Into The Rift Vol. 2 Submissions Open

Into The Rift Vol. 2 Submission Guidelines

Submissions for Into The Rift Vol. 2 are a little bit different from previous guidelines. Please read all of this guide to ensure your submission is accepted.

World Wide Storms Theme

The past year has seen numerous turbulent social, political, financial, scientific and ecological events. And 2017 appears to be continuing the trend of extreme events. Cerebral Audio is inviting artists to create
audio works interpreting one or more of these events that have had significant impact on the world.

Interpretation may take any audio form: music, sound collage, spoken word, etc. The concept of a storm is a metaphor for interpreting recent or current events: there are good storms, bad storms, renewing storms, etc. How you interpret events and storms is open to you.

Submissions

This year submissions will be handled with the following guidelines:

• When: Submissions are accepted from May 1st through June 10th, 2017. Any submissions after the deadline will be rejected for inclusion the compilation.
• Unreleased Works: Only previously unreleased works will be accepted for the compilation.
• Format: All works need to be encoded as a FLAC, WAV, or ALAC files. Submissions in lossy compression formats such as MP3, OGG, SPEEX, AAC, etc. will be rejected. 24bit encodings are recommended, but not required.
• Un-mastered Audio: Please don't submit mastered recordings. Leave enough headroom to allow for mastering to be done by Cerebral Audio for the release. We seek to provide a nice listening experience throughout the complete release and having tracks that have been mastered in different styles makes it difficult to provide a coherent listening experience.
• Documentation: Submissions must contain the following:
  1. The audio recording in a format listed above.
  2. A document (text file preferred) containing: track title, artist name, artist profile, email address (not for publication), social media contacts, track description (to be used in the liner notes). Indicate if you would do not want your track released on commercial platforms such as Spotify, Amazon, Google Music, iTunes, etc.
  3. Include an image for your profile in the liner notes. A square image (recommended size is 1024×1024) so they can be scaled to fit in the liner notes.
• Sending: Submissions need to have all of the items listed above zipped into a file and sent to [email protected] via WeTransfer or similar file sharing service. Submissions will not be accepted from SoundCloud, Face Book, or other sites. Please make certain that the subject line for the WeTransfer submission contains the phrase "Into The Rift Submission" to allow for proper handling.

Note: all accepted submissions will be released under a Creative Commons license. Cerebral Audio uses the Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike (CC BY-NC-SA) license by default, unless otherwise
specified. If you prefer a different Creative Commons license, please be sure to indicate you preferred license in the text file with your submission. If you do not know what Creative Commons is, please see the
Common Questions section below. If you do not want your work released under a Creative Commons license, then please do not submit your work.

Those are the guidelines, now get creating! 🙂

Common Questions

During the submission process last year a number of questions arose. Below is a list of questions and answers to those inquiries and a few more that are likely to come up.

How Long Can My Track Be?

Last year I suggested that tracks should be no longer than 12-15 minutes, but I would make exceptions. This year I am not setting a limit. However, please remember that this is a compilation to highlight all the artists works. Having a single extremely long track (like 60-70 minutes) will feel a bit heavy-handed.

Do Spoken Word Recordings Need To Be Encoded The Same As Music?

Short answer: yes. Encoding in a lossless format will make it easier to master your work for release.

What's This About Commercial Platforms?

Cerebral Audio uses a distributor to submit releases to a dozen different digital platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Google Play Music, Amazon MP3, Tidal, etc.

Last year I polled all the artists on the release to find out if they objected to having their tracks released on these platforms. One artist did, so their track was not included in the digital platform release.

Cerebral Audio respects the rights of all artists to control how their work is distributed. Asking you to include this information with your submission will ensure that your wishes are carried out.

How Much Money Can I Expect?

Probably none. Last years compilation did not make a profit. In fact, none of the releases on Cerebral Audio is focused more on the music than it is on profits. However, if this release makes enough money to distribute to the artists, you will be sent an email with a transfer from PayPal.

Note: we do post a suggested price on the Cerebral Audio website. However, this is just a suggestion, and frequently people change the price to zero.

Why Include My Email?

As mentioned above, if there is a profit from this release, a PayPal transfer will be sent to your email.

In addition, your email will be used for any communication needed during the production process for the release.

And finally, I hope to have pre-release versions of the compilation available before the release date. Links to download the pre-release version will be sent to your email.

What Is The Release Date?

Into The Rift Volume Two will be released on July 14th, 2017 as part of the annual Netlabel Day activities.

What Is This Creative Commons Thing?

Creative Commons is an alternative licensing system to using straight Copyright. It uses a licensing system to modify the terms of Copyright to grant your audience additional usage permissions.

Cerebral Audio uses the Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike license supplied by Creative Commons. This license allows users to listen to and share your work as long as (a) it is always attributed to the creator, (b) it is not used for any commercial purposes without your explicit permission.

This is a win for artists as it allows your work to gain the widest possible exposure, while ensuring that you are compensated for use in things like commercials or films.

Additional Questions?

If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask. Just use the CerebralRift Contact Form, or send me an email: [email protected]