[ An Important Note To Unsigned Acts: ]  When we find bands that we want to play, we 'immediately' send out a music file request, and a direct music license agreement. Then, we put the band into the next playlist for rotation. Simple. But, almost all of the unsigned bands we've contacted either drag their feet, or don't respond at all. Now, why do most indie record labels get back to us immediately, but the unsigned acts can't? How frustrating is that?? If any unsigned bands that we've contacted have any concerns whatsoever, please get in touch with us so that they can be resolved. We're here to help unsigned acts, so let's f'ing rock already!

Remember that this is a heavy metal web station, and will remain extremely hard rock.
These are the steps that you should take:

• [ Request A Myspace Connection ]

  (a) Request a myspace connection, and we will do the rest. We listen to ALL bands. We do not endorse Myspace, but it is easy and fast to listen to many bands in a short period of time.

  ** (please be patient, and do not delete your connection request. We have a lot of bands to review and it may take some time)

  (b) The Stream Jocks, Music Researchers, and Program Director must all agree on unsigned bands for rotation. The Program Director has default power with all label acts.

  (c) When we add bands we send a request for files via myspace with all of the instructions. We also send the license agreement request through your myspace page.
  
  

• [ Email .mp3s ]

  Bands are welcome to just send unsolicited .mp3 files to us via our direct email address (see email below). This is much faster, but the review process is still the same. All unsigned acts must still be approved by all three programmers.

  (a) We 'like' FOUR .mp3 song files for heavier rotation.
       (We will not pull from sites. Takes too much time.)
  
  (b) Make sure IDV2/IDV3 info is correct/spell-checked.
       (.mp3's must be min 250kb / Do not zip or compress files)
  
  (c) Email .mp3's to: meltedmetal/at/networknoir/com
       ('One' file to an email/for five mp3's send five emails)
  
  

• [ Accept Music License Agreement ]

  At the time that you are set for rotation, we will send the licensing agreement to you via your myspace page. Once you accept the terms, and reply through myspace, you are put into active rotation immediately. Our music license agreement policy reserves 8% of our gross revenues, or 8% of our total operation costs (whichever is highest), for payment to the owners of the recorded music that we stream. We pay the funds out every 6 months via PayPal, unless other arrangements are made (Too bad that everyone won't do that).

• [ Without The License Agreement We Cannot Play Your Music ]

  The reasons that we need this agreement are many, but the two most critical reasons are:  

  [ 1. ] 'The Statutory License Rates Are Too High' - The United States government has allowed SoundExchange, an entity formulated by the four largest American record label conglomerates, to collect all performance license fees for all labels and all musicians in the United States, based on the 'Statutory License Laws'. With this license anyone can play anything they want. That's just fine, we have no problem with this. But, the rates for this license are 'fixed and extremely high'. So high, that they have driven many web radio stations out of business. Those rates make running this station too expensive, so we have no choice but to bypass the statutory rates by offering a direct license agreement with rates that we can afford. This is an enormous amount of work.   We never ask an act or label to license us for free, but we must set the amount. We offer the bands or companies that own the music a certain percentage of our revenues 'or' a percentage amount equal to our total operating expenses. So, we do pay bands and labels to play their music, but it's an amount that keeps us in business.

  [ 2. ] 'Every Country Demands A Performance License Fee' - The internet allows anyone from any country to hear this web station. That means that we would have to pay each country's music performance license fees, based on their individual laws and policies (paid to their versions of SoundExchange). In other words, if 50 people from the USA, 30 people from Germany, and 35 people from Japan, all heard the same song at the same time, we would have to pay an array of fees for 'each country', via an array of different international licensing organizations. The only way to remedy this would be to block IP addresses from other counties, but we would still have to pay the high rates to SoundExchange. In addition, we play bands from all over the world, so we can't maintain our programming style if we block international IP addresses. [ Click here for a sad example ]   So, we offer a private music license agreement that gives us the right to play a bands recorded music, no matter how many people hear it, no matter where it is heard.

  We just hope that all of the governments on earth can come together and create one worldwide, central, performance licensing formula that will allow small web stations to prosper. But, if the people of the Earth can't stop killing one another after all of this time maybe that's too much to ask, right?

  [ Labels ] Labels are invited to contact us directly to create private license agreements between us, so that we can play all acts on your roster. Just send a note to us through our contact page with your contact information: Contact name, name of label/production company, email address, business address, business phone number, and any additional information that you wish to send. Send this to Bill Wilkins, and we will get back to you within 24 hours. All messages from labels will receive a confirmation of reception. So, if you do not receive a confirmation, then we didn't get the message.

  We stand behind the acts we play on Melted Metal. When first added, we play your act in heavy rotation for at least 3 weeks, usually much more than that. After that, we rotate unsigned bands back into our active playlist periodically, especially when we have new-adds spaces that are available.

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  Questions or comments?
  Message us at our Contact Page