what is sectionz.com?

SectionZ.com is a community of musicians & artists. Our members come here to learn, review, share, collaborate, improve their craft and to garner kudo's for their best works. [ top of page ]

how to join sectionz.com

Time to join? Time to get some of your music heard? Or are you simply here wanting to listen & review? Good. When you go to the sectionz.com homepage, you will see an option to login on the top left of the page. Right beside this is an option to join us, so just click there and you'll be ready to rock. You'll have some questions to answer, and some info to fill out so we know who you are. When you're done with this, click on the button that says [ Join Section Z ] and you'll be sent a validation email. [ top of page ]

how to validate your account

After you register you account with sectionz, or you make changes to your account, you will be sent a validation email to the email address you supplied in your profile. You'll need to check this email, and click on a link that will validate your changes for them to go through. This helps prevent unauthorized activity on your account. Sometimes our validation emails might end up in a spam folder, so make sure you check those if you didn't see the validation in your regular mail. [ top of page ]

your artist page

Under the sectionz menu in the top nav bar; your special place on SectionZ.com where your music, collaborations, downloads, reviews and other stuff is. The first thing you will see is the optional artist image and message space. Right underneath this are your Top 10, your Recently Reviewed, and your Recently Downloaded. When you download someone else's track, it will show up in that download section. When you review it, it will show up under the review section, and if you have liked a song enough to put it on your personal Top 10 when you downloaded it, you'll see it under your Top 10. This way when you hear music from other members on the site, all the information is right here in front of your eyes. It comes in very handy when you want to hear a song again, or if you are trying to figure out what you have listened to, but haven't reviewed, and you want to go review it.

Under this is the area with your own uploads. This is where other people will come to find your music and see what you're all about. You will use the Upload Manager to get all of your mp3s, as well as your project files on here, but we'll get to that in a minute. [ top of page ]

profile manager

The Profile Manager is where you will go if you ever need to change your email address, your message about yourself, or any other personal information that you might need to modify. All you need to do is select the Profile Manager from the dropdown activity manager and then you'll have the option to change the info you gave us when you signed up. Easy as Lemon Meringue Pie, just remember to check your email for a revalidation link. Also, a lot of times our validation email will end up in a spam folder, so make sure you check there for it if you don't see it. [ top of page ]

upload manager

Okay, you're ready to rock. You're ready to give us your little piece of musical bliss. Select the appropriate link from the Upload menu and you're on your way. You'll be given the option to choose between uploading an mp3, collaboration, DJ mix, or project file to be used in a Virtual Studio or sequencer software. Most of the time you'll be uploading mp3s, and other project files so click on the first option. Here you'll fill out a little bit of info about the track your uploading. Make sure you fill this stuff out correctly because everyone who takes a look at your tune is going to see this stuff. You have the option to tell us what plugins you used to make the song, what genre the music fits into, and some other things. This information helps other people who are looking for you find you. It also gives you the option to have the song played on SZ Live Radio, and other things. [ top of page ]

download manager

Select the Download manager to see all of your downloads. You'll be able to see each one and whether you've reviewed them or not. They'll all be marked with color codes too so you'll know which downloads were mp3s, collaborations, or whatever. Everything is clearly listed, and this makes it nice and easy to see what you've been doing with yourself on sectionz.com when you're not uploading your own stuff. [ top of page ]

review manager

The Review Manager is the area where you can go to view all the reviews you have given and those given to your tracks on sectionz.com and you can even reply to your reviews. [ top of page ]

update manager

The [update manager] is where you'll go if one of those tracks of yours has gotten better, and you need to replace the old with the new. Use the Tools menu to select the update you want and it will bring you to a list of all your files. From here you pick what one needs to be changed and click on it. You'll be brought to a page that will have 2 choices. The first one is for updating the actual file, and the second one will let you update the information for it. [ top of page ]

image manager

The Image Manager is sectionz.com's image management system that enables you to upload and post images to your track pages as well as your artist profile page.

Gif, jpg, png and bitmap are accepted formats for these images. [ top of page ]

track sorter

The track sorter under the Tools menu allows you to change the order in which your tracks will appear on your artist page. There are a few ways to sort, and you can see the in the Criteria drop down menu. If you want to sort your stuff on your own, use "track sorter values" and then number your tracks in the order you want them to show up. [ top of page ]

search our members

The Find menu or Artists link under the sectionz menu allows you to look around for other members [ top of page ]

search projects and mp3s

The Search Projects and MP3s available under the Find menu is used to.. search for projects and MP3s. Here you can enter what you're looking for and then pick where to look for the information. For instance, if you were looking for the song "shrubbery", you would type it under the song query, and then pick "title" you can also search by style, artist, and mood. [ top of page ]

[ artist of the day ]

Everyday, sectionz.com picks a random artist, and sticks them here. It's a good way for people to get themselves heard. This lets everyone have the chance to shine for a day right on the front page of Sectionz. Hopefully you'll check out whoever gets to have their moment of fame for a day, and check out some of their tracks. Maybe you'll be on there next! [ top of page ]

[ track of the week ]

The Track of the week works like this. You have a good song? Good enough that the Administrators of the site are noticing it? Good for you. If we like it enough just maybe you'll get picked to have your tune selected as the track of the week. Chances are higher if you've been reviewing others as the admins tend to notice the more active members before others. [ top of page ]

zhout out board

Here's a place for you to shout. You can leave a shout out about anything you want whether it's good news, bad news, and advertisement for a new track of yours, whatever. Whatever you do, just don't abuse this. Use the zhout wisely grasshopper. [ top of page ]

[ frequently asked questions ]

about

Often we have people asking questions about this or that, wondering why something is the way it is, or just getting a little confused with something. This is our spot to post the more popular ones, and give some answers to them so that you guys can take a look and hopefully have your question answered here. Now while we can't post everything everyone asks, we can try to make this faq better and better. You can be assured that we will update it and try to add more content to it to make your experience at sectionz.com better. [ top of page ]

Q. what can get a person banned from the site?
A. There are a bunch of "unwritten rules" that might get you banned, mostly doing with lack of common sense. however some things that will get your music deleted and your account removed and a possible ip ban would be uploading or linking warez, hell even suggesting it might get you penalized.

Uploading others peoples music or blatant rip offs will not only get you banned but reported to the original artist. we take your property seriously and protect it as best we can, so please don't be retarded. one of the benefits of asking permission for a remix is the fact that you put yourself in the position to get to know someone who's music you admire. so do it, they might even stop by and give it a listen. [ top of page ]

Q. is my content protected?
A. You choose how to license your uploads with Creative Commons licensing when you upload content [ top of page ]

Q. what can I do to support sectionz.com?
A. You can always show us your love and support by donating. Uploading content, using open licensing, and reviewing tracks are valuable to the community as well. [ top of page ]

Q. what is the policy on remixing?
A . we encourage remixing of sectionz.com members to foster collaboration. however remix uploading is allowed ONLY if the remixing artist has permission from the original artist. if asked for proof you must be able to provide it. one of the benefits of asking permission for a remix is the fact that you put yourself in the position to get to know someone whose music you like. so do it, they might even stop by and give it a listen & review. [ top of page ]

This FAQ is currently in transition with some outdated info & much changing day to day. Visit the Forums to ask questions not answered here. Thanks!