Why In Progress exists.

Every record you love was once a voice memo, four chords, a drum loop somebody almost deleted. The unfinished version is where the decisions happen — where a song could still become three different songs. Streaming platforms only show the ending. The middle, where the music is actually made, stays invisible.

We think the middle deserves a room: a place where a rough take can be heard, responded to, and built on while it's still becoming.

A Session is one song's workspace. Not a folder, not a thread, not a channel — a place where the official cut, every submitted version, the comments pinned to moments in the audio, and the full history live together. One song, one Session. When someone joins, they see the whole story of the record so far, not a pile of filenames.

Shared drives treat a song like a file. You get final_v3_FINAL_actualfinal.wav, no way to hear versions against each other, no record of who added what, and no path from demo to release. The collaboration happens in a text thread somewhere else, and the credit evaporates.

SoundCloud is a stage, not a studio — it's where you put the song when it's done. Nothing there helps three people argue a bridge into existence. In Progress is the room before the stage: versions side by side, an artist deciding what belongs, credit attached to the work that survives, and a real release at the end — streamable or sold directly, without leaving the place the song was made.

Songs change their minds. The chorus you cut on Tuesday is the one you want back on Friday. On In Progress, every official cut is immutable — the History tab holds every version, you can compare them, and the artist can even move back to an earlier cut without destroying what came after. Nothing is overwritten, so nothing is lost, so nobody is afraid to try things. That's what version history is really for: courage.

After release, all anyone can do is remix. Before release, a drummer can change what the song is. The window where other people can genuinely shape a record closes the day it ships — and most tools only invite people in after it's closed. In Progress opens that window: contributors send versions while the song is soft, the artist keeps what belongs, and everyone who shaped the record is on it when it lands.

Read the manifesto for the principles, or just start a Session with the roughest thing you've got. That's the whole idea.