GarageBand

Ottmar Liebert: Mixed feelings about Garageband:

Why would a child attempt to spend years learning a musical instrument when s/he could be making music with GarageBand instantly? It takes about 2-3 years of practicing to make music on any 'real" instrument.

For most intents and purposes, the musical instrument is a rich interface for music creation. The idea isn't that computers or new technology to supplant traditional instruments, a la those 1980's synthesizers worn like guitars; the idea is eliminate all the expensive stuff preventing you from simply accomplishing a creative task. True, a Mac and assorted ya-ya aren't free, and GarageBand doesn't compete with the high-end stuff, but it is relatively inexpensive and it looks like it will do a good job.
 
I'm wondering if Garageband will support the transfer of its working files, so that one person could do something, and then another person far away work on top of that, and so on and so on, to create new colaborative efforts that couldn't happen if you had to get everyone in the same room....