How it works

To begin with, the requirements for creating an 'article' (music project) are simple: first, only free licensed content can be uploaded. Second, you most upload both the 'mixed' version of the piece and the piece in its individual components, or 'tracks'. These kinds of files are known as 'multitracks' and can be made available both as a folder of individual audio files and as .zip archives. These are the only necessary components, though it is also okay to not upload multiple tracks if your audio is only one track - the multitrack thing just makes it easier for others to modify or expand on your work. Also, if you'd like to and the file isn't too huge, you can make the original sequencer file (for ProTools, Digital Performer, Live, GarageBand, etc.) available for download, though of course many people won't be able to use those files. We highly recommend compressing the audio; with the current compression schemes available, you can strike a good balance between size and quality. Lossless formats still tend to lend themselves to pretty large file sizes, though if your audio is short, you can still probably get small enough files. Keep in mind, however, that encoding your audio into MP3s will make sure your audio can be handled by anyone, while any other format might restrict the amount of people who can change your audio. To find out more about the different audio formats and which you should choose, check out this guide.

Uploading
Currently, we are still working on setting up a good interface for uploading and downloading material. As a temporary solution, users can upload all their content to Ourmedia, a service that provides space for users to share their media. Unfortunately, it is necessary to get an account from Ourmedia in order to do this, but they are an excellent community all about encouraging and supporting independent media in all forms, so hopefully it will be worthwhile for you to join anyways. After uploading media to Ourmedia, project pages should then link to those files to allow people to access them. When adding your own alterations/changes, first upload the audio to Ourmedia, then add a section to their project page with a link to the audio content that you separate from the rest of the page with a header tag (include the name in between two equal signs, like this: == name/description == ). Also, include the date you uploaded the material, and any comments or description you'd like to make about your changes. You can include requests in that text (for example, "could someone create a violin line for the bridge on this track at around 1:15"). Other users will then be able to add any of their own comments or suggestions below your description.

Feel free to ask any questions for clarification or make any comments on the discussion page for this article if anything isn't clear.