EqD Pre-Listeners will be debating submission standards soon

[Circuitfry]

!!! THIS IS NOT THE ARGUING THREAD GET THAT JUNK OUTTA HERE, FOALS !!!

It is a really good idea to get in our MLR skype chat and start discussing this new thing. Get involved! Add any of us on Skype and ask to be included in our musician chat if you're a musician and want to get your word in! Don't know us on Skype, yet? Head right over here!

Yes, we are gonna set standards, now!
We're going to work on a first draft next Thursday. I want this to be a rather transparent thing, since everyone here is concerned. I'm very serious when I say that I don't want this to turn into an argument. You guys can make a topic and make discussions, but we need your input before next Thursday.

Please create one (ONE, OKAY? 1 ONE WUN) post that properly outlines your concerns, reasons, suggestions, and ideals about pony music. Make it concise, make it to-the-point, please, and be very very considerate in your expression of ideals. It's a good idea to make edits to your posts before Thursday, or just post it all at once, doesn't matter.

We're going to consider a lot of variables!
There are many topics that we have to discuss. There are many many many things to think about when deciding on a song. We obviously have a lot of no-nos for us pre-listeners to be aware of, so please make sure we know what *not* to do, as well. Here's a few, and feel free to bring up more.

• Popularity of the artist (I'm sure this one will go by quick)
• Relation to ponies
• Genres
• Effort
• Instrumentals
• Inspired music
• Originals
• Remixes / Covers
• Sound quality
• Community impact

Note: We are all entitled to our opinions here, but do *not* devolve this thread into a flamefest because that happens in every darn topic about the pre-listeners. We started the group *2 days ago*, we're going to figure this out, so please be calm while we actually take time to process stuff. No, we're not voting on music, right now. We gotta be ready.

Do not post responses to others' input in this thread. Discussion should be outside of the thread. This is to keep the thread clean and organized as a resource. This thread is for listing your suggestions only.

[MichaelA]

• Popularity of the artist (I'm sure this one will go by quick)
• Relation to ponies
• Genres
• Effort
• Instrumentals
• Inspired music
• Originals
• Remixes / Covers
• Sound quality
• Community impact

All of these are great, however on the subject of genres, I don't think it should matter WHAT genre it is in as long as it follows everything correctly, however the most frequent genres may need to be a little more strict on what gets through, IE orchestral, dubstep, etc.. Relation to ponies will be the big one, because anyone can take a song they've previously made and make it into ponies by slapping a few samples on there. So this should tie into inspiration. Did they get INSPIRED by ponies to make the song, or was it just a song with pony samples on it? Sure, not everyone starts a song with inspiration, but if the artist strictly knows it will be about ponies BEFORE they start work on the song, then I think it should get through as long as the sound quality is good enough. There is a lot of remixes, specifically of new songs in the show. These need to be monitored the most, because there was ~2-3 music posts JUST on song remixes for the last song. Maybe people can hold off a week or so to release their remix, so we don't have multiple music posts dedicated to one song. So community impact is a little unclear, you might need to clarify that one up. If you're talking about a R34 song or something, no. I would imagine shipping songs would be ok to a certain extent, but it only goes so far. On the topic of instrumentals, in my opinion they should not even be up at all. I mean, sure they're cool and all, but the song is already laid out for you, all you have to do is remake it. At least in remixing, you have to add your own flare to a song. In the case of instrumentals, I don't know if you should let them pass. Or maybe limit it 1 per song.

Just my opinion.

[Versilaryan]

I think the only two on there that shouldn't be looked at are genre and popularity. Disallowing any genres of music is basically discriminating against certain artists. As for popularity, that's obviously a part of the decision. But it should definitely be more of a formatting thing for the post and not a part of the pre-listening approval process. Popular people should be held to the same standards as everyone else, no matter how much everypony everypony should know them.

I think instrumentals are okay, as long as it's evident that people put work into them. It's one thing to rip the BG music and call it a day -- it's another thing entirely to transcribe the entire song note-by-note. Transcription is an /intense/ process, and the best thing about them is that once they're out there, people can use them in their own remixes of show songs as well as just look at the music to help figure out why the songs sound so cool. Including them in the music posts is a great way to help make them known more! (It's how I started the brony music scene!)

As for inspired music that happens to be instrumental... Well, that's the hard part. That's why I think that a short description of why your music is pony-related should be a part of the submission process. Not everypony likes posting blurbs on what their song is about in the Youtube description. If you can see their explanation while listening to it, it should be allowed. Examples would include things like a Luna song that explores the duality between Luna/Nightmare Moon, or a tone poem that puts an in-show story to music. Or a song about the hydra attack. I dunno.

Everything else is self-explanatory. It might be easy to just pick up a guitar, strum some chords, and sing a show tune, but the quality of the recordings and background tracks should be a dead giveaway how much effort they put into it.

[Whitetail]

Imo the only things that need to come into consideration, if you could listen to a song without even seeing the name of the submitter and their album art (well of course you'd have to see it soon enough to judge if it's acceptable to present to the public) it would be ever better but since you can't I'd say you just cut it down to a few simple points and act as detached as possible to the actual artist it is sending it or the like.

*Relation to ponies - this can manifest in many, many ways but it's normally easy enough to see.
*Effort - if you don't put any effort into your work, it need not be featured
*Sound quality - don't hold everyone to studio standards, but things like excessive clipping are a no-no
*Community impact - honestly I'm not sure entirely what this means, I'm assuming this is a bit of the "does it fit our standards" type of thing.

[Cyril]

• Popularity of the artist (I'm sure this one will go by quick)
  My personal opinion on this matter is that this should not be a factor in how fast something gets posted to Equestria Daily or anywhere. I mean, granted, popular artists generally produce excellent work... which is why they're popular, but they should be able to wait. This is one thing where the fans of said artist should not hold sway over how fast or numerous a post by an artist is. If a fan wants to see something on the site, they can wait to see it come on the front page.
  
  
• Relation to ponies
  This is the most difficult subject to treat... My personal opinion is that there should be different posts based upon how "related" to ponies it is. Why? Because I feel that is the only stratification that really should exist when dealing with pony music. Like instrumentals (more on that later) can be classified easily based upon "remix" of a pony song or BGM or "inspired by" pretty easily. This is the only sort of thing that I find to be an acceptable division between song posts. Some music is quite obviously pony becuase its a remix or it is inspired by pony becuase of the lyrics or becuase of a description of its function to the pony community as a theme of sorts.
  
  
• Genres
  Bleh, let people decide what is what. Most bronies mark their songs with what genre they are anyway, at least I do since I tend to produce a breadth of styles. I usually tag with a [Parody Rap] or [Rock Ballad] or if its a known song I've done [Remaster] on my YT videos. If we really feel we need to classify things... sure, but I mean other than the artist who makes it... who's to say what is what?
  
  
• Effort
  This is a big one for me. I come from http://ocremix.org before ponies (and I am still involved with them to this day) this site set its production and arrangement bar so high that I have been rejected for my vocals being slightly out of tune. Which is great in a lot of ways but difficult in other ways becuase it makes it REALLY difficult to get posted on the site. There is a system in place that allows for auto-rejection if something is super terrible, clearly shows no effort, or is just a "midi-rip plus drums" (which isn't as prevalent here becuase we don't have a http://vgmusic.com and remixes often happen mere days after the release of a new pony song)
  
  That being said, unless we want Equestria Daily or wherever to be KNOWN as a place where only the best of the best get posted (from a production standpoint etc.) then we should be a bit more lenient from that end. If someone does a one-take acoustic cover with a lot of flubs and is mostly for the artists own fans... then it doesn't really belong in a music post to me. If an acoustic demo of sorts is made but the song is super fantastic (as in MandoPony's "Long Way from Equestria") then that clearly shows fantastic effort in song-writing and performance which qualifies for a post. However, if something has terrible production/lots of errors in arrangement/lots of other issues that are almost painfully obvious to anypony with a musical ear... then I don't really think that should be posted.
  
  NOTE: Parodies, even if they use instrumentals from other sources, can show effort based upon their lyrical content and performance. For instance, the Flyin' Derpy parody that I produced with Mic and Lauren G. took a good bit of time (26 hours ;_;) to get sounding good and the lyrics are pretty top notch (I only really wrote the chorus so no ego here) and its of course funny. So that would pass under the newer standards.
  
  
• Instrumentals
  If they are remixes of pony songs that show effort. A+ no problem. Eurobeat Brony made this clear with his Super Ponybeat series. They are instrumentals, but they are fun remixes of pony tunes. If it is not... then that gets a bit dicier. I'll cover more of that in Inspired music.
  The only exception I could see with original instrumentals is if they are written for pony games or animated shorts.
  
  
• Inspired music
  What does this mean? I know this sounds weird, but I really think the artist needs to justify what and why their inspired instrumental has to do with ponies! I mean honestly, instrumental music is amazing, but if it's a random progressive metal jam labeled "Rainbow Dash's First Flight" well. okay. that's nice, but I could take any number of my instrumental pieces and label them "Nightmare Moon's theme" or "Twilight Sparkle and Spike" and it could be very vague connection at best. To me there are two ways to handle this issue:
  1) We could take the title and consider how close it is, in the case of "Twilight Sparkle and Spike" or if it sounds light and sounds like family. I know that's really vague, but there is a certain sound, but basically does it "SOUND" like Twilight Sparkle and Spike having a day to themselves.
  2) Look at what specifically inspires it. If it is tied to fanfiction, specific scene in a fanfiction, fan image, other image etc then we can clearly see it was inspired by ponies, and it can be placed in a music post or the "inspired by ponies" music posts. If there is no specific image or fanfiction that it is based upon, it could be technically inspired by ponies, but I suggest we ask that the artist justify it. I know that sounds like it will dissuade artists from making beautiful music inspired by ponies, but if an artist is making the music because they were truly inspired by it, then it should not be an issue.
  
  NOTE: Favor artists who are not attempting to make money from their music. If they have it all offered for free but use Bandcamp as a "donate" button then that's fine. but if they do like some artists I've seen in this community and just put it on Bandcamp with a minimum of $5 and don't have any other options (even a mediafire... torrent?) to get it for free... I disagree with this on a fundamental level as this music is based upon a fandom that is (or at least was) very trusting and rabid about fancontent. I feel that it is taking advantage of fans to do that sort of thing.
  P.S.: I know you could say the same about those 1,000 plushies HOWEVER those are put up for auction, not actually being sold at that price. The starting price is often really low in comparison to the ending price. Plushies are also a physical medium, whereas we produce digital content. NOW if they have physicals printed ignore this. Physicals cost money and they are probably just covering costs at that point.
  
  If it has lyrics, you can generally tell if they are about ponies are not. So that's not terribly difficult to decipher.
  
  
• Originals
  About the same as pony-inspired. Except if it has lyrics.
  I assume this was put here because of the prevalent use of vocal samples in electronic music. I have to see the vocal samples as integral to the song itself, not just slapped on to make it pony related. Unless it follows the outlines above in the Pony-inspired section in addition to having vocal samples.
  
  
• Remixes / Covers
  Be a bit stricter about the effort. Nothing wrong with them, but some guy with a poop webcam and meh vocal technique I don't think should be posted, unless there was a song the previous episode and a compliation post wants to be made of any and all remixes/covers of a certain song that happened over the week (in fact I encourage this.)
  As for these being accepted, that's clear. Its obviously pony related.
  
  
• Sound quality
  See the things I say about effort. One thing I do have that I will not back down on is clipping. Unless a song is a live performance that we (the pre-listeners) have determined was so good that it is worth the post. I mean this does happen, someone playing dynamically or mastering an orchestral track can run into that issue. If its a live quartet performance and the microphone was set a bit too hot and there is some clipping at the loudest points in the song, that is one thing...
  
  If you can't hear the clipping if you can then its not too hard to remaster. We should communicate this to the artist so they can adjust it if we find it good on all other counts.
  Once again, we can be REALLY anal about production quality (which is something I can definitely help with) or we can be a little bit more relaxed. I think that we should be a bit more relaxed than say OCReMix, but definitely give feedback to the artists based upon our prelistening (if I were a prelistener I would give pretty lengthy write-ups on pieces that were borderline in any way as far as production goes) so that they can have the posting delayed if they want to fix.
  
  I find this acceptable because there is a lot of good music in this fandom and posts should still happen on a daily basis.
  
  
• Community impact
  Ahhhhh the tough one to justify. I have no idea. Pony Swag was a huge influence on the community as a whole. So I think if its another pony swag verse... well then it comes down to sound quality and we should have our resident rappers slam down if needed. However, if its a megamix, then that is community building at its finest and should definitely be posted up.
  
  I dunno, if it seems like it would negatively impact the community? Don't post it? I don't have any metrics for this that make any sense. I guess consensus on a case by case basis works here... however we need to be careful becuase this community is pretty tight so if we have a poor opinion of an artist we should not let that conflict with the greatness (or not) of the music....
  
  I emphasize case by case basis.

I hope to see more opinions on these points, and if you feel I am wrong or off center in anyway, please just let me know! I will listen to your opinion and we can come up with something that is the strength of the brony music communities collected ideas that everyone can agree is fair.

This is a tough thing to do, but it's probably overdue that we're doing it. <3 LETS GET 'EM PONIES!

~Cyril the long winded

P.S. I do agree with the simplification of metrics idea, as there seemed to be a lot that was overlapping but just went through what was there. As you can see there is a lot of overlap that can be eliminated. I think instrumentals and vocal pieces need slightly different metrics when it comes to pony-inspired/original music.

[Interrobang Pie]

Have some of my on-the-spot opinions.

- Popularity
Disregard who made it completely and utterly.
- Relation to ponies
With some genres (chiptunes) it's difficult to keep it pony related since you can't be a lazy fuck and just throw in loads of samples, so watch out!!!!
- Genres
All
- Effort
High
- Instrumentals
If instrumentals of the show's songs, none at all. Vocal and non-vocal rips are often made anyway which makes instrumentals completely redundant.
- Inspired music
Aren't these just originals?!?!?!?!?!!
- Originals
As long as it has a fitting setting - see relation to ponies
- Remixes / Covers
Yeah. Not so keen on covers, though.
- Sound quality
High
- Community impact
Any


Oh and:
Originals > Remixes > Covers

[Dr_Dissonance]

H'okie dokie!

Popularity of the artist (I'm sure this one will go by quick)
This shouldn't be considered...like at all, it doesn't matter who made it!

Relation to ponies
Well, it does need to be related, but being related to ponies doesn't mean it has to have a specific theme or samples from the show...that is:
1) Detrimental to some people's creative process if they have something which is inspired by pony, yet feel the need to adjust it to fit with standards...
2) Easy to manipulate by sticking the odd sample in and going "there we go!"

Genres
All should be welcome, again, if you say "Pony music can ONLY be a, b or c" then many people will be discriminated and feel the need to adjust their creative process to fit.

Effort
This does need to be taken into consideration...however, only briefly...not an in depth listen to hear if the piece has had the composer's soul poured in, but more to check that it isn't someone just using Garageband loops...

Instrumentals
Perfectly fine, I don't see why there's a couple of people saying these aren't pony and that you have to have a vocalist...seems silly!

Inspired music
Yes of course, BUT, this must be explained by the composer. Sometimes it's difficult to catch on to how it was inspired, so the composer MUST explain themselves!

Originals
Again, perfectly fine as long as the composer explains themself! If we say "no originals" this is another limit on the composer's creative process...

Remixes / Covers
No one complains about these, so they're a no brainer!

Sound quality
I'd like to divide this into regular quality and sound quality:
Quality: Each piece that gets through should be of a good quality, ie, well thought out, skilled compositional style, etc...
Sound Quality: Be a bit more lenient than normal...so, if someone has subpar sound libraries, don't dismiss them because of that...but if they're just using regular ol' MIDI, well...
Also, it must be mastered adequatly, so avoiding clipping, etc...

Community impact
Haha, depends entirely what you mean by that...if you mean the beneficial stuff, like FtNLR or PonySwag then sure, these type of things have proven to be of high quality anyway!
If you mean the stuff that may be detrimental, like a piece about cupcakes, well, I don't think that should be a factor, unless of course it's deliberately nsfw...
But I'm fine if it does become one!

Oh and:

PRELISTENERS SHOULD GIVE FEEDBACK TO PEOPLE WHO DO NOT GET THROUGH!!!

[Solarsail]

- The bar for quality should be the main principle of the prelisteners (as opposed to relatedness), and should not be any lowerfor remixes, covers or songs with a lot of sampling as compared to originals. A remix or cover should do something substantially different to previous posted efforts (e.g. not just 'here is Best Pet with a dubstep backing'). Equally the standard should not be lowered just because a new song was last week and they are the first to do something with it.

- For relatedness, if the artist can explain in any reasonable way how it is related to ponies it should pass. A couple of sentences and the title/art, or lyrics. The genre shouldn't affect its standing in this criteria at all. This criterion should not be any stricter than this because of encouraging negative behaviour like forced sample inclusion, or rejecting good original work based on a subjective idea of what is related.

- The work should HAVE to be submitted by the author and feedback on rejection is always given to them.

- If anyone wants to debate why their song was rejected it should be a public process with maybe a topic on MLR. The discussion can be used to revise the standards.

[Rainbowdutch]

Okey first let's go through these


Popularity of the artist (I'm sure this one will go by quick)

Ofcourse being popular doesn't mean you get a special treatment. The special treatment (single post for example) should be earned by quality and nothing else.

Relation to ponies

This is a difficult one, I have heard a lot of songs lately with unfitting quotes from the episode which are put in just "to make it pony". I think where we should judge on is if the quotes cit within the context of the song. When it comes to instrumentals I will illustrate my view a couple of lines down ^^

Genres

Just because it is a certain genre should NEVER be an argument to reject a song. And let me emphasize that by saying it again. Just because it is a certain genre should NEVER be an argument to reject a song.

Effort

I think the amount of effort that is put into a song should be a legitimate reason to reject a song. To give an example, Rainbowcrash88s work sounds a lot simpler to me than for example Ipies work. Furthermore does rainbowcrash just take a song from the show and put it in 8-bit and doesn't need to come up with melodies etc.

Instrumentals

Instrumentals are probably gonna be the most difficult thing we have to judge. I think the best way to do this is to change the way the submission to eqd works. If a song is fully instrumental the musician in case should provide an explanation about what inspired him and how his song links to the show. If that link is legitimate it should be approved.

Inspired music

See above

Originals

Again if it is pony related it is good there.

Remixes / Covers

This one links back to the effort one. A remix shouldn't be "just use another instrument and it will be fine". A remix is taking an aspect from the song you wanna remix (vocals or melody etc.) And let your own inspiration do the rest. Also covers don't take a lot of effort but can be done really right (for example miu's cover of want it need it)

Sound quality

Ofcourse quality should be the biggest point to focus on. Like Mic said (probably not the exact quote) "eqd needs some fucking standards"

Community impact

This is a difficult one. I think we should be a little bit more flexible when it comes to things like the cover compilation from the song of the last episode and perhaps when the time is there Christmas songs.




The way I imagine this prelistener chat to be is that Seth can throw songs at us, we function as a filter and he gets the good ones thrown back which he can post on the site.

I heard that you guys already did some tests on how the judging is gonna work (which I unfortunately couldn't be a part of cause of real life) and I heard from some that it wasent a big succes (I remember Korry mentioning it but I am sure there were some more). So I will also give you my thoughts on how the judging should go.

I think we should have a google doc with the songs we still need to judge and possibly a history of maybe a week old of what we did with other songs. This doc should be edditable by certain people, ofcourse Seth himself so he can put in the songs that are send to him (or maybe even have a [email protected] screws which some of us can acces as well so we can do it ourselve).

The other people who should be able to edit the doc should be the "judging masters" these people are the leaders of the judging part and the people who stop us when it is getting too crazy. Some people I would suggest are the original prelisteners, Mic the microphone, ajtheengineer and artattack (I leaving dissorder out of this for reasons he will most likely understand). Also I noticed that circuitfry here has been really enthousiastic about this ^^. And I think we need someone from Europe (aj tbh I have no clue where you are from but I am just gonna assume that you are American) for this I would suggest korry (keeponrockin) or maybe Ipie (I love you with every fiber from my body but tbh I just don't think you are the perfect guy for the job)

The judging should be done in the following fashion. First we all listen to the song. Then we have a discussion about the song and give arguments about why or why not the song should be approved. These discussions shouldn't go on for too long and it is the "judging masters" job to say it is enough (maybe after 5 min or so). Then we all vote on if the song should be approved or rejected and see what gets the most votes (if too much or too less comes through then the standards need to be altered. For example it needs 60 percent to get approved)

Now I also think that the music posts on eqd should look a little different. I think that we need to use the feedback from the discussion and put that in the post to say to the public why the song is so good. Furthermore should we use the feedback and send it to the musicians of the rejected songs so they know what to approve, and eventually make the quality of the brony music community better.




That is all that is on my mind right now, I will edit my post when something else comes to mind.

(this post took 1hour and 10 minutes and was made on my mobile phone..... FUCK!!!!)

[Calamus_Dash]

Just a quick question, I figured this topic is the best place for it: Does "added to the queue" mean "sent to the pre-listeners" or "accepted"?

[Rainbowdutch]

Just a quick question, I figured this topic is the best place for it: Does "added to the queue" mean "sent to the pre-listeners" or "accepted"?

To be honest I don't have the slightest
This whole prelistener thing hasen't kicked in yet so that is still seth's system

[Pustulioooooo]

Popularity of the artist
Ha ha ha NO! It's irrelevant.

Relation to ponies
Unless it has samples, melodies, or lyrics relating to ponies, it's quite hard to conclude that a song is related to ponies.

Genres
All the genres!

Effort
A lot of effort!

Instrumentals
Eh, none. That's what ripping from the show is for.

Inspired music
See Originals

Originals
I guess it has to fit the mood and or setting the artist intended.

Remixes / Covers
Remixes are fine, unless it's a remix of a pony parody song (The Fluttershys Owl City parody for example) then no.
Covers... hmmmm, Nah.

Sound quality
Most Important- High

Community impact
Anything Really.

[zorg]

Oh boy, what to write...

Popularity of the artist (I'm sure this one will go by quick)

this should not matter since we are the ones that make the things, primarily, and we are not the listeneners. listeners can have bias, pre-listeners should not.

Genres

what are those
more explanatively: again, there are musicians that stick to formulas and the borders they call genres, while there are those who dare not to. no one should kick a track out because a pre could not define the genre; that's silly.

Effort / Sound quality

unless the artist themself does not whine about the hardships of producing his thing - and i mean whining in a positive way -, this can be hard to decide fairly; one can be talented so that he makes a track with less effort than someone else who needs 2 weeks to make one track - and i must say that the 2 tracks in question would be near the "same" quality - the effort needed for a track with around the same complexity differs from person to person; not to mention that someone makes clean, thin sounding tracks, others make it fat/dirty/wet/any other imaginative adjective... also the overproduced and unmastered labels... no one person should decide whether these things are good or bad, the more diluted the many pre's responses, the higher the chance of an objective opinion.

...the next ones will be harder to go over one by one, so again, concatenation...

Relation to ponies
|
|
v
Instrumentals or Acapellas / Covers / Remixes / Inspired music / Originals

That is the correct list to me, ordered by relevance to the show (that is, to marshmallow ponies, the plot [not that one], the world and everything else that is related and what i don't want to write out here).

Anyway, it seems to me that the major problem is mostly flankfrustration when dealing with these kinds of stuff. if things were so binary, i would eliminate originals because that can not be pony music AT ALL (those are the inspired music, whether it uses smth from the show or not)

In a more relaxed tone, i do want to point out civicly a few things that could be regarded as acceptable or to why submissions should not be disregarded (besides, that should never happen; do explain to the artists why a track got rejected, who knows, maybe they will learn from their mistakes):
going from left to right on the above list:

• Instrumental - 1:1 instrumentals of songs in the show should not be accepted for obvious reasons, and that almost exhausts this category already since everything else fits into the "cover" category.
• Acapella - basically acceptable since there are few of these being made, and i will abstain for mentioning quality as a factor here; pre-listener concensus on that issue.
• Covers - this category, for me, encompasses things where the main melody was not modified that much, nor the instrumentation; good examples could be: Orchestral, Rock, Aquaphone covers (with or without vocals); they are not (only) inspired because the original track is hearable in them AND they are not remixes for the same reason.
• Remix - Take melody - Make it resembling, but still something else - remix. To avoid confusion, an "orchestral remix" would be like taking WWU and not sticking to the notes that much. Again, with or without vocals.
• Inspired originals - merged the two on the far right for you, since that is the term everyone was looking for; hard to prove it really was inspired by them; ask the artist for a short explanation, or an art, to see if when listening to it, you could imagine it being inspired by them. Here, i will take the side of the people that say "vocal-less" inspired stuff is acceptable too, and not just because i have a 20 minute composition that was inspired by a fanfic that started as a thread on 4chan. (and i did deviate from the fic at the end but who cares) but because that would close out a (relatively big) part of artists because they 1. can't sing, 2. can't/don't want to chop (ir)relevant pony vox into their piece or 3. can't get anyone else to sing for them. (the last part is solveable with, again, constructive response for the reason of rejection, and possibly hitting the artist up with a willing singer - small things like these can go a long way)
• Remix - Remixception: Remixes of remixes or any other category for that matter... yeah, no comment on that.

Community impact

If by this, you mean like, for example the reaction to Something Broke, then i can elaborate:
Even in one community, the many peoples will have differing tastes (also mindcrabs). You can not cater to everyone. EqD is like mainstream so unfortunately unless seth would agree to have things like what SSH makes up there, then those are out of the question. those being excessively gory, full of cursing or sexual themed lyrics, or tracks that hurt the ears of people that are unaccustomed to said ear-rapage. (though i am trying to reflect on what a generic EqD browsing person would want to, i personally have no problems with gore or sexual themes, but yeah, topic is EqD)

on the other hand, unexpected positive reaction is always a bonus for every party, so that should be a major point of view when considering entries.

Edit: Also, how can you evaluate community impact before a song is uploaded? you can never know for certain what will be liked or disliked...
(same reason i don't really care for the comments on EqD; i did read them below my things, but most of it were either "your generic like reply" or "your generic dislike reply". If i wanted serious feedback, i'd just ask you guys oh i dunno, here maybe? (yeah not on skype, everyone has like an attention span of a nanosecond, not to mention the spam i rather not have to swift through... oops, getting off topic)

hmm, nothing else i can think of right now... and hope despite my... for lack of another word, attitude, i did not come off as something i would rather not be viewed as.

[Sethisto]

Music is a little weird until we get everything sorted out, so please be patient if things take a bit longer than normal. Change is always a pain, but this is actually really fun :p

[Overkillius]

I'm going to keep this simple.

The pre-listeners need to be competent and as void of bias as possible.

The most important thing, and I don't think it can be said enough: If something gets rejected, it must be explained why. Treat music submissions sent to EqD somewhat in the same fashion as fanfic submissions.

[Calamus_Dash]

I'm going to keep this simple.

The pre-listeners need to be competent and as void of bias as possible.

The most important thing, and I don't think it can be said enough: If something gets rejected, it must be explained why. Treat music submissions sent to EqD somewhat in the same fashion as fanfic submissions.

+1 +1 +1
Nothing is worse, in my opinion, than sending in a song, getting "added to the queue" and then never hearing about it again and never seeing it on EqD. Maybe it's just me, but I would FAR rather get an email saying "sorry, but we rejected your song for these reasons: (reasons)" as opposed to getting nothing, which, to me, says "your song was all around shitty and we aren't even going to answer".

[Ropony]

Just a quick question, I figured this topic is the best place for it: Does "added to the queue" mean "sent to the pre-listeners" or "accepted"?

I'm curious about this too, one of the ones i submitted over two weeks ago was replied to with "to the queue!" and has not yet shown up on the site.

Edit: Nevermind, that one did get posted, i just never saw it.

[Supersaw Hoover]

As an artist who probably would regularly get shafted due to the combination of intensity and experimental...ness of my music if I actually submitted things to EqD which I might in the future, I must say that judging songs IN THEIR OWN GENRE is very important. I'm sure now that musicians will actually be judging them, as I understand, this won't be too much of a problem, but honestly, sometimes people forget things like some genres/styles/whatever have lo-fi sounds on purpose and strange mastering on purpose and I'm pretty sure some people who have electro-house sounds shoved too far up their asses will have trouble thinking it "sounds good." That's subjective. What you have to look at is the objective things, like production value, relation to ponies, etc.

[Freewave]

I'm going to keep this simple.

The pre-listeners need to be competent and as void of bias as possible.

The most important thing, and I don't think it can be said enough: If something gets rejected, it must be explained why. Treat music submissions sent to EqD somewhat in the same fashion as fanfic submissions.

+1 +1 +1
Nothing is worse, in my opinion, than sending in a song, getting "added to the queue" and then never hearing about it again and never seeing it on EqD. Maybe it's just me, but I would FAR rather get an email saying "sorry, but we rejected your song for these reasons: (reasons)" as opposed to getting nothing, which, to me, says "your song was all around shitty and we aren't even going to answer".

any updates on what's going on with EqD submissions currently? is there any new policies or expectations we should have in place?