How does Somojo work?

There are various aspects to Somojo, either working independently from each other or in combinations depending upon how people want to use them.
Web Radio
Musicians can create profile pages and add tracks purely for the inclusion into the 'live' radio stream, giving them valuable exposure to our worldwide audience.
Profile pages
Profile pages can be used as your 'home' on the web. They are fully customisable, you can add custom banners, audio, video, upload photos, add blog entries, start discussions with your fans via your own forum and embed the audio/video player into other websites to promote your work or services.
Somojo charts
The Somojo charts can give a good indication to bands and solo artists how often their music is listened to. This can be either by visitors to the Somojo website, or, if they choose to use them, combined with plays via the audio player embedded in other websites.
The charts are completely independent of the 'live' shows on Somojo web radio and give no indication of how often or not an artist or track has been included in any live programming.

How do I get my music on Somojo?

Getting your music on Somojo is very easy. The main thing to consider is that we listen to all tracks before accepting them, so please listen to some of the tracks we already play to see if your recordings are of the same standard. If you have any doubts, either send us a link to a webpage with some of your tracks on that we can either listen to or download or send a sample mp3 to artists@somojo.net for us to check. We don't like it when people take time to create profile pages and then we reject their tracks due to either bad recording or production of their music.

It is important to remember that Somojo isn't a 'music hosting' web site. Although we do offer similar services and functions to other websites that are 'music hosts' we are a 'web radio station' and as such have certain standards that have to be maintained for us to provide the quality of service that our audience and the artists we work with expect from us.

Which audio formats can I upload?

For music to be included in the live programming or to be included in the Somojo audio players, the audio must be in mp3. If you are uploading audio tracks to sell as a 'vault' item, these can be in any format you wish. Although you also have the option to sell the uploaded mp3 that will be available via the audio player if you choose to make any tracks available for purchase.
If you choose to sell any of the mp3 files that you upload, there is no need to create a duplicate vault item. Vault items are for digital files in a different audio format or for whole albums or eps as 'zipped' files. Any files created as 'Vault' items that are duplicates of song files may be deleted as it creates confusion for visitors to the website.
What audio format can I sell? - You can make available for sale individual mp3 files via the audio player, or you can upload other audio file formats to sell as vault items. You can also sell selections of tracks, whole albums or a combination of audio and video files in any format by creating a 'zip' file with your chosen contents and creating a vault item.
How do I make my tracks available for sale? - When uploading tracks select the 'streaming only ' option and enter a price at the bottom of the page. If the no price is entered, the mp3 will not be available for sale. If you select 'streaming + downloading' this enables the file to be played in the audio players and downloaded by registered members for free.
What bitrate should the mp3 files be in? - Any mp3s that you upload to Somojo should have a min bitrate of 128kbps and a max 256kbps. If you need any help with converting your existing files we are happy to help, but we will only convert to a lower bit rate, we will not alter a file with a bitrate of 128kbps to a 320 kbps file.

Video formats

All video files need to be in .flv format and preferably high quality 320 x 240 frame size as this is the best compromise in quality and streaming for people to watch via the internet. We are happy to help if you have any problems with resizing or file conversion.
How do I convert my video to .flv format?
You can use software like 'Free FLV converter' from Koyote soft on windows based systems or if your video is on websites like YouTube, you can check your computer to see if the .flv has been saved when you watched the video. To do this on a windows based system you need to open control panel > Select internet options > Select 'Browsing History - settings > Select 'View files'. If you have a 'Flash Video Files' in your folder, it is possible that this file is the .flv or your video. Select the .flv file, copy and paste into a folder on your computer and rename. If you have more than one .flv showing, it may be best to empty your temporary internet folder and watch your video file again and look for the .flv file again. This should ensure that you have the correct file. YOu can check the .flv by inserting the file into a web page and then viewing in a web browser.
I don't feel confident enough to do this, can you do this for me?
We can help with file conversion and 'grabbing' files from other websites, but due to the time it takes we have to charge for this service.

Somojo charts

The chart positions are calculated by the number of 'plays' a song has across the Somojo website. This includes play lists, individual plays from artists profile pages and 'plays' via audio players embedded in other websites.
The chart pages show the current 'live' position based upon the number of plays for the last 7 days (168 hrs), 1 month (720 hrs) and 1 year (8760 hrs) for the most popular songs from any artist for the 'Official' Somojo chart and for all other charts.
Selecting the '24hrs' option shows the 'plays' for up to 10 tracks from each artist, if an artist has more than 10 tracks in the system only the 10 most played will be displayed.
To avoid artists 'fixing' the charts with constantly playing a track to boost the chart position, we randomly adjust the amount of time needed between each play for it to register in the system from one IP address.
As the chart can change drastically from day to day depending on the traffic the website may or may not have at any moment, we have the 'Official' Somojo chart which we announce on the last Sunday of every month..
Why do some artists and tracks always appear at the top of the charts?
The Somojo charts are based upon the number of 'plays' a track has within a 7 day period. Sometimes visitors to the website will play the tracks at the top of the charts, which will keep them there, some artists are better at 'self' promoting and get their fans to visit Somojo and play their tracks and some artists use the audio players and embed them in other websites, blogs and forums around the internet giving their music more exposure and thus getting more 'plays' that helps maintain chart position.

What is the difference between the 'live' feed and the rest of the music on www.somojo.net?

There isn't any difference, they are the same mp3s, just working in different environments within the same website.
All of the tracks that are uploaded and accepted into the system are available to be played via the artists pages, the embedded audio players, the chart pages, play lists generated on the website and any other pages on the website. These all count towards the chart positions.
The 'live' feed plays the same mp3s but is not connected and has no effect on the chart positions. All artists have tracks in the 'General Rotation' play lists and we select tracks for the various 'shows' that we have on Somojo which we update regularly.
How are the tracks chosen for the 'live' feed?
For all of the 'live' shows the music is played randomly from pre-selected play lists. All artists have 2 tracks included in the 'General Rotation' play lists, these we randomly select and change every week and we select the tracks randomly for the specific shows that you can hear on Somojo. These are also updated regularly.

I've uploaded a track and it has been rejected. Why?

There could be a number of reasons. The most common problem we have is the volume level of the tracks are too low. When the tracks are checked, they are listened to on a computer that is set up for the music to be on at a 'background' level, the same as if someone was working at the computer while listening to music. Obviously if people are working, they don't want to be constantly adjusting the volume. If we can't hear the track, or the volume would need to be adjusted to hear, it is normally rejected. There are exceptions as some musical styles do have softer volumes. This is taken into consideration when we review any tracks that are uploaded.
Another problem we sometimes get is that at the beginning of the track there is too much silence before the music begins. This can give the impression that there isn't any content and it also gives people the impression that there is a problem with the website when they are playing the tracks from the artists or chart pages. Please keep the silence at the beginning of a track to between 1 and 2 seconds.
When you have uploaded a track it, listen to it, check to make sure it has uploaded correctly. Sometimes files get corrupted when uploaded to servers.
We appriciate that it isn't nice having any of your songs rejected, but if you have a track or tracks rejected, please do not email us and ask us why. We have 100's of emails every week with music that we are asked to listen to and we don't have the time to reply to everyone who asks why their tracks have not been approved.

How do I get my photo or album cover included as an E-promo card?

Any photograph, album cover or image can be included as an E-promo card. Just send your image/s that you would like to have included and we will add it. The image needs to be 300x400 pixels @72dpi jpeg format eithe landscape or portrait orintaion. We are perfectly happy to use images that display your personal or Somojo url, but will reject any images that include MySpace, Reverbnation, Bandcamp or any other web url. Only solo artists, bands, photographers etc with profiles on www.somojo.net can have images included in the E-promo card selection.

Image information

Only solo artists, bands and other performers currently have the option to add a custom banner.
To change the banner you need to be using either the 'Somojo ver.1' or 'Theme 2' page themes. You will find these options under - Profile > Profile Themes.
To include your cutom banner, you need to insert the 'url' of the image you wish to use in the 'Band Header Img' box on the 'Modify artist' page.

The profile images for the 'Theme 2' layout need to be 349x 249 pixels or only the top half of the image will be displayed.