Member's Media Library

Not to be confused with the ProCollabs Music Library, the Media Library is a place to post and share your music and ideas for other members to find, checkout, and make use of in their own projects. One of the main ideas behind the library feature is to provide a place to put up half-baked ideas and audio that has the potential to become a project but doesn't really warrant the opening of a full project for whatever reason. By posting to the library, you’ll have the option of choosing a Creative Commons license or otherwise requiring your fellow members to contact you to discuss usage of your work.

A Few Reasons Why You Might Use the Media Library

You have an instrumental that has been sitting on your hard drive for ages – you have no desire to start a project, but wow, this song is really great and you don’t want it to go to waste. Post it in the library, choose a CC license for it, then other members can download it, start a project, or just put it on their playlist and enjoy it!

You have a bunch of old songs that don’t need anything added to them, but you’re not doing anything with them either. Post them to the library and choose a CC license for them. Other members can freely download them and perhaps use them for their videos on Youtube, a presentation, or even as a backing-track on their website.

Let’s say you have a bunch of riffs or unfinished ideas lying around. Perhaps some vocal samples or beats that have been piling up on your hard drive that you never used – you can zip them up and add them to the library – kind of like a montague of goodies. Some members have already uploaded vocal and guitar packs for other members to download and use freely. This would be really beneficial for those who are looking for vocals or solos to sample in their projects but can’t find collaborators.

Not all of us are only musicians. Some of us are photographers or graphic artists too and have lots and lots of unused photos/art on our desktop just waiting for some lurve! You can upload your photos/artwork to the library where others can use them for their project cover art! It’s a real hassle to find cover art, and when you do, you need to get permission to actually use it. This can be an incredible help for those who need cover art, which is the majority of us.

Got lyrics? There are some lyricists who have hundreds of song lyrics just sitting in their folders on their computer. Sure, they can start a project for each, but that might be a bit too much to keep up with for a lyricist. Why not upload your lyrics to the library? Choose a CC license for them – set it and forget it - Let others freely browse your lyrics and use them for their projects.

Okay, so you start a project, choose the talents needed, then wait…..and wait…..and wait. A few months later, your project is still sitting open, idol. Blah, you decide to delete it. WAIT! You still have an awesome track/idea – so why not upload it to the library? Someone might come along a year later and find that song and start a new project with it!

How to Find and Use Licensed Work 

All published library items are viewable from the Media Library link in the Community section. Clicking on a library item takes you to the member's library area. Or you can just visit any member's profile directly and click on their Library link.

Audio

If the work has been made available under an appropriate Creative Commons license, you will have the option to either: 1) Start a new project, or 2) Import into an existing project. These options are applicable to audio recordings that are not licenced with a "No Derivatives" restriction.

Cover Art

If licensed under CC, you will have the option to import the cover art directly into one of your existing projects.

Lyrics and Composition

These files will be in a text format such as .rtf or .pdf and cannot be imported into a project directly. You can access these files by downloading them, or, in some cases, they may open directly in the browser.

Collection

Collections are groups of files that have been archived together in a single file such as .zip or .rar format. They cannot be imported directly into a project but can be downloaded.

Download or Contact

All library items that are licensed under a Creative Commons license can be downloaded by any member. If you chose not to publish your files under license, a message will be shown asking the interested party to contact you directly via Private Message.

Uploading to the Media Library

Each member has access to the library feature from their own Dashboard. Go to Dashboard -> Library. From here, you can add files, and edit and delete existing items.

Library Item Settings

Name - this is the title of the item

Category - this can be one of: Audio File, Lyrics and Music, Cover Art, or Collection. Select one.

Description - You can enter a brief description of the file here, or explain what the intended use is. 

Tags - Use single words, seperated by a comma, to make your library item more searchable based on suitable characteristics. E.g. blues, acoustic, dry..

Assign License - You will need to assign a Creative Commons license or leave the setting as 'No License'. If no license is set, members will have to contact you directly to discuss use. Also note that audio which is not assigned a license will playback in the Music Library with the ProCollabs audio watermark. Cover art without an assigned license will be displayed with the ProCollabs watermark. 

If your file contains explicit lyrics or content, you should select the checkbox to indicate this.

If you wish to hide the item temporarily, rather than deleting it, unselect the 'Publish my file' option.

Be Creative

Here are a few more ideas that we had about using the library feature:

1. Upload song ideas, riffs, and all those iPhone recordings you have of yourself humming an idea for a melody whilst sitting at the traffic lights on the way home from work;
2. Post lyrics that others might want to use in an existing project or write music to;
3. Upload your best photography or artwork that others can use for their project cover-art (in the long-term, we envisage having specialist artist/photographer members that can offer this);
4. Upload a completed soundtrack/instrumental (that wasn't done as collaboration) that a lyricist/vocalist might want to add to;
5. Creating your own sound effects or samples? Post them to the library under a CC license for others to use in their projects.