Question & Answers:
 
1.  What is ProductSubmit.com?
      It is an e-business center for submitting worship and music resources and products for consideration to WorshipMusic.com. Here you can submit your worship and music products and resources online, and walk through the process of submission, evaluation, documentation, acceptance, contract agreement and online integration into WorshipMusic.com. Use of this site does not in any way guarantee inclusion of your products on WorshipMusic.com.
 
2.  Who can use this website?
      If you are a publisher, label, product vendor, independent artist, or main distribution agent for products or resources related to worship music, you are welcome to use the site. You must have the permission and authorization of the product owner (typically publishers) to submit products for sale on our site (WorshipMusic.com).
 
3.  How do I submit my products via ProductSubmit.comm?
      AFTER reading the complete instructions on this page, you simply go to the Submit page of ProductSubmit.com by clicking on the "Submit" icon tab on the top right area of the screen. Register yourself as a user on the website (click where it says "New user? Sign up now"). Then you can return to the main Submit page again and start the process of entering your products.

Before you begin you should be sure to have the following important information with you about each product you wish to submit:

  • Product Supplier name, address, phone number and email.
  • Product information, including things like title description, product codes, weight, pricing, UPC, ISBN, complete track information and release date.
  • Scanned and reduced image of the product. (Image must be in gif or jpg format with a max size of 100K. Image width must be 300 pixels.)
  • If applicable, complete media clips of each track. (must be reduced for size, but must also be made from actual product tracks)
 
4.  If I submit my product, will it get online with WorshipMusic.com ?
       Use of this site does not in any way guarantee inclusion of your products on WorshipMusic.com. That said, this is now the only way we accept product submissions to our company. If you are interested in having us sell your products, you must use this interface to submit the product.
 
5.  What is your criteria for determining what independent products you accept for your retail operations at WorshipMusic.com ?
       After being deluged with the same question, we figure we should post our "indie" policy right here. Before we get into that, you should know that most companies accept only "main label" products. At WorshipMusic.com, we accept quality worship and music resources from big publishers and small independents alike. This website simply evens the playing field, allowing a portal for both large labels and indies to submit products to us. But in general, the main labels have lots of understanding about products, distribution and marketing. Independents often don't understand or don't know where to bring their worship resources. This section of the site helps explain some of the basics of quality and criterion, so that everyone is clear and has an appropriate expectation of what it takes to submit products to us. If you have a worship project that you are wanting to place on the Worshipmusic.com catalog, read on!

We accept products from anyone (main labels to independents). We basically do this- we ask you to complete the process and provide us with the information about your product (you do this by entering the data online, through this website), and we ask that you provide media information (audio or video clips extracted directly from the product that we can use to help in the evaluation process). We also ask you for physical demos of whatever titles you want to submit to us for carrying in our inventory. We will listen/look to see if your products would be :
  • An authentic and valuable worship and music resource: The music must be catagorizable as "worship music" of some type. This can make broad stretches across style, from soft rock to hymns; from alternative to instrumental; from jazz to hip hop. Style isn't the issue. Generally, we ask this question to help us determine if we would categorize it as worship music- "Is this music directed to/at God?". Secondly, we ask ourselves this question- "Could this music be used in a church setting for worship?" We recognize there are many kinds of churches, and many aspects of worship. We are not looking for just general CCM (Contemporary Christian Music), but specifically for worship music and resources.
  • Quality enough to be included in our site: Recording, packaging and production quality is high enough to be included in our site. We maintain that anything worth distributing as a resource to the Body of Christ is worth being done well. The bottom line - we have to feel good about the fact that we charged people money for the products and resources we provided to them. In order for that to happen, we have to make plausible distinctions in what is acceptable (in terms of quality) for sale.
  • Sellable to our customers: There are times when we get products that may not be sellable to people. That doesn't mean they don't meet the other criteria, but there is simply no opportunity for us to distribute the resource because it wouldn't be something that we could sell. This could be as simple as a product which is too limited in scope. For example, having a kazoo-based worship DVD might be innovative, done well, and worshipful. However, it will not be a widely useful resource to most of our customers. The bottom line- we need to have a reason for presenting the resource through our website that we feel will work towards our company mission statement of "increasing worship in the earth".
Once we have looked at your product/resource in light of the above criterion, we make an evaluation of it. If your product meets or exceeds those criterion, we will likely include them. Remember, this is our opinion, not yours. We decide what we will accept on our site, and hold exclusive the right to choose whatever products we think best for our company and customers.

ALL indies submitted MUST meet all the criterion, requirements, specifications and submission rules of each step of the submission process on our site to be considered. Submissions not meeting these requirements will NOT be considered.

If the requirements and criteria are met and the project passes our review, we will add your product to our list of "to aquire" products. If your product is selected from that list, we place your product online on our website. We use 1 or 2 of your submitted copies of the product as our initial stock of inventory (this is depending on how many we used for the product evaluation- often times, we can use 1 or 2 products in the evaluation process, leaving 1 or 2 for the initial inventory). After that, if your product begins to sell on our site, we buy an initial small batch of inventory. To determine stock levels and ongoing purchasing, we let customer sales demand what we stock.

If the project does not meet our standards, we will not list it on our site. I mention this so you know that we do have to say no to some projects, simply because the musicality is just not commercially presentable. It doesn't mean it is not worship, it just means that 'we think' that it is not something people would listen to and pay regular CD (or other product types) prices for.

NOTE: demos submitted for review will NOT be returned, regardless of the review outcome.
 
6.  How do I make sound/media clips for the tracks on my products, as required in ProductSubmit.com ?
       If you are submitting an audio or video product, you MUST include sound or video clips of your product tracks. You must provide at least 3 samples from your product tracks. In other words, you will list all the tracks (in order) in the product information section of your submission, but only be required to provide 3 samples from those tracks (you choose what tracks to provide samples of, as long as you provide at least 3 samples). Our site prefers the use of RealAudio or RealMedia samples (audio files in filename.ra or filename.rm format, and video files in filename.rm format). However, we are now also allowing you to submit samples in mp3, wma (Windows Audio), wmv (Windows Video) formats. You will be asked to upload the files during the process of submitting your product (at the point in which you will be asked for the tracks list).
As mentioned, we prefer to receive media samples (audio or video) in Real format, but will accept the other mentioned types. If you chose to produce your samples in Real Audio or Real Media, we have included a short guide below that will help give you the major points of process in producing your samples. If you chose to produce samples in other formats, you must follow the guidelines of your audio/video creation software to develop you samples. Here are some essentials for all samples (in any format)-
  • Media clip is at least 30-100 seconds in length
  • Moderate compression such that the quality can be heard, but that it is not an excessively large file
  • IF given the option, File Type should be sset to something like "Single Rate for Web Servers"
*Mini-Guide- Basic steps to creating free RA or RM files
You can produce samples using all FREE software. The tools we mention are free from Real. You can use others if you want to, but you must end up with RA or RM files.

Step 1 - To produce audio files, first download the latest RealJukeBox from RealNetworks. You can find it HERE. Once you have downloaded and installed the program, use RealJukeBox to record WAV files of your songs on your CD. See the RealJukeBox help for how to do that with your computer. Once you have completed that, download and install a program called Goldwave, to edit the WAV files (get it HERE). If you are not using Windows, you must use a similar WAV editor to edit your sound file so that your sound clip is at least 30-100 seconds in length.

Step 2- To produce video files, you can use a number of possible software programs. VideoWave (MGI version is included free on a number of older video components and software bundles-- Roxio for later versions), Windows Movie Maker, and other similar software will allow you to input video feeds from external devices (along with appropriate video connection equipment). This video stream can be output in AVI format, which is what you want to proceed to the next step. (Note that Roxio version of VideoWave also allows you to go directly to generating Real Media files, which will allow you to skip the next step). How you create the AVI files is up to you, but if you have video products, you will need to generate the files and proceed to the next step. (Or, as mentioned, using the Roxio VideoWave you can create the RM files directly).

Step 3- Now download the free version of Real Helix Producer. Use Real Helix Producer to convert your WAV or AVI files to RA or RM files (see the Real Helix Producer software for details). When generating the RM or RA files, be SURE to generate files using the following options :
  • Target Audience - 56k modem
  • Audio Format - Music
  • Video format - if applicable
  • File Type- Single Rate for Web Servers
Step 4- Store the RA or RM files on your local drive, so that you can have it available for uploading when you are submitting your product.

NOTE: Creating media clips for listening products (CDs, tracks, DVDs) is required. You must provide a minimum of 3 samples from a normal CD project. However, the more clips you provide, the easier it will be for the product to be reviewed by our staff. Providing the most clips possible, with the extended or complete length, gives you the best opportuntity to have us view or listen to your product/resource.
 
7.  What is next?
       Once you have read this whole page and followed the preparation instructions, go to Submit page, register on the site, and then begin submitting product.
 
8.  What is the internet?
       We can't help you this much.