Hope so.

He has the most beautiful nickname on MA. How he can just leave...
I even promise to correct weirdo Nitberg lyrics to Cyrillic, hey, dude, can you hear meeee?

Please come back, Snow Listener. Your work is not done here!

I'm relatively new here, but it bugged me that digital releases were potentially excluding certain deserving bands. The digital trend is now endorsed by a lot of artists out there and it's gonna keep on growing.

I applaud the change! Kudos to the team for coming to this decision and a really nice touch announcing it at the turn of a new year! Must keep up with the times

The year of Shit and Colapse. Fuck mp3s !!!

I'm glad that the mods had enough sense to say that an LP is required for a band's approval, digitally.

I think probably the mods will have to buckle down and once and for all say how each kind of release is defined. Open it up to commentary for a couple of weeks and get a consensus, then carve it in stone. Put it in the FAQ. Any further debate can be referred there.

We all have a pretty good idea about what a full-length is, and is not, so it shouldn't be too hard to write it down. Same for EPs and singles.

first, a theoretical question: a band with at least one digital release, that ticks all appropriate boxes, except that it [:the band] doesn't exist anymore (and so neither does the website where the release was available). in or out?

second, same as above, but the release(s) is/are available on a website like http://archive.org/. in or out?

last, Snowy Shaw has released a (solo) live album, available on itunes. it consists of songs originally recorded by the bands he was/is a member of (so not sure if they'd be considered originals or covers). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Shaw_Is_Alive! in or out?

It's great that Metal Archives is finally catching up with the times. Perhaps this now means that bands like Cursed Altar will finally be accepted.

The first case seems like a clear no. Only a digital "single" and they split? Nope.

Second case... assuming the release is a full-length? Not sure...

Third case seems like an album mostly of covers, even if he was in those bands. I'd say no, even if it were released on CD, but I'm open to a counter-argument in case I'm missing some context.

1. If you can give proof that they had a acceptable digital release which was once distributed, than it may be acceptable. Just like with PR, the onus lies on the submitter to prove that the release is valid, was published and is/was distributed. And, just like the old PR rule, if you can't prove that, then unfortunately we wont be inclined to accept it.

2. Archive.org might be OK, it really depends how official and permanent that form of distribution is. My own sensibilities are that if it's an archived official site or one of the many distros hosted on archive.org, that it would be fine. Though we'll still use our full discretion in each case, don't rule out archive.org.

3. That'd be a cover band compilation. Sorry, it wouldn't be acceptable.

My band/project "Constant Threat" had not been approved before in my previous attempt to add it. This was most likely due to not having any physical releases. My music has been released and distributed digitally. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_srch_dr ... ch-type=ss

There are earlier albums not released commercially however and they can be downloaded/listened to at http://wwww.constantthreat.net

Sorry, I couldn't find a deleted draft with that band name. It's not in the blacklist, so you can always simply resubmit. Make sure you include those links under Submission notes.

Well, submit them with those links included. I see no problem now.

EDIT: Yeah, what Morrigan said. It's not blacklisted.

LOL I'm more than sure the mods were thinking about the band Nuclear Paranoia I submitted, the band has a physical 3-song EP though, of which 2 are covers. That was a big fail of mine.

I mustn't be too good at reading and I kinda zoned out during Snow Listener's speeches, I'd like some clarification on this. What is considered a "serious digital distributor"? For example, is having a Bandcamp page good enough (considering how stuff there can be bought / downloaded) or does it need to be bigger / more official than that? I'm having difficulty judging this!

A great change, always good to keep up with the times

It depends on the context. Bandcamp can be enough for some releases, depending on other factors like release length, professionalism, cover art and whether it's available for download/purchase, but it's not always an automatic ticket in. Same for CD Baby, iTunes or Amazon, although those do generally lend more permanence and "impact" to a release. However, there is not one single factor that, if fulfilled, overwrites all other considerations. There are no sites that equal automatic band approval. A band with only one digital single on Amazon is still unacceptable, for example. A band with a shoddy two-track demo on CD Baby or a "compilation" of fifteen songs recorded at various points in time and with different sound quality and only a logo as a cover won't fly either. It's a matter of judging distribution, professionalism and the nature of that particular release as a salient collection of songs, an artistic, original entity in long-enough album form by a number of available factors that all contribute to the final decision.

We reserve the right to add or substract digital distributor sites to the malleable list of acceptable sources. It's important to draw a line between a seriously distributed digital release and a Mediafire link that might get removed at any moment. Of course online, the concept of permanence is relative, but I hope you see what I mean.

Ah, so it's more of a "be a serious artistic statement in a complete, finished form" kinda thing?

Exactly.

For instance, I saw a digital band with a bandCamp link in the queue recently. I was about to approve it, then I noticed something strange: two of the songs were indeed downloadable for free, the rest of the songs were streamable for free (but not downloadable), and there was no option to buy the album. There was no other indication that the album was available through another mean. So, apparently, the only way to obtain that album in full was... to stream it. Which is not acceptable for our standards, so unless there's another place to obtain the album digitally (or physically of course), I'd have to reject that even if it's on BandCamp.

So, if the full-length album, professional, is available only as streaming but not downloading, it will be unacceptable?
I can download streaming songs by using soft like Replay Media Catcher. Recently I've download the song from Bandzone this way. Is it a matter of distribution? By acceptable digital album did you mean it should be 100% available for downloading?

It says it right there in the rules:

Sometimes you have to click on the individual songs to download them...I had to do that with the Angelic Process, one track at a time (a total pain in the ass...).

^ Nope, that didn't work for that particular case, clicking the individual track only lead to page with info about the song and it could only be streamed.

Since streaming an album is not obtaining it, it does not count as a valid release in my book. You can't even make your own copy. And yes, there are programs to "leech" those streamed audio files, but that's a work around, not real distribution.

This is pretty much the same as bootlegging. A no-go on metal archives.

The first post of the Why was band X rejected/deleted/blacklisted? topic could use some updating regarding this.

There's a plugin for downloading videos from Youtube. With the right converter I can assemble entire albums that way. So you see why that reasoning might be a bit skewed. If the band doesn't bother to make the album available without the user having to resort to such tools it's their own fault, really.

Ah right, I've been meaning to do that. Tweaked.

Basically, for a digital album to be valid, the minimum requirement is that I should be able to put it on my iPod (or any mp3 player) with minimal effort and computer knowledge. If I have to use leeching software to extract sound files from a Flash streaming app, then it's not a valid digital album. If I download the mp3s from Amazon or Bandcamp, I can just copy them on my iPod and listen to that in the car because that's how it's intended to work. I can't do that with Youtube songs without hacking.

I submitted a band called "Annihilated" a little while back. The members of my band are my friends.
The band has members such as Scott Fuller from "Abysmal Dawn", Eric Matranga (Ex-Grotesque)
And Martin from "Decapitated". They got rejected because at the time their full length "Injected"
was only released as a digital download, but now they just released physical copies as well.
Is there anyway you can restore this submission? or do I have to completely re-summit them?

I've found it in the logs, but as someone else's submission (ExplosiveSquid7 was the user). I can restore this (assuming the music is acceptable but I'm pretty sure it is), but you won't get points, or you can make a new draft and resubmit. Up to you.

I'll just re-submit the band then,
Because they are my buddies and I'd rather be the one to submit their band.

Ok, but if someone submits it before you and has the necessary info, we'll take it, friend of the band or not.

Hi, all!

I have submitted Station Dysthymia quite a while ago, and the request was rejected due to not having a physical release.

Now, we have the whole 2009 album up on SoundCloud, all tracks freely downloadable (https://soundcloud.com/station-dysthymia). The album was featured in several metal blogs. There's a couple of reviews on the web, even an interview for a webzine (http://www.greyday.es/station-dysthymia-interview). There's about 7000 plays on Last.fm. All the tracks were released at once and as part of the album, in a digital format (256 MP3, so not exactly HQ). The album has a cover. And well, there's a brand new proper studio album on the way (album completely ready, but getting signed is hard...), but that's a bit tangential.

So, my question is: will this be accepted?

At first glance, I would say so, assuming the music is acceptable. It's a full-length album?

ca. 55 minutes. I would say the music is acceptable =)

Sounds perfectly fine then.

Morrigan, I just added Chthe'ilist's demo at the same time as you. D'oh!

Hah, oops. Deleting as soon as the site stops shitting the bed...

Hi.
I read your new rules about some digital releases that can be accepteble, and I have a question. Band Testator has an album available for download on online Nocturne magazine(as Nocturne Magazine edition). Their demo album was selfreleased, and has no labeled phisical realese. Is this valid for the band to be added on metal-archives? The band is active, and it has a video as a proof that the band exists.
Thanks -/m/
Testator:
http://nocturnemagazine.net/preuzimanje/strana/2

I just re-submitted them and they are pending for approval : D