What's diff. between COMPOSERS and AUTHORS when submitting a new song in database.

Can someone help me out please. I want to start adding "new" originals to the database that have multiple covers. I am getting bogged down when it gets to the step that asks for "COMPOSERS" (which I assumed meant the songwriters), but then the next step asks for "AUTHORS" (which I assumed meant songwriters as well). So I don't know how to complete that portion. If it's trying to split out between who wrote the music and lyrics I may not always have that precise of data. Any help would be much appreciated. And also, is there a way to make it default to ENGLISH as the language as 99.9% of what I will submit will be ENGLISH songs.

Thx Mark.

Yes - what you've said is how we define these terms. Composer refers to the person who wrote the music, and author to the person who wrote the lyrics. In most cases, the copyright databases or label credits do not distinguish who wrote music and lyrics. In those cases, you just enter all the songwriters into both fields in the form. Hope that helps.

Thx. Got it. I'll do my best to break them out. Most of these songwriters are already in your database so I should be able to get some assistance from that.

Added composer & author to the glossary:

https://secondhandsongs.com/page/Glossary

Awesome. I think that was warranted for all the new folks out there just starting.

I'm using all your questions & remarks as opportunities to improve our guidelines and support documentation

Sorry I hadn't responded. I know you take what I say seriously. I appreciate that. I think I'm a healthy sanity check for SHS. It's unfortunate we don't have something like Slack to chat on as I'd spend more time on discussing refining specific examples on Guidelines and more of a Bookmarks of what new editors really need. I usually learn of new aides when Sebastian or someone points something out. My biggest issue with the site is to me it's very difficult to navigate. I have to bookmark everything to now get to where I need to be. Normally I have to ask Sebastian, he sends me the link and I bookmark it. I spent forever last night trying to find the postings on the "lunapic" for visual editing as I recall an editor posting helpful links when I first said I didn't completely follow your tutorial on the Pixlr Editing (by the way your video didn't state which program you were using to edit the images and when you put it in full screen to see it, it concealed the web address - you should mention that). I never could find the discussion the other editor had left, but I found your video and watched it over and over and over until I was able to do it on my own. Now I'm like why did I fight making my own release images for so long. You did a good job in your video except I would do it in "slo mo".

Apart from Pixlr, please give me a few other examples of links you bookmarked yourself.

I just went through all the links I've bookmarked that others have provided to compare against what we have on that long Bookmarks page on our site, and it appears they are all on that page. That page is so long I just never used it like I should have. For example, I never would have known Mills Records was an important resource until you mentioned it to me a long while back based off where it is on our Bookmarks page. or that EAN check digit calculator.

But the reality is I should have learned every link on that Bookmark page a while back.

Quote from mduval32323

But the reality is I should have learned every link on that Bookmark page a while back.

Of course not. The list should be presented in a way that you know what's important and what's not. Right now everything is mixed so the useful ones get "lost".

We should probably have a specific Editor Bookmarks page, with only the most relevant ones for our research. I'm thinking of:

• All PROs that have a searchable database
• Mills
• 45cat
• Discogs
• Praguefrank
• DAHR
• Jazz Discography Project
• Rockin' Country Style
• IMDB
• Whosampled
• Pixlr
• Check Digit Calculation

Did I forget an essential one?

(Wow, I hadn't ever seen this Rockin' Country Style website before - thx for that one)

All PROs that have a searchable database (I only use GEMA/BMI/ASCAP/ISWC unless I have to venture out---I would categorize/rank them as there is a whole long list of them and it's intimidating. I still have no clue how to use JASRAC. When I've tried it's all in Japanese.)

Mills Records - let people know you can get EANs here that you can't readily find elsewhere.

45cat + 45worlds (I know they are sister sites but they are diff. I actually always have 3 of their sites open...1 for singles, 1 for 78s and 1 for albums...) - I cannot function w/o all 3.

Discogs

AllMusic

Praguefrank (define this on our site...Some Artists have a Page 1 & a Page 2..if so, Page 1 is for recordings, Page 2 is for releases)

DAHR

Jazz Discography Project

Rockin' Country Style (I probably won't ever use this one)

IMDB

Whosampled

Pixlr

Check Digit Calculation (this site is probably handy but if people are taught they can keep typing the last digit until they get it "right" that's probably quicker than going to that site).

Ebay (I would make people more aware of what Ebay offers...I often get artwork from there and I def. get EANs from there. I didn't know about that when I started.)

YouTube ( I use this almost every time I add anything).

I would also make sure people are aware of what Soundtrack Collector and those Broadway Cast sites offer...You really can't set up Musicals without that reference. I think you should emphasize creating Musicals and Movies on the Trainee list.

My biggest help was Sebastian showing me this page on our site as I hadn't known about it. It was very difficult for me to locate things I had created by type or if I wanted to view another Editor's work to learn from them. Just type in your name and you can view by release/work/performance....(except you can't view broadcasts and live shows you created here - I would correct that, no reason it shouldn't be a dropdown option too)

https://secondhandsongs.com/explore/newly_added_performances?creator=72827&sort=…

I would have a set of Internal Links like the one I just gave on some "Bookmarks" page. I had a very difficult time navigating our site and all the various discussions. Now I have shortcuts to them all saved on my Bookmarks Bar under SHS.

I would also require new Trainees to have to learn the Pixlr Editing from the get-go so they don't keep adding to the pile of "bad" images on our site. I resisted this for a couple months and once I actually did it it was way easier than I ever imagined.

The other thing I would teach people right out of the gate is how you can do the right click and open the link in another tab and that they must do this to view the Label page every time when creating releases. Scanning the Label page will catch a lot of errors.

Last edit: 2019-11-30 17:54:40 UTC by mduval32323

Quote from mduval32323

All PROs that have a searchable database (I only use GEMA/BMI/ASCAP/ISWC unless I have to venture out---I would categorize/rank them as there is a whole long list of them and it's intimidating. I still have no clue how to use JASRAC. When I've tried it's all in Japanese.)

Trimmed down to 2 categories:

• PRO databases cross-referenced with SecondhandSongs
• PRO databases with searchable databases

Check it out: https://secondhandsongs.com/page/EditorBookmarks

Quote from mduval32323

AllMusic

I'd rather not encourage our editors to use this website.

Quote from mduval32323

I would also require new Trainees to have to learn the Pixlr Editing from the get-go so they don't keep adding to the pile of "bad" images on our site. I resisted this for a couple months and once I actually did it it was way easier than I ever imagined.

Glad to hear

Quote from Bastien

Quote from mduval32323

AllMusic

I'd rather not encourage our editors to use this website.

It’s very good for high quality front and back cover art - and okay for release dates for more contemporary releases. But agree that it’s unreliable for releases pre-2000.

I like your new Bookmarks page much, much better...I would add the Bluegrass Discography page too..I'm finding this to be a very useful resource for releases in that genre.

Posted: https://secondhandsongs.com/topic/75333

I responded on that thread thx.