What is Project Opus?
How much does it cost to join Project Opus?
How do I sign up as a Fan?
How do I sign up as an Artist?
How do I upload my songs?
How do I sell my music?
How do I get paid?
I just uploaded my song. When will it be available on Project Opus?
What types of music are you accepting?
Will others be able to play my music?
Do I have to charge fans for my music?
Can I charge different prices for my music?
Can I upload an entire album?
Will fans be able to click through to my website?
Can I add details about my music to help people find it?
What file formats do you accept?
What formats do you provide?
Can I remove my music after I upload it?
What does Project Opus do with the personal information I submit when I create an account?
What is your policy on copyright infringement?
How do I report copyright infringement?
What if I have been falsely accused of copyright infringement?
What are you doing to prevent content that violates your policies from appearing on Project Opus?
Can I sell t-shirts, physical CD’s, or any other stuff that we make for our fans through Project Opus?
Why does Project Opus keep $.50?
What are Opus Bucks?
Does Project Opus promote specific artists?
Is Project Opus a record label?
I have a deal with a record label. Can I still post my songs on Project Opus?
What about Indie Labels and Music Services?
What is Shareback: Ads?
How do I sign up for Shareback: Ads?
How does Shareback: Ads pay me?
What is the Opus Player?
How does tagging work?
How are Project Opus "Top Music" charts calculated?
What is the Import Music Tool?
What songs can I add using the Import Music Tool?
What happens when a song link no longer works?
Import Music Agreement
What is Project Opus?
Project Opus™ is an online music community designed to support artists, fans and local music. It is a single point of contact for discovery of new music.
We have two goals:
- make it incredibly easy for bands to self-publish music, find their audience and then get paid for the sale and licensing of their music, and
- make it incredibly easy for fans to find music they love and support the artists that make it.
How much does it cost to join Project Opus?
Nothing, and there are no levels or “special features” that cost more. Everything is available to every artist that joins. We are here to help you make money, not make money from you.
How do I sign up as a Fan
Looking to join Project Opus™ as a Fan?
You can sign up for free.
- Create a fan bio with your interests, opinions, and personality.
- Announce events and parties. Share your calendar with others.
- Add pics to your photo gallery
- Join your favorite bands' mailing lists.
- Write blog posts to let people know who you are, what you are doing, and what you think and have it syndicated globally
- Form groups: allow anyone to join or restrict it to those you invite.
- Create playlists: organize and share your music.
Interested in buying music on Project Opus?
- Buy music you like for a buck, and support your local artists. Listen to your music in the format of your choice on any device you like (iPod, Rio, Cellphones, PSP, Treo etc,). No unnecessary restrictions.
- Burn your music to CD.
- Listen to it on any computer around the world: just log on and enjoy.
How do I sign up as an Artist?
Looking to join Project Opus™ as an Artist?
You can sign up for free.
- Create a band bio with member bios. If your bandmates are members of Project Opus™ links will automatically be generated to their home pages.
- Announce events (for live gigs, parties, etc) that are syndicated globally. You can even combine your calendar with other people and band's calendars.
- Add pics to your photo gallery
- Let fans join your mailing list and import your existing mailing list
- Create blog posts to let people know who you are, what you are doing, and what you think and have it syndicated globally
- Create groups: allow anyone to join or restrict it to those you invite.
- Fill out your profile and get matched to better known artists. If you were influenced by the Green Day, or Miles Davis get discovered by those searching for Green Day or Miles Davis
- Announce your live events and parties. Hearing you live, is the best way to get the word out about you and your music!
Interested in making your music available for download?
- Upload 192kbps 44 kHz MP3 or FLAC file and we will compress all the songs into top quality MP3, Ogg Vorbis, and AAC files for sale on our site, or...
- Provide us with a CD and we will take care of it for you.
Mail CDs to the address below:
Project Opus™ Music Submission
c/o Donat Group Enterprises Ltd
#404-329 Railway Street
Vancouver, BC
V6A 1A4
If you want to make your music available for free, you can do that too.
Be sure to fill out your profile in detail, and honestly. Inaccurate profiles will adversely affect your exposure and ranking.
Selling Music on Project Opus™
- You can either post your music for sale or provide it for free download. The choice is yours.
- Songs will be provided for download in AAC (iPod), .ogg (Ogg Vorbis), and MP3 formats.
- Music for sale will be $1.00/per song. Your share is 50 cents. Our share is 50 cents (or less: we cover the volume discounts from our portion) and we cover all the costs.
To receive payment:
- You will need to provide us with your Bank Account information or mailing address. Deposits and checks are made out to the name registered with Project Opus™.
- Checks are mailed quarterly for amounts in excess of $25.00
- Money you make is trackable on the site, on a per song, and daily basis.
- You can cancel and pull your music off the site at any time.
- Music must be original songs. We will be offering the opportunity to sell cover songs; we will manage the acquiring of appropriate licenses and deduct the licensing fees (approximately 8-10 cents per song). You can upload your coversongs now, but they will not be made made publicly available until licenses are cleared.
Protecting Your Music
Full length tracks of your songs are available for sampling on the site.
- Your music needs to be shared. If new fans are going to discover you, they first need to hear your music. Thirty second sound clips just won't cut it.
- These songs will be provided in 128kbs stereo, and be available through the OPUS Player™ and podcasts. Sold MP3s are at 192kbs. We had experimented with providing mono tracks, but many artists did not like the "sound quality" the mono tracks provided.
How do I upload my songs?
It’s fairly simple. After you have created your artist profile you will be able to upload songs directly from your artist page. We have a tutorial available if you have any troubles.
To make sure that your music is submitted properly, please read below about preferred file formats and our approval process. Music will not go live if they're not approved or if we're unable to accept the format.
How do I sell my music?
Once a song is approved it is available for sale. Fans can listen to the full song 128kbs song for free, and then purchase the 192kbs MP3. You can track sales and many other song stats in your account profile.
How do I get paid?
We will issue checks once per quarter (every three months) for any artist accounts that have at accumulated least $25. Checks will be mailed to the name and address you provided in your profile. Please make sure this is accurate.
I just uploaded my song. When will it be available on Project Opus?
Before going live, your music will go through either of the following processes.
An original song: After uploading your song to Project Opus, it will be verified to ensure that it meets our technical requirements. Upon approval, the song will then be transcoded into all three audio formats to ensure your music has access to the widest possible audience. Your song will then be available for fans to search, preview as a 128kbs track, and purchase. To make it clear what step your music is in, you will see the following status messages for each song:
- Submission complete: pending approval
- Music is approved: pending transcoding
- Music is live
A cover song: If you have not yet cleared rights to use the cover song, you must select the cover song check box when uploading. After uploading your cover song to Project Opus, you must fill out the licensing request form provided. The song will then be sent to the relevant rights body for approval. Please note: there is no guarantee that you will be given approval. Upon approval you will be notified of the per song fee that will be deducted upon each sale to pay for your license, and the song will then be transcoded into all 3 audio formats to ensure your music has access to the widest possible audience. Your music will then be available for fans to search, preview, and purchase. To make it clear what step your music is in, you will see the following status messages for each song:
- Submission complete: pending approval
- Music is approved: pending transcoding
- Music is live
Should your music fail to meet our technical criteria or policies or fail to secure a mechanical rights license, you will be immediately notified through your account with the appropriate explanation.
What types of music are you accepting?
We accept all music, spoken word, and audio recordings. You must own or have secured all necessary rights to the content, or properly declare the song to be a cover. The content must not violate our policy guidelines.
Will others be able to play my music?
Yes. Anyone can listen to your music through the Opus Player, or as a podcast. However these songs are provided as 128kbs only, unless they are purchased, in which case they are provided for listening and download as 192kbs files. If you’re willing to let users have your music for free, then everyone can listen and download them in 192kbs stereo.
Do I have to charge fans for my music?
It’s up to you. You can either post your music for sale or provide it for free download. The choice is yours.
For music that is provided for free, you can choose from a selection of Creative Commons licenses to ensure people know what the can and cannot do with your music.
For the moment, music that is posted for sale will be $1.00/per song. Your share is 50 cents. Our share is 50 cents (or less: we cover any volume discounts or promo discounts from our portion) and we cover all the costs.
Can I charge different prices for my music?
Presently no. All songs must be offered for 1 Canadian Dollar (Roughly 90 cents US). This makes life easier for everyone. We are looking to offer more variability on this in the future.
Can I upload an entire album?
Yes.
Will fans be able to click through to my website?
Yes. You can add your URL and other information to your artist profile page. Users will be able to click your URL to visit your website. We realize that traffic to your website is valuable and hope to generate even more through our service.
In turn, we can provide you with buttons and links that you can post on your own web site or other community sites to let your fans know where they can purchase your songs and support you.
Can I add details about my music to help people find it?
Yes. Each time you submit a song you can add information about it that will help users find your music. The more information you provide, the better your music can be searched.
What file formats do you accept?
For the time being, Project Opus accepts either MP3 audio encoded at 192kbs stereo, or FLAC which is an open source lossless audio codec.
What formats do you provide?
Presently we provide:
MP3 (naturally)
AAC (That’s the iPod codec. Sometimes called MPEG 4 Audio)
Ogg Vorbis (That’s a great opensource codec that the geeks among us love)
WMV (Coming soon. This codec is difficult to encode on our non-Windows servers. We will have a solution soon. Note to Microsoft: show us some love!)
Can I remove my music after I upload it?
Yes. It's your music. Simply click the delete button/link, beside the song in your music library.
Note: we are obligated to
still provide the song to those who have already paid for it and are maintaining it in their playlists.
What does Project Opus do with the personal information I submit when I create an account?
Please review our Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions for more information. If you submit a cover song the information denoted in the submission form will be sent to the relevant licensing body to obtain rights on your behalf.
What is your policy on copyright infringement?
Our policy is to respond to any notices of alleged infringement of copyright. If we receive a notice or otherwise have reason to believe that content you submitted infringes another party's copyright, this specific activity will be suspended until we are satisfied that the authorized owner has rights to post the content on Project Opus. Please note that we take copyright violations very seriously and we may terminate your account and notify the relevant authorities.
How do I report copyright infringement?
If you believe that someone else has uploaded YOUR copyrighted content without your permission, you can flag the content as in violation of your copyright. You must provide Project Opus with:
- Identify the material on the Project Opus site that you claim is infringing;
- A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
- A statement by you declaring under penalty of perjury that (1) the above information in your Notice is accurate, and (2) that you are the owner of the copyright interest involved or that you are authorized to act on behalf of that owner;
- Your address, telephone number, and email address; and
- Your physical or electronic signature.
What if I have been falsely accused of copyright infringement?
We'll let you know if we receive a copyright complaint about any of your music content that is hosted on Project Opus. The music in question will be temporarily suspended, and we'll give you the opportunity to file a counter notification following the steps at http://www.projectopus.com/copyrightcounter.
What are you doing to prevent content that violates your policies from appearing on Project Opus?
We do a preliminary review on uploaded songs through both a manual and automated process. Although we try our best to detect and remove songs that violate our policy guidelines, our review process is primarily focused on removing hateful content, obvious copyright violations or significantly poor production quality. Our tagging system is there to encourage our members to notify us when they discover policy violations or copyright issues.
Can I sell t-shirts, physical CD’s, or any other stuff that we make for our fans through Project Opus?
At this time we do not offer these services, but we are planning for it. That will be part of a future release.
Why does Project Opus keep $.50?
Project Opus only makes money when the artist sells a song. We will never benefit at the expense of artists or fans. We use our share to actively promote Project Opus to a broad fan base and generate exposure for the artists, to invest back into the development of technologies that will improve the site for bands and fans, and to cover our administration costs.
What are Opus Bucks?
Opus Bucks are the site's currency. They are like credits, but we thought Opus Bucks had a better ring to it. We use Opus Bucks because that reduces our transaction fees (the banks take a big chunk out of each transaction), which means we can pay the artists more for each song they sell. Each Opus Buck enables you to purchase 1 song. You can buy Opus Bucks in packages of 10 or more.
Does Project Opus promote specific artists?
As a rule, no. We let the community and the fans generate excitement for the artists. However, we are thrilled to work with bands and organizations that want to help us generate interest in the vision of Project Opus. We will sometimes ask artists to provide us with photos or content that we can provide to local media who want to write about us or do an interview.
Is Project Opus a record label?
No. Project Opus is a community. If you are lucky enough to be considered by a record label for representation, there are things they can offer you that Project Opus can’t. In return, they will also likely take more than 50% of what you earn, so make sure you are getting good value before you sign anything. Remember, Project Opus makes no claims whatsoever to your music. It's yours. We are here to help.
I have a deal with a record label. Can I still post my songs on Project Opus?
Yes. Project Opus is still a great way to get your songs exposed to lots of fans. The best way to deal with this is have your label contact us directly at:
info ( a t ) P ro j e c t O p u s [dot) c o m
What about Indie Labels and Music Services?
Everyone is Welcome
A driving philosophy for Project Opus™ is to be entirely open to other music communities and services. We are looking to interoperate with all like-minded music communities and services.
If this is a philosophy you hold, then we should talk. If you are an indie label representing three (3) or more artists, or you are a music service dedicated to the distribution and/or discovery of music then please contact:
David Gratton
Project Opus Technologies Inc
604-685-6418
What is Shareback: Ads?
Shareback: Ads is a program exclusive to Project Opus that enables any individual to benefit from advertising revenue generated from content they provide. It is an opt-in program available to any registered member of the Project Opus community.
How do I sign up for Shareback: Ads?
If you don’t have a profile on Project Opus, you will need to create one. Once you have a profile, log in and go to your “edit profile” page. Check the box to accept Shareback Ads. If you haven’t already, you will need to input some information so that we can pay you when your account reaches the minimum payout amount.
How does Shareback: Ads pay me?
For bands, revenue generated from Shareback: Ads will be added to your overall music sales account and paid out during the same payment cycle. You can view your account stats at any time under the Shareback tab in your profile.
For fans, revenue will be paid out on a quarterly basis. All accounts in excess of $25 (CAN) will be paid out to the registered member. Any account that does not exceed $25 (CAN) will be carried over until the next pay out period. You can view your account stats at any time under the Shareback tab in your profile.
At any time, members can covert their pay out to Opus Bucks and have the equivalent value credited to their Opus Bucks account.*
* Only whole dollars can be converted to Opus bucks (ie: $3.27 would be 3 Opus Buck and 27 cents would be left in your Shareback account).
What is the Opus Player?
Opus Players are the easiest way to share and discover new music on the web. Each player gives fans the ability to share unlimited music with their friends, which in turn gives artists continuous exposure to new fans and broader audiences.
Get an Opus Player now, and get musical word of mouth working for you.
Fan Benefits:
- Create unlimited playlists.
- Share music from any Opus Player on the web.
- Enjoy one click podcasting of your playlists.
- Listen to your playlists on any digital device (iPod, MP3 player, etc.)
- Directly support the artists you love by buying new music
Artist Benefits:
- Stay connected to your music. Know where your music is and how often your songs are listened to, shared, and sold.
- Get word of mouth working for you. Let your fans introduce your music to their friends, and their friends' friends directly through the Opus Player.
- Post a player on all the sites where your fans are, including your own site, MySpace, TagWorld, Xanga, and Blogger.
- Free hosting of all your music. No limits. No strings attached.
How does tagging work?
Community tagging allows users to categorize and give their opinion on Project Opus content. Songs, albums, and playlists can be tagged by mood, activity and keyword. You can see tags at work in the music browser and in Tag Clouds on the music homepage. Tags make content more visible and help it get found by more people. Start tagging, and get your music discovered!
How are Project Opus "Top Music" Charts calculated?
The Project Opus "Top Music" Charts are a daily listing of the most active songs on ProjectOpus.com. Each song is "scored" on a daily basis. This score, in conjunction with other factors, affects when it will make it on the music charts. Things that affect a song's score include:
- Listens
- Reviews
- Sales
- Playlists
- Tags
- And more ...
Start promoting your music and see if you can make it on the charts!
What is the Import Music Tool?
This tool allows you to add virtually any song you find on the internet to your Project Opus Music Collection. As long as you have a link an mp3 file, podcast, or xspf playlist you can add any song that is available on the web.
This tool is great to mix the new music you find with more popular tunes, which will earn even greater exposure for your favourite new bands.
What songs can I add using the Import Music Tool?
Any song that is freely posted on the web can be added. You are not allowed to link from sources that are infringing on copyright or ownership of the song. See the Import Music Agreement.
What happens when a song link no longer works?
The system will try the source a few times. If the link is still broke it will drop it from your list, so you shouldn't end up with a list of dead songs. Please note; the web has many unreliable sources, so that is why this feature exists.
Project Opus Technologies respects the property rights of others, and we ask that you do, too. The Import Music feature of the Opus Player allows links to content that is made freely available on the Internet by the copyright holder. We ask that when users link to a specific source for content that they make sure that they have the legal right to do so.
Project Opus Technologies does not imply the legitimacy or quality of the links included.
Songs linked via the Import Music feature are not available for purchase through Project Opus, however they could become available if the artist uploads the song to the Project Opus website. If you would like to purchase a song, we suggest you appeal to the band to post the songs to the Project Opus community.
If you believe that any links infringe on your intellectual property rights, please flag those items as "Copyright Violation". Alternatively you can email us directly at support [at] projectopus {dot] com.