Introduction

Soundsnap is a high quality sound library. So we 're only interested in the best sounds, music loops and sound art out there. We only license sounds from professional, highly skilled sound designers, recordists and cutting edge music producers.

Do not upload sounds that are not recorded with pro equipment and that are not mastered or edited properly.

Initially, you have to upload 20 sounds. If you don't upload exactly 20 sounds, our team won't audition them. These 20 initial sounds should give us a good idea about the type of recordings or loops that you make, their quality and rarity. You will need at least 18 approved sounds out of the initial 20 in order to be approved as a contributor.

If your sounds have been rejected, you can re-upload sounds 3 months after the day you received your feedback.

Receiving payment

If your sounds are approved, we will get in contact via email. We will discuss an appropriate rate for the sounds (depending on the type of sounds, rarity etc.) and send you our licensing agreement.

In order to receive a payment, you will need a Paypal account.
A wire transfer is possible, but only for users with over 200 sounds.

Credits

Before submitting your first sounds, make sure you've completed your profile.
This is a very important part of your submission- it helps us determine how professional the contributor is.

You need to enter the following data that will be reviewed by our team:

• Website
• Myspace
• imdb page

Not all of them are necessary, but you will need at least one link in order to be considered as a contributor.

Fill out the 'about me' section with a short bio about you.
This is absolutely necessary before your sounds are auditioned. It can include the equipment that you use, your industry experience, relevant education etc. Anything that you think is important and shows your expertise in the field is considered a plus. Try to keep this part short- under 100 words.

Common reasons for rejection

• It contains background noise and/or audible movement
• The sound was poorly recorded
• The sound has been poorly edited. Please improve and re-submit
• The sound has audible editing
• It lacks clarity and fidelity
• It might infringe copyright
• It is a sound that we don't feel we need in our library at the moment, because this category and/or style has been mostly covered
• The description you made was not appropriate. Please improve that according to our submissions guide and resubmit
• The tags you submitted were not appropriate. Please improve that according to our submissions guide and resubmit
• No description was provided. Please add one and resubmit
• No tags were provided. Please change and resubmit
• The language of your description and/or tags has many spelling mistakes and/or bad syntax. Please improve that and re-submit
• Poor production value, mixing and/or recording techniques

Formats

The accepted formats are .wav and .aif, 44.1/ 16 bit.

Categories

There are 16 main categories and those have around 8 to 10 subcategories each. You have to select both a main and a subcategory for each sound.
You have to use the chained menu, first selecting the main category, and then the sub category.

How to describe sounds

Try to describe sounds as well as possible, so they can easily be found by other users. Things to usually include in the description:

• the source of the sound
• what we can hear- what the recording consists of in detail
• the location where it was recorded

Also, the filename should be appropriate and descriptive. Naming a file is useful for users, but also it helps the sound being found through search.

What are tags?

Tags are keywords used to categorize and identify sounds. The main difference between tags and categories is that tags are created by you, the contributor. Therefore, you can choose what tags are more important for a sound for it to be found by others.

Here are a few tips for better tagging:

• If there is an American and English word that are synonyms, it would be best to include both. Typical examples are mobile/cellphone, garbage/rubbish, shopping center/mall, etc.. Also, enter words that use different spellings, for example airplane/aeroplane, analog/analogue etc.
• Also, using different versions of the same word often helps. For example, 'drink, drinking' or 'scream, screaming'. You should enter both, because people might enter either word as a search term.
• The same stands for synonyms or similar words such as: ambient/ambience, woman/female, impact/hit/drop etc.
• In certain cases, you can add descriptive adjectives such as: dreamy, aggressive, irritating, anthemic, playful, innocent etc. Other words, such as 'dream', 'fear', 'meditation' etc could be suitable for atmospheres or musical samples.

Music samples and loops:

• Music Loops and Music Samples (single) are two of the most popular categories. One is for loops/phrases- 'Music Loops', and one for single sounds and chords 'Music Samples (single)'. For example, a reggae bassline loop, would go under the category 'Music Loops' and the subcategory 'Reggae/Dub', while a single bass note, would go under the category 'Music Samples (single) and the subcategory 'bass/guitar'.
• In the case of music loops, its very useful for users to know the exact bpm of a loop, if this is known. We recommend the following format: '125 bpm', with a space between the number and 'bpm', and not '125bpm' or '125, bpm'.
• Another important tag for music loops and samples is the key or note it is in. If a single note is in 'A', then you should put 'A' as a tag. If it is in 'A major', put the tag in the format 'A major' etc.
• Music loops should be appropriately edited and should 'loop' correctly.