FAQ

General Questions

What is Equal Dreams? A music store? A record label?

Equal Dreams is a marketplace for music; A social platform where music makers, music sellers and music lovers can meet and come together to create and enjoy music. Equal Dreams is not a music store nor a record label - all the registered artists and record labels have their own stores within our service.

Do I have to register if I want to buy music from Equal Dreams?

No, you can buy music without registration. However, registering gives you access to all the Equal Dreams features.

How old do I have to be to buy music from Equal Dreams? What about to sell music?

Purchasing music is available for everyone, however if you are under 15 years of age, parents' permission is required. To sell music you have to be at least 18 years old.

Can I sell my own music on the Equal Dreams site?

Of course! There are just a few simple steps required:

register to the service
go to Sales tool in Home menu, fill in the seller details and accept the seller agreement
then you can start adding albums using Sales tool.

Note: you need to be the copyright holder or have an authorization from the copyright holder in order to release music.

How do I edit my profile page?

The profiles consist of different widgets like info, gallery, music, fans, members etc. If you want to add a new widget, edit colours or change background pictures head for the Edit bar in the bottom of your screen on profile page. Drag & drop or double click the widgets to your profile. You can also drag & drop the widgets around the profile to find the suitable look and feel for you.

To add new content for a widget, click the icon with a plus sign in the top of the widget on your profile page and add the content you want. You can add content to the music widget by using "add to my profile" function in a share menu. If you are a seller you can also add content to your music widget using Sales tool. You can remove a widget by clicking the x-sign in the right corner of the widget.

How long is the preview clip and why?

The preview clip time is defined by agreements of the copyright organizations. The preview clip is 45 seconds or the maximum of 1/3 of the track length.

Which music players can I use to listen to music downloaded from Equal Dreams?

Any that can play MP3 files, which means pretty much any computer or portable MP3 player.

In which formats can I download music?

You can download music in MP3 format. Some songs/albums are also available in FLAC format.

See more information below.

What is FLAC/MP3?

FLAC is an abbreviation for Free Lossless Audio Codec which refers to audio data compression format that does not remove information from the audio stream.

MP3 is a digital audio encoding format which greatly reduces the amount of data required to represent an audio recording and still sounds like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio. It is the most commonly used and most widely supported audio format. Most people can't hear the difference compared to CD quality but if you are a die hard hi-fi enthusiast you will probably prefer the FLAC format.

More information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Lossless_Audio_Codec
More information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3

What is DRM? Does Equal Dreams use it?

DRM is an abbreviation for digital rights management, which often refers to access control technologies that limit usage of digital media or devices. DRM is applied by many online music distributors to restrict usage of purchased music. From the consumer's point of view that can mean that the bought content will only be playable on certain digital audio players.

All content you buy from Equal Dreams is 100% DRM free – there are no copy limits, it will work on you iPod or your mobile, and you can burn it on CD as many times as you like.

Why do the songs have different prices?

Equal Dreams allows the sellers to set the prices themselves.

How do I advertise?

Currently Equal Dreams does not offer banner or other promotion opportunities for advertisers.

Equal Aid Questions

What does Equal Aid mean?

Equal Aid is a means for artists to support charitable causes by donating a part of the music sales profit to charities. Artists can add Equal Aid deals to songs by selecting a charity organization they want to support and setting a donation percentage. The donation will be made automatically when the song is sold.

Fans can participate by purchasing Equal Aid music.

When creating a song, the artist can add a charity project to receive part of the sales profit. Equal Aid can be added or removed any time.

How do I participate in an Equal Aid deal?

Equal Aid for the supporters:

when you buy music marked with the Equal Aid logo, you are also participating in charity work. Click the logo displayed next to the song you are interested in, and you get detailed information of the Equal Aid deal (receiving organization and percentage of sales the artist will donate).

Equal Aid for the artists:

When creating a song, the artist can add a charity project to receive part of the sales profit. Equal Aid can be added or removed any time.

Creating and editing profiles

Why isn't my profile picture showing in forum posts / front page posts / members widget / fans widget?

Users can create several profiles. To choose your main profile, go to Settings under Home. Then your username works as a link to your main profile and the profile picture of the main profile is used as your image for example in forum posts, front page posts and members widget.

What is a primary tag?

Primary tags can only be added by the creator of the profile. Primary tags are always visible on profile (assuming that there is an info widget on profile).

Register/Login/Account Questions

How do I benefit from registration?

There are several benefits to registering, including:

collect your own music library and download purchased songs again if you happen to lose them
build a profile with information about yourself or your record label
communicate with other music enthusiasts and professionals
sell your own music
use your private Equal Dreams account for making purchases and receiving sales proceeds
and much more!

What does it cost to register?

Registering in Equal Dreams is completely free.

I don't live in Finland, can I register?

Registering in Equal Dreams is possible and available to everyone, regardless of their country of residence. Equal Dreams also handles international money transfers.

Is my information safe with Equal Dreams?

Yes. All personal information collected by Equal Dreams is protected with the utmost care. We ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely. We do not distribute any personal information to outside parties.

How do I change my personal information?

To change your personal user info, log in and click "home"-"settings" and edit the info. To change your profile info, log in, click "my profiles" and choose the profile you want to edit. While viewing your profile, click the info icon in the corner of the info widget if you already have one on your profile page.

If you don't have an info widget yet on your profile, click "edit widgets" on the bottom of the page. Drag and drop the widget into your profile and click the info icon in order to write the info.

How do I close my account?

You can remove any content you have uploaded except for open Equal Share deals any time you like. If you wish to remove your profile and/or your account entirely, please contact us.

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Money/Payment Questions

How does the Equal Dreams account work? How can I withdraw and deposit money? What about safety?

When you want to make a deposit go to Account in Home menu and click Deposit. Enter the amount of money to be transferred. Then you can choose the payment method (credit card or online bank).

For withdrawals, you have to be verified. In verification process we will send you a PIN code list via registered mail. We charge a small handling and postage fee for the verification (currently it is free of charge for the first 500 orderers of PIN letter). With the PIN codes you can access and manage your banking information. Equal Dreams needs your IBAN bank account number and a BIC/SWIFT code for the payments. Withdrawal is subject to a service fee.

What payment methods are available to me?

We accept Visa, MasterCard, Paypal and Finnish online bank payments (Nordea, Osuuspankki, Sampo-pankki, Sp/pop). Additionally we offer a private Equal Dreams customer account to which you can transfer money using the payment methods mentioned above.

My statistics show that I have sold music, why doesn't my account show the same?

Statistics are updated daily, which means that you can check out what's going on basically in real time. Sales profits on the other hand are credited to user accounts once every calendar month on the 20th day of the following month, at the latest (e.g. revenue from May will be credited on June 20th,at the latest).

Technical/Upload/Download Questions

What if I lose the files I've already paid for?

If you are a registered user, all music you buy will be stored in your music library. With every purchase you get 3 downloads (5 downloads in some cases), to be used for any item in your library.

How long will it take to download a song?

It depends on several things, including the music format you use (MP3, FLAC), the internet connection you have, and the length of the song. For example:

a 3 minute MP3 with 56k modem will take about 7-8 minutes
a 3 minute MP3 with 1 Mbit DSL will take about a minute

What if my connection drops in the middle of my download?

If you are not a registered user, you can download the file again within 30 minutes of the purchase — do not close your browser! If you are a registered user, you can download the file again from your library whenever you like.

What if I download a song and it is defective?

You can download the song again just to make sure. In case of any defective content, you can contact the seller directly and/or contact us.

Is the song I want to buy the same quality as the sample?

No, the free samples are of lower quality to ensure quick downloads. Purchased files are high quality MP3s.

I just uploaded my music for selling, why aren't the prices visible?

The prices will become visible once the encoding of the music files is complete. Encoding usually happens within a few minutes, although it can occasionally take as long as few days if our encoding queue is long.

In which format can I upload my songs to Equal Dreams?

You can choose from the following formats:

16bit 44100Hz wave-audio (.WAV)
16bit 44100Hz FLAC

Record Label Questions

Can I set up an account for my label in Equal Dreams?

Yes! You are welcome to set up an account and start selling your music. You have possibility to create a profile for your record label to promote your music. A great possibility for you is also to tell your artists about possibility to create their own profile in the service. They can add the albums you publish to be visible on their profile and customers can find your music easily also from there. You may also use our unique royalty administration system to share artist royalties directly.

Can I send our CD's via ordinary mail?

Yes, you can send CD's via mail. We will upload the music to the service for you. Cost for this service depends on the number of CDs. Ask for a quote from info@equaldreams.com.

When you send the CD package, please also provide your user name in Equal Dreams. Address information can be found here.

Artist/Band Questions

What does it cost to sell music?

Registering as a seller and uploading music is free. Our commission fee is 15% (excluding VAT) or a minimum of 0.10 € per recording sold.

Please note: if you are VAT registered your sales are taxable revenue. Also note that VAT is not applicable to sellers outside the EU. Please check the VAT rate for your country here.

More about VAT here.

If I publish my music in Equal Dreams, will I still own the copyrights of my music?

Yes. Copyrights will remain with the artist or the copyright holder.

How does the royalty sharing work?

Royalty sharing system was built to ease artist and record labels to manage their profits and royalties. It's a simple and hassle-free way to direct earnings to

Performers, composers, lyricists, promoters, ...
Charities (Equal Aid deals)
Copyright holders through Teosto/NCB and GEMA

Royalty sharing rule can be set for every song invidually and it can be edited any time as necessary. A notification about any changes will be sent to all parties using a private message within Equal Dreams.

For example if you have a band of four members you can decide to share the revenues however you like, for example 25% each. In order to fully utilize the automatic functions all members who receive money need to have their own Equal Dreams accounts.

Is the mechanical royalty paid to copyright organization?

If the seller of a recording has informed Equal Dreams that the sales of the recording must be reported to a copyright organization Equal Dreams reserves a copyright fee according the agreement with relevant copyright organization. National copyright organizations have mutual agreements with each other which means that the copyright holder will get the royalties even though the sales is reported to a copyright organization in other country.

Currently Equal Dreams has an agreement with Teosto/NCB and GEMA.

As a seller of music when and how do I get paid?

The music sellers get paid monthly. The sales profits are credited to user accounts once every calendar month on the 20th day of the month, at the latest (e.g. revenue from May will be credited on June 20th,at the latest). Royalties are also distributed automatically every month.

Why am I asked such detailed info when registering as a seller?

We ask for this information to ensure legitimacy of transactions and safety for both sellers and buyers.

Can I publish any music I want?

In order to publish music you need to own the copyrights or be authorized by the copyright owner.

The original creator of the content owns the copyright but can give someone else permission to use the content or even sell the copyright to someone else. Only the copyright owner can copy, upload, display, distribute, publicly perform, and sell the content.

By purchasing music you do not become eligible to distribute or resell it.

Uploading songs to which you do not have copyright is a violation of the artist's rights and against the law.