but too many adults will resort to them without engaging the grey cells, resulting in yet more homogenous gloop to afflict our ears.
  • Reply 10 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post

     
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post



    I don't really use garageband much anymore, and I'm also not a big fan of pre-made musical loops. It leads to lazy people making lazy, generic, boring sounding music. It's like writing a book using a program or app that allows people to copy and paste using pre-written paragraphs and sentences, without having to come up with an original thought or idea by themselves. It takes no talent at all.



    I'm liking Korg Gadget right now. That's one of my favorite music apps at the moment.




    I think you're missing the point of loops - not to create final versions of songs, but to allow beginners to learn how to use tools at their disposal. This is what my kds do with their iPad "recording studio".

     

     

    That's a fair point.

     

    Inspiring children to make music. At some point, they need to put on their big boy pants, though.

  • Reply 11 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Lolliver View Post



    What a great idea. Nice to have something other than a song on iTunes or red case/iPod. Plus having extra loops for garage band is always good, especially at that price.



    Also it's great that all the proceeds go to the charity. That doesn't even happen with iTunes songs.



    99¢ was the sweet spot for me for songs. When they price went to $1.25 in the Canadian store, I stopped buying music. I know that albums come with a good per-song price, but sometimes I just want a single song. I guess the margins are already too tight to be donating to such causes.

  • Reply 12 of 32
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post





    I think you're missing the point of loops - not to create final versions of songs, but to allow beginners to learn how to use tools at their disposal. This is what my kds do with their iPad "recording studio".

     

    I think that the point of loops depends upon who you ask. There are plenty of adults who make copy & paste music using loops. I would venture to guess that children are in the minority when it comes to loop usage.

     

    I am not 100% against all loops. I sometimes use some sort of drum loops, that get chopped up. Drums are atonal, so that makes it ok in my view. I just don't like musical loops, using pre-made riffs, notes and chords that were played by somebody else.

  • Reply 13 of 32
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lolliver View Post



    What a great idea. Nice to have something other than a song on iTunes or red case/iPod. Plus having extra loops for garage band is always good, especially at that price.



    Also it's great that all the proceeds go to the charity. That doesn't even happen with iTunes songs.



    Donating proceeds of song/third-party app sales to charity is more problematic as it requires the artist or app developer to be supportive of the cause in question.

     

    Apple focuses their iTunes charitable effort to (RED), not a mishmash of causes. If you don't approve of Apple's charitable interests, don't do business with Apple (or simply don't participate in Apple's charitable efforts).

     

    If a third party (content creator, app developer, etc.) decides to donate to a controversial cause, that may reflect poorly on Apple. 

     

    Note that Apple's restrictions don't prevent people from donating to their charity of choice. They simply don't enable it via their online store.

  • Reply 14 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by coolfactor View Post

     



    99¢ was the sweet spot for me for songs. When they price went to $1.25 in the Canadian store, I stopped buying music. I know that albums come with a good per-song price, but sometimes I just want a single song. I guess the margins are already too tight to be donating to such causes.




    In the US, at least, $.99 in 2003 is equivalent to $1.28 today, so I don't mind the prices, they've kept pace with inflation.

     

    We also got all the music DRM-free and at double the encoding rate, so it was a small price to pay.

  • Reply 15 of 32

    A nice gesture on Apple's part.

     

    Now for the unasked for suggestions on how to improve GarageBand... :D

     

    #1 request:  More instruments please! Not loops, but real plug-in style instruments, like horns... I've seen very few decent sounding horn sections, and individual horns (trumpet, French horn, etc.) usually do not sound very realistic from developers. With the limited number of sounds available, Latin music creation is a near impossibility. Most music appropriate to the sound selections is Rock and Electronic music. Diversity in music is a good thing.

     

    #2 request:  More guitars and more ways of interacting with them (including a whammy bar)! There are very few good quality guitar apps. One of the best I'd come across was the "Pearl Guitar" app from Amidio. The sounds were very solid, right down to the sound of the fingers sliding across the strings between chords, however the developer has failed to update the app to iOS 8 and it's incompatible with the Audiobus app.

     

    #3 request:  BUY AUDIOBUS! Even Apple's own GarageBand implementation to enable third-party instruments via the "Inter-App Audio" standard is clumsy and unreliable by Apple standards.

     

    All of these suggested updates I'd be willing to pay for as in-app purchases, even if it added $10 or more to the cost of the app.

  • Reply 16 of 32
    So they can create content for apps that doesn't require downloading an app. Be nice if they used this more. Let third party companies create loops, iMovie and Pages templates etc
  • Reply 17 of 32
    mpantone wrote: »

    Donating proceeds of song/third-party app sales to charity is more problematic as it requires the artist or app developer to be supportive of the cause in question.

    Apple focuses their iTunes charitable effort to (RED), not a mishmash of causes. If you don't approve of Apple's charitable interests, don't do business with Apple (or simply don't participate in Apple's charitable efforts).

    If a third party (content creator, app developer, etc.) decides to donate to a controversial cause, that may reflect poorly on Apple. 

    Note that Apple's restrictions don't prevent people from donating to their charity of choice. They simply don't enable it via their online store.

    Yes I'm aware of why it doesn't work to donate 100% of the proceeds in the iTunes Store and why Apple has to choose their charities carefully. I wasn't saying anything negative about those practices. Just pointing out how great it is that they are expanding into other areas for their fundraising.
  • Reply 18 of 32
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post

     

    I don't really use garageband much anymore, and I'm also not a big fan of pre-made musical loops. It leads to lazy people making lazy, generic, boring sounding music. It's like writing a book using a program or app that allows people to copy and paste using pre-written paragraphs and sentences, without having to come up with an original thought or idea by themselves. It takes no talent at all.

     

    I'm liking Korg Gadget right now. That's one of my favorite music apps at the moment.


    I completely disagree. Being a music producer, loops help you get a feel for a track you are writing. I use them basically just for reference. The pre-made loops never make it to the final track for release though. Just about every artist I know has used loops at one point when they are writing music. Several number one songs on the billboard charts have started from pre-made loops. Using loops doesn't mean someone isn't talented. 

  • Reply 19 of 32
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post

    Resorting to loops shows a lack of imagination, a failing that can be attributed to Tim Cook and Apple generally these days.

     

    I hope that's meant as an odd joke. Because attributing to "Tim Cook and Apple generally these days" a feature introduced by Steve Jobs in 2004 would be... well, about the norm for Apple-related comments these days, actually. : ( 

  • Reply 20 of 32
    boltsfan17 wrote: »
    "Apple wrote:
    [" url="/t/183561/apple-updates-garageband-for-ios-with-exclusive-red-loop-pack-available-for-limited-time#post_2643812"]
     
    I don't really use garageband much anymore, and I'm also not a big fan of pre-made musical loops. It leads to lazy people making lazy, generic, boring sounding music. It's like writing a book using a program or app that allows people to copy and paste using pre-written paragraphs and sentences, without having to come up with an original thought or idea by themselves. It takes no talent at all.

    I'm liking Korg Gadget right now. That's one of my favorite music apps at the moment.
    I completely disagree. Being a music producer, loops help you get a feel for a track you are writing. I use them basically just for reference. The pre-made loops never make it to the final track for release though. Just about every artist I know has used loops at one point when they are writing music. Several number one songs on the billboard charts have started from pre-made loops. Using loops doesn't mean someone isn't talented. 

    Which is why music is so dismal today.
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