Scoping out the competition

why not let people post their midi on sites like box.net and mydisk.se. And give the possibility to play that url on site?

This is my way to centralize all music. If someone removes music from another location, we would have tons of dead links. The way to control this, is by hosting everything on site, so if someone removes music on site, it removes the whole music profile along with the mp3 (which is what we want). Also, at one point I will allow people to sell their music through Record Hall. The only way for that to be successful, is if we encourage everyone to upload their music in one centralized database. No one will want to buy/sell music on the site, if we have only 500 uploaded songs, and the rest of the media is outsourced on other sites. But if we had hundreds of thousands of original mp3's, the chances of finding new talent, and buying and selling increase greatly.

Keep in mind, uploading media contributes to your member score, so the more you upload, your profile membership gains more value. So, this is another reason why we will not allow linking to other music. It would be too easy to artificially increase member score this way.

This is my way to centralize all music. If someone removes music from another location, we would have tons of dead links. The way to control this, is by hosting everything on site, so if someone removes music on site, it removes the whole music profile along with the mp3 (which is what we want). Also, at one point I will allow people to sell their music through Record Hall. The only way for that to be successful, is if we encourage everyone to upload their music in one centralized database. No one will want to buy/sell music on the site, if we have only 500 uploaded songs, and the rest of the media is outsourced on other sites. But if we had hundreds of thousands of original mp3's, the chances of finding new talent, and buying and selling increase greatly.

Keep in mind, uploading media contributes to your member score, so the more you upload, your profile membership gains more value. So, this is another reason why we will not allow linking to other music. It would be too easy to artificially increase member score this way.

I've not posted nearly as much as other composers on this site, largely due to the size limit available - face it, .PDF files and .mp3 are not all 100kb files.

Regarding uploaded media, everyone will start from 0 when we launch the site. Member rank consists of at least 6 different variables, and uploaded media is one part of it. I will go over all the basic mechanics of this system on the wiki. I will say this, the more you contribute to the website as a whole (for example, you write articles on the wiki, participate on the forum, write reviews of music, and contribute to our network), the more valued you will be as a member, and this will reflect your score.

For those of you who have been contributing to the wiki, we will not start from 0 on this. You are already getting a head start on your member scores, and this is your advantage over those who do not participate on the wiki.

Proposition - how about an algorithm that determines how much upload space a non-paying member is allowed to have on the site based on their member rank? If somebody posts a lot on the forum, contributes to the wiki, posts good reviews on others' music, and uploads music that gets mostly good reviews, that member's rank increases. As a result, that member gets more upload space. If their member rank decreases at some point, they simply can't upload any new files until they exceed their previous highest ranking or remove some of their preexisting compositions from the site. This will allow well-behaved members to get more out of the site for no extra cost, and those that aren't patient enough to contribute positively to the community must pay in order to get more of their music on the site at one time. It's kinda like a video game. You do well, you level up, you get more goodies. Or you just enter cheat codes ($$$)

There is one question that I do have. If we do not contribute to the wikis or upload too many completed compositions will this have a negative result on our membership. I know our score will be low, but will that really shine a negative light on us or will our score just be low? I figure my score will be pretty low since composing is just a hobby and I don't really spend a lot of time doing it. I also don't feel like I have enough expertise or the authority to be writing a wiki on theory or orchestration or anything. I feel like there are other members who would do a better job and would actually be teaching me a thing or two.

It's not that it will have a negative result, it's just that other members who do contribute on all 6 factors more, will be ahead of you. These scores are based on everyone's total performance. Let me give you an unrealistic example. If we have 100,000 members, and 99,999 do not contribute one bit (they have 0's) and you contribute just once, you will be the top member. There are 6 factors to a member score. Should you fail on all 6 factors, (which is impossible) member score is only a small part of the equation for search engine visibility. The algorithm rewards those who have popular compositions as well as many other factors.

Proposition - how about an algorithm that determines how much upload space a non-paying member is allowed to have on the site based on their member rank? If somebody posts a lot on the forum, contributes to the wiki, posts good reviews on others' music, and uploads music that gets mostly good reviews, that member's rank increases. As a result, that member gets more upload space. If their member rank decreases at some point, they simply can't upload any new files until they exceed their previous highest ranking or remove some of their preexisting compositions from the site. This will allow well-behaved members to get more out of the site for no extra cost, and those that aren't patient enough to contribute positively to the community must pay in order to get more of their music on the site at one time. It's kinda like a video game. You do well, you level up, you get more goodies. Or you just enter cheat codes ($$$)

I'm afraid that I can't afford this option right now. Although I will say, I am a little nervous about implementing upload limits because it seems a little counter intuitive...we have a network where we encourage people to upload music as it also contributes to member scores, yet we have a cap because it is a part of the business model. But this business model will be crucial to help me pay for the site, and to hopefully generate profits for future updates, expansion, etc, etc. If this site doesn't generate profit, then future development will not be possible.