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How do I review music on the Broadjam web site? ^
First login to your Broadjam account. Then place your cursor over “Song Reviews” in the navigation menu on the left and click on “Review Music.” On the following page, you’re welcome to select a specific song genre you’d like to review. Just click on the drop-down menu, select the genre of your choice and click on “Review Song.” You’re also welcome to review a song without specifying a genre. For this, click on “Review Random Song.”
Click the “Play” button at the top of the following page. The song will begin playing (though you will be unable to see the song title or the artist’s name). After you’ve listened to the song, fill out the review on the page by scoring the artist in the specified categories. If there are any categories that don’t apply or you’d rather not comment on, just click the “N/A” button for the category (which will not hurt the artist’s score at all).
Once you’re done scoring the song categories, you’ll see two text boxes below – one for positive comments and another for constructive feedback. Unless you think the song is fine the way it is, please include some constructive feedback for the artist as to how the song could be improved.
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What are Review Credits? ^
Review credits allow you to activate songs for the Broadjam peer review mechanism. One review credit will activate one song for the Broadjam peer review. To earn review credits you will need to complete a certain number of reviews based on your membership level. Go to the bottom of your Songs Edit page to learn how many reviews must be completed to receive a review credit. Check near the top of your Songs Edit page to view your available credits. Please note: The number of review credits you have earned does not correlate to the number of reviews your song will receive.
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How does the Review Mechanism work? ^
Your songs will be eligible to be reviewed once you have activated your songs into the review queue from your song edit page. For a short period of time, songs that have just been activated are rated at a slightly higher priority level in the review queue. The more Broadjam peer reviews you complete, the better your chances of receiving more reviews in return. Also, the reviews you receive will come from similar quality reviewers. So, it’s important to rate reviewers fairly in your artist feedback area. We made this change to reward the people who take the time to give constructive and helpful reviews, by directing similarly rated reviewers to their songs. Please remember you must have completed new reviews within the past 30 days to keep your songs active in the review mechanism.
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How do I get my songs reviewed? ^
Once your songs are uploaded to the website, the first thing you’ll need to do is earn review credits, which can be earned by reviewing other artists’ music. This is in place to ensure that members who receive reviews are also completing them. For each membership level, you will need to complete the following number of reviews to earn 1 review credit:
- Mini MoB - 10 reviews
- MoB - 3 reviews
- Pro MoB - 2 reviews
- Primo MoB -1 review
For every review credit you have, one song can be added to the review mechanism. To add a song to the review mechanism, just login to your account, place your cursor over “Songs” in the navigation menu and click “Add/Edit My Songs.” Then click on the small shield icon that appears in the right column of your song list (it will initially be red). Once you click on it, it will turn green, which indicates that your song has been added. You can remove it whenever you’d like by clicking the shield again.
Once you’ve added a song to the review mechanism, you do not need to add more credits to keep the song in. However, we require that you complete at least one review every 30 days to keep your song in the review mechanism. You can keep track of this by looking at the list of reviews you’ve done by placing your cursor over “Song Reviews” in the navigation menu and clicking on “Completed Reviews.”
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What are review credits? ^
Review credits allow you to activate songs for the Broadjam peer review mechanism. One review credit will activate one song for the Broadjam peer review. To earn review credits you will need to complete a certain number of reviews based on your membership level. Check your Songs Edit page to view your available credits. Note: The number of review credits you have earned does not correlate to the number of reviews your song may receive.
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How do I add my song to the Review Mechanism? ^
To add a song to the review mechanism, just login to your account, place your cursor over “Songs” in the navigation menu and click “Add/Edit My Songs.” Then click on the small shield icon that appears in the right column of your song list (it will initially be red). Once you click on it, it will turn green, which indicates that your song has been added. You can remove it whenever you’d like by clicking the shield again.
Once you’ve added a song to the review mechanism, you do not need to add more credits to keep the song in. However, we require that you complete at least one review every 30 days to keep your song in the review mechanism. You can keep track of this by looking at the list of reviews you’ve done by placing your cursor over “Song Reviews” in the navigation menu and clicking on “Completed Reviews.”
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Are my songs anonymous to reviewers? ^
Artists’ song titles and names are kept anonymous while the song is being reviewed. This allows for unbiased reviews for each song. However, once a review is completed the reviewer is able to view the artist and song name, allowing members to check out more of an artists’ material.
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Ouch, I just received a bad review, what can I do about it? ^
Criticism can be hard to take; please remember that a person’s review is how they perceive your song and may not necessarily relate to the way in which you or the majority of the population view your song. Ideally we would like all of an artist’s reviews to be meaningful, helpful, and thorough. Although our review mechanism allows you to get constructive feedback from fans, peers and industry pros, there are times that you may receive reviews that seem unfair or that you do not agree with. Fortunately the majority of the Broadjam community makes an effort to provide constructive feedback to other artists in the hope of receiving the same in return.
However, if a reviewer writes obscene comments, or submits a review that contains all 1’s and no comments, please contact Broadjam Customer Service with your artist name, the song title, and the date of the review. Please note: A review will only be removed if it meets the above criteria. (If necessary, we may disable a reviewer.)
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What about all of the review credits I have? ^
Review credits are used to activate new songs into the review mechanism. But in order to continue to get your activated songs reviewed, you will still need to complete a few reviews at least every 30 days.
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How many reviews will I get? ^
While the number of reviews you receive will be relative to the number of reviews you are completing, we cannot guarantee a specific number because the mechanism has a random component. For example, if a member completes 10 reviews in a day, they may not receive 10 reviews instantly in return. You will gradually receive new reviews, so please be patient.
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Why is it important to give feedback on the reviews I receive? ^
Rating the reviews you receive allows us to calculate reviewer ratings, which in turn allows you to receive reviews by similarly-rated reviewers. This rating system not only gives you incentive to complete constructive reviews and rate the reviews you receive accordingly, but overall allows us to continue to improve the review mechanism and the quality of reviews you receive.
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What is a “good” review? ^
A good review will be one that is constructive and helpful to the artist. Giving the artist constructive comments like, “the bass line was too far in the mix” or “the vocals were too quiet in the middle” can help point them to some potential weak spots in their song. Also, giving comments like “the melody line was very catchy” or “great guitar work” will let the artist know what they are doing right. Stick to the golden rule - review others as you would like to be reviewed.
And also keep in mind that it is not helpful to the artist to read comments like “I don’t care for this style of music” or “This song needs work.” If you do not care for the song, feel free to tell the artist, but let them know why and suggest some ideas on how the song could be improved.
Please don’t allow your comments to become personal attacks on the artist or on the genre of music they play. The Broadjam peer review mechanism is meant to help everyone in the community, and being insulting will only decrease your chances of receiving quality reviews in return.
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What if I don’t like a song that has come up for review? ^
If you just listened to a song and/or began reviewing a song that you feel you can’t give any helpful comments for, you can choose not to submit the review for that song by clicking the Cancel button. Then just click on the Review Songs button and select another song. It is not helpful to the artist to say, “I don’t like country music” or “This is just another boring pop song.” Members of the Broadjam community submit their songs for peer review for the constructive criticism they hope to get in return. If you really don’t have anything helpful to say please don’t submit a review for the song, just select Cancel.
