GarageBand

GarageBand is a software application that allows users to create a piece of music, developed by Apple Computer for Macintosh computers.

The application is not aimed at professional musicians, but is intended to help amateurs produce music easily. The application comes with 1,000 pre-recorded sampled loops, and 50 sampled or synthesised instruments which can be played using a MIDI keyboard connected to the computer, or using an on-screen keyboard. Additional loops and instruments are available in the three GarageBand Jam Packs, separate products offered by Apple Computer; each expansion pack costs $99 and adds more than two thousand loops and dozens of virtual instruments.

GarageBand can only be purchased as part of iLife '04, a suite of applications intended to simplify the creation and organisation of users' digital content.

The application was announced during Steve Jobs's keynote speech at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco on 6 January, 2004; musician John Mayer assisted with its demonstration.

GarageBand was originally developed by Emagic, developers of the professional musical program Logic Audio, which was acquired by Apple in July 2002.