Frequently Asked Questions

In professional audio, a ground lift (abbreviated GND lift) is a switch found on DI boxes, audio interfaces, and studio preamps. When you flip it, it breaks the electrical ground path in a balanced cable — eliminating the 60 Hz hum that results from a ground loop between two pieces of gear with mismatched potentials. It's one of the first things a sound engineer reaches for when something sounds wrong.

We borrowed the term because it captures exactly what the platform is for. Musicians trying to connect — for sessions, gigs, writing, or recording — run into friction all the time: no shared contacts, no way to vet someone's work, no common ground. GND Lift removes that interference and lets the signal come through clean.

The name is also a nod to the community it's built for. If you recognize the term, you're probably the kind of musician this platform was made for.

GND Lift is a platform for musicians to build a professional presence, discover collaborators, and document their work. You can list your instruments, genres, and gear; link out to your music on streaming platforms; get endorsed by musicians you've worked with; credit collaborators on releases; and message other musicians directly.

Any musician at any level — session players, live performers, singer-songwriters, producers, engineers, and hobbyists. Whether you're actively looking for work, open to occasional projects, or just want to document your discography and connect with peers, GND Lift is built for you.

Yes — GND Lift is free. All current features are available to every musician on the platform.

Yes, by default. Your profile is visible to anyone — logged in or not — so other musicians and collaborators can find you. You can change your visibility to private in your profile settings, which hides you from search results and makes your profile page inaccessible to everyone except you. Musicians you're already connected with or messaging will still see your name and photo — going private only affects new discovery, not people you already know.

Use the search page to filter by instrument, genre, location radius, and availability. Set a distance in miles from your city and the results will show musicians within that range.

Instead of one flat status, you tag availability per activity — Jamming, Performing, Recording, Songwriting, Session Work, Producing, Engineering. Tap an activity to cycle it through Open to → Actively looking for → off, so you can be actively looking for session work while just open to jamming, for example.

An activity with no tag doesn't show on your profile at all — there's no separate "not looking" badge. Search's availability filter is driven by these tags: actively-looking-for-anything, open-to-something, or neither.

An endorsement is a short written recommendation from one musician to another. It's a deliberate professional vouching — similar to a LinkedIn recommendation — and carries more weight than a connection or a follow. The recipient has to accept an endorsement before it appears on their public profile — same as a discography credit invitation, it's never posted without their say-so.

Endorsements are intended for musicians you've actually worked with. You need to be connected with someone before you can endorse them — this keeps endorsements meaningful.

Any musician can add releases to their discography — albums, singles, EPs, compilations. For each release, band admins or profile owners can invite collaborators (session musicians, featured artists) to appear as credited contributors. Invited musicians receive a notification and can accept or decline. Accepted credits appear on both the release and the credited musician's profile.

Title and Artist / Band are required — use the performing artist name as it appears on the release. Type lets you classify it as an album, single, EP, or compilation. Release year and Cover art URL are optional but improve how the release looks on your profile.

Streaming links are optional but important: adding a Spotify, Apple Music, or other streaming URL activates Discovery Click tracking on your dashboard. Every time someone clicks through to your music from your profile, it counts toward your Discovery Clicks stat. Releases without links still appear on your profile but don't generate click data.

Credit invitations require your explicit acceptance — you'll never appear credited on a release without approving it first. If you receive an invitation you don't recognize, you can decline it. If you believe something has been added in error, contact us at legal@gndlift.com.

Go to your dashboard and click the + icon in the "Bands I Manage" section. You'll be the first admin. From the band page you can invite members, manage the discography, and edit the band's profile.

From your band's page, click the send icon next to the Members heading to generate a one-time invite link. Copy the link and share it directly with the musician — via message, email, or any other channel.

When they click the link, they'll be taken to an acceptance page. If they're already on GND Lift they log in and confirm; if not, they'll be prompted to create an account first. Once accepted, they appear as a member of the band. General invite links like this one expire after 30 days — you can generate a new one any time. A link sent to a specific guest member (from that member's own row) expires after 7 days instead.

Yes. Band admins can promote other members to admin. The last admin on a band cannot be removed — there must always be at least one admin to manage the band.

Anyone can add shows on their own profile, and band admins can add them on their band's page — upcoming shows show a date, venue, and optional ticket link; past shows stay listed too. Shows past their date automatically move to a "Past Shows" section.

On a band show, the admin can credit current members with one click, or invite any other GND Lift musician to be credited — same as a discography credit, an invited musician has to accept before the show appears on their own profile.

From your band's Shows section, click Connect Bandsintown. You'll need your band's Bandsintown artist page URL and a free API key — here's where to get both:

Artist page URL — find or claim your band's page at bandsintown.com and copy the URL from your browser's address bar.

API key — log in at artists.bandsintown.com (Bandsintown's dashboard for artists, separate from the public site) and go to Settings → General → Get API Key.

Once connected, click Sync any time to pull in your upcoming Bandsintown events and choose which ones to add to your GND Lift Shows list. This is one-way — GND Lift never writes back to Bandsintown or changes anything on your Bandsintown page. If your band has more than one Bandsintown artist page, make sure the API key comes from the same page whose URL you connected — a key from the wrong page will connect successfully but return no events.

Go to Account Settings and use the "Delete Account" option in the danger zone. Your profile, uploaded photos, and messages will be permanently removed. This action cannot be undone.

Use the report option on any profile or message thread. If you ever feel unsafe or encounter inappropriate behavior, email safety@gndlift.com directly. For other issues, reach legal@gndlift.com. We review all reports manually.

No. We don't sell data, serve ads, or use your information to train AI models. See the Privacy Policy for the full picture on what we collect and why.