To users of Apple’s Garageband, the drumbeat of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” has another name: “Vintage Funk Kit 03.” And that’s just one of the countless ways in which an easy-to-use piece of software has infiltrated and transformed music production since its introduction in 2004. In a new episode of our podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, Amy X. Wang – Rolling Stone’s senior music business editor, who wrote a groundbreaking in-depth feature on Garageband and visited the Apple studios where engineers craft the sounds of its loops and synthesized instruments – joins host Brian Hiatt to discuss the past and future of Garageband, as well as the long and weird history of DIY home recording.
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Download and subscribe to our weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on iTunes or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts), and check out two years worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth, career-spanning interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Halsey, Ice Cube, Neil Young, the National, Questlove, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, Donald Fagen, Phil Collins, Alicia Keys, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, Gary Clark Jr. and many more — plus dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters. Tune in every Friday at 1 p.m. ET to hear Rolling Stone Music Now show broadcast live from SiriusXM’s studios on Volume, channel 106.