FarPlay 1.3.3 out now

Great news! FarPlay 1.3.3 is now available. This maintenance release fixes a bug that caused the latency slider to switch to Auto mode when remote participants joined sessions in which Manual mode was selected. Version 1.3.3 also fixes a bug that caused titles of Open Sessions to overwrite titles of Chat Banners. Finally, we’ve increased the frame rate for high-resolution video and screen sharing sent from some computers. The video encoder can now use additional CPU cores on computers with 4 or more cores.

Please upgrade now (upgrades are always free).

Get started with FarPlay Meet

It’s been great seeing FarPlay users connect with new musicians since we launched FarPlay Meet earlier this month. In the video below, FarPlay co-founder and pianist Dan Tepfer gives a quick introduction to Meet.

Whether you’re looking for people to play with, curious about dropping into an Open Session, or interested in studying with a teacher on FarPlay, this is a great place to start.

By the way, when Dan mentions finding a bassist to play with on Meet, he leaves out one fun detail: he was playing his secondary instrument, alto sax. Here’s an excerpt from the NYC–Sacramento session he did with Meet member and passionate amateur jazz bassist Jorge Guzman, on the standard “Body and Soul.”

Joining Meet is easy, and access is already included with your subscription. Join the community today.

Get in touch

We’ve been loving featuring our amazing users. If you’d like to be included — whether you use FarPlay for lessons, rehearsals, jam sessions, or conversations — we’d love to talk to you. You can let us know by emailing us at contact@farplay.io.

Need help right away? Check out our FAQ & Troubleshooting Guide, which you can open from the Help menu in the latest version of FarPlay.

If you’d like to ask tech-support questions, our forum is the fastest way to reach us. If you need to reach us privately, email us at support@farplay.io — we’re happy to help!

You can also get support at our monthly support sessions. Our next monthly support session is Saturday, July 18th 2:00pm New York time (8:00pm Central European time). Sign up here. Monthly tech-support sessions are available free to paid subscribers.

—David Liao and the FarPlay team

Introducing FarPlay Meet

Dear FarPlay Community,

When Anton and I set about creating FarPlay five years ago, it was out of a belief that a world in which it’s easier to make music with others is a better world. 

We’re incredibly proud of the reliable, user-friendly, powerful and fast application that FarPlay has become. I use it all the time, and am still shocked at what it can do. My recent Paris—New York session with Jacob Collier is a great example: if you’d told me six years ago that we’d be trading intricate metric modulations 3,500 miles apart, I wouldn’t have believed you.

But a question has been nagging at me this whole time. FarPlay dramatically extends your reach as a musician, but how do you find other people to play with? If you’ve been using FarPlay for a while, you know it can take some effort to get a new musician on board. Meanwhile, thousands of musicians are already using FarPlay — people who already know and love the platform. If I’m a jazz pianist looking for a great bassist to play with, how can I find one in the FarPlay community?

That question led us to create FarPlay Meet.

At first, I imagined something like my local tennis league, which pairs people based on skill level. But music isn’t tennis. It isn’t about winning or losing, and choosing a playing partner is deeply subjective. I might personally prefer to play with a drummer who has a great feel but less technique. That led to an important realization: FarPlay shouldn’t decide who would be a good playing partner for me. I should decide that for myself, based on how I feel when I hear someone play.

Today, we’re officially launching FarPlay Meet for all FarPlay subscribers.

On Meet, you can browse profiles of other musicians, filtered by style, instrument, and distance. Found someone you’d like to play with? Send them a connection request. Once they accept, use Meet’s chat feature to find a time to play. In a hurry to make music? Join one of Meet’s regular Open Sessions, which are open to all. You’ll find me popping into these too. 

Meet is included with every FarPlay subscription. You must be a subscriber to access it, and I think this is one of its best features: it helps ensure that Meet is a community of real people, committed like you to the joy of making music. 

Thanks to our beta testers, there are already dozens of profiles on Meet, and a lovely community is emerging. But the real power of Meet will come when there are not dozens, but thousands of people there. The larger the community becomes, the easier it’ll be to find the perfect people to play with. 

So the success of Meet depends on you. If the idea of a thriving community of like-minded musicians eager to make music together appeals to you, please head to meet.farplay.io now and create your profile. It only takes a few minutes. And if you’re a teacher, create a Teacher Profile as well so potential students can find you. 

Create your FarPlay Meet profile

The dream is to make FarPlay the best place in the world to forge new musical friendships. I hope you’ll join us in building it.

Looking forward to connecting with you soon,
Dan Tepfer, FarPlay co-founder