Remember When Garth Brooks Launched His Own Online Music Store GhostTunes?

Leave it to Garth Brooks to make digital music… weird.

Back in 2014, the country music superstar came out of retirement after stepping away from music in the year 2000. And Garth didn’t come back empty handed. His comeback album, Man Against Machine, was rolled out along with a brand new digital music service (we’ll get to that in a second). 13 years had passed since his last album when Man Against Machine came out… and there was certainly some rust that needed to be knocked off.

When you listen to the title track of the project, it almost feels like its a parody of Garth. And don’t even get me started on the cover. It was all a little cringey, and after over a decade of waiting for new music, fans felt that one of the greatest entertainers of the country music genre fell flat with his return. And the whole online music store launch in tandem with the album probably didn’t help with the music’s reception.

The online music store and digital library that Garth Brooks, Randy Bernard and Chris Webb founded was called “GhostTunes.” The service launched in 2014, and if you are wondering why it was named GhostTunes, it’s believed that they took Garth’s name and combined it was the idea that it was website hosting music. Thus, Garth, AKA “G,” plus host equals “Ghost,” with the word tunes thrown on the end for good measure.

Garth Brooks has always been particular about his music being available on streaming, which is part of the reason (or the whole reason) that GhostTunes was thought up. The original purpose of the digital music marketplace and online storage facility was to be the exclusive home of Garth Brooks’ music. But Garth allegedly wanted other artists to be able to get in on what GhostTunes had to offer, so it eventually became a online store that featured over millions and millions songs from all kinds of different artists.

But it was the only place you could get Garth Brooks’ music in the digital format.

Basically, the online music store that launched in late 2014 allowed for record labels to choose their selling formats. Where other digital music stores like iTunes had limited purchase options at the time, GhostTunes set out to allow for artists to sell their music in entire albums or singles. It also emphasized fair royalty payments to artists.

Customers could then store their music in GhostTunes and access it from multiple devices. All in all, it wasn’t all that bad of an idea from Garth Brooks (I know I called it weird earlier). That being said, it was quickly undercut by the movement by competitors like Apple Music and Spotify to move to a streaming-subscription format, where customers paid a base amount per month to access as much music as they’d like.

GhostTunes remained online for a couple of years, and was the only place to get Garth Brooks’ music in the digital format until the country music star moved his catalogue over to Amazon Music in late 2016. By March of 2017, GhostTunes was no longer operational and was absorbed by Amazon Music. It wasn’t here for a long time, but it was here for a good time (yes, I know that’s a George Strait reference).

I can’t confirm that this clip below was a legitimate launch video for GhostTunes.com, but it sure does look like it. Garth Brooks never tends to go with the grain, and GhostTunes was certainly an interesting idea.

It just may have gotten into the online music marketplace game a little too late.

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