Hello, everyone! Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to visit our blog. The feature you are about to enjoy takes an in-depth look at a simple trick to fighting piracy that many young artists overlook time and time again. It’s nothing too complicated, but it can make a world of difference on your overall sales.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
This is going to sound a little crazy at first, but the availability of your material online is just as important to curving piracy in 2014 as the need to actively combat the proliferation links through Takedown Notices. That may seem counter-intuitive, as the spread of your unreleased material is typically not something you want easily available to anonymous people online, but there comes a point in every album promotion cycle where the exact opposite becomes true. Allow me to explain…
Let’s pretend for a moment that we are all in the same band. Our new album, which we have been working on for the past several months, is due out in the near future. Pre-orders have been going strong for a while now, but with a new tour starting 10 days before the album’s release we’ve decided that we will have copies of the record available for sale at every date of the run. This means that, for about a week and a half, anyone who attends a concert of ours will be able to purchase our new album early, which on paper seems like a good deal for everyone involved: Fans get music early, and we begin seeing an early return on our creative efforts.
There is a catch, however, and that is the fact that anyone with early access to our album also has the ability to leak that record online. 10 days may not seem like a long time when you step back and think about a career in music as a whole, but in the world of piracy it’s equal to a lifetime. The Expendables 3, for example, leaked online a little more than two weeks before its theatrical release date. Within 24 hours more than 100,000 people had downloaded the original leak, and countless more had shared their download with family/friends. When the film eventually hit theaters, its box office take on opening weekend was less than ½ the amount made by The Expendables 2 in that same time frame.
Our band might not have the same size audience as The Expendables franchise, but our album could suffer a similar fate if we do not take steps to curve the proliferation of illegal downloads online. The first round of defense is, of course, asking fans to wait and purchase the album. The second, and honestly – most important of all – is that we MAKE THE ALBUM AVAILABLE ONLINE.
The key to winning the battle against piracy, especially over the longterm, is taking whatever steps you can to make your music available to fans. This includes, but is not limited to: Soundcloud album stream, Spotify stream, Rdio, Pandora, and Bandcamp. As soon as a physical version of your album is available for sale you need to have a digital stream available and ready to be shared with press and fans alike. By offering a free and completely legal way to access music fans have less reason to even look for leaks, let alone download them. Why should they? Streaming is the number one way people experience music today, so if streaming is an option for your fans they won’t feel the need to engage in piracy. Everything they want is already available, it’s free as well.
A recent report showed that almost ¼ of an album’s total sales happen BEFORE the scheduled release date. Leaks can help sales, but more often than not they have the opposite effect. Streams on the other hand, can encourage consumers to purchase the album, as well as aide in promoting tours and other upcoming events. By hosting the stream yourself the power is entirely in your hands, which is something most artists rarely experience in the modern business.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking a some time out of your day to spend with us. We try our hardest not to take too much time away from our educational efforts for self-promotion, but when considering the updates and developments that have taken place in recent months we thought it might be a good time to remind the world why we’re so good at what we do.
This blog exists to promote the future of the music industry, and to do that we need input from people like you and your music-loving friends. If you have any questions about the content in this article, or if you have an artist you would like to see featured on this blog, please contact james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
The music industry has changed a lot over the last fifteen years, and that evolution has largely been guided by technology. When Napster went live, everything we knew about the business and how it functioned up to that point was no longer relevant. A new age had dawned, and it was on those in power to react – fast. We could go on and on about things that should or should not have happened at that point in time, but the hard truth is that almost fifteen years later we are still trying to find solutions for the problems that plagued us just after Y2K fears began to subside. There is no end to digital piracy in sight, but we wholeheartedly believe that through Haulix record labels and independent artists alike have a fighting chance against music pirates. Here’s why:
SECURITY
First and foremost, Haulix offers one of, if not the most secure platform for digital distribution available today. Through a combination of advanced watermarking technology, permissions, encryption, and secure traffic techniques we are able securely host, distribute, and track your media while you focus on promoting the material itself.
What is a watermark? Good question. Watermarks contain user specific information that allows us to identify which contact specifically downloaded or streamed a file through Haulix. On average, each track will contain 15-20 watermarks which can survive most attacks such as re-encoding and conversion. Additionally, you have fine grained control over how many times they can stream or download a promo. All traffic in and out of Haulix is SSL encrypted (like bank websites). Haulix automatically prepares your tracks for watermarking and when a contact downloads or streams an album, the injection process is performed in seconds.
AUTOMATED PIRACY/LEAK TAKEDOWNS
This feature only launched in the last couple months, but it has quickly become one of our most popular tools in the battle against leaks. Our ‘Piracy Takedown’ tool, when activated, crawls the web seeking unwanted files and links to files featuring watermarked content from Haulix clients. When that content is located, our system automatically distributes takedown notices and tracks the results so clients will know when their content copyrighted has been taken down.
This process does not happen once or twice, but repeatedly for as long as a client is a member of Haulix. For more information on this tool and how it can help your efforts to battle leaks, click here.
CUSTOMIZATION
There are more bands, labels, and pr outlets in existence today than ever before, which means the amount of pitches and messaging being thrown at writers is also at an all-time high. Haulix recognizes this, and through our state of the art messaging system we have created tools that allow our clients to present their upcoming release(s) however they see fit. We love to focus on the backend of things so that publicists, labels, and bands can put their efforts into promotion. We know that in order to do that to the best of their abilities our clients need to be in control of how their content is no only dispersed, but presented. From the “promo” pages where your music securely lives online, to the email you will send when inviting press to experience your material, there are dozens of ways our product can be customized to fit your needs. Want to use a color theme or still image as the background to your “promo” page and/or emails? No problem! Want to limit the number of times an album can be streamed or downloaded by any particular individual? We can do that too.
ORGANIZATION & ANALYTICS
Expanding on an aspect of our service mentioned in the previous points, Haulix also helps distribute content. Through our one-of-a-kind email system our clients are able to create contact lists ( or upload their existing contacts), organize them into groups however they see fit, send personalized messages, and access analytics on their contacts engagement with various promos with ease. You’ll know who read your message, which ones accessed the material, and how they engaged with it once on the promo page. We also track downloads.
JOURNALIST APPROVED
All of these tools would mean nothing if journalists did not like our product. After all, at the end of the day it is the writers who are on Haulix the most, and it is through Haulix that writers engage with unreleased music. If their user experience was bad it could have a negative impact on their view of the record. Worse, it could impact how they view a particular label/pr firm as a whole.
Haulix has been receiving the praise of journalists worldwide since launching in the mid-2000s. We listen to their opinions on everything from our site design to the functionality of our product and work with them to better our efforts over time. We don’t want to pat ourselves on the back too much, so I’ll let the writers who engage with Haulix on a regular basis speak for themselves:
“I’ve been using Haulix for the past three years and most of the websites that I have written for use Haulix too. It is efficient and of course, highly recommended.” – Lav Nandlall, Heavy Metal Duchess
"I always get a little extra excited when I see I have new music through Haulix because I know I can jam it in mere seconds with no hassles.” – Jameson Ketchum, Substream Music Press
“I’ve been using Haulix for the past 3 years and a half and that’s still where I enjoy receiving promo music. Aside from the fact that I can download my music on it, it keeps things organized by expeditor, due dates are visible and it’s all simple and clear.” – Mariam Bouabid(Plug-In)
“Haulix takes all of the hassle out of receiving new music. It simply combines everything on one page and provides you with promo pictures, bios, videos and whatever else. Since most of the publicists we work with tend to use it, it’s nice to be able to quick switch back to your full catalog of promos you’ve received.” – Drew Maroon, MindEqualBlown.net
“I prefer a watermarked (to keep be accountable of course) zip download with high quality mp3s. Now I don’t always get that, so I roll with what I get. Haulix is cool because you can download and stream and it has the capability of supplying high quality stuff if the label/PR people provide it.” – Drew Beringer, Absolutepunk.net
“I want tracks I can stream, and preferably download too — I’m a New Yorker and do a lot of my listening on the subway, where streaming isn’t an option. Haulix is straightforward and intuitive.” – Jesse Richman, PropertyOfZack.com
INDUSTRY APPROVED
Journalists are not the only ones who enjoy Haulix. Many of our clients have been with us for years, and they are not shy about sharing their satisfaction with our product:
“We have always been looking for a great place to allow us to share our music with those that need it early, but in a safe way. Haulix was that answer for us, and we will be lifelong customers of theirs.” – Chris Hansen, No Sleep Records
"I love the security aspect as well as the ability to truly track what people are doing with the promos. It takes the guessing game out of, “…well I spent a bunch of money to send a ton of packages out that I hope made it to their final destination… and I’m hoping these folks answer their emails and phone calls when I reach out to check on the packages.” You can see what’s going on, you can reference whether someone got their email, opened it, even listened to it or downloaded it, etc. And my favorite – the ability to create reports to follow up with people based on what they’ve done with the promo.” – Natalie Cammillo, Adrenaline PR
"Leaks aren’t 100% preventable but there are ways to insuring you stop leaks from coming from you. I’m a big user and supporter of Hauled. 90% of the writing world is familiar with Haulix and how it’s watermarked with each writer’s info. So that’s a good preventative.” – Rey Roldan, Another Reybee Production
“Watermarking” in the context of audio in a Haulix promo, is the process of injecting inaudible pieces of data into an MP3 or WAV file that can later be scanned and used for tracing back to the original listener.
Haulix employs a custom integration utilizing Fraunhofer watermarking technology. When questioning the robustness of said technology, Fraunhofer states:
[watermarks]…withstand mp3 or WAV encoding, time stretching & pitch shifting, changing the sound volume, dynamics compression, trimming and DA/AD conversion including microphone recording…
The Haulix watermarking process is split up into two parts: PRE-processing of uploaded MP3 or WAV files and the actual INJECTION process.
We have automated both parts of the watermarking process and made them completely web-based – meaning anyone on your staff can sign in from anywhere in the world with an internet connection using a browser, upload tracks and they will get prepared for watermarking automatically.
How does this benefit you and your company?
– No special software or plugins required
– Anyone on your staff who has promo permissions can upload tracks from anywhere with an internet connection
– Remote staff can collaborate on promotions
– The PRE-processing step is fast. On average it takes 39 seconds per track to process
– Because of the PRE-processing step, the actual watermark INJECTION process is even faster, taking mere seconds per an entire album
When it comes time to scan a track for watermarks, simply submit the tracks to Haulix and a staff member will scan them and send back the results – no extra work required on your part.
SUMMARY: Haulix has taken a very complex watermarking technology and made it point-and-click easy to use through a pure web-based interface.
“A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book.” – Robert M. Gates
You may not agree with Mr. Gates’ decision to smoke, but there is something beautiful about the quote above. The best moments in life are those where you can find yourself at peace through simple joys like porch swings and literature. Bars and wild nights spent roaming the city will always have a place in weekend fun, but the finest moments are those spent with the people who matter most, regardless of the activity.
Each and every Friday we like to take a brief break from our regularly scheduled programming to update and reflect on everything happening at Haulix HQ. We are far more than a music blog, as many of you already know, and posts like this give us an opportunity to share more our efforts with all of you.
The big item of the week is, as you can probably guess, the recent launch of our state-of-the-art Piracy Takedown system. For the first time ever, Haulix clients are now able to actively fight the distribution of their copyrighted materials online before and after its scheduled release date without having to make more than a few simple clicks. Once live, our system will crawl the internet in search of your illegally shared content and automatically issue DMCA Takedown Notices to the appropriate service providers. It will also track all recovered links and inform you when those links have been removed.
To access this service, login to your account and click the ‘Tools’ icon at the top of the page. From there, select the ‘Piracy Takedown’ option and input all relevant information. Once submitted, we will crawl the internet looking in all of the popular illegal networks and Google searching for your album and tracks. When the system encounters an illegal link or file, it automatically submits atakedown request to the internet service provider of the suspect site.
Piracy Takedowns is an optional service available to all Haulix clients. As a special introductory offer, you may upload your first release for free. All subsequent releases added to the PiracyTakedown system will incur a one-time nonrefundable charge of $9 per track for the first twelve tracks (additional songs are free). Haulix will continue to perform automatic link and file takedowndowns for each release for as long as you remain a Haulix customer. Click here for more information.
On the blog end of things, the past few days have been incredibly busy. We have rolled out a series of in-depth columns this week, and on top of this we have begun working on the launch of our first-ever podcast. Details on that project are being kept under wraps for now, but by the time July arrives we should be ready to share the first episode with you.
In case you missed anything this week, here is a rundown of every article we have shared over the last seven days:
Next week we will be unveiling plans for our first ‘Ask A Lawyer’ event, which we plan to host in the near future.
That’s all the thoughts and ideas we have to share this afternoon. Please have a great weekend and make it a point to stop back by tomorrow for another great column on life in the modern music industry.
