Frank Harvey
Thankyou Meng for the frank and insightful explanation.
 
 
OK then.....................
Meng,
Down Here in Australia ,
I have in recent years, on occasion, engaged amazingly skilled amateur / professional musicians from around the globe to provide instrumental input on various projects. I have paid them according to the obviously 'meagre' rates provided (BUT...With my Tip) on the web site they were associated with. On the whole, I have been staggered by the musical skills afforded and the brilliant works supplied.
Given that many of these incredibly talented artists on our planet ...........Vocalists, Saxophonists, Keyboardists,Guitar Soloists, Synthesizists...( IS THAT A WORD?),  Bagpipers  ( YES guys!!!.....Remember AC/DC ) ........BAGPIPES !!!
Is it possible that our newly found BANDLAB site may someday provide an Industry Recognized , regulated & FAIR PAYING ( ie: As Against the Web Vultures) , means for engagement of fellow music producers / Artists to cross pollinate and mutually assist in musical trade skills.
A simple, forthright 'payment for assistance' system would be so beautiful for us creative beings :)
Cheers...........Frank in OZ
 

I agree that is another area Bandlab could tap into. I believe there is already a payment system in place though. They have a tip jar system. I tried setting it up the other day, but nobody has tipped me yet, so I don't know how it works. If everything is working correctly you should be able to pay people quickly and easily thought. In the future I can see people paying others for quick instrument parts or mixing/mastering.

meng
Tecknot - we're always iterating on improving our privacy controls and giving more choice to our consumer, but I'm not sure what ancillary "private" data you're implying that we are collecting that is different to any other service that you use.
 
In fact, we've intentionally made our T&Cs as layman-friendly as possible and we've explicitly made clear in our privacy policy that we do not rent or sell any user personal data to 3rd Party companies. Please feel free to ask if you need clarification on anything!

There's no obligation (unlike other services like Facebook) to use your real name either in signing up for an account - so how much you choose to share with the service is entirely up to you.  Some friends of mine who are international artists use a separate email address for BandLab, use it privately only and don't put up profile photos or anything that could identify them!

Just to circle back, Meng, the following are examples of what I was referring to in your Privacy Policy (to the extent we are made aware of).  In particular, merely using the Service implies our consent to use any data collected by BL without any option to opt out of sharing any particular information we may provide ourselves or that which is collected.  We only have the option (so it seems) to concede and have access to the Service or no consent and no access what so ever.  And to continue to use CbB with improvements we are compromised in order to download CbB.  (Further, I do not use other social platforms such as Facebook, Pinterst, etc.)
 
2.6. Analytics Information
2.6.1. We use third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Services. These tools collect information sent by your device including the web pages you visit, add-ons, and other information that assists us in improving the Services. We collect and use this analytics information with analytics information from other Users so that it cannot reasonably be used to identify any particular individual User.
 
2.8.2. When you use the Services, our servers automatically record certain log file information, including your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on the Services, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information. We may also collect similar information from emails sent to our Users which then helps us track which emails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients. The information allows for more accurate reporting and improvement of the Services.
 
2.9.1. When you use a mobile device like a tablet or phone to access the Services, we may access, collect, monitor, store on your device, and/or remotely store one or more “device identifiers.” Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device, which uniquely identify your mobile device. A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device’s operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by us.
2.9.2. A device identifier may deliver information to us or to a Third Party partner about how you browse and use the Services and may help us or others provide reports or personalised content and ads. Some features of the Services may not function properly if use or availability of device identifiers is impaired or disabled.
 
3.2.  For clarity, you’re granting us permission to use your Information for the above-mentioned purposes (through your use of the Services) not only allows us to provide the Services as they exist today, but also to provide you with new capabilities as we develop the Services in the future.
3.3. Apart from these purposes, we may also notify you of other purposes for which we collect, use or disclose your Information and seek your consent to such purposes (for example, through other parts of this Privacy Policy). We only collect and use Information for purposes for which you have consented. If we need to use your Information for any purpose to which you have not previously consented, we will seek your consent prior to using your Information for the new purpose.
 
b) “Service Providers”: These are our agents or third party contractors of. We engage them to assist us in providing and managing aspects of the Services, such as developing the Services’ features and functionality, marketing, processing payments, processing data or statistics, hosting Content, providing server space, reviewing Content for compliance with our Terms of Use, and legal advice.
 
Please note that I do not suspect BL has any ill intent beyond what has been disclosed in your ToU and PP.  It's the third party part that concerns me more and anything that has not been disclosed such as those agreements between BL and third parties.
 
Kind regards,
 
tecknot

I'd really like to get into collaboration in BandLab, however I'm finding it difficult to find out where to start.
 
The tutorials seem to cover two areas:
(i) The technical aspects of using the website/software
(ii) Tips on how to work with collaborators ONCE you've found them.
 
What it doesn't seem to cover is how to find suitable collaborators in a practical way.
 
For example, I'd like to start collaboration on some progressive rock, or some jazz fusion projects.
How do I find other musicians that I may want to collaborate with?
 
The nearest genre for prog-rock is "Rock", but that covers a huge range. Death metal, country rock and prog rock sound nothing like each other.
 
The nearest genre for jazz fusion is "Jazz", but again it's a huge range. Trad jazz, big-band and jazz fusion are all very different.
 
There's 1,000,000's of users on BandLab, so going through each person's profile under a generic genre and listening to their projects is not practical.
 
Even if I make my projects public:
(a) I get rappers wanting to do rap versions of my stuff, which I don't want
(b) How would they find me anyway amongst the 1,000,000's of other users?
 
What I'd really like to see is:
1. More choice in sub-genres, so I can search/be searched for in a more specific way
2. A better way of specifying what I'm looking for, whether it be a guitarist, lyricist or whatever
3. A way to advertise what I'm looking for, or search for people advertising for band members.
 
In other words have something reminiscent of the "old days", when if you wanted someone to collaborate with or join/start a band, the only sensible way was to use the classifieds in NME or Melody Maker.
 
This is the method I suspect most musicians are familiar with, and it would be nice to see something similar on BandLab.
 
M.
 

Msmcleod - I think communities would work for this. Unfortunately I don’t think there are many available right now, but hopefully someone will make them. If you make a jazz fusion community I’ll join it. I agree that a wanted section would be useful though. I’m not super interested in collaborating with people, but every once and a while it might be fun. However I don’t want to go through a long tedious search. If I could just search for projects that needed guitar and by genre I might do it every so often. I think that’s a good feature to add.

Overall Bandlab has alot of potential, but I don’t think anyone really knows how to use it yet.