“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.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another week of music industry advice and insight here, on the official blog of Haulix. We are focusing heavily on the advice side of our editorial efforts this week, kicking off with an in depth look at a unique way many independent artists have begun using our service that artists worldwide should feel encouraged to duplicate. If you have any questions regarding the content of this blog, or if you would like to learn more information about the services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Our mission at Haulix is to provide a secure and easy-to-use digital distribution platform to anyone hoping to share media online. Through our platform clients are not only able to upload, host, and send albums in a secure manner, but they are also able to watermark and track that content for as long as it lives online. In the weeks ahead we will be taking these efforts a step further still by implementing a new system that will track content illegally shared online and automatically issue DMCA takedown notices without our clients having to do more than click through a handful of setup screens. We could go on and on about our plans beyond that update, but this post is not about the future. This post is about the now, and how many independent artists are using Haulix in a way that many may not have previously considered.
Back in April, a promo being sent on Haulix was brought to the attention of our development team through a user who noticed something odd about the email they had received. Instead of reading an introduction written by a label or publicist hoping to land coverage for a new/upcoming release, the messaging attached to the Haulix promo was that of a band hoping to find a record deal. It seems they had already built a solid following and recorded an album primed for release, but in hopes of finding a bigger platform to share their sound they were holding off until labels, management, booking agents and the like could review their work. The band could have used Soundcloud to share streams, or even taken to WeTransfer to conveniently send press kits with customized landing pages, but neither option would have offered the security or options for customization made possible by Haulix.
To be honest, we never really considered the idea of a band using Haulix in this manner, but as soon as we read that email a collective delayed lightbulb moment flashed above all our coffee-addled minds. For years bands have been blindly emailing (or physically mailing) press kits and advanced track streams to outlets and industry professionals in hopes of gaining attention without giving a second thought to the security of the product. It only takes one person with a love of piracy/internet glory to stumble across the advance music you are sharing for your marketing efforts to fall apart. An early leak would not only hurt sales of your record, but also diminish the chances of someone wanting to put it out down the line. A record deal will not be completely out of the question, as you could always record more music, but leaks certainly complicate the already difficult mission of being noticed in the music industry.
So, what makes Haulix ideal for bands looking to securely and intelligently promote themselves online? Truth be told it’s a lot of little things coming together, and that is one aspect of our product that makes us the most proud. Artists can and should use Haulix to promote themselves to industry professionals and journalists alike because we not only provide a state-of-the-art distribution platform that is completely customizable to your needs and equipped with advanced security measures, but we also provide in depth analytics so you can know exactly who is engaging with your media. This makes follow ups a lot easier and takes the stress of a potential leak off the artist’s shoulders completely, but it’s still up them to win over their potential new audience.
When presenting yourself to potential fans and industry professionals it is important to come across as both welcoming and informed. That may read easy, but it is something many artists struggle with across social networks every day of the week. Why are you a band? What is your purpose as an artist? Who are you trying to reach? What are you trying to say? Before you can hope to make an impression in the industry you need to know these things, and you also need to be able to express them to people who may have never heard your music before. Especially in the digital realm, people are more likely to encounter your writing and imagery before ever hearing you play a note, and if either does not work for them they may never even give your music the time of day. It is a harsh truth, but a truth nonetheless.
Once you know all of this you can begin to draft the best presentation of these facts and ideas possible for your initial outreach messaging. In the case of the band who inspired this post, they chose to begin with a press quote from an internationally recognized outlet, followed by a one-line description of their music. As an outsider, this tells me enough to know whether or not I am going to be the slightest bit curious about what awaits on the other side of the email invitation. If that line grabs my attention then I am definitely going to click. If the message begins with something forgettable then I will probably move on to the other dozen or so bands vying for attention in my inbox on that particular day.
From this point, the possibilities as far as presentation and voice are concerned are essentially endless. The best advice we can offer when it comes to delivering your message to those who may have never interacted with your brand before is to be yourself to the best of your abilities. People pick up on honesty, and even if they do not completely dig or otherwise like what you are doing they will respect it. Beyond that, we have several posts in our blog archives that can aide you in maximizing the impact of your invitation. Here are three tips for improvement we ran earlier in the year:
The Haulix email distribution system was designed to enable anyone to create and send well-designed promotional invitations in minutes. As soon as an album is uploaded to our system clients are only a few clicks away from sharing their media with anyone on their contact list, and even if they choose to send out a basic promo the results are both clean and professional.
As an example, please take a look at this promotional invitation sent earlier today with zero customization made to the original promotional messaging layout:
This message perfectly conveys all the information that needs to be shared with the receiving party in a way that is easy to digest. It’s the ‘no frills’ approach to sharing materials and it works. We know journalists care more about the music they’re receiving than the design of the email, but when you’re trying to bring attention to up and coming talent a strong pitch can go a long way. Here are three simple tips for improving the impact of your promotional messaging:
1. Add a personal touch.
Every journalist knows they are not the only writer you are pitching on any given project, but that does not mean they do not like to feel special every now and then. When you reach the first screen of customization, Haulix offers multiple options for personalization:
The easiest way to make things a bit more personal is to add your own name, or the name of your company, to the ‘reply-to’ section of the form. From there, publicists and artists alike would be wise to write a direct message to the person receiving the invitation. It should be short and concise, offering a quick description of the album and any information the recipient should know regarding coverage possibilities.
2. Include the album art and any additional supplemental materials the recipient may find interesting.
Just below the introduction box on the email customization page there is a space reserved for the description of the materials being sent. This box autofills with the same information provided on the actual promo page, but it never hurts to give it a once over to ensure things are as enticing as possible. Especially with lesser known artists, this space can help grab journalists who may have otherwise overlooked the release based on lack of familiarity.
The promo section also offers users the ability to include an image from the promo page with the email. To do this, simply click on the photo you want to appear in your messaging. The selected item will have a blue box around it after being clicked.
3. Change the colors of your email, and don’t forget to add a header to aide with brand recognition.
Once you have completed the text portion of messaging customization, click on the ‘Next’ icon at the top of the page and you will be directed to a preview of your message. On the right side of the page there is a header that reads ‘Invitation Design.’ Click the dropbox below and select ‘New.’ You will be prompted to enter a name for this template, and for the sake of simplicity we recommend naming picking a name related to the release itself. This will allow you to return to this design even if the messaging of the email changes.
Once you have chosen a name for your new template the page will refresh and reveal a set of email customization tools. These options, located on the right side of the page, allow users to change the color of the body, background, and text of your message. They also allow for the addition of header and background images.
The possibilities for personalization are essentially endless when leveraging these tools, and with a little effort basic invites can be transformed into far more engaging invitations:
As mentioned above, once you create a new template that layout will be forever saved on Haulix for future use. The promo messaging will always autofill from the promo page, but introductions need to be written each time a new invitation is created. Mass email is always possible, but there is something to be said for making people feel unique.
We love this blog. We really, really do. Every now and then, however, it also is a source of great frustration when people contact us believing all we do is spend our days writing about what it’s like to be in the music industry without actually doing much contributing to its progress ourselves. The truth is, the this blog is meant to serve as a marketing tool as much as it is intended to help the next generation of music industry professionals. Our real mission in life is to create the most advanced, secure, and easy-to-use digital servicing platform in the world, and this post exists to bring that mission to your attention.
Today we’re going to look at four reasons people sign up Haulix, and in the weeks to come we’ll be posting more updates on what is going on behind-the-scenes at HQ. If you have any questions about our product, or if you would like to schedule a tour through the service, please do not hesitate to contact james@haulix.com.
1. Security – Music piracy is at an all-time high, and here at Haulix we are doing everything in our power to prevent your album from falling victim to early release. 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.
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.
2. Customization – We love to focus on the backend of things so that publicists, labels, and bands can put their efforts into promotion. We recognize 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.
3. Organization & Analytics – (This may seem like two, but they go hand-in-hand). Expanding on an aspect of our service mentioned in the previous two 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 with ease. You’ll know who read your message, which ones accessed the material, and how the engage with it once on the “promo” page.
From a press perspective, Haulix offers a unique organization tool that allows journalists to view all the promos they have been sent by people using our system. Which leads us to our fourth point…
4. Journalist Approved – We could write and write about how we believe our products to be the best in the business, but it wouldn’t matter half as much as the approval of the people bands, labels, and publicists are trying to reach through our service. We don’t want to pat ourselves on the back too much, but here are a few things people have said about Haulix in recent months:
“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
“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
