GarageBand project to MP3

Drop a GarageBand project to get an MP3, or select a file — it opens in the studio, ready to export.

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How to get an MP3 out of a GarageBand project

Somebody sent you a GarageBand project and you are on Windows, or on a phone, or the Mac that made it is not the one in front of you. GarageBand runs on Apple devices only, so Share → Export Song to Disk is not open to you. The package carries the arrangement and, usually, the recordings; what it cannot carry is GarageBand's own instruments. So the recordings play as they are, the instrument parts play on stand-ins, and the MP3 is the two together.

  1. Add your .band: A .band is a folder that Finder shows as a file: on a Mac choose it with "or choose a project folder", anywhere else drop a zip of it. Its arrangement is read in your browser through the Logic project reader — GarageBand and Logic write the same document — and the recordings inside the package play from your copy. No account is needed to open it.
  2. It renders by itself: The studio opens on the arrangement and starts the MP3 straight away. Recordings and audio loops play from the package; each software-instrument track's notes are played by a stand-in picked from its name, rendered on our server from a General MIDI sound set.
  3. Download the MP3: One 256 kbps file of the whole arrangement lands in your downloads. Your first three a month need no account; a free account gives you 120.

More ways to work with your music

Try our online tools to separate, transcribe and convert — Doseedo does it all.

Questions about the GarageBand project to MP3 converter?

We have answers.

Can I convert a GarageBand project to MP3 without a Mac?

Yes — drop a zip of the .band here, from Windows, Linux or a phone. Recordings play as recorded; software-instrument parts play on stand-in instruments, not GarageBand's.

Is it free? Do I need an account?

Your first three MP3s a month need no account, and opening the project needs none at all. A free account raises the renders to 120 a month.

Will it sound like my project?

Your recordings will; GarageBand's instruments will not. Software-instrument parts are played on General MIDI stand-ins, Drummer is not rendered, and the amps, pedals and effects are not in it. Signed in, Sources can play any part on a modelled instrument instead.

My project is from GarageBand '11 or earlier

That one used a different document, which this cannot read. Open it in GarageBand 10 or later or in Logic — it upgrades on open — save, and drop that.

How long can the project be?

Up to 20 minutes and 40,000 notes for the stand-in render.

Try our free GarageBand project to MP3 converter

  • What travels inside a .band, and what does not

    A GarageBand project is a package: the arrangement, and — for anything you recorded or dragged in — a Media folder holding the audio. Those come along and play as recorded, at their positions, on their named tracks. What does not travel is anything GarageBand makes live: its software instruments, Smart Instruments, Drummer, the Apple Loops it plays from the loop library rather than from the package, the Smart Controls and effects. Software-instrument regions arrive as notes, and stand-ins picked from the track names play them; Drummer regions hold no notes and are not rendered.

  • Why it is not your GarageBand mix

    Everything that makes a GarageBand project sound finished is computed by GarageBand while it plays: the instruments, the amps and pedals, the effects, the master. None of that is audio in the file, and no server here runs an Apple instrument. What you hear is your recordings at their positions and your writing on stand-ins: right for checking an arrangement or sharing a sketch from a machine that has no GarageBand. The record itself comes out of Share → Export Song to Disk, on the Mac, iPhone or iPad that has everything.

  • One bitrate, and what it costs

    256 kbps is the only bitrate on offer: no slider, nothing to get wrong. About 1.9 MB a minute, so a four-minute song lands near 8 MB — one attachment, playable by anything. An MP3 spends its bits on seconds rather than on detail, and what it discards is gone; send the MP3, keep a WAV if the audio will be worked on.

Try these Doseedo tools