Upload Requirements

Rules

All tracks on our platform have to meet the technical and commercial requirements in terms of quality and structure and should be fully finished, professionally mixed and mastered and it should compare to industry standard songs and playlists.

The track you wish to upload should’ve never been released and/or sold before, and shouldn’t have been online or exposed to the public in any way. The track also can’t contain any illegal samples or parts.

All tracks need to be 100% original, this includes:

No use of melodic sample loops (all melodic elements need to be created by the producer)
No use of construction kits and/or MIDI files
No use of guitar or piano loops
Vocal chops need to be created by the producer
Drum samples are allowed, either one-shots or top loops (no full drum loops)

Vocals are allowed in the following formats:

Original vocals (either the producer’s voice or using a singer who has transferred all rights to the producer)
Royalty free vocals from a sample pack with a working URL
AI-generated vocals (lyrics need to be original and created by the producer, no ‘celebrity’ voices)

Vocals extracted from YouTube, movies or any other source are not allowed.

Please note that it's not allowed to use the same vocal multiple times for different tracks. You can use every vocal only once.

Vocals need to be edited, dry or unprocessed vocals are not allowed.

The length of the track should be between 2:30 and 8:00 minutes.

Files

Only .wav and .midi files are allowed
All .wav files should be rendered at 44.1 kHz or 48kHz, 24 or 32 bit
All .wav files should have the exact same duration (unless it’s an extra radio version)
The master .wav and all stems should reflect the longest version of the track (not a radio version)
If you want to upload an radio version of your track, add it together with an unmastered radio version in the master .zip
All files need to be labeled correctly, with all filenames in English

Master

This will be the preview of the track on the website. It should be the exact same file as the mastered.wav in the master folder and cannot be a radio version. This is the full mastered version of the track. The House of Tracks audiologo will automatically be added after the track has been uploaded.

The master should not sound distorted and over-compressed.
The master should be limited to between -2db and 0db in the master channel.
The master should sound loud enough in order to get a standard commercial volume level. The integrated loudness should be between -9 and - 5 LUFS. If you are not sure about how to measure your integrated loudness, you can download this free VST from Youlean.

Masters folder

This folder contains the rendered versions of your track in WAV format:

The mixdown/unmastered version. This means you take your full project and render it at full length. Make sure that your master chain is turned off for this.
The mastered version. This will be the same as the unmastered version, only this time you will turn on your mastering chain while rendering your track.

This is what your master folder should look like

Does your track contain vocals?

If your track contains vocals you need a total of 4 versions in WAV format:

The mixdown/unmastered version of the full track with vocals
The mixdown/unmastered version of the full track without vocals (instrumental)
The mastered version with vocals
The mastered version without vocals (instrumental)

This is what your master folder should look like when your track contains vocals

Stems folder

Your stems folder contains all individual parts of your track in WAV format in the full length of the track.

Make sure you separate your stems as much as possible.
Don’t combine multiple instruments into one stem. For instance, you don’t want a stem that contains a baseline and a kick.

This is what your stems folder should look like

If you have used bus processing, please put the buses in the main folder in order to get the same sound as the mixdown version if they are playing.

In case you’ve applied FX on groups, please provide the ungrouped individual tracks as well in a separate folder inside the stems.zip.

Drum loops to enhance your track

We do accept drum 'top loops'. Top loops can only be used to enhance your track.

They can’t replace your drums. So, the main drums (kick, hat and snare/clap) should at least be in separate stems.

Avoid muted tracks

When rendering your stems, make sure there aren’t any muted tracks. If there are muted tracks they will appear as empty stems and cause an upload error or our A&R team will disapprove the track when they encounter empty stems.

To check if there are no muted tracks, you can throw all of your stems in an empty project. This way you can easily check if all stems contain audio.

All stems must be rendered in the full length of the track

All stems should be rendered in the full length of the track. This means that if your track is 4:00 minutes long, all stems must be exactly 4:00 minutes long. Regardless of the amount of time the stem plays in your track.

All stems must be mixed, but can't be mastered

All stems should be mixed, though they shouldn’t be mastered. When playing all stems at the same time they should directly result in the mixdown of your track.

Use correct names for your stems

Every stem should be named according to the audio they contain. Any extra info in the stems is not allowed. Do not use any metadata, brand names or artist names.

For example: a correctstem name is clap.wav.
An incorrect stem name is clap.yourname.2019.wav or samplepackname_120bpm_toploop.wav.

To summarize:

Stems should contain the individual instruments used in the track.
Make sure all your stems are separate. Don’t mix multiple instruments into one stem.
Top loops are allowed. Do make sure at least the main drums (kick and snare/clap) are separate.
Avoid muted tracks and empty stems.
All stems must be rendered in the full length of the track.
The mix of the stems combined should result in the mixdown.
Every stem has to be named correctly.

MIDI folder

Your MIDI folder should contain all MIDI information used in the track in MIDI.

All MIDI information in separate MIDI files

We need all MIDI information in separate MIDI files. This means we can’t accept a single MIDI file with all MIDI elements in it, because some DAWs have issues when the MIDI information is delivered in this manner.

Use correct names for your MIDI files

Make sure all your MIDI files are named properly. Name them after the instruments they correspond to.

This is what your MIDI folder should look like

All melodic parts need to be reflected in the MIDI folder. For every stem that contains MIDI elements, make sure you have a MIDI file (preferably with the same filename)

If you have used a transposer plugin at the start of your chain, please make sure to update the MIDI file with the correct notes. The buyer must be able to hit play and hear the exact same chords/melody.

MIDI files don’t have to be the full length of the track and can be the length of, for example, a single region.

Any other files, project or text files are not allowed.

Information

After uploading the packs, we need some information about the track. Some of it will be visible for all potential buyers and some of it will be used for generating content that will improve selling your track or as information for a buyer after the purchase. We need the following information filled out for every track:

Music genre
Tags (select from the drop-down menu)
Track name

Make sure not to use any artist and/or label names, you can use these in the track description which will help the search engine optimization)

BPM
Key
Track description
Price

You can lower the price after the track has been online for a week. You can also put the track in the €199 sale for 24 hours after the track has been online for at least 4 weeks.

Main instrument
Vocal information
Royalty free vocal
Vocal sample pack name and URL
Original vocals
AI-generated vocal
Vocal category (male, female or other)
Track lyrics (optional)
Any relevant information for our A&R team