Someone licensed your music and will be asking for your master recording. So are you going to prepare and deliver your master recordings?
There are actually two aspects you should be focusing on the delivery. These are the:
a.) Audio Format.
b.) Method of delivery
Delivering Audio Masters using Traditional Method
Let’s start with the traditional method. This is delivery using CD, DVD, hard drives, or other physical storage media. The audio format (whether it’s 16-bit WAV, 24-bit WAV or MP3) depends on your customer request, some example below:
a.) If you are delivering less than 15 songs to your customer. Then use the CD audio wav format of your masters. These should be in 16 bit/44.1Khz resolution. This is also the end/complete format of most audio mastering houses.
Burn all 16 bit/44.1Khz audio wav files as an audio CD then make sure to select the best CD media for burning your tracks. Burn it at the lowest rate as possible like 1x, 2x, or 4x.
c.) If you are delivering more than 15 songs, you have it burn into a high capacity medium such as DVD.
d.) If the client prefers MP3 format, then send the best format that is 320 kbps MP3 version of all the music (Constant bit rate encoded).
A single CD can handle more than 50 to 70 MP3 masters at 320kbps.
Some clients strongly require WAV files since it is uncompressed; but some would also accept MP3 format.Whether you send using a 16-bit/44.KHz master or an MP3 master, make sure it is broadcast ready as processed by a mastering engineer. Don’t send raw mix version to your client.
If you don’t have an MP3 version, you can use some recording software that has the functionality of creating a 320kbps MP3 from 16 bit/44.1Khz masters. You can use the LAME encoder for best results. You can read this tutorial on how to do this in Adobe Audition or Audacity:
How to add a lame encoder in Adobe Audition?
If you are using a different recording software (e.g. Reaper Digital audio workstation or Audacity); you can still use the LAME MP3 encoder.
Important: Do not forget to list tracks in the CD case, especially the exact titles of those tracks that are licensed by your customer. Make sure it contains the same order as the one of the MP3 CD. Take advantage of the MP3 ID3 tagging system so you can embed the track title, artist and everything in the MP3 file.
d.) Be careful about the shipment. Because this is a physical CD and would be susceptible to damage, you are going to send this to your client using Courier method (DHL, FedEx, etc). In this case, one must be careful during shipment to avoid damage to the CD. Make sure you communicate this with your preferred courier and to your client.
It is recommended to place your CD envelopes that are designed for sending CD. They usually contain Styrofoam-based/bubble plastics that would reduce impact damage.
CD envelope
If your client requires 24-bit masters, then the only option is to burn them into a DVD or an USB external hard drive. There are many low-cost high capacity hard drives today that can easily accommodate large number of 24-bit masters. Again, handling can be an issue since DVD or hard drive can be fragile.
The golden rule is to ask your client in advance as to their preferred audio format. Make sure you send them exactly what they need. Don’t send them MP3 masters if they are asking for 24-bit WAV masters, they will be disappointed.
Delivering Audio Masters using Online Method
The second method is online delivery. In this case, you will not need to worry about burning the tracks in CD or DVD since the entire delivery will just be downloaded by your client. To do this:
a.) Prepare the WAV or 320kbps MP3 version out of your entire master recordings. For mp3; use the MP3 ID3 tagging system. In this way, do not forget to add track titles, track artist and all important licensing information to be embedded in the MP3 file. Make sure the track title is present in both the filename and in the ID3 tag system of the Mp3 file.
b.) Put all of your MP3/WAV tracks inside a folder.
c.) Zip the folder into one package. The end result is a .zip file that contains all of your MP3 or WAV tracks. Zipping is highly recommended for delivery since it will compress the files and reduce the overall file sizes.
Compute the MD5 checksum of the resulting zip file. You can read this tutorial for details. You can see an example implementation of checking and verifying MD5 checksum here.
d.) Upload the zip file to your website folder. The uploading can take some time depending on the size of the zip file. This would look like the one shown below:
Online method delivery
e.) Send the download link to your customer AND the value of the MD5 checksum result for the zip package.
f.) Your customer will then download the zip package from his/her computer. This can take time. For example at 23 MP3 tracks at 320Kbps bit rate will have a total file size of 185MB. So if your customer has a very slow Internet connection, the downloading can take a very long time.
After downloading, your client can check the MD5 checksum of the downloaded zip package. If the MD5 checksum result matched with the one you provide in the email, therefore the downloaded package is not corrupted and safe to use. This is why you should implement MD5 checksum as a means of verifying file integrity. A lot of downloads online can become corrupted due to some errors during the data transmission.
Again, to upload a big file online, you need to use your own hosting space (such as your website hosting space). Make sure your client is allowed to acccess and download the zip package. Test your download link in different computers (outside your network) to make sure it works.
If you do not have your own hosting space; there are other great online solutions for sending files such as YouSendIt and SendSpace. They offer free accounts but it is limited. Search it in Bing for details.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Delivery
Advantages:
1.) Low cost since you do not need to pay for a courier.
2.) Safe, since the downloading link is entirely private and sent only to your client. Sending through courier can have some risk pertaining to the loss of the material as well as damage.
3.) There are some countries which you won’t be allowed to send a CD. I have tried this with FedEx before in sending an audio CD to Vietnam from Philippines but it’s been denied due to some regulations. In this case, you will only be using online delivery method.
Disadvantages:
1.) If your customer is using a very slow internet connection; then the downloading can take very long. In some cases, it will timeout thus repeating the download process that further adds the delay. Incomplete downloaded packages are corrupted, so make sure it is verified by your client using MD5 checksum.
2.) Online delivery is not recommended for extremely large file downloads in slow Internet connection. For example at 5GB download may appear impractical to some customers with very limited Internet bandwidth. Make sure you communicate with your customer and agree on the delivery methods.
3.) Also if you are using free file hosting solutions for sending files; they will impose a limit and your zip package file size may be greater than this limit. Thus you will not be able to send them the package without upgrading your account.
Content last updated on July 26, 2012