Participating in Audiodraft Challenges is a great start. Once you start winning those, you're on the right track to being invited to private challenges. Winning Audiodraft challenges also allows you to start uploading your music to 'Instant Tracks' (read on to learn more). This will elevate your status further.
The more we know about you, the easier it is for us to target you for matching productions. Please keep your Availability and Compensation Settings up to date so you don't miss out on any opportunities. We like to know where you're located, because sometimes this can play a crucial role in your selection because of your time zone and client communication.
Indicating your particular skill set on your 'Profile' page, including detailed info about your skills as an instrumentalist, voice-over artist, songwriter, etc. is really important. Filling in 3rd party websites is also a great way to showcase your talent. By adding your Skype username on your 'Settings' page under 'Contact info', clients and Audiodraft Team members can get in touch with you more easily.
Your Compensation Settings will help us send you invitations to better matching and more relevant productions. By filling in your preferred Compensation Settings you can name your own price point for different types of productions. The Compensation Settings affect what kind of productions we can invite you to, and also how your Instant Tracks can be licensed.
Here is an example of how the compensation levels could be used:
"You have set up a minimum one-time compensation of $500 for the perpetual exclusive license. A client on an Agency Studio creates a brief with $1,200 prize money and the brief matches your profile and the tags on one of your Instant Tracks. We'll send you a notification about this as your track gets posted to this contest."
Setting your compensation levels too high can also exclude you from certain more local opportunities. Try and find a realistic balancing point here between your experience and remuneration expectations.
You can level up your Audiodraft Status for different Roles through various activities. The better you perform, the more Status you gain. Below you can find different factors that affect your Status.
As a Sound Designer you can submit your tracks to different productions and contests on Audiodraft. Your Sound Designer Status is based on the following factors:
As a Co-Producer you can make the content submitted by Sound Designers more relevant and discoverable for clients by rating tracks and giving feedback. Your Co-Producer Status is based on the following factors:
Audiodraft Challenges: Audiodraft Open Challenges are your starting point to building your portfolio, profile, and career on Audiodraft. By winning an Audiodraft Challenge you get the opportunity to upload your music to Instant Tracks and raise your Sound Designer Status. Audiodraft Challenges are usually visible to everyone and available for all Audiodraft users to participate in. You can find more information about Sound Designer Status here.
Public Contests: Public Contests are visible to everyone, meaning that the contest brief, prize, and entries are public. Public Contests are not always available for everyone to participate in, since the Contest Holder has the option to name how many entries are preferred in a contest. In these cases only the Sound Designers who have successfully applied and been accepted to participate can provide the preferred amount of entries.
Private Contests: In Private Contests the title, summary, and prize are public, but the contest brief and entries will only be visible to accepted participants after they accept a confidentiality agreement (NDA). The amount of participants depends on the preferred amount of entries requested by the Contest Holder.
Hidden Contests: Hidden Contests are like private contests but they are fully hidden from the public and can be seen only by the invited participants after they accept a confidentiality agreement (NDA).
Private Projects: Private Projects allow the project holder to collaborate directly with one or more handpicked Sound Designers. Private Projects are like Hidden Contests but usually with only one participant. Sometimes, after winning a contest, you may be invited to finalize the production in a Private Project. This usually involves specific requests that are easier to facilitate on a Private Project page. If there is a considerable amount of additional work involved, a bonus prize will be added on top of the original compensation. However, we expect you to make basic adjustments, (e.g. mixing or delivery format changes) as a part of the original commission.
Agency Studios: Agency Studios are private platforms used by advertising agencies and production companies. You need to be invited to an Agency Studio in order to access ongoing productions. All the productions on Agency Studios are hidden, under a confidentiality agreement (NDA), and can only be seen by the matched participants. As a general rule, invitations to Agency Studios will not be sent to you before you reach at least Junior Sound Designer Status. You can find more information about the Sound Designer Status here.
After you have submitted your entry to a production the Sourcing User can give you feedback and/or a star rating. The stars indicate how well your entry matches the Sourcing User's needs. Here are some basic guidelines about what the different ratings mean:
The likes indicate the public liking of your entry. This gives you an idea of what the other production participants and followers think.
PLEASE NOTE: A lower rating doesn't necessarily indicate that you have submitted a bad or poorly produced track. It could be that the Sourcing User is just looking for something different.
There could be many reasons why your application to a private contest was rejected. The most common reasons are:
Please remember, you can improve your profile on Audiodraft by telling us more about yourself and participating in open Contests and Challenges.
Before Co-Producers can start their actual work, they need to fully understand what kind of music or sound design the Sourcing User and what final use of the track will be. The best way to do this is to read the design brief multiple time and contact Audiodraft if any of the points is not clear.
The requirements for the delivery are equally important, including how many entries the Sourcing User wants on the shortlist, and what the final delivery date is.
The design brief of the production should clearly state what type of audio the Sourcing User is looking for. For example, they might be looking for a 20 second rock jingle for a radio advertisement or a 4 minute long orchestral track for a film. The brief can contain additional information as well:
A well-thought-out design brief is the key to a successful production. As a Co-Producer it is your responsibility to do your best to understand what kind of audio matches the brief. If you feel that the design brief is lacking some crucial information or is poorly written, you can suggest changes to it by contacting the Audiodraft Team.
Productions are marked with tags (e.g. #folk #cheerful #acoustic-guitar) that are relevant to finding suitable talent and tracks for the production. As a Co-Producer you can also suggest additional tags to be added to the production.
All entries are rated with a 1 to 5 star rating. Stars are described as follows:
Co-Producer ratings are marked with Audiodraft icons and Sourcing User ratings are marked with stars. As a co-producer you are ensuring the quality and reputation of your community, be stringent in your ratings and give honest and constructive feedback.
A good rule of thumb is to rate the entries according to the following three cornerstones. It is usually a good idea to give each cornerstone a star rating (1-5), and then count the average. The three cornerstones are:
Matching The Brief
Does the track meet all the requirements of the brief? Is it a potential match to what the Sourcing User is looking for in terms of style, genre, BPM, length and key? If your answer is yes, the entry is on the right path.
Production quality
The quality of the production (including sounds, mixing and mastering) should be very high for all the entries that make it to the shortlist. Monitoring this aspect of the competing tracks requires trained ears and good monitoring gear. The production quality should meet current standards of commercial music. The mix should be:
Composition and arrangement
The arrangement and structure of the piece should work within the context of the genre specified in the design brief. Most music genres follow certain stylistic patterns and rules, and it's usually good to have some knowledge of those before co-producing a production. It is strongly advised that you do your homework and listen to music of the genre in question before rating the entries.
It is a good habit to write feedback to the Audio Producers about all entries submitted. Providing feedback gives you a chance to explain the motives for your rating. Start by saying a few positive things about the track. As a Co-Producer one of your tasks is to help the Audio Producers improve their productions by providing constructive feedback. If the entry is lacking in production quality (e.g. the drum track is too quiet and sounds muddy), arrangement (e.g. sloppy transitions from part A to part B) or the entry fails to meet the requirements mentioned in the brief (e.g. the entry is not in the correct key and tempo), you should definitely mention this in the feedback. If the entry can be improved and has the potential to get a higher rating after some adjustments, ask the producer to submit an updated version if there's still enough time left in the production to work on modifications.
Remember to always be polite, constructive and helpful. It is good to keep in mind that not everyone has the same kind of studio, latest monitors, orchestral sound libraries or production history as you do.
The sourcing user selects how many entries they want shortlisted. On average this can be between 3 and 5 per contest. A healthy production will generate enough entries to create the desired length shortlist by the delivery date set out in the brief. This is something that Co-Producers need to monitor. There are notification tools on your Studio page and on the production page that will let you know if the production requires attention.
If the delivery date is approaching and there are not enough entries, it is important that you contact the Audiodraft team so that more Audio Producers can be invited. You can also gently remind the Audio Producers to send in their entries as soon as possible if the deadline is looming.
On the production page you'll see a status bar showing your Co-Producer standing in the production. If the Co-Producer standing is at 100% if you have rated and/or written feedback on all the entries. To be eligible to receive your Co-Production compensation you need to have a Co-Producer standing of at least 80% by the end of the production.
Co-producing productions on Audiodraft can really help you learn about music production. It’s also a great way to inspire and help your community of fellow artists. Co-producing allows you to listen to a lot of different music made by different people and develop your musical ear.
Co-producing is a great way to challenge your own mindset regarding audio production and gain insights into how other producers in the community work. If your Co-Producer status isn't at Junior Level yet, you should apply to co-produce more open challenges and keep your ears fresh by using the Quality Control Tool. You can expect to start getting invitations to co-produce productions on Agency Studios once your Co-Producer status reaches Junior Level.
'Instant Tracks' is a pool of music instantly available for licensing. By uploading your unused music to 'Instant Tracks' you will be able to create a bank of music that can be used immediately as is, or with modifications according to the Sourcing User's needs. This way you don't always have to start working from scratch when there's a production on Audiodraft that matches your skill set.
When you submit a tune to an Audiodraft Challenge, it competes for a spot in 'Instant Tracks'. If the tune isn't a Challenge winner, you can withdraw it from the Challenge page and do whatever you want with it, or leave it available on the page for future reference (as many designers do).
Your uploaded 'Instant Tracks' can be in virtually any style. The most important thing is that they are of high production quality, and that they showcase your best skills. This way we can target you for productions that best match your unique abilities. The tracks should be "finished works" so they don't sound like sketches or demos. Basically, they should be potentially ready for any commercial purpose instantly. In general, there's always a demand for easy-going, positive, instrumental music, but this doesn't mean there isn't a demand for other genres too. In short, it might pay off to think about the commercial purpose and potential of your music before uploading.
Please keep in mind that if you submit one of your 'Instant Tracks' to a production, it is likely that the Sourcing User will ask for iterations to the track in order for the music to really match the product. Please keep all your original sessions well stored and organized.
Your share per sold track is 70%. You can set your own compensation preferences on the Compensation Settings page.
A Sourcing User has the right to choose the duration of the license and the possibility to renew the license before it ends. If the license is extended, you will be paid again, of course.
We love music and we want to emphasize the meaning of custom audio. We hope that you share this love, but we also know that love alone doesn't pay the bills. That's why we want to make sure that you get a fair compensation for the great audio you create. We have different levels of compensation for different productions and we want to provide fair opportunities that match your skill set and Audiodraft Status. The main forms of compensation on Audiodraft are:
We have five Royalty Categories that indicate how much royalties a track is expected to generate in a production in total across time. The categories are:
Royalties are paid according to standard industry schedules by the Performance Rights Organizations (PRO).
Some productions on Audiodraft fall under 'Audiodraft Publishing'. Tracks that are published under Audiodraft Publishing generate royalties from TV and radio broadcasts, streaming services, and other public performances. The publishing deals are made on a track by track basis and become valid only when the track gets placed.
In Audiodraft Publishing productions the compensation split goes as follows: the Audio Producer gets a fixed advance compensation, plus 50% of all future royalties (standard writer's share) once they are collected. The balance between the advance compensation and the future royalties can be different in each case. For example, when a production is placed in a TV series, it can be expected to generate a substantial amount of royalties in the future. In those cases the advance compensation is expected to be lower. By contrast, productions that aren't expected to generate a lot of royalties will have a bigger advance compensation. By getting more tracks to Audiodraft Publishing you will build up your royalty catalogue. This long tail of royalty revenue from various placements can generate a considerable amount of income over time and is more of a passive income.
You may participate in Audiodraft Publishing productions even if you are not a registered member of a PRO (Performing Rights Organization). Collection Society membership is not required to submit tracks to any production on Audiodraft. However, to be eligible to receive your songwriter/author royalties, you still have to join a PRO so they are able to pay you your royalty share.
We want to give you full control over your own production business criteria. That's why it is up to you to name your own preferred Compensation and Availability Settings on Audiodraft. Please keep in mind that you can always decline an invitation to a production if it doesn't feel right for you.
Collection Societies include any performance rights organization (PRO), mechanical licensing agency, or any other organization with the purpose of licensing, collecting and distributing income from the performance and/or duplication of compositions. For example when a composition is broadcast on TV or radio, the songwriter of that composition is entitled to public performance royalties from the broadcaster. The organizations that collect license fees from broadcasters and distribute these funds back to songwriters in the form of public performance royalties are called performance rights organizations, or, for the purpose of participating on Audiodraft, Collection Societies. Examples of such Collection Societies include but are not limited to: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and Teosto.
Our service supports only WAV and MP3 files. If there's a problem, try changing the format of your file to WAV (16-bit/44,1kHz or 24-bit/48kHz) or MP3.
Sometimes browser updates can cause temporary compatibility problems. You can always try updating your browser and plug-ins, or uploading with another browser, like e.g. Chrome or Firefox. Our service supports all common web browsers.