Are you looking at your file browser and all your tracks are grayed out? That’s because we require lossless (.aiff, .wav or .flac) files -- no .mp3’s. Here’s why.
Does your upload just never start? On modern browsers we use HTML5 for uploading, so make sure your browser is up to date. If you’re stuck with an older browser (or IE 8), make sure you have a recent version of Flash installed.
Is the upload starting, but just never finishing? Or does the progress bar zip across the screen quickly and then the upload fails? It may be that a third-party anti-virus program is interfering with your upload. If you’re using AVG, you’ll need to disable the Web Shield and LinkScanner. If you’re using Kaspersky Internet Security, you’ll need to either disable it entirely, or just turn off their port 80 filtering. If you’re using Avast, you’ll have to disable it. If you’re using something not listed here… you guessed it, try turning it off.
If you’re on a wireless connection, try plugging in directly. Lossless audio files can be big, and even a brief wireless hiccup can cause your upload to fail.
If you’re already on a direct connection, and you’re seeing consistent upload failures, upload a tiny test file. If that works, then the issue is your connection and we suggest trying a different one, if possible. If the tiny test upload fails, then take a look at our system status. If it says that uploads are working normally, then the issue is with your particular setup, and we suggest double-checking that none of the aforementioned anti-virus programs are interfering. You might also try uploading from a different machine to try to narrow things down.
If your upload completes but you see “upload error” next to the track title, chances are good there's an issue with the encoding of your file. Your best bet is to re-export the file from the original master, but this time in a different format (.wav, .aiff, or .flac). Try uploading the new copy and see if you don't have better luck.
Still no joy? Click here.
It’s all about maximizing flexibility for you and your fans. WAV, AIFF and FLAC are high-fidelity (lossless) formats. By starting with the highest possible quality source, we’re able to convert your tracks into a bunch of different format and quality combinations, including MP3 (320, VBR V0), Ogg Vorbis, Apple Lossless, FLAC and AAC (aka .m4a or iTunes store format). Sure, most fans will just want the MP3 and won’t know or care about anything else, but there’s a rabid minority out there who will love that you’re giving them a choice. And if a new format/quality becomes à la mode (like when Amazon’s MP3 store made iTunes’ 128k AACs seem antiquated), we’ll transcode to that too, without you having to do a thing.
New tracks (from the studio) are probably already in WAV or AIFF or can easily be saved in one of those formats by your audio editing software. If you’re importing old tracks from CD, just rip the tracks to WAV or AIFF using iTunes. Select “Preferences…” from the iTunes menu, click the Import Settings… button in the General tab (for versions of iTunes earlier than 8.0, click the Advanced tab and select “Importing”), and next to “Import Using:” choose “AIFF Encoder” or “WAV Encoder.” If you’d prefer to upload FLAC files (which is a compressed lossless format, so it sounds exactly the same as WAV and AIFF but creates files that are about half the size and therefore take half the time to upload) we suggest using one of these tools to convert your tracks (iTunes doesn't support FLAC conversion).
We strongly recommend against it. The resulting audio will not sound good and fans expecting to get a high-quality download will be disappointed. Some will (rightfully) demand a refund.
Why yes, you can. For some download formats (everything other than FLAC) we’ll need to downsample your consummate originals to 44.1/48 KHz, but you already assumed that. If you plan on uploading a file with a higher sample rate, be sure to leave at least 0.5 dB of headroom to avoid undesirable clipping in the final transcoded formats.
You bet. Your 24-bit and 16-bit tunes are welcome, and lossless file downloads (FLAC or ALAC) will always have the same bit-depth as the originals you upload. The bit-depth of lossy downloads (MP3, Ogg, AAC) is determined by the different devices your fans use for playback, but whenever possible we use the higher bit depth to generate those files.
It starts out at 291MB per track, which is of course the exact size of “Inamorata and Narration by Conrad Roberts” from side 4 of Miles Davis’ Live-Evil (assuming we’re talking 16/44.1, which we always are). Once you’ve made a few sales through Bandcamp (totaling $20 USD or more), we increase the max per-track upload size to 600 megs. There is no limit on the size of albums.
Nope. Full details are in our Terms of Use, but the short of it is that the only rights we take are the obvious ones we need to run the service. For example, the non-exclusive right to host the music you upload, sell it on your behalf (if you choose to enable paid downloads), display whatever lyrics and artwork you publish to the site, and so on.
Our Terms of Use require you to own or otherwise control all rights to the content you upload. Click here for more info.
Still wondering?
