________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

 


________________________________________________

 

White Paper - User Guide - Administrator Guide

 

 

Freesound Music Sound Count Facility

Last Update: 12/10/07 07:20:00

 

________________________________________________

 


Table of Contents

________________________________________________

 

Table of Contents. i

1 Introduction.. i

1.1 Who should read this document?. i

1.2 Direct Support i

3 User Guide. 4

3.1 Playing a session. 4

3.2 Indicating a commercial session. 5

3.3 View reports. 6

3.3.1 Access Sound Page session reports 6

3.3.2 Session Attribution List 8

3.3.3 Freesound Music Reports options 9

3.3.4 Session RIP Key. 16

3.3.5 Basic Reports 19

3.3.6 Save reports 19

3.4 My Earnings. 20

3.4.1 Introduction. 20

3.4.2 Shared royalties 21

3.4.3 Getting a password and viewing the earnings 21

3.4.4 Requesting a payment 23

3.4.5 Checking the request 25

3.4.6 Checking the transfer 28

3.5 RIP Report for music merchandisers (Distributors) 32

3.5.1 Overview.. 32

3.5.2 Estimation. 34

3.5.3 Report information. 38

3.5.4 Payment 45

3.5.5 View reports 46

3.5.6 Save reports 48

3.5.7 Donation. 48

3.5.8 VAC Subcontractor 51

 

________________________________________________

 


1            Introduction

1.1       Who should read this document?

This document provides information about the Royalty Inheritance Program (RIP) as implemented in the „Freesound Music“ website (www.cm-gallery.com). The document is split into three chapters:

1. RIP - Royalty Inheritance Program

This chapter provides an introduction into the RIP concept (a kind of a „White Paper“). It is intended for any audience interested in digital rights management.

For users of the „Freesound Music“ site, this chapter provides the required background to understand practical procedures of the „Freesound Music“ Sound, Report, and Form pages as described in the user guide.

2. RIP - User Guide

The user guide is intended for any user of the „Freesound Music“ site that is interested

¨       to get in contact with the original creators of the sounds he uses, and

¨       to get statistic information about his own musical projects and the complete site.

The user guide will also inform about

¨       how to comfortably apply the Creative Common license obligations related to distribution, and

¨       how to manage commercial use of the site’s or his/her own musical projects that he/she derivates from this site.

3. RIP - Administrator Guide

The Administration Guide describes the operations needed to assure the proper performance and execution of statistic information provision and commercial procedures of the RIP program that are used within the „Freesound Music“ site framework.

User Guide and Administrator Guide can also be read as a suggestion, how shared commercial right management can practically be implemented.

1.2       Direct Support

Any technical questions with regard to the documented operations can be addressed to flex@cm-gallery.com (administrator’s email address).

Any conceptual questions can directly be addressed to freed@cm-gallery.com.

Important Please note that the project is currently implemented as a prototype only. Any figures and names shown in the below examples are completely fictional.

________________________________________________


 

3        User Guide

3.1       Playing a session

The following user guide refers to the current implementation of the „Freesound Music“ site. Any musical activity with Freesounds at this site is based on „Sound Pages“ that assemble a free number of sound and control objects within a browser page. Each sound object consists of a stand-alone player that allows advanced execution of the sound in accordance with sophisticated abilities to link to other sounds included in the Sound Page.

Whenever a sound object is played, playing data are automatically captured by the system. While a Sound Page is active (opened), the playing sequences during this time are called a „session“. Whenever a Sound Page is left by opening a new one, a new session is being initiated and the captured data of the former session are automatically uploaded to the „Freesound Music“ server.

The captured data include:

1. Sound IDs (as issued by “The Freesound Project”)

2. Sound author IDs (as issued by “The Freesound Project”)

3. Overall duration of the sound played

4. Number of times a certain sound has been played (number of “calls”)

The captured data do not include:

1. ID of Sound Page or project

2. Any indication of the computer that is used, or the user that uses the system

Important All captured data are handled completely anonymously throughout all operations with the system.

You can view author and sound information directly from any sound object.

ToDo To view author and sound information directly from a sound object

1. Click the “i”-button at the right upper corner of a sound object (see Figure 10).

Soundobject

Figure 10 - “Freesound Music” Sound object

2. “The Freesound Project” website opens and the Sample Page of the selected sound is displayed (see Figure 11).

FSP Samplepage

Figure 11 - “The Freesound Project” Sample page

3. You may contact the author of the sound, download the original sound, leave a comment to the sound, and more, using “The Freesound Project” site possibilities.

Hand “Freesound Music” playing data are captured also for recording and play options of the system. For more information refer to the “Sound Café” user instructions.

3.2       Indicating a commercial session

Session data can be captured for non-commercial and for commercial purposes. It is the responsibility of the Sound Page user to indicate whenever a Sound Page is used for commercial purposes. All what needs to be done is to indicate the start and the end of a commercial session.

ToDo To indicate the start and the end of a commercial session

1. Right-click the Page Indicator check box at the top of the Sound Page located to the right of the Sound Page title (see Figure 12). The color of the Page Indicator and the Page Infobutton (right to it) changes to red.

Indicatorred

Figure 12 - Active commercial session

2. To end data capturing for a commercial session, right-click the Page Indicator check box again. The color of the Page Indicator and the Page Infobutton changes back to black (see Figures 13) and the following data will be captured for statistic purposes only.

Indicatorblack

Figure 13 - Inactive commercial session

3.3       View reports

3.3.1     Access Sound Page session reports

You can view and receive the captured session information any time for different periods and in different ways.

ToDo To access and view reports of your sessions

1. Click the Page Infobutton located to the right of the Page Indicator. The “Freesound Music Report” page opens (see Figure 14).

Reportempty

Figure 14 - Freesound Music Reports Page

Hand If you opened a new Sound Page, no current session data will be shown. However, you can receive data of former sessions using the “Freesound Music Report” options as described below.

By default, if current session data are captured, a report will be shown that lists all sounds together with their number of calls, duration, and authors, sorted by relevance which is calculated by the product of calls and duration (see Figure 15). You can continue your session and revisit the report page at a later time again to watch the incremental use during the session.

Reportdefault

Figure 15 - Freesound Music Reports Page - Default report

You can access „The Freesound Project“ sample page (see Figure 11 above) for each sound by clicking the sound names. Visited links are displayed in dark red.

You can also access „The Freesound Project“ author page related to each sound by clicking the author names at the right of the list (see Figure 16). The duration is shown in the format <hours> : <minutes> : <seconds> . <milliseconds>.

FSP Authorpage

Figure 16 - “The Freesound Project” author page

3.3.2     Session Attribution List

For any project that you realize with the „Freesound Music“ Sound Pages, you need to attribute the original sound authors when distributing your work. In order to make this task as simple as possible you can receive the list of the involved authors by just one click of your mouse.

ToDo To attribute sound authors

1. After finishing your session, open the “Freesound Music” Report Page as described above.

2. In the “Reports” area, go down to the “Basic Reports” line, and click the “Get” button. A row with the Freesound author names will be displayed in the “Basic Reports” area below (see Figure 17).

Getattributionlistresult

Figure 17 - Freesound author list of a session

3. Highlight the names and copy them into the Clipboard.

4. Paste the list of names to any publishing media you intend to publish your work.

Hand For larger projects, multiple Sound Pages can be counted using the RIP Key option described in section 3.3.4, “Session RIP Key”, below.

3.3.3     Freesound Music Reports options

Freesound Music Reports are issued using the first block of the form in the „Reports“ section of the Reports Page (see Figure 18). They can be issued according to „Scope“, „Selection“, „Sorting“, „Structure“, „Rendering“, and „Channel“ as described below. All options can be freely combined depending on your actual needs.

Getfreesoundmusicreport

Figure 18 - Freesound Music Report form

ToDo To receive a Freesound Music Report

1. Select the parameters of the report as described in the below sections.

2. Click the “Get” button. The report will be shown in the Freesound Music Report display section underneath the form (see Figure 15).

Hand Please note that after every issue the default settings of the form are restored.

Important All reports in the current installation are used for demonstration purposes only.

Scope

The „Scope“ report options allow you to select:

Option

Description

My session

Issues the information about the sounds of one of your specific sessions.

My sessions

Issues the information about the sounds of a number of your specific sessions that you define through the local Freesound Credits display (entered by Ctrl + Page Info button).

My total use

Issues the information about all your sessions from the beginning till today.

My use 2007

Issues the information about all your sessions during a specific year.

Site total use

Issues the information about all sessions of the complete site from the beginning till today.

Site use 2007

Issues the information about all sessions of the complete site during a specific year.

Hand Please note that the display of yearly or total reports may take some time.

Selection

The „Selection“ report options allow you to select:

Option

Description

All sounds

Issues the information about all sounds regardless of their use.

Commercial

Issues the information about all sounds that have been indicated for commercial use (see section 3.2., “Indicating a commercial session”).

RIP Key #1..#10

Issues the information about all sounds of sessions that have been mapped to a specific RIP Key (see section 3.3.4, “Session RIP Key”).

Hand Information of commercially used sounds and of RIP Keys is always included in the All sounds statistics.

Hand RIP Key information is captured regardless their commercial status, i.e. commercial and RIP Key data are counted independently. From this reason, you can consider RIP Key data as an additional source of commercial data that is used to indicate projects for offline distribution like CDs.

Hand RIP Key site data that you want to display, for example, through a “Site total use” or “Site use 2007” option, are always issued in total, no matter which specific Key you selected for the report.

Sorting

The „Sorting“ report options allow you to select:

Option

Description

Ranking

Sounds or authors (depending on „Structure“ option, see below) are sorted by number of sound calls multiplied by the overall duration the sounds having been played (see Figure 15).

Authors A-Z

The report is listed by author in alphabetical order (see Figure 19 below).

Sounds A-Z

The report is listed by sound in alphabetical order.

Date recent first

The report is listed by author by the date when his first sound has been entered into the „Freesound Music“ project (latest entries are listed first).

Date oldest first

The report is listed by author by the date when his first sound has been entered into the „Freesound Music“ project (first entries are listed first).

Hand The sound ranking is used for the distribution of the COW royalties.

ReportauthorA-Z

Figure 19 - Freesound Music Report - Sorted by Author

Structure

The „Structure“ report options allow you to select:

Option

Description

Sound list

Sounds and authors are listed in a simple table form (see Figure 19 above).

Tree list

Authors are listed in a table form, showing name, overall number of calls and duration per „Scope“ as well as their „Freesound Music“ entry date (see Figure 20).

Each line can be clicked in order to access detailed sound information of each author as known from the „Sound list“ (see Figure 21). The sound list is closed again with a second click on the author line.

Authors only

The report lists authors only, separated by comma, with no access to any sound information (see Figure 22).

Hand The sound ranking is used for a weighted distribution of the COW royalties.

Reporttreeranking

Figure 20 - Freesound Music Report Tree structure, sorted by ranking

ReporttreeopensoundA-Z

Figure 21 - Freesound Music Report Tree structure, open sound list, sorted by sound name

Reportauthorsonly

Figure 22 - Freesound Music Report, Authors only

Rendering

The „Rendering“ report options allow you to select:

Option

Description

Online

The report is intended for online use including links (see Figure 15).

Print

The report is intended for print use and does not include online links (see Figure 23).

HTML

The report is issued in HTML format. This format can be directly copied into another web page. The HTML version includes also the hyperlinks as provided in the „Online“ output (see Figure 24).

Delimited

The report is issued in delimited format using a comma for the tab positions (see Figure 25). It can be copied as a text file to be included in an Excel spreadsheet (see Figure 26) or being re-inserted into a RIP Key as described in section 3.3.4 “Session RIP Key”, “To add another report to a Session RIP Key”.


The following figures are examples for different rendering options:

Reportprint

Figure 23 - Freesound Music Report, Print version

Reporthtmlauthorsonly

Figure 24 - Freesound Music Report, HTML version, Authors only

Reportdelimited

Figure 25 - Freesound Music Report, Delimited version

ToDo To convert a Freesound Music Report into a spreadsheet using MS Excel

1. Select the “Delimited” option of the “Rendering” report pull-down menu (5th pull-down menu) in order to issue a delimited report (see Figure 25).

2. Select the complete report, copy it and paste it into a text editor like Notepad.

3. Save the text file to a location of your choice.

4. Open Microsoft Excel and select the “Open” option from the “File” menu.

5. In the “Files of type:” pull-down menu at the bottom of the “Open” dialog box, select the “Text files” option, and locate the text file.

6. Click the “Open” button. The “Text Import Wizard - Step 1 of 3” dialog box opens.

7. Make sure the “Delimited” radio button is selected. Click the “Next” button.

8. In the “Text Import Wizard - Step 2 of 3” dialog box, from the “Delimiters” area, check the “Comma” check box. Click the “Next” button.

9. In the “Text Import Wizard - Step 3 of 3” dialog box click the “Finish” button. The report has been imported into a spread sheet (see Figure 26).

Reportexcel

Figure 26 - Freesound Music Report, conversion to Excel (Delimited)

Hand Note that the delimited report includes also the sound and the author ID numbers as issued by “The Freesound Project” site.

Channel

The „Channel“ report options allow you to select:

Option

Description

Report

Standard reports displayed on the Freesound Music Report page. This output will always be displayed even so, another channel option has been chosen.

Email

If you select this option, your email program will open an email including the required report (see Figure 27).

Clipboard

Using this option, the report will be transferred into your clipboard and can immediately be copied to another destination program [implementation pending].


The following Figure shows an example for a report issued through email format:

Reporthtmlemail

Figure 27 - Freesound Music Report, email channel output, HTML rendering

3.3.4     Session RIP Key

A Session RIP Key enables you to store various sessions into one location. They are used to capture the breakdown of sound data across different Sound Pages that have been used to build a specific musical project. In case of commercial use, these data are later on used to correctly distribute the royalties that apply to the creators of the original work.

ToDo To save a session to a Session RIP Key

1. In the “Session RIP Key” line of the Report Page form section, select the number (1-10) of the RIP Key from the pull-down menu, to which you would like to store the actual session data (see Figure 28).

SessionRIPKey

Figure 28 - Session RIP Key form element

2. Click the “Save” button. Your session data have been stored.

ToDo To add another session to a Session RIP Key

1. Select the Key number (1-10) of the RIP Key from the pull-down menu, on which you would like to add the actual session data.

2. Click the “Save” button. Your session data have been added to the RIP Key.

ToDo To add another report to a Session RIP Key

1. Request a report you would like to add to your Session RIP Key as described in the “Freesound Music Reports options” section while applying the Rendering option “Delimited” (see Figure 25).

2. Highlight the report output and copy it into the clipboard (using “Control” + “C”, for example).

Hand You can also copy a delimited report from an email (see “Channel” options in the “Freesound Music Reports options” section).

3. Select the Key number (1-10) of the RIP Key from the pull-down menu, to which you would like to add the actual session data.

4. Click the “Input” button.

5. A confirmation message appears asking you if you would like to transfer the data. Click “OK”.

6. If the data are correct, your report data will be added to the RIP Key. Otherwise, you will need to repeat the procedure again, making sure that the report data are presented in the “delimited” format, and that your clipboard capture will be successful.

Important Please don’t perform Sound Pages at this time since they will cause the clipboard to be busy with internal operations (see “Sound Café” information).

ToDo To delete session data from a Session RIP Key

1. Select the Key number (1-10) of the RIP Key from the pull-down menu, from which you would like to delete the session data.

2. Click the “Reset” button. All session data will be deleted from the RIP Key.

Important Please make sure that you selected the right RIP Key from which you want to delete all data since no confirmation window will be invoked.

ToDo To view session data from a Session RIP Key

1. In the “Freesound Music Report” section of the Report Page form, select the Key number (1-10) of the RIP Key from the second pull-down menu, for which you would like to display the actual session data (see Figure 29).

ReportselectKEYfordisplay

Figure 29 - Select RIP Key for display of content

2. Select other report settings of the form depending on how you would like to receive the data (see section 3.3.3).

3. Click the “Get” button. The data will be displayed in the lower pane.

Important For any project that you publish you need to attribute the creators of the original work. Using a RIP Key, it becomes very easy to get the list of the sound authors that contributed to your project (consider parameter settings as in Figure 30 to get a result as shown in Figure 31).

ReportKeyattributionsetting

Figure 30 - Settings for RIP Key attribution list

ReportKeyattributionresult

Figure 31 - RIP Key attribution list display

Important If you would use a RIP Key to capture the correct attribution list but make no commercial use of the project you should delete the Key before entering the payment form (RIP Form).

Important Whenever you declare offline commercial use in the payment form, ALL keys will be used to calculate the sharing information (percentage for each COW per used sounds). If you are using the “Current” payment method, after payment confirmation all Keys will be deleted from the session report. However, you still will be able to watch them in the yearly or total reports.

In a collaborative environment where multiple artists share Sound Page resources for production, RIP Keys can be used to count the collaborative project across the team.

ToDo To count collaborative projects

1. Determine a team member that will take the lead to count the collaborative project.

2. Define a Key number that will be shared for the collaborative project across the team.

3. Each of the team members will save the project’s sessions into the specific Key number individually.

4. After termination of the project, ask each team member to issue their individual Key report using the “Rendering” option “Delimited” and the “Channel” option “Email” as described in section 3.3.3, “Freesound Music Reports options”.

5. Ask each team member to send the email (which opens automatically when selecting the “Email” channel option) to the count leader of the project determined above.

6. Ask the count leader to update his project Key with all emails received, using the “Input” function as described in the “To add another report to a Session RIP Key” procedure above.

Hand Please note that Keys updated with the “Input” operation will not count towards the total and yearly statistic Key reports. In a collaboration, each Key has been counted already while entering the individual report as described above in step 3.

3.3.5     Basic Reports

Basic Reports are pre-set reports that can be accessed from the last line of the Reports page’s form. They provide you the following:

Report

Description

Session attribution list

This report helps you to attribute the sound authors of your session with one mouse-click (see section 3.3.2, “Session Attribution List”).

My earnings

This report is to Freesound sound authors available only (password required). For more information about how to view and request Freesound Music earnings see section 3.4, „My Earnings“.

Freesound attribution list

This report contains the complete attribution list of all sound authors and their sounds that have been selected so far by the „Freesound Music“ site as issued by „The Freesound Project“.

Project information

Depending on the Sound Page from where the Report Page has been opened, special musical project information may be made available.

ToDo To access a basic report

1. In the Report Page form, locate the last line “Basic Reports” and select the report you want to view from the pull-down menu (see Figure 17).

2. The report “My Earnings” is available to Freesound sound authors only. Freesound sound authors obtain a password that need to be entered in the text field right from the pull-down menu.

3. Click the “Get” button. The report will be displayed.

Hand If you selected “Freesound Attribution List” or “Project Information”, a link will be displayed that allows you to access those reports in a separate window.

3.3.6     Save reports

Reports can be saved by using the standard browser options.

ToDo To save a report

1. From the “File” menu of your browser select the “Save as…” option. The “Save as” dialog box opens.

2. Select location and enter a name indicating your report.

3. Click “Save”. All report data are stored together with the HTML file.

Hand When you open your local report at a later time, you can immediately continue to use the form for getting further reports. In order to do so, make sure that your computer is connected to the Internet.

3.4       My Earnings

3.4.1     Introduction

This section refers to sound authors that contributed their sounds to „The Freesound Project“ and have been selected for the „Freesound Music“ site’s „Sound Park“. As soon as users of the „Freesound Music“ Sound Pages indicated projects for commercial use and contributed their royalty payments as described above, the administrator of the „Freesound Music“ site and the user will be engaged in a payment process in the following stages:

Administrator action

User (COW) action

Payment Stage after action

Share COW-Royalties of a project, applying first time to a user

(No access)

Amount issued

Provide password to user when amount becomes visible

(View status)

Amount available

(View status)

Request amount with transfer details when enough money has been accumulated

(Send reminder)

Amount requested

Request cannot be resolved, ask for correct transfer details from user

(Send correct transfer details)

Request failed

Transfer amount, transfer is written into a sharelog

Resolving failed request, transfer is written into a sharelog

Resolving failed transfer verified by the sharelog

(View status)




(Send note that payment did not arrive)

Amount transferred

Share COW-Royalties of a project, applying any further time to a user

(View status)

New amount available

Get note from user that payment did not arrive

(Resolving transaction issue with user and transaction provider)

Note the administrator that payment did not arrive

(Resolving transaction issue with administrator and transaction provider)

Transfer failed

3.4.2     Shared royalties

The administrator shares the income according to the captured break-down of the respective projects. Captured sounds will be added together with the author information in the earnings report, and the payment state will be set to „Amount issued“.

3.4.3     Getting a password and viewing the earnings

The amounts resulting from a royalty share to the sound creators may be very small in the beginning, but may increase over time to significant amounts. As soon as the amount gets some visibility, the sound creator will receive a „Freesound Music“ password that will be placed into his „The Freesound Project“ message inbox. This password will enable the sound creator to view his own earnings at all relevant stages.

ToDo To view the earnings

1. Select from the “Basic Reports” pull-down menu the “My earnings” option (see Figure 32).

Myearningsform

Figure 32 - Enter “My earnings” report

2. Type or copy your password (7 letters) into the textbox right to the pull-down menu.

3. Click the “Get” button right to the textbox. The earnings report will be opened in basic view displaying a “Welcome” note assigned to your “The Freesound Project” user name (see Figure 33).

Myearningslist

Figure 33 - “My Earnings” report basic view

4. Click the “Welcome” line in order to view the full details of your report. The detailed view will be opened (see Figure 34). Clicking the “Welcome” line again will close the detailed view.

Myearningsrequest

Figure 34 - “My Earnings” report detailed view

The base currency is US dollars and displayed by default. You may, however, display your home currency.

ToDo To display a different currency

1. Click the amount. A pop-up window “Select Currency” will be opened (see Figure 35).

2. From the pop-up window select the desired currency. All amounts of the page will be converted and displayed in the selected currency.

Myearningscurrency

Figure 35 - Currency conversion

Hand Please note that all transfer communications (email, transactions, etc.) will be performed in the base currency (USD).

3.4.4     Requesting a payment

Once you can find some reasonable amount of money in your earnings report, you can request it directly from your VAC (which is the „Freesound Music“ site in this case).

ToDo To request your earnings

1. From your “My earnings” report detailed view (see Figure 34), click the “Request” link. The following email form will be opened:

Myearningsrequestemail

Figure 36 - Payment request

2. Fill your PayPal account data.

Hand The PayPal transfer is free of charge as announced at www.paypal.com. For an alternate payment transfer channel, a transfer fee may apply that would be deducted from your amount.

3. Send the email and verify that the email has been sent.

4. Click the “Confirm sending” button (see Figure 34). The following message will be displayed:

Myearningsrequestmessage

Figure 37 - Request confirmation

Hand If you don’t receive the requested amount within the indicated time, proceed as described in section 3.4.5, “Checking the request”.

The amount that you requested with your email may be lower than the amount that you receive with the actual payment. This will be the case, if new shares have been applied to your sounds during the time of the payment process. After the transfer has been issued, your earnings account will be set back to zero and the payment status will change to „Amount transferred“.

Hand If you don’t receive the requested amount although your payment status is “Amount transferred”, proceed as described in section 3.4.6, “Checking the transfer”.

In case, new shares have been applied to your sounds after your payment status is „Amount transferred“, the new amounts will be displayed and the payment status will be set to „New amount available“ (see Figure 38). This status compares to the status „Amount available“ that applied the first time you have been entitled for payment.

Myearningsnewrequest

Figure 38 - Caption

3.4.5     Checking the request

Whenever you requested a payment and your payment stage does not change to “Amount transferred” within the issued time period, you are able to send a reminder to the administrator that will help him to investigate why the transfer is not being approached in time.

Myearningsrequestedreminder

Figure 39 - Caption

ToDo To send the correct account information

1. Check your payment status as described in section 3.4.3, “Getting a password and viewing the earnings” (see Figure 39).

2. Verify that your payment status is set to “Amount requested”.

3. Click the line of your report to enter the detailed view. The detailed report view opens.

4. Click the “Send Reminder” link from the detailed report view. The following email form opens.

Myearningsrequestedreminderemail

Figure 40 - Caption

5. Add your account information again to make sure that the correct information will be conveyed, and send the email.

Should the administrator find that there might be a problem with the payment account information you provided, your payment stage will change to „Request failed“. If the administrator did not contact you already directly, you are able to send the correct account information using the report in the „Request failed“ stage (see Figure below).

Myearningsrequestfailed

Figure 41 - Failed request report detailed view

ToDo To send a reminder to verify your account information

1. Check your payment status as described in section 3.4.3, “Getting a password and viewing the earnings” (see Figure 41).

2. Verify that your payment status is set to “Request failed”.

3. Click the line of your report to enter the detailed view. The detailed report view opens.

4. Click the “Payment account” link from the detailed report view. The following email form opens.

Myearningsrequestfailedemail

Figure 42 - Resolve account information email form

5. Include your correct account information and send the email.

Important Whenever a new payment share arrives it will be added to the amount that will be finally transferred regardless the payment stage. This means that the final amount you will receive may be higher than issued in the email at the time you were sending it out.

3.4.6     Checking the transfer

Once your payment state has been set to “Amount transferred” you will be able to view your transfer history (see Figure 43). Shouldn’t you receive the amount within a few days, inform the administrator that the transfer did not succeed.

Myearningsrequestedreminder

Figure 43 - Transfer history

ToDo To inform the administrator about a failed transfer

1. Check your payment status as described in section 3.4.3, “Getting a password and viewing the earnings”.

2. Check that your payment status is set to “Amount transferred”.

3. Click the line of your report to enter the detailed view. The transfer history opens.

4. Click the “Send Note” link at the bottom of the transfer history view. The following email form opens.

Myearningsrequestedreminderemail

Figure 44 - Resolve transfer issue email form

5. Add your payment details and send the email.

Important It is recommended to keep an offline copy of your transfer history. This will make it more easy for you to follow up with the resolution of the last failed transfer. Note, however, that the transfer history is hold by the administrator in any case.

From the time your note reached the administrator till the resolution of the transfer, your payment state may be temporarily set to „Transfer failed“. This indicates that your note has been received and that the issue resolution is in progress. If you don’t see a longer time the transfer succeeding, you can click the „Send Reminder“ link in order to send an email to the administrator to inform about it (see Figure 45 and 46).

Myearningstransferfailed

Figure 45 - Transfer failed information view

Important While the payment stage is “Transfer failed”, newly shared amounts will be added toward the next transaction as indicated in the report (see Figure 45) while the current transfer that has been already approached will be based on the issued amount. You will be able to request the new payments once the latest transfer has been resolved. In this case your payment stage will change to “New amount available”.

Myearningstransferfailedemail

Figure 46 - Transfer failed reminder email form

3.5       RIP Report for music merchandisers (Distributors)

3.5.1     Overview

The Royalty Inheritance Program is based on the contribution of distributors that sell content originating from the common work („Freesound Music“ related products and services). The contribution is calculated with regard to the distributors’ income. It is declared anonymously with the help of the RIP form as described below.

The RIP form is divided into three main sections:

1. Estimation form

The estimation form is used to capture the distributor’s project related income. It considers the degree of involvement of the common content as well as its distribution methods (online, offline) in order to be able to create a fair share figure for the parties involved (COWs and VACs).

F_overviewestimation

Figure 47 - RIP-Form estimation section default view

2. Report information and payment section

The report information section displays the breakdown of an income estimation as provided by the contributor. The contributor is free to change the final calculated amount as appropriate. This way, the section can also be used as a donation form (see section 3.5.7, “Donation”).

The section includes also a link to the payment transfer website (current version supports PayPal). After the transfer has been executed, the contributor will confirm the payment which will enable the administrator to share the amount across the community.

F_overviewpayment

Figure 48 - RIP-Form payment section default view

3. Project and site information section

Depending on the project scope entered by the distributor (current or complete year, reference to RIP-Keys), statistical data of the examined project will be shown, divided into online and offline project declarations.

Also, a general information is shown on how many percentage of the distributor’s projects have been involved in commercial transactions, how many of the „Freesound Music“ site’s projects have been involved in commercial transactions all together, and how much of those projects have been already paid or shared with the community (see Figure below).

F_overviewinfo

Figure 49 - RIP-Form information section default view

3.5.2     Estimation

The estimation form consists of 5 entry areas and an execution line (see Figure 50).

F_estimationUS

Figure 50 - Estimation standard entry

1. Related Income

In this area you supply information on how much income you achieved with musical projects where Freesound Music Sound Pages have been part of. This may include complete Sound Page projects as well as projects with minor involvement of Sound Pages.

There are basically two payment methods applicable, determined by payment periods:

¨     Current

This indicates a continuous payment period where your accumulated sound counts may be paid anytime you decide. This method is recommended, for example, when you finished a specific project, and you don’t want to apply further breakdown information of the estimation form to other musical projects as well.

Hand Each time you will confirm a payment using this method, the current sound count information will be deleted, and new sound count information will be gathered from scratch for the following Sound Pages that you indicate for commercial use.

Important Please note that the sound count information has no impact other than a fair share of the resources you used within your projects. It has no influence on the overall amount of the royalties. Royalties are measured according to your income estimation and related project break-down information only.

¨     Specific year

Use the yearly payment method if you deal with a high variety of projects that you would like to summarize in the end of a calendar year, and if it is easier for you to overview your related income based on yearly accounting.

ToDo To enter the Related Income information

1. Enter the overall amount of your income you achieved with Sound Page related projects in the first data entry field.

2. If another currency than US Dollars applies, select the currency from the currency pull-down menu located right to the income entry field. Click the “Get Royalty Report” button at the bottom of the estimation form. The form will refresh and display the converted US Dollar value in a second line (see Figure 51). Now enter the US Dollar value in the data entry field of the second line.

Hand This step is needed since the system calculates all values based on a base currency which is US Dollars. It does not apply if you enter your estimation in US Dollars.

F_estimationCUR

Figure 51 - Estimation with different currency

3. Select the last year from the payment period pull-down menu if you want to provide a yearly estimation. Otherwise, leave the “Current” setting as shown in Figure 51.

2. Work Coverage

The work coverage information defines how much overall playing time applies to your estimated project(s).

Hand This information can be later compared to the recorded overall duration of the Sound Pages captured during the payment period. It may indicate some ratio of how much of your overall project material has been generated by Sound Pages (see 3., “Material Ratio”).

ToDo To enter the Work Coverage information

1. Enter the number of minutes (or hours) of the overall duration of your project(s).

2. Select whether “minutes” or “hours” apply from the time unit pull-down menu right to the data entry field.

3. Material Ratio

The material ratio determines how much percentage of Sound Page resources has approximately being used within your estimated project(s). If you created a project by using exclusively Sound Page sounds the material ratio is 100 %. If you used Sound Page material just for an Intro, the ratio might be equal or lower than 10 %.

Hand Be aware that sounds are usually used simultaneously. Therefore the overall duration of the sound count might be higher than the final duration of your project.

ToDo To enter the Material Ratio information

1. Select a fair percentage from the Material Ratio pull-down menu to indicate how much your project originates from Sound Page resources.

2. The overall resulting royalty will be lowered in accordance with the information you provided.

Hand Please note that you will still be able to lower or raise the final payable amount as described in section 3.5.7, “Donation”.

4. Converted Material

Musical projects can be divided into online and offline projects depending on the media they are presented with. Online projects are usually performed and consumed by the Internet, while offline projects are stored and distributed by conventional electronic media like a CD, CD-ROM, etc.

Hand The reason to count online and offline projects separately is to be able to provide a fair break-down to the community of COWs. If, for example, an album has been produced that created a lot of income due to successful CD sales, the counted value of the contributed sounds would still apply only once. Another project which would have been sold as an online service could gain a much higher value of sound use. The income of the online project, however, would be significant lower than the offline project’s earnings.

ToDo To enter the Converted Material information

1. Select a percentage value from the Converted Material pull-down menu to indicate how much of your income has been approximately derived from offline projects.

Hand You can also issue two different reports, each for an online and for an offline report separately if you need to be more specific for each of the cases.

Hand Unlike with Material Ratio information, the determination of the Converted Material information has no influence on the overall royalty amount that applies. It will balance the sharing of the COW royalty between online project and offline project contributors.

Converted Material (offline project break-downs) is calculated from the summary of your RIP Key entries (see section 3.3.4, “Session RIP Key”). After each payment confirmation of the “Current” payment method, all current RIP Key information will be deleted while yearly and total RIP Key statistics will remain.

5. Non-direct Sales

Users which sell services or products to distributors or provide any other kind of infrastructure based on the “Freesound Music” site do not need to pay the COW royalty (see Figures 5-8) for those services or products. Those sales not directly applying to end consumers are called “Non-direct Sales”.

ToDo To enter the Non-direct Sales information

1. Select a percentage value from the Non-direct Sales pull-down menu to indicate how much of your income has been approximately derived from non-direct sales.

Hand If you earned only through non-direct sales, you will apply 100 %, and the overall royalty will be due to 10 % of your total income (VAC royalty) only.

2. If you sold work from a Sub-VAC licensor you need to enter his ID into the text field right from the Non-direct Sales pull-down menu. This ID is usually supplied on the website of the Sub-VAC licensor or otherwise as advised by him.

Hand More information about the involvement of a Sub-VAC licensor can be found in section 3.5.8, “VAC Subcontractor”.

Hand You can also issue two different reports, each for a direct sales and for a non-direct sales report separately if you need to be more specific for each of the cases.

6. Execution line

The execution line at the bottom of the estimation form allows you to generate the royalty report according to your estimation settings, or to reset the form.

ToDo To generate a royalty report

1. After you filled the form as described above, click the “Get Royalty Report” button. The page refreshes and the royalty report will be displayed in the Royalty Report section (see following section 3.5.3, “Report information”).

2. You may modify values in the form, and click the “Get Royalty Report” button again.

Hand If you feel that the resulting value is inappropriate, or if you would like to donate a certain amount of money in addition, you may also change the final amount in the Royalty Report section entry field as described in section 3.5.7, “Donation”.

ToDo To reset the estimation form

1. Click the “Reset” button if you would like to enter a complete new estimation.

Hand Unlike with the report form that is described in section 3.3, “View Reports”, all form entries are retained in the estimation form with every new refresh of the browser page.

3.5.3     Report information

Report information is issued in the “Royalty Report” and in the “Project and Site Information” section.

Royalty Report section

The “Royalty Report” section contains 5 areas (see Figure 52), including:

¨     Report header

Includes unique time stamp (server time) which is used to identify the report later on.

¨     Primary royalty breakdown

Includes COW royalty amount statement, VAC royalty statement, and the total payment amount which is presented in a text entry field.

¨     Payment area

Includes the link to the PayPal online payment service that is used to transfer the royalties to the „Freesound Music“ VAC for distribution.

¨     Report management area

This area is used to confirm a payment (see section 3.5.4, „Payment“) and to retrieve and review reports later on (see section 3.5.5, „View Reports“).

¨     Secondary royalty breakdown

Includes royalty breakdown per online and offline COWs as applies (see Figure 54), as well as the breakdown between direct VAC and the superior VAC (see Figure 52), or between the Sub-VAC and the direct VAC granting a sublicense (see Figure 56).

Royalty Report examples

The following screenshots present a few of typical examples:

1. Example

Output of a project estimation where only Freesound resources have been used for the project(s), exclusively presented in an online environment (total income of US $ 200):

F_payment_1

Figure 52 - Report based on 100 % Freesound Music resource estimation

2. Example

Output of a project estimation where approximately the half of Freesound resources have been used for the project(s), exclusively presented in an online environment (total income of US $ 200):

F_payment_2

Figure 53 - Report based on 50 % Freesound Music resource estimation

3. Example

Output of a project estimation where approximately the half of Freesound resources have been used for the project(s), and where approximately the half income resulted from versions presented in an online environment, while the other half of the income resulted from offline versions of the project(s) (total income of US $ 200):

F_payment_3

Figure 54 - Report based on 50 % Freesound Music resource estimation, 50 % hybrid

4. Example

Output of a project estimation where approximately the half of Freesound resources have been used for the project(s), and where approximately 40 % income resulted from versions presented in an online environment, while the another 40 % of the income resulted from offline versions of the project(s), and approximately 20 % from non-direct sales such as musical services based on a Sound Page environment (total income of US $ 200):

F_payment_4

Figure 55 - Report based on 50 % resource estimation, 50 % hybrid, 80 % direct sales

5. Example

Output of a project estimation where approximately the half of Freesound resources have been used for the project(s), and where approximately 40 % income resulted from versions presented in an online environment, while the another 40 % of the income resulted from offline versions of the project(s), and approximately 20 % from non-direct sales such as musical services based on a Sound Page environment (total income of US $ 200). In addition the whole common work is based on a value added work a Sub-VAC licensor with the ID ‘Sub-VAC1’ offered while building on top of the “Freesound Music” Sound Page services.

F_payment_5

Figure 56 - Report based on 50 % resource estimation, 50 % hybrid, 80 % direct sales, Sub-VAC licensor

Project and Site Information section

The „Project and Site Information“ section shows additional project and site information on a permanent basis (see Figure 58).

The project information includes a break-down of numbers of authors, sounds, soundcalls and the overall duration valid for the online projects and for the offline projects per payment period as entered in the payment period pull-down menu (see first line in estimation form, Figure 57).

In addition, a “Calculated material ratio” is issued that can be used to compare with the “Material Ratio” entered in the estimation form. The calculated ratio compares the overall duration of the used project resources (overall duration of all sounds’ playing time) with the project duration entered in the “Work Coverage” field of the estimation form reduced by the entered “Material Ratio” and “Converted Material” factor.

Hand The calculated material ratio is usually higher than the entered material ratio since sounds are usually used in parallel (see following example).

Example

The following screenshots show an estimate where musical projects with an overall duration of approximately 100 minutes have been produced for the payment period of the year 2007. 20 % of the projects have been distributed by offline media.

F_estimationinformation

Figure 57 - Estimation based on 100 % resources, and 20 % hybrid publishing

The Project and Site Information section shows 2 hours and 42 minutes (162 minutes) overall duration of all sound that have been played for the period of 2007 for 80 % of the online projects. This is approximately twice the duration that has been declared in the estimation (80 % of 100 minutes = 80 minutes). As said earlier, sounds are usually used simultaneously, which explains the higher duration of the material used.

The overall duration of the material used for the offline projects is 17 minutes comparing to 20 minutes as declared in the estimation form (20 % of 100 minutes = 20 minutes). It could be that the true ratio between the online and offline projects is a bit higher than 20 %, which would balance the material ration between the two kinds of projects.

F_estimationinformationview

Figure 58 - Project and Site information based on 100 % resources, and 20 % hybrid publishing estimation

The overall ratio of all projects of the user during the complete time of usage shown in this example is more than the half (52 %). Even the overall ratio of all projects of all users of the site during the complete time of usage covers more than a third, which would be of course very high. In this example, the site is obviously not in use for a long period of time, since no royalties are paid yet.

3.5.4     Payment

After the estimation has been refined and the generated report has been found appropriate, the payment services of PayPal can be directly accessed in order to initiate the royalty transaction (see Figure 59).

F_payment

Figure 59 - Link to PayPal “Send money” page

ToDo To initiate the royalty transaction

1. Click the “PayPal” logo in the payment area. The “Send Money” page of the PayPal site opens offering a payment form (see Figure 60).

2. Fill “flex@cm-gallery.com” in the “To:” field and the other fields as applies in the “Send Money” form of the PayPal page (see Figure 60).

3. Follow the PayPal online instructions depending on whether you have already a PayPal account or not in order to proceed with the transaction.

F_paymentsendmoney

Figure 60 - “Send money” form of PayPal “Send money” page

4. Once the transaction has been completed, click the “Confirm Payment” button located beneath the payment area in the Royalty Report section (see Figure 61). Your report will be stored and the royalties will be shared as stated in the report.

F_paymentconfirmation

Figure 61 - Payment confirmation message

When sharing your COW royalties, each of the sound creators will get an exact amount according to his specific contribution to your projects as recorded by your online and offline projects during the indicated payment period. If, for example, a specific sound creator contributed 10 % to your project and your COW royalties have been 20.- Euro, the earnings account of this sound creator would grow for 2.- Euro (see section 3.4, “My Earnings”). He even would be able to see which of his sounds contributed to which extend (in total of all projects to which the sounds contributed).

Hand The contribution index is the product of sound duration and the number of sound calls: A short sound that is called a few times may be not less important, or gains at least the same attention as a long lasting sound, even so, the overall playing time of the longer sound is much more extensive.

3.5.5     View reports

After a certain period of time you may want to view the various royalty payments you executed. The RIP Form page allows to reload the report while displaying the same field entries and other report details at the time you confirmed the payment (see Figure 68).

The reports are identified by their time stamp short-form which follows the order of day-month-year-hour-minutes-seconds, two digits each, separated by a dash. If your report, for example, has been confirmed by the 21st of July, 2007, at 9:02 AM, and 27 seconds (server time), the ID of your report would read “21-07-07-09-02-27” (see Figure 66).

ToDo To review a royalty payment report

1. Click the “Show Reports” button beneath the payment area, right to the “Confirm Payment” button (see Figure 59).

2. If you confirmed already at least one report, the report retrieval section will show up and the former “Show Report” button will turn into “Hide Reports”.

Hand The function will not be available if no report has been confirmed yet.

3. Select the report you would like to view from the selection window beneath the “Hide Reports” button.

F_showreports

Figure 62 - Report selection view

4. Click the “Retrieve Selection” button left to the selection window. The RIP Form page will be refreshed and your selected report will be shown (see Figure 67). Note that the headline of the estimation section will read now “Estimation Retrieval” including the report ID indicating the report you requested to view.

F_retrievalestimation

Figure 63 - Report estimation form retrieval

In the same way, the headline of the Royalty Report section will now change, indicating that you are now viewing a stored report (see Figure below).

F_retrievalreport

Figure 64 - Report view retrieval

Hand You may use a retrieved report to modify its data and generate a new report from it as described in section 3.5.2, “Estimation”.

5. Select another report to view, or click the “Hide Reports” button to close the report retrieval section.

3.5.6     Save reports

After you confirmed (see section 3.5.4, „Payment“) or reviewed (see section 3.5.5, “View Reports”) a report, you may want to save it to your computer. This can simply be done using your browser’s standard saving functions.

ToDo To save a payment report

1. From the “File” menu of your browser select the “Save as…” option. The “Save as” dialog box opens.

2. Select location and enter a name indicating your report.

3. Click “Save”. All report data are stored together with the HTML file.

Hand When you open your local report at a later time, you can immediately continue to use the form to issue or to get further reports. In order to do so, make sure that your computer is connected to the Internet.

3.5.7     Donation

As valued user of the „Freesound Music“ site you are not bound to the exact royalty amounts as issued by the RIP Form page. As you learned from the above descriptions, the whole estimation is based on a quite rough scheme, and estimations and payments are handled almost completely anonymously (no personal data beside an email account are required). This expresses our will to appeal to and to rely on your own legal responsibility in front of the creative community as defined by the license rules explained in chapter 2, “Royalty Inheritance Program”, and further license terms of this site.

From this reason, the form provides the flexibility to modify the final payment amount and allows you to change it as you feel appropriate in accordance with the spirit and the general rules of the royalty program. This freedom can be utilized to correct the final payment amount, but also to donate an amount of money to the community in addition, exceeding the royalty amount that would apply according to the estimation calculation.

You might even use the RIP Form in order to donate to the community even so you did not earn money with your projects. In this case you should, however, define RIP Keys as described in section 3.3.4, “Session RIP Key”, in order to make sure that those creators will benefit from your donation that contributed to the music you were enjoying.

In addition, a general donation to the “Freesound Music” or to “The Freesound Project” site is possible as well.

ToDo To modify the final amount

1. Fill the estimation form as described in section 3.5.2, “Estimation”, and generate the royalty report accordingly (see below Figure).

F_donation1

Figure 65 - Generation of a royalty report

2. In the Royalty Report section, at the “Total” base line where the total amount is issued, enter a new amount into the text entry field (see Figure 63).

3. Perform the payment transaction as described in section 3.5.4, “Payment”.

F_donation2

Figure 66 - Modification of a final royalty number

4. Click the “Confirm Payment” button. The report will be refreshed displaying a modified break-down for the Creators of the Original Work and the Value Added Creators (see below Figure).

F_donation3

Figure 67 - Subsequent modification of royalty break-down

5. To view the report, proceed as described in section 3.5.5, “View Reports”.

Hand In order to keep the report system consistent, when reviewing a report, the estimation base will have changed according to the change you applied to the final royalty amount (see Figure 65).

Example

If, for example, your estimation was based on 200 Euro, but you raised the final royalty amount by 2/3, the same raise will apply afterwards to your Related Income figure and show now 333 Euro (see Figure 65).

F_donation4

Figure 68 - Subsequent adjustment of estimation data after changing final amount

Hand Please note that due to conversion and re-iterative calculations small differences may apply to the break-down amounts shown. The final shared amounts will be, however, calculated exactly based on the actual transaction as received by the site’s administration.

3.5.8     VAC Subcontractor

If your earnings are based on a distribution of a work offered by a Sub-VAC licensor, you need to enter the Sub-VAC license ID into the “VAC sublicense” entry field as shown in the “Non-direct Sales” line of the Estimation section (see Figure below).

F_subvacentry

Figure 69 - Sub-VAC licensor entry field (estimation form)

After generating the royalty report, the break-down information will refer to the Sub-VAC licensor as shown in the below figure:

F_subvacreport

Figure 70 - Sub-VAC report information

For more information about a VAC Subcontractor, refer to chapter 2 „Royalty Inheritance Program“, section 2.7, “Value added creation on hook”.

If you are interested to create a site based “Freesound Music” Sound Pages and related services, or in case of any other issues related to a Sub-VAC ID, Sub-VAC payments, etc., please contact directly flex@cm-gallery.com (see also section 1.1, “Direct Support”).

________________________________________________

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


________________________________________________