In order to keep the acapellas section organised and to ensure that uploads work well together we set out the following acapella upload guidelines.
There are plenty of common mistakes that people make when submitting acapellas. The vast majority of them are simple errors and are easily avoided.
Some of the things we say here might seem obvious, overly fussy or pointless but you would be surprised at the types of things people upload or the things they get confused with.
Please take a moment to read and understand these guidelines to avoid having your acapellas rejected.
Read the terms & conditions
If you are planning on sharing acapellas first and foremost, make sure you read and fully understand the terms and conditions that you will be agreeing to, the licences you will be granting and your responsibilities.
How do I upload acapellas, Im not allowed
Before you can upload acapellas your account needs to be updated to give you uploading privileges. By default we block everyone from uploading to ensure the quality of uploads is maintained and we don't end up with a load of junk.
Before you get in touch you will need to have done a few things .....
Once that is all done you will find the link to apply for upload access at the bottom of this article.
I have been granted upload access. What now ?
Once you have upload privileges its just a case of clicking the Upload Acapella link in the sub navigation bar in the acapellas section.
Copyright, is this 100 % your own work ?
As with any content uploaded acapellas must be your own work. You can not upload studio acapellas from commercially released tracks or anything that you did not sing yourself.
Taking an acapella you think is free from somewhere else and then uploading it here is not allowed. You are not the owner or creator of that acapella and so you are potentially in breach of copyright. Just because you think its free does not mean it actually is. There are hundreds of thousands of users who will see your uploads and if its not your own work you WILL be found out, reported and could be banned from the site.
The basic rule here is - If you did not create the acapella 100% yourself... don't upload it !
Uploading anything that has potential copyright problems may see your account suspended and could even land you in legal trouble with the copyright owner. Its essential for you to understand the terms and conditions you agree to when using looperman.com.
If you're unsure, don't upload.
You must allow a minimum of royalty free non commercial use
Unlike loops, when you upload acapellas you may set your own terms for anyone who wishes to use your acapellas commercially. With that said though this is not a marketplace and the focus should be on sharing. All acapellas must be made available for users to enjoy them and use them freely in their non commercial projects.
Acapellas must contain ONLY your voice
While you may have rights to manage or work with someone else vocal we have no time to study contracts or licencing agreements and so don't allow acapellas that include a vocal that is not that of the user uploading.
Acapellas must be clipped, with no gaps at the start or end
When exporting your acapella make sure to clear any dead / silent space at the start or the end of the file. You do this by setting the correct boundary markers in your DAW. If you don't cut the silence it simply creates a file thats larger than it needs to be. There is no point making people download silence.
Acapellas must contain nothing but a vocal
Yes, it may sound obvious but don't include any drums or backing instrumentation.
Keep acapellas DRY without FX or reverb
When posting your acapellas try to think about the person who would be trying to use it. If you add FX such as delay or too much reverb it makes it harder for anyone else to incorporate it into their track.
Don't post multiple versions of the same acapella
This is in relation to the point above. We don't need a wet (reverb) version and a dry version too. Just upload the dry version.
Save your acapellas as mp3 format
Unlike loops where we ask for .WAV files acapellas must be saved as .mp3.
Pay attention to volume level or gain
Make sure you keep an eye on the overall volume level of your acapellas. Acapellas that are too quiet or too loud are not much use to people and tend to loose overall quality. You don't need to master acapellas as you would a track but at least make sure your acapella volume levels are balanced.
Post titles and description only in English
We know that for some of you English is not your first language but please only use English in titles and descriptions. We ask this so its clear to all what is being said. If You have problems posting in English use an online translation tool or keep text to a minimum.
Use standard formatting in title and description
By this we mean don't post everything in CAPS, create unnecessary line breaks or use non standard characters etc. Just use plain English and make it easy for everyone to read.
Don't spam the description with unrelated keywords / tags
While you may think its a great idea to post every popular tag / keyword in the description to get your files found it becomes worthless if everyone does it. Its also wont make you popular with people trying to find certain acapellas when your unrelated file shows up. We'll reject uploads that post spam tags so make sure the description is relevant to your file and post no more than 5 keywords or tags.
Don't post links or promotion in the description
Don't use the description area to post links to your soundcloud, facebook page, twitter, instagram account etc, try and sell things or post anything other than a description of the acapella. Any files that do this are blocked and you no longer have access to upload.
Don't use bad language in title or description
This site is used by a broad range of people of all ages and in a multitude of settings. Acapellas with descriptions or titles that contain swearing or offensive text will be rejected and your account may be suspended.
No politics, religion or hate speech etc in title or description
Don't use the title or description as a platform to push or promote your own religious or political viewpoints or to attack someone elses. This is a music community and not the arena for stuff like this.
We don't allow the promotion of hatred toward groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity.
Don't delete acapellas just to reupload them
If you find a problem with one of your uploads you can simply choose edit and re upload the file, replacing the original. This keeps the file in the same location and makes it easy for anyone who already downloaded the file to find it again. It also preserves your downloads count and any comments.
Should an account be seen to be rotating / deleting acapellas just to give them exposure by putting them back to the top of the list your access to upload will be removed as this is seen as trying to spam the system and goes against the spirit of the site.
Check your acapellas before uploading
The majority of acapellas that get rejected are due to users not following the above guidelines or simply not checking their acapellas before they upload. You could open them in a wav editor, play them in your media player or simply reload them into your DAW to make sure everything is ok.
Read the FAQs for more help
This post is mainly a guide on how to upload and what you should and shouldnt do. For help with some common questions please take a look at the acapellas section of the help area.
Free tools for editing your acapellas
There are a number of great Wave Editors / Audio Editing Tools out there to help you get your acapellas perfect. Here are a few free ones to get you started.
OK, I've read it all and I'm ready to upload
Good stuff, hopefully that has just saved us both some time by avoiding all the problems people have when submitting acapellas.