Frequently Asked Questions

Below is a list of answers to questions that we commonly receive. Last updated June 20, 2008.

My Account FAQs

1. Is it really cost-free to create an account on indietorrent.org? Is this true for both fans and artists/musicians?
2. Who is eligible to create an account on indietorrent.org? Everyone?
3. How do I create a new account on indietorrent.org?
4. Once I have an indietorrent.org account, how do I log into the account?
5. Once I have purchased music from indietorrent.org, how do I download the music I paid for?
6. I'm a musician/artist. How do I upload my music to indietorrent.org?
7. Once I've uploaded my digital audio files to indietorrent.org, am I permitted to remove/delete certain albums and/or songs?

indieTorrent Manifesto FAQs

1. The community owns indietorrent.org, so, who or what funds the overhead cost of running the site, etc.?
2. Wait. Why would anyone offer artists the ability to distribute their own music at no cost and for reasons devoid of personal/monetary gain?
3. Who is held legally liable for sub par products or services?

My Account Answers

1. Is it really cost-free to create an account on indietorrent.org? Is this true for both fans and artists/musicians?
   Yes, it really is cost-free to create an account on indietorrent.org; this applies BOTH to fans and to artists. It is completely cost-free to buy OR sell music. (Some portion of each sale will be consumed for payment processing and website overhead [this amount is deducted from the artist's total profit on the sale], but there is no up-front cost of any kind required to use indietorrent.org.)
2. Who is eligible to create an account on indietorrent.org? Everyone?
   Absolutely anyone is permitted, encouraged, and invited to join the indietorrent.org community! Create an account today (see the next FAQ)!
3. How do I create a new account on indietorrent.org?
   Visit the Create a New Account page.
4. Once I have an indietorrent.org account, how do I log into the account?
   Customers are logged-in automatically after creating an account. Whenever customers wish to log-in subsequently, they may do so by clicking the My Account link that appears in each page header on this website.
5. Once I have purchased music from indietorrent.org, how do I download the music I paid for?
   Once a customer has checked-out, successfully, any digital music that was in the customer's shopping cart is immediately made available to the customer for download through the My Music page.
6. I'm a musician/artist. How do I upload my music to indietorrent.org?
   Artists who are interested in selling their own music through indietorrent.org should first create an indietorrent.org account. Once logged into their accounts, artists will then click the Music I'm Selling link on the My Account index page. Customers (artists) will see a notice about completing a Request for Artist Profile form before being permitted to sell music to the general public through this website. Once that form has been completed and submitted, indietorrent.org personnel will contact the artist within 48 hours with a decision. As long as a given artist is real (as opposed to fictitious) and as long as the artist owns the copyright to the music he intends to upload, the Request will be approved.
7. Once I've uploaded my digital audio files to indietorrent.org, am I permitted to remove/delete certain albums and/or songs?
   No, artists are not permitted to permanently delete songs that have been for sale to the public for any period of time (even 30 seconds). The reasons for this policy are explained at great length on the Add a New Album page. (Customers must have Artist Profiles and must be signed-in to access this page.) There are extreme circumstances under which we will move to expunge a song (or album) permanently from the indietorrent.org digital catalog, such as when an unauthorized party has uploaded music on another artist's behalf without the copyright-holding artist's permission.

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indieTorrent Manifesto FAQs

1. The community owns indietorrent.org, so, who or what funds the overhead cost of running the site, etc.?
   The core indietorrent.org team (all of whom are volunteers at present) will be responsible for managing the site, its code-base, structure, and the hardware on which the site runs. The community is responsible, solely, for generating the site's community-centered content (gratis fan-created album art, lyrics, reviews, ratings, etc.). The artists will be responsible for submitting their musical content to indietorrent.org. Users of the "Free for All" service will be provided with a streamlined interface for creating their own Torrent files and uploading them to the indietorrent.org Torrent tracker.
   
   From the start, indietorrent.org's goal is to keep the music and merchandise stores advertisement-free, but to do so, we have to take a small percentage of each sale (whether digital or physical) to help fund operations. There is a very fair possibility that we will need to advertise on the Torrent tracker, since the tracker is likely to sustain an enormous load from free-music-downloading fans, and we don't want that stress to ruin the shopping/previewing/listening experience for people who are trying to conduct financial transactions on the site (including those who are tipping their favorite artists through the "Tip Jar").
   
   We have not ruled-out the potential for generating more advertising revenue than we "need", but any money generated through advertising revenue must be used for a philanthropic purpose, such as to fund music scholarships for indietorrent.org's most promising young musicians. I am also interested in incorporating a benefit model into the site, thereby assisting underprivileged groups, such as victims of abuse, children, etc. Please contact me for more information or if you'd like to consider partnering-up with indietorrent.org.
2. Wait. Why would anyone offer artists the ability to distribute their own music at no cost and for reasons devoid of personal/monetary gain?
   The Free Software paradigm has spawned a new breed of humanitarians and philanthropists alike, who spend inordinate amounts of time and energy contributing to or maintaining "projects" for reasons devoid of personal monetary gain (see apache.org, php.net, and ubuntu.com as examples). Individuals who support the Free Software mentality believe firmly in the enrichment of culture and community through the boundless sharing of knowledge and information, and further, that their efforts will benefit humanity, not just one person or a specific group. Motivation that stems from a genuine and selfless passion for a given cause is the very type of motivation that facilitates spiritual and intellectual evolution. Your local version of the American CIA will tell you that such philosophies are the ravings of hippies and "commies", and that projects like indietorrent.org are a danger to the civilized world, though.
3. Who is held legally liable for sub par products or services?
   indietorrent.org, LLC shall be named in any lawsuit that arises from business activities conducted on indietorrent.org. However, each and every digital asset distributed on indietorrent.org is offered "as-is", which indemnifies the organization in the event that a customer is unhappy with a digital music file after he downloads the file. Music files are offered on an as-is basis primarily because there is a 90-second preview available for every song in the indietorrent.org music store (which is longer than any competitor's preview). In addition, customers pay for music and are able to download the music immediately, with no limit on how many re-downloads are allowed (there is a policy in-place to prevent malicious abuse of this benefit, though).
   
   There will be no mandate that artists honor returns or refunds once a song is purchased and downloaded, though an artist is free to grant a refund if the artist sees it fit to do so. Any artist can request that we issue a refund by initiating a formal "Fan Refund Request" (done through the My Account interface). We'll deduct the amount you wish to refund the customer from your monthly sales total and then credit the customer's credit/debit card or PayPal account before we send your monthly check.
   
   In the case of any monetary donation through the "Tip Jar"/"Feed a Starving Artist" feature, that money is gone for good. No returns. Donors are always welcome to claim a receipt, though!

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