New Gpal Software Makes it Easier to Enjoy iPod

New Gpal Software Makes it Easier to Enjoy iPod

Free iTunes Companion Helps iPod Owners Organize Playlists, Share Their Tastes, and Discover New Artists

PHOENIX, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- DEMO 2006 -- An audience of technology enthusiasts, investors, and entrepreneurs at the DEMO 2006 conference today got their first look at Gpal, the indispensable companion for iPod owners. Gpal is now available for public BETA testing at www.Gpal.com.

Gpal is designed specifically to work with iTunes and simplifies the task of building and managing a music library. Gpal enables users to:

-- Create and maintain playlists -- Many people have music libraries but
haven't organized them into useful playlists. Users provide Gpal with
the name of just one artist, and it will create an entire playlist in
the style of that artist.

-- Discover new music by emerging artists -- Gpal will automatically
update a user's music library with free weekly downloads from
Garageband.com, using podcast technology to deliver songs from emerging
artists directly into the appropriate playlists.

-- Share music tastes online (coming soon) -- Gpal will create a self-
updating, personalized list of a user's favorite music that can be
shared online in blogs and MySpace pages.

Gpal's recommendation engine works by performing collaborative filtering on the music tastes of its users. As more people download and install Gpal, its playlist-management capabilities improve. Gpal's unsigned artist recommendations take advantage of GarageBand.com's award-winning collaborative-filtering system, where listener ratings are used to find the best songs from hundreds of thousands of unsigned artists in almost fifty genres. Gpal moves the iPod one step closer to replacing radio, giving listeners direct access to new artists with unparalleled convenience.

"Gpal serves two basic needs that are familiar to any iPod owner," said Ali Partovi, CEO of GarageBand.com. "Managing playlists, and loading up with new music."

"Gpal turns the iPod into a music discovery tool," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of DEMO. "It puts the consumer in the driver's seat, opens new possibilities, and eliminates all the music middlemen."

Today's BETA release is available for Windows only. Gpal will eventually be released for both Windows and Mac OSX operating systems.

About Gpal and GarageBand.com

Gpal is a companion to iTunes that helps users organize playlists and discover new artists. Gpal is the latest release from GarageBand.com, the web's leading independent music community. The GarageBand.com vision is to redefine how music is discovered and promoted. Since 1999, GarageBand.com has used collaborative filtering to let ordinary people pick the hits in virtually every genre, providing musicians with feedback from listeners all over the world, and resulting in radio airplay, publishing deals, and recording contracts for deserving artists everywhere. GarageBand.com also runs Gcast.com, a service that makes it easy for anybody to publish their own podcast for free.

Source: GarageBand.com

CONTACT: Brooke Hammerling, +1-415-596-5428, or brooke@brewpr.com

Web site: http://www.gpal.com/
http://www.garageband.com/

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