The New Indie Band Manager is here.

Well, I finally did it, I've released a new version of Indie Band Manager, my first since 2008, and it ROCKS.

I'm so psyched because it's a remarkable overhaul... it took me 4 years to get it done... but it's finally a platform for the future again, a platform to grow for the next 5-to-10 years, and I couldn't be happier. It runs on Macs & PCs like it always has, and now on iPads, iPhones, and iPods as well (using FileMaker Go). Here's an overview video I made earlier this week that shows some of the key benefits and reasons I made Indie Band Manager in the first place. I honestly believe that even now, 10 years since we sold the first copy back in 2002, it still solves a ton of key problems for musicians, problems no other tool solves as well to this day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCVCniMiX4Y

But wait, Charlie, if it's such a huge upgrade, why did you call it version 5.2 instead of version 6.0?

Funny story actually. You see, in the spring of 2009 I started a complete re-write of Indie Band Manager 5.1 and I re-wrote the whole thing from the scratch, using NONE of the original code. For those of you who are familiar with software development, one of the hardest things to do successfully is re-write software from the ground up. 95% of such projects fail. But since I'd written the whole thing on my own from the start, I thought "I can beat those odds., Indie Band Manager 6 will be the best Indie Band Manager ever."

You can probably guess what happened. After 6 months of programming, over 1000 of hours of coding, I realized the project was doomed, and would never really be compatible with the previous version. It was a colossal failure.

Then, in the late summer of 2010 I tried it again. Another complete re-write from scratch using new tools and none of the original code. 6-8 months of programming later... I failed again.

So in November 2011 when I started AGAIN... I chose to upgrade my previous version instead, rather than re-writing everything from scratch. I referred to the upgrade as "Version 5.2" through the entire development process because I honestly felt 6.0 was jinxed somehow by my previous 2 failures.

By the end of December I thought I could see the finish line, I thought it would be ready by January 15th... but it took me three more months to get it ready for release. In a strange and oddly wonderful and unplanned twist of fate I finally released this new version on Thursday March 15th at 11:55am EST... which was the exact 10 year anniversary (to the minute) of our first sale of Indie Band Manager to Richard Fenno on the SxSW trade show floor 5 minutes before the doors opened to the public in 2002. Richard was the IT Director for SxSW at that time, and he was walking the show floor early to make sure everything was running smoothly... he took one look at our booth, reached for his wallet, and said "I'll buy one of those."

I've never been more excited about this product than I am now. To see it running on an iPod Touch and on an iPad... it's just an incredible feeling. Back in 2002 after I'd released it, I figured someone else would come along and make a better system, you know, just copy my basic template but make it better... but no one really ever has. 10 years later it's as vital and critical a musician's business tool as it was back then. Here's to another 10 years. If you see me at a show you can bet I'll have mine with me... See you out on the road. -Charlie