Getting set up as an artist on ezFolk is easy. Follow these easy directions and you’ll be up and running in just a few minutes. Click here for a more comprehensive overview and more detailed instructions of the features available to you as an ezFolk artist.

Step 1 - Create an Artist Account

Click here to sign up now.

Just fill in the blanks.

To keep it simple, your “User Name” can be the same as your “Artist Name.”

Although you can use anything you want for an artist name, it is preferable that you use either your full real name or your group name.

Be sure to click on the link to read the User License Agreement. It has been kept short and sweet so it’s easy to understand. Don’t forget to click on the box that says you read it.

Enter the Registration Verification then click on “Create Account.”

Step 2 - Activate Your Account

You should receive an automated validation email within a few minutes after you sign up. If you don’t receive it within an hour or so, email me and let me know your username and I’ll be glad to help. Allow a little time for my response in case I’m not at the computer at the time.

When you have successfully activated your account you should see a message similar to the one here.

Step 3 - Log In to Your Account

After you have activated your account you can sign in anywhere you see a “SITE LOGIN” form such as the one pictured here.

There are other places where you can log in to your account throughout the MP3 section. Just look for the “Log In” link.

Step 4 - Get familiar with the Control Panel

You can control all of your options from your control panel. There are different control panel themes so yours may not look exactly like the one below, but this is generally what your control panel will look like the first time you see it...

More options will appear as you add items to your webspace. For instance, after you add a song, in addition to “Create a Song” other options such as “Change a Song” and “Delete a Song” and “Arrange Songs” will be available.

For now we will just concentrate on what you need to do to get up and running with your space.

Step 5 - Modify Artist

The first thing you should do is click on the “Modify Artist” button. This will allow you to enter important information such as your artist picture, your biography, and other things. Here’s what that screen should look like...

I’ll give a quick explanation to each of the entries in the form above:

Artist Name: This was the artist name you signed up with at the beginning and you don’t have an option to change it. However, if you would like it changed just send me an email and I’ll be glad to change it for you, especially if you’re changing to your whole real name or group name (you might have guessed I’m not big on the cryptic names).

Artist URL Name: Use this option to create and easy-to-remember shortcut to your site on ezFolk. Just type in whatever you’d like it to be. Don’t use spaces and don’t use capital letters. Just a string of lower case characters is best. For our example artist, whose name is Isaiah Artist, he might type in his entire name, like this:

isaiahartist

This would be the shortcut to his site: http://ezfolk.com/audio/isaiahartist

That’s quite a string. Maybe his nickname is “Izzy” and that’s what he’d like for his shortcut. He can type izzy for his Artist URL name and this would be his shortcut:

http://ezfolk.com/audio/izzy

Member(s):  Enter the names of your group members, or if it’s just you enter your own name.

Location: You’re probably not from Algeria, so click on the drop-down box to select your location. This will help people to find you if they’re looking for artists in your area.

Website: Enter your website if you have another one besides ezFolk. If not, just leave it blank.

Artist Influences: Enter names of artists who have influenced you. This helps if people are searching for artists who are similar to other artists.

Artist Genre: Open the drop-down menu to choose the one genre that most closely describes your music. If you don’t see a genre that you feel fits your music, email me and request that I add a new genre.

Biography: Enter your biographical information.

Below is another graphic showing the information under the biography that didn’t make it in our first screen capture. I’ll explain those options below the graphic.

Show Song Count: Read the description and click on your choice.

Share Your Fans:  Read the description and click on your choice.

Payout Email Address: (Currently this option is not used.)

Upload New Artist Image: This is where you upload your main artist photo.

Select Gallery Image: When you click the “Launch Image Browser” button you can choose from photos that you have uploaded to your Photo section. That way you only need to upload a photograph once and can use it in different areas such as for songs and album images as well as your artist image.

Important: After you have made all of these changes be sure to click on “Modify Artist” at the bottom of the page or your changes will be lost.

Step 6 - Create a Song

Now that you’re all set up with the basics you can start adding your music. In your control panel on the left side under “Songs,” click on “Create Song.”

The “Create a Song” form is easy to fill out but it’s kind of long so I’ll break it into three parts, and under each part I’ll explain a little about it.

Song Name: Enter the song name. Please don’t use slashes (/) because they have been known at times to cause problems. If you need to use a separator of some type a hyphen (-) works well.

Song Credits: Enter names of the songwriter and/or musicians and you can include year written or whatever. Please remember though that you must be the author (copyright holder) or the song must be in the public domain (published before 1923). An exception to this would be a song written by a friend or family member that you’re recording with their permission. Cover songs are not allowed.

New Album: This can be the name of an actual album or just a way to sort your MP3s into different categories. If you’re just sorting them out into different categories you can name them whatever you like, such as “Guitar” or “Fingerstyle Guitar” or “Love Songs” or “Jug Band” or anything else that works for you.

Song Label: If you have a record label that your song is recorded under, use this space. If not, just leave it blank.

Song Genre:  Use the drop-down box to choose a genre that would most closely fit your song.

Song Lyrics:  Enter song lyrics here (optional). If lyrics are included they will pop up in a new window if a user clicks on the lyrics button on your song page.

Song Information: You can enter optional information about your song here. This is similar to the lyrics link. When a user clicks on the “Info” button this information pops up in a small window.

Explicit Lyrics: Check this if your song contains explicit lyrics. Please note that ezFolk is a site designed for all ages. We are listed on several rating sites as having no offensive material, so please, use the clean songs here on ezFolk and save the other songs for those sites where it is more acceptable.

Hide Song: Click here if you don’t want the song to appear on your page. Note that if this is checked the song will not be playable and will not be included in the ezFolk charts and ranking system. Hiding songs might be useful at times, for instance, you might have several Christmas songs available but after Christmas you could hide them until next November and then unhide them without having to upload them again.

No Radio: Leave this unchecked unless for some reason you do not want your song to be included on ezFolk radio stations.

Generally you don’t need to worry about how much disk space you’re using or how much is left since there are no limits on the number of songs your upload to ezFolk.

Upload HiFi Song File: You just need to upload your HiFi song file. Your song file must be in the MP3 format. It can be virtually any size from 8 KBPS (kilobits per second) to 320 KBPS. Generally the higher the bitrate the better the sound quality will be, but the higher bitrate files are also harder to load because they are larger files. If you have a choice when recording your MP3s, the most commonly used bitrates to save your MP3 at are currently 128, 160, and 192.

HiFi Listener Access: Using the drop-down box choose what kind of access listeners will have. Default is “Streaming + Downloading.” If you don’t want people to be able to download your MP3s change this to “Streaming Only.” Please only use the “Streaming Only Preview” option if you are selling the same song in the digital vault. If that is the case be sure to also choose “No Radio” in a previous option so the radio stations won’t contain previews.

Upload LoFi Song File: Since the LoFi file is automatically generated from the HiFi MP3, don’t use this option unless you are uploading a LoFi file but not a HiFi file.

Upload Song Image: From your hard drive select a picture for you song image (optional). You can use a gallery image instead (see next option).

Select Gallery Image: Click on “Launch Image Browser” to bring up a gallery of pictures that you have already loaded into your Photo section. This will enable you to reuse pictures so you only have to load them once.

Important: Be sure to click “Add New Song” at the bottom of the page to save your song. Otherwise your changes will be lost.

To add more songs just repeat Step 6.

Step 7 - Add a Blog Message

The main page of your MP3 section on ezFolk contains your blog messages. Be sure to use this to inform your listeners of anything you want them to know when they visit your page.

Click on “Create Entry” under the “Blog” menu on the left side of the control panel.

The blog entry form is shown below and is simple and self-explanatory. Under “Entry Title” give your message a name. For “Existing Category” just keep the “default” setting. Then in the “Entry Text” box type your message and at the bottom of the page be sure to click on “Create Entry.”

Step 8 - Rebuild and View Your Site

It’s a good idea any time you make changes to your site to rebuild it so your sure the changes were made. Just click on “Rebuild Your Site” under the “Your Site” menu on the control panel. After the website is rebuilt you should see a message saying it was a success. Then click on “View Your Site” to see what it looks like.

Step 9 - Exiting the Control Panel

You can exit the control panel at any time by clicking on “Exit Control Panel” on the upper right side of the control panel. You will still be logged in and you can visit pages of other artists, rate songs, become a fan of other artists, and that type of thing while you are logged in. If you are leaving the site you can click on “Log Out” so the system will log you out, but this is optional because after a certain period of inactivity you will automatically be logged out. When you return just log in again.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. Over the next week I’ll be doing a more in-depth tutorial of the other features in the control panel, but for now don’t be afraid to just try things out and see how they work. You can always make changes if something doesn’t turn out right.