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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Some definitions and tips we think might be useful.

Membership

1. Standard Membership
2. Home Area
3. Pro Membership
4. Pro Member Directory
5. Pro Member Profiles
6. How to activate Pro Member Profile
7. How to Contact Composers
8. Events Membership
9. Event Types

Composer Membership

1. Composing Membership Application
2. Audition Track
3. Composer Short-Listing
4. Panel Auditioning
5. How Long Will it Take to Get Approved?
6. Subscription Fees
7. Composing Membership Annual Subscription
8. Why Charge Composers?
9. How do we Differ from Composer Agencies?
10. Composer Classifications
11. Specialising Genres

Composer and Track Search

1. Genres
2. Moods
3. Quick Composer Search
4. Advanced Composer Search
5. Quick Track Search
6. Advanced Track Search

Track Reviews

1. Why Rate and Review Tracks?
2. How to Rate and Review Tracks
3. Track Review Terms & Conditions

Advice On Encoding

1. Mp3
2. Kbps
3. Upload Speed

Membership

Standard Membership

Standard Membership of the Screened Music Network is free and allows you to:

1. Rate and review tracks
2. Receive monthly newsletters

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Home Area

All members have access to a home area, which is displayed in the primary navigation when you are logged in. You can use this area to manage your profile, upload a photo and biography and upgrade your membership.

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Pro Membership

Pro membership is intended for those working professionally in film, television, radio, new media or the arts who are interested in attending events and film screenings. You must be a Pro member to contact Screened Music Composers and other Pro Members. The Pro Member subscription fee is £30 per annum.

Pro Membership allows you:

1. Full website rights including Composer and Pro Member messaging.
2. An optional profile listing in the Pro Member directory
3. Free entry and priority booking for all screening and networking events.

Become a Pro Member

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The Pro Members Directory

The Pro Members Directory lists Pro Members who have chosen to activate a personal profile. A Pro Member Profile contains information such as job title, company name, biography and photo along with any reviews written.

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Pro Member Profiles

Pro Members can choose to activate their profile in the Pro Members Directory. The Pro Member Profile includes:

• Name
• Company Details
• Job Title
• Link to company website
• Biography
• Photo
• Track reviews

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Activate Pro Member Profile

Pro members can choose to activate their profile in the Pro Members directory at any time. This is done by clicking the link in your home area. A listing in the Pro Members directory is free for Pro Members.

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How to Contact Composers?

You must be a Pro Member or Events Member to contact Screened Music Network Composers. Once you are logged in as a Pro Member you can view a Composer's phone number (if supplied) or send them a message via a secure on-site form. Your message will instantly be forwarded to the Composer's email address.

More on Pro Membership

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Events Membership

Events membership is intended for those composers who would like to take part in professional development lectures and masterclasses but are not composing members. As an Events Member you will receive free entry to all professional development and screening events subject to availability (early booking is recommended). Screened Music runs a minimum of four professional development lectures or masterclasses and two screenings each year. Events Members also have full website rights which includes the ability to message Composers and Pro Members.

Events Members can transfer to Composing Membership immediately upon panel approval at no extra cost.

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Event Types

The Screened Music Network currently runs two event types.

1. Professional development lectures and master classes. These range from technical master classes to orchestration workshops or industry Q&As. They are aimed at professional film and television composers only and are open to all Screened Music Composers and Events Members. The Screened Music Network runs a minimum of four professional development events each year.
2. Film and video screenings. These events provide an opportunity to view films, documentaries and video games scored by Screened Music Composers. They are open to all Pro Members, Screened Music Composers, Event Members and special guests.

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Composing Membership Application

Screened Music Composers can either be invited into the network by a member of the panel or apply for membership via the monthly panel audition. The audition process is done online by uploading an MP3 audition track and some details about your composing style and experience. Online application is a 3-stage process:

1. Apply Online. You must be registered as a member and logged in to apply for composing membership. Then simply complete the online form with your composer details and upload an MP3 audition track. You will be asked to provide a visual context for the music and to confirm that you are the sole composer of the track
2. Shortlisting. Applicants are shortlisted before they are submitted to the panel. We aim to inform you whether your application has been shortlisted within a week of your track upload date.
3. Panel Auditioning. This is a monthly process in which the panel rate and review music. If you receive an average panel score of 80% or above you will be invited to join the Screened Music Network as a Composing Member.

Application is free.

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Audition Track

The audition track (and any tracks subsequently added to a Composer Profile) must be under five minutes in length, encoded as a stereo MP3 with a maximum file size of 5Mb. In order to keep file sizes down, we ask that you encode at a bit rate no higher than 128 kpbs (kilobits per second). See the Advice on Encoding section for more details.

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Composer Short-Listing

We regret that it is not possible to submit every track to the Panel. Tracks are shortlisted before each round of Panel auditions in order for the system to remain manageable for the Panel. Approximately 20 tracks are shortlisted each month.

Shortlisted tracks are chosen because they display a combination of the following factors:

1. A high degree of musical creativity, development and originality (melodic ideas, harmony, instrumentation, texture etc.)
2. A professional level of production, mixing, and use of sound.
3. Successful musical interpretation of the visual context, or suggested usage, described by the composer during the track upload.

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Panel Auditioning

Panellists audition shortlisted tracks monthly using a secure on-line platform and give each piece a percentage score according to clear guidelines similar to those outlined in the composer short-listing section above. An average panel rating of 80 or above will result in a composer being invited to join the Screened Music Network. They provide written feedback where possible and every composer can receive their panel ratings and reviews, regardless of whether they have been accepted.

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How Long Will it Take to Get Approved?

We aim to inform all applicants whether their track has been shortlisted for Panel auditioning within a week, however we receive a large number of applications so this process can take up to 3 weeks. Once shortlisted, it may take approximately a month to get through the Panel audition 'bottle-neck'. The Panel can only audition around 15 composers each month. For this reason, we ask all shortlisted applicants to confirm that they are fully committed to subscribing as a Composing Member before their track is sent to the Panel, as passing up the offer of membership will result in a missed opportunity for other applicants.

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Subscription Fees

Screened Music is made possible by charging annual subscription fees to help pay for technical and administrative costs. Composing Members can choose one of two membership options, detailed below.

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Composing Membership Annual Subscription Options

Services	Standard £80pa	Premium £120pa
A listing in the Composer Directory	Yes	Yes
Video showreel	No	Yes
Tracks Streaming in Composer Profile	Up to 10	Up to 25
Listed at the top of Composer Directory	No	Yes
Returned at the top of music searches	No	Yes
Access to composer message board	Yes	Yes
Free entry to professional development seminars and lectures	Yes	Yes
Free entry to all screening and networking events	Yes	Yes
A Web Link in Composer Profile	No	Yes

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Why Charge Composers?

As is the case with most online networks, Screened Music is expensive to run and time-consuming to administer. Composers and Pro Members are charged a subscription fee to help pay for the administrative and technical costs incurred.

We are committed to providing a high level of service for composers and ensuring that they get great value for money through being in the network.

Benefits for composers extend far beyond a presence on the website. Panel-approved composers are part of an exclusive online community with access to a composer message board for job collaboration and technical support. Composers also receive free entry to all professional development lectures, masterclasses and can submit work in our annual screening events (subject to panel approval).

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How do we Differ from Composer Agencies?

The benefits for applying composers are that every composer will get their work heard straight away and will be judged on the quality of their music alone, so composers with very little experience and no industry contacts are in the same boat as those getting regular work. All applying composers will get a response, and if they have not been shortlisted for the monthly Panel audition they will know within a month. Composers receive their Panel feedback, regardless of whether there application was successful, and the whole process is completely free of charge. Once they are approved they pay a subscription fee of £80 per annum to join as a Composing Member.

Those searching for composers benefit from direct access to composers without the need for a middle man or agency. Composers can be contacted directly by Pro Members. The Pro Membership subscription is £30 per annum.

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Composer Classifications

Screened Music profiles composers with varying levels of experience, separated into the following three categories, referred to as Composer Classifications.

• Emerging: Highly regarded emerging composers, rising to the forefront of the British film and television music industry.
• Established: Well established composers working regularly in television or feature film. Published and with major broadcast credits.
• Acclaimed: Critically acclaimed, award winning or world-renowned composers, working in high-end feature film or television.

You can use specify one or more of these classifications in the Advanced Composer Search.

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Composing and Specialising Genres

Composers in the Screened Music Network are required to set up a Composer Profile, which specifies which musical genres they compose and specialise in. This allows users to search and filter composers by specialising genres if required. A composer can specify as many composing genres as they wish, however they can specialise in a maximum of 5 genres. The quick composer search only returns composers who specialise in the selected genre.

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Genres (Tracks and Composers)

When searching for tracks or composers you can specify the genre(s) you require. A track may be allocated up to three genres from the list below. Genres can also be used to refine your composer search. Composers can specify a maximum of five specialising genres and an unlimited number of composing genres. This information can be viewed in the Composer Profile page.

• Ambient (+Sound Design)
• Acoustic
• Blues (+Soul)
• Chamber Group
• Choral
• Country
• Dance (+Techno, D&B, House)
• Easy Listening
• Electronica (+Psychedelic)
• Experimental (+Progressive)
• Folk
• Industrial
• Jazz (+Funk)
• Orchestral (Full orchestra, brass, woodwind)
• Piano (+Keyboard, Organ)
• Pop (+Electro, Disco)
• Reggae (+Dub)
• Retro
• Rock (+Metal, Indie)
• Strings
• Urban (+R&B, Hip Hop)
• World

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Moods (Tracks only)

Every track is allocated at least one mood. However a track may be allocated up to three from the following list. This allows users to search and filter tracks by mood.

• Atmospheric
• Cheerful
• Cheese
• Chilled
• Cool
• Dark
• Dramatic
• Energetic
• Epic
• Factual
• Fun
• Minimalist
• Quirky
• Sentimental
• Suspense
• Weird

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Quick Composer Search

The quick composer search allows you specify one genre only and will return results for composers who specialise in that genre. Composers can specialise in a maximum of 5 genres. You can also use the quick composer search to filter composers by their average member rating.

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Advanced Composer Search

The advanced composer search allows you specify as many genres as you wish, and allows you to specify whether a composer specialises in these genres. Composers can specialise in a maximum of 5 genres. You can also use the quick composer search to filter composers by their admission date and by average panel rating, composer rating, member rating or combined rating from all member types.

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Quick Track Search

The quick track search allows you specify one genre and / or one mood only. You can also use the quick track search to filter tracks by their average member rating.

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Advanced Track Search

The advanced track search allows you specify as many moods and genres as you wish. You can also use the advanced track search to filter tracks by tempo, date posted, average panel rating, composer rating, member rating or combined rating from all member types.

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MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3)

MP3 is a common compression scheme used to transfer audio files via the Internet and store in portable players and digital audio servers. The default rate of compression used in most converters is 128 kbps (kilobits per second) and results in a file size of approximately 1Mb (Megabyte) per minute for stereo audio. The Screened Music Network asks that all MP3s be encoded at a data rate of 128 kbps (kilobits per second).

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Kbps (Kilobits per second)

Kbps is the unit of measurement used to express the data rate of digital audio and commonly refers to how fast data is transmitted on a communications path. Standard MP3 files have a data rate of 128 kbps, with CD quality audio being 1411 kbps. The majority of audio software has the ability to change the data rate, with 160 or 192 also being common settings. This function can usually be found in the advanced compression or audio settings of the software. Raising the data rate of an MP3 file will result in an increased file size, longer upload time and less efficient streaming ability. The Screened Music Network asks that all MP3s be encoded at a data rate of 128 kbps.

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Upload speed

Upload speeds are typically much slower than download speeds. An average broadband connection will upload at a speed of approximately 30 seconds per Mb (Megabyte). Uploading files larger the 1Mb is not recommended if you are using a dial-up connection (56k modem). Uploading even small audio files with a dial-up connection will take several minutes per Mb (Megabyte) and may result in a system crash.

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Why Rate and Review Tracks?

The network is, to a large extent, a self-governing community whose members, composers and panellists are responsible for its content. The rating of tracks ensures that a consistently high standard is maintained, while allowing composers that are deemed exceptional to instantly stand out from the crowd. Written reviews are a valuable part of this, and we very much hope that all ratings will be accompanied by a written comment, particularly if the rating is low.

The reviews are categorised by user type to allow for some interesting study, enabling us see how those who commission music, produce music and have a general interest in music view the merits of a piece.

The rating and review process plays an essential role in the success of the network, creating both a supportive environment for composers and a vibrant community for all members. The emphasis in on forming positive relationships and providing open support and encouragement, so it is not possible to post a review anonymously. Every posting has a full name attached to it (and a verified email address) and hopefully a photo as well. We hope that all reviews will be constructive in nature. Any abusive reviews will be removed immediately and are likely to result in revoked membership.

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How to Rate and Review Tracks

You must be logged in to rate and review a track. Use the box at the top right of the track page to leave a review and the drop down menu below to select a rating. Your reviews will be visible at the bottom of the track page and your rating will instantly affect the track charts. Your full name and photo (if you've added one to your profile) will be displayed next to your review.

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Ratings & Reviews Terms & Conditions

• Screened Music reserves with right to edit or delete any reviews without prejudice.
• Reviews may be edited or deleted for any of the following reasons:
  1. If a review is deemed to be insulting, impolite, or unconstructive in nature.
  2. If a review does not refer directly to the associated track.
  3. If a review contains a web address or HTML.
  4. If a review contains any insults or profanities.
  5. If a significant number of high ratings are left by a single reviewer for the same composer, and therefore deemed as biased reviews.

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Track Rating and Review Requests

1. Please do not abuse the track rating system by leaving biased or impartial ratings. Screened Music is a self-govorning community that profiles the UK's best screen composers on the world stage. It is in the interest of the composers and the network as a whole to consider your ratings carefully. This will ensure the network remains a valuable resource for everyone. High ratings should be reserved for tracks of an exceptional standard.
2. Please ensure that all reviews are constructive and supportive in nature. Any abusive reviews will be removed immediately and are likely to result in revoked membership.

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