1. I asked a simple question and you just did not give it to me as the other one did. Wether YOU list or not is not of my interest, i just asked what "digital distributors" are approved for MA and you did not mention ONE.

2. You still confuse me.....Can i upload the release to be downloaded then through bandcamp or not, if streaming is not enough??!! From what i see bandcamp is only for streaming......So what exactly do you mean? Is there a setting in Bandcamp for people to acquire the release then? If i must sell then ok, HEY no problem for me there! So you say the album must be sold right? and all the functions are in bandcamp as i understand so far, well then i try with that.



3. I understood before i asked you even that Youtube, facebook, and Metalarea by itself are not a valid by themselves! The rest above? i dont understand what you talk about, but anyway enough here.

That was actually her point, to be honest. What Porman stated isn't entirely the truth, we'll accept Bandcamp as a "digital distributor", but not in all cases. Our goal is to use sources where bands distribute for download their material in an official and evident/apparent manner, usually either through officially sanctioned sites and/or a website that specifically allows a band to officially distribute their material (Bandcamp, etc.) on their own accord/blessing. You likely wont get a more specific answer, as we don't wish to pigeonhole a specific distributor as a source that is always acceptable nor do we want to make it seem like we are focused more on the website used for distribution as we are about the form of distribution being a serious and valid endeavour by a band itself.


Bandcamp allows bands to distribute their albums for download or even as a physical release. We do not require that the album be purchasable; we will accept albums that are freely given away. We do expect that the mode of distribution is one that is official (sanctioned by the band), serious (a download of a - usually full-length - album), and apparent (clear to a user that it is an official download). Unsanctioned blogs don't quite cut it for that.


Again, don't dwell so much on the source as on what we are seeking out of a valid digital release. Youtube wont be a valid source because it only offers streaming, and we accept only downloads as a legit digital release. However, while Facebook normally allows artists to only stream their music, a .rar (or .zip, etc.) file may be acceptable if it's linked by the artist on their Facebook page.

EDIT: An important note, and one which is often overlooked. We're not in the business of telling artists what to do. If they choose not to distribute their album in a way that is acceptable to us, then that is their business. We have no interest in individuals who seek to tell artists how to do things simply to get onto MA. As an artist, if your goal is acceptance, there's nothing that is stopping you from purposefully gearing your releases to be acceptable for MA, but our duty is to simply catalogue information on bands, not direct them.

Answer to Derigin:

1. As i said it is like a circus here

As i said, there are different answers all the time here! Anyway, I am though satisfied with yours and pormans so far!

Well then - to the point then! So its ok to link to a blog/site (or directly to the downloadsourse(mediafire or whatever etc) with the .rar file of the EP?? If so i am considering THIS then, instead of making a bandcampsite now.

Hello!

Asking about band named

As Morrigan had stated, this is the reason why your band was originally rejected:

Let me break down the facts for you:

1. You originally failed to provide links to where your album is distributed as a "valid" digital release. We will do some limited research, but as Morrigan implies, the onus is on you to provide us with that information. That was the "original" reason for your rejection.

2. The links you provided in the here and now are on blogs that distribute materially unofficially. Even with your "official approval" (something which you've noted after the fact, too), they're still just blogs hosted by other people who often exist to distribute material in a less than official or valid manner. You might say they are "official" because you sanction them after the fact, but as distributors they only exist as third-parties that, more often than not, spread their material without being sanctioned by the band. You even say, quite clearly, that you don't approve of them all. Why, then, should we? Thing is, imagine if we didn't have your word as the artist; would something like this - not hosted by the band, not evidently sanctioned by the band, and available among plainly non-sanctioned downloads - seem legit to you? Even with your word that seems a bit suspect, especially since your word is not readily apparent to individuals that go to these blogs.

In all honesty, if you were to submit your release today with those blogs as your only proof, the legitimacy of those blogs would come up in discussion among mods (much as I have mentioned above). And, frankly, I can imagine most mods wouldn't consider this sufficient unless you, yourself, hosted your album and distributed your album. That's a safe bet for an approvable digital release.

SO WHAT DO YOU MEAN??!!! SHOULD I UPLOAD IT MYSELF TO A MEDIAFIRE OR WHATEVER AND THEN ITS ALL OK??? AND AFTER ALL YOU SAID MEDIAFIRE IS NOT OK TO LINK, SO TELL ME!: WHERE SHOULD I UPLOAD THE .RAR FILE - TO WHICH SITE!!?? ΟR MAYBE YOU ARE NOT SURE - AND I SHOULD STICK TO DO A DAMN BANDCAMP SITE PERHAPS??!

WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU DOING HONESTLY?! WHAT A DAMN DISCUSSION!

TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD DO INSTEAD! HOW SHOULD I KNOW WHAT TO DO!

I wonder how many people/bands have had this problem with your site.....who runs this site????!

Alright, let me give you a hypothetical: what I would do in your position as an artist. If I really, really wanted to get into MA, I would first read the rules as to what is acceptable for music (how the site defines "metal") and what is acceptable for a valid release (digital or physical). I would take my metal album (after confirming it fits the rules of this site on music) and I would upload it onto my own site - or a site that I've created that allows me to upload albums for download (ex. Bandcamp, CDBaby, iTunes, etc.). I would make sure that the users who go to download my album from my site can see its full tracklist, song lengths, cover art, and all that extra information about the album as I see fit. I would make samples available to users wanting to know what my music sounds like. Now, if I only have a .rar of my album and don't want to upload it to a site like Bandcamp, I would take that .rar file and upload it to a service that has good bandwidth and will hold that file as "permanently" as possible (and not remove it after a single download or a week of having it up - because I want people to be able to download it for as long as reasonably possible). Then I'd link that .rar file on my own website, so that my fans could know that I am distributing this album myself. I would do as much as possible to make it clear to the mods that the album I made fits the site's rules.

If I really, really wanted to make sure that my album was suitable for approval as a valid release, I would publish it as a physical release and distribute it as such. I would try to make my physical release as professional as possible - so as to have no questions about its authenticity - and distribute it as much as I can without being a detriment on me financially or otherwise. I would realize that the criteria for acceptance is much lower for a physical release than a digital release (no requirement of full-length/EP, etc.) and that I would have a greater chance of not having as much of a question getting it accepted.

See, that's what I would do if I - as an artist - gave a shit about getting my band accepted into MA. It would also be what I would do if I gave a shit about actually making sure people - potential fans - could hear and get/buy the music I spent so much time creating and producing. But, again, far be it for me as a mod to tell you - the artist - what to do with your album. This is just how I would approach this.

MysticWoods: If you're having trouble distributing/publishing your music, there's a forum for musicians here where you can get some advice on it.
viewforum.php?f=8

Any word on Moth?

I thought this would be pretty cut and dry since the album was just released on Saturday.

NO! I dont have "trouble" with that! the troubles are others here!...

MysticWoods, listen mate... In the (not so distant) past, bands needed a physical release like a CD, tape, DVD, vinyl, or CDr that was properly distributed.

Being able to submit digital-only bands is a privilege that's the result of a long and difficult debate between the site moderation. And one of the reasons why that debate has been so hard is because it's very hard to draw a line between a "serious" mp3-only band and one that's just slapped some lazy tracks together, called it a demo, and submitted it to the site. That's amateur, bedroom-level MySpace crap, and we want to make sure the bands on this site have contributed something meaningful to the world.

Now, part of the rules we had to enforce to allow digital-only bands was making sure there was an *official* band-sanctioned page that hosted the music for download, and for as long as possible. Such sites are iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, Bandcamp, and other sites that allowed full album downloads. We made sure not to allow streaming-only sites like YouTube.

Well i dont understand whats so hard to "draw the line". I understand of course that MA(as other similiar sites) only accept bands which have done REAL releases - such as mine as for example, and not "a mp3 here and there on Myspace and etc" as one other told me. I did not even knew there where people like that: making a few tracks and not having a COMPLETE Demo, Album or EP and then wants to submit it to a site like yours anyway!

An one other thing BTW, (i guess you are not a mucisian either by what you write, and honestly you dont have to be one to understand recording methods and etc).: What the hell is a "bedroom" - project band or whatever you seem to write alot in this site?! I wonder who came up with this word, my guess is someone on this forum/site though.

This for example is taken out of context in MA rules:

"We try to be realistic about what digital release we consider serious and "proper", but are also very careful about adding such bands lest the site becomes flooded with crappy bedroom demo bands" or this one:

"We actually prefer serious digital releases (see below "Valid Digital Releases") over garage/bedroom amateurism"

So my question is: what is a "bedroom - "band"? And to record(if you actually refer to the record method - and IF you really really do that i have some more "news" to you) something in a garage i can understand that its not valid of course! BUT also when you write "garage" i am thinking and getting an image about the style called "garage rock"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garage_rock) which is not metal!(like some american children playing with instruments in a garage or something wtf) and i have never heard or seen about any metal band recording, and not even rehearsing in a garage for that matter. IF you on this site have come across such people, then i would understand your rejection, cause i actually know about people who think they made "black metal" recently, but it sounded like a sort of a SLOW thrash/death metal with some bassy slow riff patterns, and "death vocals"(however the vocals could very well be BM alone as well i think). A friend of mine(18 years old guy - who is the drummer but actually did not partake in their first tracks(they used a drumprogram), the others too i guess) is in this band and i will tell him and them face to face when i see them the next time actually. They are also 'collecting" "likes" on facebook for their ridiculous band to get a HIGH RANK on reverbnation.(the bandname was so ridiculous and cliche, also the photos, and also a few other things - well basically everything it seem like JOKE! Neither one of the tracks had a tremoloriff(basic stuff in black metal, and my friend did not even know what tremoloriff was AND he did not even get it when i explained it to him !), blast beat(dont have to be basic in black metal though), double bass(basic stuff in BM) oh i feel so awkward for them....they dont understand they cannot do that, its not RIGHT, and they will fail so bad! The musicterm Metal is totally screwed today as other things......more and more people got to know of it....and the result is today....So it would not suprise me about people believing they make metal, and RECORDING stuff in a garage and send it here.



Yes i understood finally after alot of nonsense and unclear answers from some moderators here, that bandcamp would be fine! it took the whole evening yesterday to get that simple answer, and i got it too from the one who rejected the release as well. You dont have to repeat MA does not allow streaming like YouTube as valid only sites! The point is to tell one what to do, not to repeat that Youtube is not allowed............!

And about an own ofiicial site: Well since MY release is a digital release, i dont see any POINT in making an own official site, and putting up an own app/program for someone to download, and buy or whatever. Are you aware of that more and more bands today stick to facebook and YouTube right as official information sites?, and i am talking about bands which have been around longer and have physical releases. So no, an OFFICIAL site is not a rather good option for me, but bandcamp is then.

... okay. So, what's the problem then? You're still confused as to what a garage/bedroom band is? That's open to moderator discretion, obviously, but if the music comes across to us as serious (and not something as laughable as this or as dirty/raw as this), then yeah, it'll lean on the side of what we consider an "amateur" release.

See my above answer for questions and answers, i finished editing it now. And yes i STILL dont understand what you here mean with "bedroom" band. "Garage' i know what garage means. Why you write it SLASH with a bedroom anyway??

The problem was it took the whole evening yesterday for example Morrigan to tell me about sites like bandcamp and etc. They just wrote a whole lot of stuff instead of getting to the point, and repeating like you did about Youtube and etc, WHICH i actually UNDERSTOOD that its not valid!

EDIT: about the links. Did the ones with the first link submit as metal?(taking a quick look myself i say this: sure an evolution and originality is one thing but as quick answers i said NO too to them regarding any sort of metal) the second i might actually approve. For example the drums(which are raw yes) might just be like that on THAT track etc and etc,........and if they all where like that i might still approve it as in this relevant genre.

Why was the one-man band Aphasia, by Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, been blacklisted?

I mean, the fact he was in a death metal band and tapes were released is all around the news, and we can all have a listen to his music here:

http://www.klicktrack.com/klicktrack/re ... -terrorist

The original title was "Delirium: 7 Hallucinatory Interludes Op. 2", as you can see. I see no reason whatsoever it'd be blacklisted.

My band HellBent was removed. I don't understand why. We are a legit band that play shows and are about to record our debut record.

Are you for real? Even if the story is true (which I doubt), I can't hear any metal in those tracks, only noise.

The story is true indeed, here I have the link for a popular metal blog, a famous news magazine site and a picture of some publication.

http://www.metalinjection.net/around-th ... -metal-fan
http://www.metalinjection.net/wp-conten ... 04x453.jpg
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007 ... chadourian

And well, it's noisy, but listen to the tracks closely,they're just full of samples and avant-garde-ish stuff. But still metal, and it got apparently very well-known in the death metal scene, it was just blacklisted.

I'm actually surprised you didn't know of this...

Didn't you read the rejection message you got?


If you are about to record your debut you have to wait until it's released. Unless you have any other albums out already, in which case the rules linked above apply as well.

The point is that we don't tell artists what to do, nor do we want to. We only document facts. That is mainly what Derigin tried to tell you with his hypotheticals. Morrigan, Derigin and Alhadis gave you ample explanation about the already written-down rules about digital releases and also why we just won't post an exhaustive, definite list of sites we consider acceptable for hosting an album. Such a list may grow or shrink at any given time and it would also give the impression that anything on there had to be approved. We don't want to do that. The point of this site is not to tell musicians "record this and that, with this length, in this format, upload it there and you get approved", which is what you have been demanding. Yes, of course some of those things are stated in the rules, but they are meant as guidelines/requirements people wanting to submit a band can use to determine if their submission would be valid. We don't guide undecided and/or clueless musicians by the hand and let them jump through all the necessary hoops in order to get them accepted. As Morrigan said, we don't do your homework for you. We review and validate (or reject) existing bands based on the facts presented. We don't manipulate the facts themselves. There's answering people's questions about the rules and helping them along a few misunderstandings or misconceptions about the site and then there's effectively taking the distribution of these people's material in our own hands. We don't tell bands wanting to release a CD where to master/mix/press it either. The important question is what you as an artist want to do with the music you have recorded, not what we mold your intentions into with the raw material you have. It's true that we can never be completely independent archivists with no influence whatsoever, but as an encyclopaedia we want to keep having an impact on a musician's decisions in his or her career to an absolute minimum, obviously. Many people confuse the Archives with a promotional website that has a certain obligation to "brothers and sisters in metal" to help them get exposure, which it is not. Absolutely not. It can have that effect, but that's not by design and not our intention.

The manner you have been going about this is explicitly asking about the details that can get your project accepted, while at the same time you -frankly- don't seem to have done much thinking for yourself. There's a couple of blogs, some of which initially even didn't host your material with your consent. We don't accept .zip/.rar/etc.. files hosted on download blogs as valid hosting places, mostly because they link to instant hosting sites such as Mediafire or Rapidshare which mostly are not permanent enough in that regard. Also, if the artist in question can't even be bothered to put up an official channel for obtaining the material, he or she has no place here. Digital releases have in some ways a higher threshold of acceptance as a valid release on this site, as opposed to physical ones. Also, they have to be judged by more factors than physical ones. These two things are interrelated. You say you don't understand what's so hard about drawing a line. Well, bluntly put, you have no idea. There's so many factors and possibilities for digital releases via this wonderful thing called the Internet to take into account. Believe me, we have had lengthy discussions about which guidelines to use and which things to exclude. I'm not feeling like going into the details right now, the point at this moment being that things are not black-and-white and case-by-case judgement of mods for digital releases is inevitable. It's not about citing this or that hosting site, it's about if that place is a reasonably permanent, accessible, transparent and professional way of making an album available to the public. A digital release that can compete with a CD or tape in terms of effort, availability and permanence. Nevertheless, I will say this much: Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, Soundcloud... that's all outlets that are acceptable (given the other criteria mentioned in the rules are met), because they are fixed, visible locations with the explicit function of hosting and distributing (read: make available for later use that doesn't require going online) such music, i.e. their whole site design and mechanics are geared towards that goal.

In summary, don't try so hard to conform to us so you can get accepted. Do what you as an artist think is right in order to make a serious attempt at publishing your music, be it physically or digitally. I won't say anything more, because honestly if you don't get what we mean with a valid digital release with what you have been told so far plus what's written in the rules nor have the slightest idea of how to seriously go about distributing your music, then you aren't entitled to any more handholding.


You'd be VERY surprised.

Maybe the guy was "obsessed with death metal music", but what I hear is just noise, no metal here.

Ok i get it, the status with those sites changes and its not something steady, BUT not even in the email i got regarding Pormans rejection it said anything about such a site only that "there is no evidence of such release..." and some here did not even mention sites like bandcamp etc(this time i actually read/passed by bandcamp so i had a slight idea) until Porman jumped in and told in one sentence. That is my point.



An official channel like bandcamp i can put up, it is an official SITE i dont have reason and time for to put up. And about digital releases. Dont you think it is headed more for musicians to do digital releases nowadays instead of physical anyways.........? It is not how i want it to be(it does not matter to me actually how at this moment), but it is just a guess on how it would be in the future...so i dont know....

I see 1 band has been deleted from the 130 bands from India. Which band was it and why was it removed?

Skyharbour, for the heinous crime of being non-metallic djent.

....Excuse me? Are you for real? Okay, now there is no way I'm letting this slide.

I don't have any charitable way to say this, but the only reason it "took so long" is because I have honestly never seen someone as, well, thick and oblivious as you on this forum. No one else but you has ever had such lengthy trouble understanding what are honestly fairly basic and straightforward rules. And then you have the gall to say that this was the staff's fault, when they actually went out of their way to explain very basic concepts to you? The hubris of these whelps....

Next time, try to, oh I don't know, read this "whole lot of stuff" written and uh... cognitively assimilate it.


You actually want the staff to tell you how to distribute your music? This is hilarious.

Hello, Devilworx was rejected cause of lack of physical evidence.

I posted
http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/discogra ... -l-en.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5rxJhkkBZI

And after the rejection I found these:
http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/album-gr ... -l-ru.html
http://sackmyhardcore.wordpress.com/200 ... worx-2009/
http://undergroundskini.blogspot.gr/201 ... lworx.html

The demo was self financed and was mostly for labels. However you could find it in a hand by hand exchange. So is this physical evidence?
Thanks.

Do you have the physical demo or do you know anyone who has it? The easiest would be for you to provide a photo of it.

Because, to be honest, those links provide nothing that proves that there was a physical demo out, and I can read Greek so it's not like I'm guessing either.

Why was Insufferable Ingrate rejected?

bandcamp: http://insufferableingrate.bandcamp.com/
pic of tape: https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- ... 9034_o.jpg

"Not a metal band; does not belong on Encyclopaedia Metallum. Please read (or re-read) our rules next time to see what qualifies as metal.

More crossover, punk than thrash."

Why were the french bands Eths and Kells deleted?

They're pretty much metal bands and even use growling, here a couple of songs:
Kells - Délivre-moi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCTkfbDPzrM
Eths - NaoCL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQT782Rz42c

Some of their songs sound a bit less metal because of the girls singing in different ways, some acoustic guitars and not-that-heavy riffs but live they're indeed metal bands.

The blacklist entry for Eths says: "pure mallcore" and that's about right. Kells is pretty similar too, I don't even know why you're asking.

Well, I know some people that have it, difficult to reach now. I guess that's what I get for riping the cd.

Mallcore? Maybe for Kells, dunno.

I'd say Eths early songs aren't mallcore, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q4Rr2Hie9c

Total mallcore.

As the others above said - this is "Mallcore" or whatever else it is called(I dont consider "Nu-metal"(Nu-SHIT perhaps ) metal, but somekind of NEW Hard(?) rock/hardcore something like that).

Acoustic guitars(alone or in the mix) DOES NOT mean it cannot be Metal/or in this relevant genre generally. Yours simply is mallcore as it obviously is called.

(What is with these people (mallcore people) wanting to call something Metal when its not!?) Jesuzzzzzz

As i and the other two says to you - thats not Metal. There is a guy in it with dreads/rastafari for fuck sake! hahahahaa.

I wonder though, is this something Seasons of Mist have released??? . Sure they release Metal...AND Rock as they write, but Rock can come in many forms though, Goth Rock is a good form(in my opinion) for example. But this Eths and Kells i would not even consider Rock alone, but as already said MALLCORE!! Unbelievable that Season of Mist(although not the best metallabel of a kind) with good bands as Drudkh, Ildjarn, Rotting Christ, SepticFlesh and, and Samael and etc. is releasing this...

EDIT BTW: Why is there a title called "Mallcore Kid" under the name title for new or rare posters on this forum, do some moderator consider it to be funny or what?

Dreads aren't metal? Try telling that to Mike Smith, ex-Suffocation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JB8eVwiN_w

/OT

Ok i will give him a call later.

No. Personally i dont consider it "Metal" or whatever, and it makes me think of Jamaicans and Bob marley or something like that - is that something relevant to this genre you tell me?

Stay on topic people! If you want to discuss dreadlocks and whatnot, start a topic in the appropriate forum.