Prodrooms and Blend.io
A site for sharing DAW projects in their source format, to remix and work on together. ROLI closed it in 2024.
What Blend.io is for
Blend.io let producers publish a project in its source format, the DAW project itself, so other people could pull it down, remix it and send their version back. Projects synced to each person's computer, at first through a Dropbox folder and later through the Blend desktop app. A project could carry a Creative Commons licence and a list of the plugins used, and it could be public or shared privately with chosen people. ROLI bought Blend and later closed it. Users were told to sync their projects down by June 26, 2024; the site now says it has closed and former projects cannot be reached.
The shape of the two
| Blend.io | Prodrooms | |
|---|---|---|
| What is shared | The project file itself, for others to download and open. | The DAW window, live. The project stays on the host's computer; guests get a link, not files. |
| When people work | Each on their own copy, then syncing a new version back. | Together, at the same moment, in the host's DAW, taking turns at the controls. |
| The other end installs | The DAW the project was made in, and Dropbox or the Blend desktop app. | Nothing. Guests join in a browser. |
| Credit | A Creative Commons licence chosen for each project. | A session page: who was in the room, and a split sheet they can draft. Profiles show who each person has produced with. |
| Where people find each other | Profiles and public projects to browse and pull. | A board of live rooms, schedules, crews and profiles; the room is on prodrooms.com. |
| Built for | Remixing and collaborating on shared project files. | Sessions where people reach in: feedback rooms, open mics, lessons, beat battles. |
Prices, limits and features on the other side change without telling us; check them on that product's own site. Nothing here is a score.
Where Prodrooms fits. Prodrooms fits when people should work on one project together, live, while it stays on the host's computer and guests need nothing but a link.
Where Blend.io fits. Blend.io fit producers who wanted to hand a project to other people to open, remix and send back. It is closed: ROLI shut it down in 2024, after telling users to download their projects by June 26, 2024.