It’s like Tinder, but for musicians.
DownToJam.com was created one year ago by St. Thomas University alumnus Troy Fullerton and two of his friends, Neil McWilliam and Shaan Singha. The site helps musicians find other musicians in their area who are seeking out jam time, or a new backup guitar player.
“That idea of resorting to the Internet to meet people is what online dating is all about now. If you’re single and if you’re not in university or high school, you take the online route. Well, more and more musicians are doing that too,” said Fullerton.
The idea for the website struck Fullerton when he moved to Toronto in 2010. He was having difficulty trying to find musicians who he could play with and who were as good as they had advertised themselves to be.
“I was resorting to Craigslist and some people just aren’t as advertised. In Toronto you can drive an hour and a half to cross the city to meet people who just are not at the same level as you.”
The two knew what they really needed was an online database to help them find musicians whose musical tastes, influences and skill level matched their own.
They called up McWilliam who designed the website and told him their idea. He took minutes to decide that the idea was one worth running with. Now, the site has upwards of 10,000 musician profiles and is steadily growing.
“It’s going extremely well and it has exceeded our expectations already. Since we launched there’s been a steady incline and more and more people are telling their friends and having good experiences,” said Fullerton.
Musicians who wish to tell the world that they’re down to jam need only to create a profile, fill in their jamming availability and upload a YouTube video. The automatic matching algorithms based on the online dating system matches you with other musicians based on music compatibility, genres and influences.
“The get matched section questions are things like ‘Do you think rock is dead?’ or ‘Do you feel it’s important to play music every day?’ It’s exactly like online dating,” said McWilliam.
“There was a Saint John guy who was working in an office setting and got on the site and found someone he worked with on the site and just didn’t know he was a musician. They arranged a jam session after that,” said Fullerton.
If you like a musician’s profile or song you can give them a “rock on,” something equivalent to a “like” on Facebook. The site then displays the most rocked on users on the site.
The musical success stories aren’t just happening on a local level. Fullerton says their membership spans across the globe, with a large portion of their members from the United States.
“It kind of surprised us, but Texas is one of the biggest areas for members. Outside of North America we have musicians from 20 different countries including England, Ireland, Germany, France, South Korea and South Africa.”
With more musicians connecting around the world, McWilliam sees the site as a potential kick-starter for larger projects with several musicians matching up to collaborate.
“You think ‘Maybe I can’t jam with this person, but man, they’re really good.’ Ultimately the site is about collaboration. It can be in person it can be remote but we see that potential for virtual bands and virtual song creation,” said McWilliam.
Fullerton began this website as a way to find musicians to jam with him and even has his own profile. He wants to keep up the community aspect of DownToJam.com so musicians can keep making music together.
“Connecting and jamming is the first step to making amazing music. We certainly know it’s not because of a lack of talented musicians and maybe with this site, we can help reinvigorate that.”
