Collaboration is one of the biggest drivers of human creativity. I could write a whole article on this subject alone, but that’s for another day – for now trust me that the evidence for this is really strong. Even going back to the very beginnings of mankind, when early humans lived in large tribes of 150 or so and regularly traded goods and ideas with all the other humans they came across – meaning new ideas spread fast. Neanderthals, on the other hand, lived in family groups of a dozen or so and rarely interacted outside of that. Living in the same conditions and (we now know) being of similar intelligence, there shouldn’t have been a big difference in outcomes, but the collaboration between humans allowed them to thrive, while the Neanderthals…. well, we know what happened to them.

History lessons aside, if you’re collaborating with other musicians, engineers, or producers in your projects then you’re making a smart move. And while the creative benefits are often huge, it can be really difficult to collaborate over any sort of a distance. If you’re in a band and live in the same town then it’s simple, but outside of that, keeping everyone in a project on the same page becomes difficult. I’ve certainly found that it takes a few tools to keep the show on the road. Email threads and Whatsapp tend to cover most of the communication. I’ll then make notes on the ideas that spring up in a notes app of some kind. Then there’s sharing the latest version of the tracks – Soundcloud or simply emailing MP3 files gets involved here. Finally, I want to keep track myself of what still needs to be done and what has been done already. I’ve tried a few ‘productivity’ apps and they didn’t really work here, and again, collaborating was tricky – so back to more email threads about progress. Any of this sound familiar?

I finally got bored of managing projects through all these different apps when I should really have just been focussed on the music, so I designed something called Multiband that would do everything I needed to keep a music production on track, and collaborators up to date, all on one page. Here’s a simple breakdown of how I made things easier:

Communication
In each project on Multiband you have a comments section for every song, as well as for each project as a whole. This eliminated the need for Whatsapp and email threads all over the place.

Progress
The grid – the heart of a Multiband project – means everyone who you’ve allowed to access the project can immediately see the progress of each track. If a box is ticked then that part is done, and if it isn’t that it still needs to be done. Incredibly simple, and avoids constant conversations about where the project is at.

Music
Keeping the latest mix of each track on Multiband means I just don’t use Soundcloud anymore – no need. And keeping that in the same place as the comments and the progress grid means all you need to know is on one page

Keeping everyone informed
When I’ve ticked all the boxes that register that day’s progress, I just click one button on Multiband and then all my collaborators will be emailed to let them know there has been progress. Automatically. They can then come and check it out in their own time. Streamlining the conversation is again saving me time on emailing progress updates out all the time.

If collaboration is a big factor in creativity (and it is) then being organised is a big factor in success. It’s not the coolest thing, and it may not be as much fun as a new plug-in, but getting your productions efficient and streamlined, and so getting your tracks finished, sets you up for success way more than a new reverb. It’s honestly made a huge difference to my work flow, got to Multiband if you want to try it for yourself.

How to Simplify Collaborations

3 Ways Multiband Makes You Look More Professional

Productivity Software, But Just for Us