Apple Celebrates 15th Anniversary of GarageBand This Sunday

Apple is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its popular music creation app GarageBand on Mac this upcoming Sunday, January 6.

Apple says GarageBand, introduced at Macworld 2004 by its late co-founder Steve Jobs and musician John Mayer, has grown to be the most widely used music app in the world and is now on over one billion iPhones, iPads, and Macs globally.

Apple provided a timeline of significant GarageBand milestones, including the releases of iPhone and iPad versions in 2011:

January 2004: GarageBand debuted at Macworld by Steve Jobs with John Mayer
April 2005: NIN release "The Hand That Feeds" as GarageBand project file that fans can remix
December 2005: T-Pain creates his first album,"Rappa Ternt Sanga" in GarageBand for Mac
March 2007: Rihanna "Umbrella" built with GarageBand bundled drum loop "Vintage Funk Kit 03"
March 2007: Fall Out Boy records "Thnks fr th Mmrs" in GarageBand for Mac
November 2007: Duran Duran releases GarageBand version of "Nite-Runner" that fans can remix
February 2008: Usher "Love in This Club" built with GarageBand bundled synth loop "Euro Hero Synth 02"
February 2008: Ting Tings record "Great DJ" on GarageBand for Mac
April 2008: Radiohead release "Nude" as GarageBand project file that fans can remix
2008: "It Might Get Loud" documentary shows Edge from U2 using GarageBand on his laptop
2009: Learn to Play and Artist Lessons announced on GarageBand for Mac
May 2009: St. Vincent creates "Actor" album in GarageBand
March 2011: GarageBand for iPad announced
November 2011: GarageBand for iPhone announced
October 2013: GarageBand 10 for Mac with new design announced
August 2014: Haim records "My Song 5" in GarageBand
June 2015: Marc Maron interviews President Obama in a podcast recorded in his garage using GarageBand for Mac
January 2016: Live Loops feature added to GarageBand for iOS
May 2016: GarageBand for Greater China announced with traditional Chinese instruments
April 2017: Steve Lacey produces the Kendrick Lamar song "PRIDE" using GarageBand for iOS

GarageBand is a free download on the Mac App Store and App Store for iOS devices.

Tag: GarageBand

Top Rated Comments

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keysofanxiety

10 months ago

Me in 2004: Awesome! I'm going to use that all the time!
Me in 2019: Whoa... is that thing even still on my computer?

Genuine question: what's changed between then and now for you not want to use it? It's fast, stable, and has some really decent sounds.

Rating: 8 Votes

Musocat

10 months ago

GarageBand is what got me on to Macs. About a week before the announcement, I had bought one of those 4-track cassette recorders to make demos on. You know, the all-in-one decks where you could record a whopping 4 tracks... onto a cassette. lol. Anyway, when I heard about GB I checked out how much an iBook cost, and it wasn't much more than that 4-track cassette recorder cost. So I returned the 4-track and used the $ to get a 12" iBook G4, which came with GB. Typing this on a 13" MBP 15 years later :-)

Rating: 6 Votes

DocMultimedia

10 months ago

A pity they didn't feel like maintaining Aperture. In a mere two years they could have done the 15th anniversary for it.

Rating: 6 Votes

Soba

10 months ago

15 years later, I still think this was one of Apple's most effective product introductions, ever. It's fun to watch even now. (We miss you, Steve!)

[MEDIA=youtube]Q2jq4iRyULg[/MEDIA]

Rating: 5 Votes

otozuz

10 months ago

I remember watching the presentation keynote 15 years ago (streamed through the old QuickTime Player) with my dad when I was 17 year-old and being super excited by it. In the following years I then recorded probably 150 songs/ideas with my Fender Strato :):):) So much fun.

Rating: 4 Votes

JimmyJimmyYam

10 months ago

GarageBand is a truly awesome piece of software - there is nothing else like it (except of course, Logic Pro X, but GB is really Logic Pro X Lite these days). If you have aspirations to make music, it justifies the price of entry into the Mac ecosystem IMHO.

On the downside, it makes me worry what I will do when my 2015 MBP gives up the ghost - hopefully by then USB C audio interfaces will be plentiful, the emoji bar will be consigned to the dustbin of “interesting ideas that didn’t pan out”, and the design balance will have tipped back from thinness to power / versatility!

Rating: 3 Votes

Roscorito

10 months ago

GB is really Logic Pro X Lite these days

It always was Logic lite; Apple acquired Logic in 2002, released GarageBand in 2004. Same code base.

Rating: 3 Votes

Unity451

10 months ago

Me in 2004: Awesome! I'm going to use that all the time!
Me in 2019: Whoa... is that thing even still on my computer?

Rating: 3 Votes

PBG4 Dude

10 months ago

GarageBand is one of the best apps on iPhone/iPad IMHO. Being able to jack my soundboard into my iPhone to make quick multitrack recordings with my band never ceases to put a smile on my face.

Rating: 2 Votes