One of the questions we receive most frequently at Haulix HQ is in regards to our premium membership plans and the bandwidth allotted by each. There is nothing preventing our clients from using more than their allotted bandwidth in a single month, but we do enforce overage charges, so more often than not new signups will want us to shine a little light on just how bandwidth is consumed.
To explain this aspect of our business and how it works we put together the following example. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to use our support pages and/or email us.
You, our client, create promos and send out email invitations through your Haulix account to those contacts.
Lets say your promo is 70 megabytes in size.
If 1 contact downloads the zip file, you use 70 megabytes of bandwidth.
If 1 contact streams the entire album, you use ¼th the size or 17.5 megabytes of bandwidth.
Streams make less of an impact on bandwidth usage than downloads. Always.
If you go over your monthly bandwidth, we waive the first 1 gigabyte and then charge $5 per every 1 gigabyte after.
One of the top complaints we see from journalists and clients alike is that, from time to time, a promo will end up in a spam folder rather than someone’s inbox. We have provided many people with a solution through support emails, but recently realized a post here would probably cut down on the amount of inquiries we receive on this topic.
So why do Haulix promos sometimes end up in my spam folder?
To be completely honest, we do not know with 100% certainty what causes a promo to be directed to spam instead of a person’s inbox. Google’s Gmail email service contains a spam filter that tries to identify undesirable messages, but those efforts often catch messages that are not spam in the process. A message caught in the spam filter is sent to the spam folder instead of your inbox. You can whitelist email addresses in Gmail if you never want Gmail to categorize them as spam. Gmail will send emails from the white-listed email addresses directly to your inbox, even if the spam filter would match them. You can also whitelist entire domains or whitelist emails with specific subjects or phrases.
How do I whitelist something?
It’s relatively easy to whitelist an email, and in a few simple steps you can ensure all future Haulix promos arrive in your inbox. Login to your email account and…
1. Click the “Create a Filter” link to the right of the search box at the top of the Gmail Web page.
2. Type an email address into the “From” box. If you want to whitelist all email addresses on a domain you can type “@haulix.com” instead of an email address replacing “haulix.com” with the domain.
3. Click the “Test Search” button to see which emails would have been white-listed.
4. Click the “Next Step” button.
5. Click the “Never Send it to Spam” checkbox and click “Create Filter.”
Very few things in life are permanent, and email addresses are not one of them. As you grow and develop, jumping from job to job, you will slowly accrue a variety of emails that will often complicate how people get ahold of you. The chaos this creates will only make your job as a writer more difficult, but thanks to our state of the art profile system those headaches can now be a thing of the past.
We understand that everyone in music is busy. Journalists often have numerous deadlines to meet, not to mention second jobs. Publicists, on the other hand, have the seemingly endless task of doing everything in their power to make sure their clients get the exposure they deserve. Everyone is always doing something and everyone seems to believe no one has time to help them. We don’t necessarily believe that is true, but we have found a way to simplify the task of updating contact information in a way that eliminates both stress and the need to send numerous messages requesting a change of address on future promo materials.
When you’re viewing your Promos page on Haulix, click the ‘Profile’ tab in the upper left hand corner of the page. Here’s an example of what you should be looking for:
Once the profile page loads, you will notice a heading that reads ‘Email Accounts.’ I’ve highlighted this section in the image below:
The changes made on this page will be reflected throughout the Haulix platform. If you delete an email address from this page it will be erased from every client’s contact list on Haulix. If you change your preferred email address, that information will again be duplicated in the contact information stored on our client’s accounts. You control the flow of messaging. We just make it easy.
If you wish to remove an email currently being used by Haulix clients, simply click the ‘Delete’ button on the right side of the email. Once confirmed, the selected email addressed will be scrubbed from Haulix.
If you have a new email, or if you have an old account you simply want to have on our system, you can enter the new address in the space provided and have that email added to our database. If you want this new address to be your primary address, you can do so using the ‘Promo Senders’ section a bit further down on your profile page. For more information on how to do that, click here.
We will be posting additional tips to help you make the most of your Haulix experience in the weeks ahead. If you have any questions about our system please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and let us know. We will do our best to answer every request in a timely and concise fashion.
One of the great moments in any young music writer’s life is the day that first album advance arrives in your inbox. It’s a symbol not only of progress within your craft, but also that someone within the actual music business trusts you enough to have access to their latest project. We could get into the whole ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ rant, but that’s not what this post is about. This post is about what happens when writers go from loving the site of new album advances to dreading them, either due to quality or quantity, and what steps can be taken to simplify one’s Haulix activity.
As it stands, any publicist or label with a Haulix account can send a promo to anyone they add to their personal database. This is the way promotional distribution works on essentially every platform, but here at Haulix we have devised a way to allow journalists the ability to remove themselves from any list they desire without any confrontation whatsoever.
If you find yourself in a position where you wish to be removed from a mailing list of a Haulix client the best course of action is to first contact the client directly and request removal. If the client does not respond, or even if they do and you continue to receive promos beyond that point, you can remove yourself from their database by accessing your Haulix profile. To do this, simply log into the ‘My Promos’ screen and select the ‘Profile’ tab in the upper left hand corner. I’ve highlighted this button in the screenshot below.
Once clicked, you will be redirected to a profile page that was automatically generated the first time someone added your contact information to the Haulix platform. It should look something like this:
The top part of the page lists your basic account info, including the passcode you have chosen and every email address in our system linked to your name, as well as the ability to change that information with a few key strokes. If you scroll down a bit further you will notice that your profile lists every label that has you in their database, as well as the email they use to contact you. If you wish to be removed from any list, click the red ‘X’ at the end of the appropriate label identity and confirm the removal. The page will update and our database will automatically remove you from that client’s press list without them having to lift a finger.
If you follow these steps and still find yourself receiving promos, please do not hesitate to contact us directly to find a resolution. Just email james@haulix.com and together we’ll find a solution.
James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
Earlier this week I was browsing a forum for online music journalists when I came across a question I knew we had to feature on the blog. I won’t out the person who first posed this inquiry, but I did want to share their original comment in full as I feel it’s probably not far from how other young writers have felt or acted when trying to build their brand. It reads:
“Okay…. I just want to make sure I’m not making some rookie mistake. When I get haulix invites or private links, I forward it to my writer depending on their tastes, yeah? Obviously, you’re not supposed to share the invite, and my writers sign a disclaimer about not sharing music and if they do it’s on them, but surely they don’t mean “do not forward this to a writer?” I just ask because I got Finch’s album from razor and tie and she asked me to please not share it. I would never do that outside of sharing it with ONE writer that is writing the review.”
This is not an uncommon question, and to be honest we are kind of glad someone brought this post to our attention as it provides the perfect opportunity to address this concern on a large scale.
To put it the simplest terms possible: You should never share a Haulix promo. There is messaging included with every promo sent out that informs recipients their promos are not to be shared, but there are many who do not follow this request. By sharing Haulix promos you are not only breaking the trust of the label/publicist who sent you that material, but you are also putting yourself in a position to face severe legal repercussions should that material find its way onto the internet.
Most promos sent from Haulix are injected with numerous watermarks that not only identify the original recipient, but also the geo-locations of every person who accesses the respective promo. You should check each promo you receive to know whether or not that particular advance has a watermark. If you share your watermarked promo with someone, and that person later leaks the material online, our tools will point to you as the person responsible for the piracy. You may not have leaked the album yourself, but because the record was entrusted to you it is your responsibility to ensure it is not made available for public consumption. Should that occur, any legal action taken to recoup lost profits will be made against you and not the friend who you allowed to enjoy your advance.
To better explain what happens when an album leaks, we asked Rey Roldan of Another Reybee Production to share some of his experience with piracy:
“A blogger who is part of this site once sent a download of a band I was working with to two writers. One of his writers leaked the album (it was a very highly coveted advance). When we traced it back, we found his watermark. Label, management, band and I were thisclose to taking this a step further in the legal direction. While the writer was responsible for the leak, said "blogger” was ultimately responsible because he breached the contract (I often tick off the “watermark warning” with writers who I am unsure of, just as an extra warning). We got very close to making it legal but we opted to re-strategize and move forward.
I know some editors pass round links designated for them and it sucks. I usually often tell editors that if they are assigning a writer, give me their email address so I can get them their own watermarked music. To be honest, do YOU trust your writers to NOT leak music? If they did leak it, do you want to be legally and professionally responsible for that because YOUR watermark is on that music? God forbid, you pass your streak or download to a writer who inadvertently leaks it, do you want to become that industry pariah?
The music industry is really pretty tiny… Make the wrong move and it can follow you… Be smart about this… Request a link for anyone who is reviewing it for you. Don’t take the fall for anyone because it can happen a LOT easier than you think.”
Some sites may believe an easy solution to this problem is to have one email dedicated to receiving promos that every contributor can access. This may work at first, but should any member of your staff leave the site it is of the utmost importance you change both your email password, as well as your 4-digit Haulix passcode. That way, if they have a promo link and/or access to a promo, they can’t get to ***all**** promos, because they won’t know the passcode.
Likewise, if you allow writers to reach out to publicists on their own and one of your writers decides to leave your site, make sure you inform all publicists the writer has left and is no longer a part of your writing team. If not, that person may continue to receive advances that are linked to your site. Should something happen to those files, it may come back to you.
The best thing you can do to protect yourself and the reputation of your site is to first do a good job vetting your writing staff. Make sure you trust everyone you send releases to not only as writers, but as professionals in the industry. If you would not trust a writer to contact a label directly you might not want them handling advance releases.
Haulix has no say in what happens to individuals caught sharing watermarked materials. We are simply a middle man between journalists and labels. It’s up to our customers to handle the situation how they see fit.
Additionally, you should ALWAYS request additional promos if someone other than you will be reviewing material you have been sent. It may seem like this complicates or otherwise draws out the assignment process, but publicists would rather know who is in possession of their music than have less work to do. For example, let’s say I send you, a blog owner, a copy of my client’s album for your site. You receive the promo, pass it off to a writers, and several days later send me a link to a review of my client’s album written by someone who is not you. Who is this third party? How did they get the watermarked music I sent you? Are they someone I can trust? I have a million questions about this anonymous person. In fact, I may not want to send you another advance if I think you’re going to pass it off to more people I do not know.
It’s easy to understand why forwarding promos seems like a quick solution to the issue of how to get advances from one person to another, but actually taking part in such efforts puts you, your reputation, the livelihood of your site, and possibly even the reputations of your contributors at risk. It takes less than a minute to request additional promos, and doing so keeps you out of trouble.
Don’t risk a leak just to save time. It’s just not worth it.
Before any of us came to be a part of Haulix, including founder Matt Brown, we all ran our own music blogs with numerous contributors scattered all over the world. At the time, there were no services like ours, so almost every promotional release was delivered via CD through the postal service. This meant site owners and editors would either have to forward the music to their writers through the mail at their own expense, or they would have to open the mail, copy the CD contents to their hard drive, upload the files to a random file-sharing service, and then a share link to download those files with whatever staffer was assigned to tackle that particular review. Believe it or not, most chose the latter, despite being the far more time-consuming option.
Haulix was created with the hope of not only eliminating the costs associated with distributing physical promos, but also to help better the security placed around unreleased music being shared online. The first goal was accomplished almost as soon as we came online, as our membership plans are far more affordable than any physical promotional distribution could ever be, but ensuring the safety of releases is something we continue to try and perfect to this day. We offer watermarking services, automated takedown tools, and a number of additional safeguards, which we hope to expand further in the years to come.
Truth be told, the most common way leaks occur is through human error or basic negligence, and we hope to correct that – to some degree – with this post.
WHEN YOU RECEIVE A HAULIX PROMO IT IS INTENDED TO BE CONSUMED BY YOU AND YOU ALONE. If you read the fine print we include with almost every invite, this information is made very clear:
Please note by accessing any of this material, you acknowledge and/or consent to the following terms and conditions.
1. You won’t share this invitation. 2. The material will be used by you and you alone. 3. The material is watermarked with a unique identifier. 4. If the material is “leaked” and traced back to you, we will seek applicable restitution.
The reason for this is not only to protect the music you have been sent, but to protect you and your reputation within music as well. As most of the content sent through our system has a unique watermark, any content you share can and will be traced back to you in the event that content leaks online. Our system injects a watermark as soon as you click play or download on our platform, and that watermark includes a bunch of information about you, including your name and IP. That information stays with the music every time its used moving forward. If you download the album, upload the files to dropbox, then allow others to download the record, every person who access those files will be using content that has your name and information embedded in the details. If they leak it, or if for some reason a third party accesses their computer and leaks the files, the only person we will be able to trace everything to is you, the person who originally downloaded the album. It doesn’t matter if you actually leaked it or not because the agreement you made by accessing the material in the first place was to keep it safe. Period.
So, how do I share the promos I am sent with the various contributors I have assigned to review each release? The answer is simple, YOU DON’T.
The best and most secure way to get your writers the promos they want and need is to request the band and/or publicist send that person a copy entirely their own through our platform. That way, any watermarks attached to the file point to the individual covering the album and not you, thus taking the responsibility for the content’s safety off your shoulders (a bit – you should still make sure your writers are not pirates in disguise).
More importantly, requesting that a copy of an album be sent to the assigned writer allows our clients to know exactly who is engaging with their content. This gives a peace of mind no amount of email promises to keep things safe ever could. It will also go a long way toward strengthening your relationship with a publicists or band as it shows you can be trusted to follow the proper procedures for handling these materials, which is something everyone working on the press side of the business deeply appreciates.
For your own safety, as well as the continued livelihood of the artists, publicists, and labels who rely on Haulix to distribute their releases, please do not share you promos. Request additional copies as needed, but never share the content you have been given with other people. The risk is simply not worth it.
