Click here to go to our sign up page which lists all the benefits of being an overplay member where you'll be guided through the joining process where you could be up and running within minutes. Once you have submitted your details you will be emailed a unique password which will enable you to access your admin area to your artists website. Then you can start adding information for everyone to view in a few minutes.

If you initially choose, for example, a Silver account you will have the option within the first 30 days to upgrade to a higher-ranking account and simply pay the price difference from both accounts. Within your admin area you have the options to 'upgrade' or 'downgrade' to modify your account or simply email overplay and we will help you.

This will help visitors search for music they like and allow others to see more easily what kind of music you are similar to.

Once you have logged in, you will enter your artists admin area. The admin area is the engine room of your site where you will be able to upload, edit, change any of your information as often as you like. Within your admin area there is a tips section to guide you through the uploading process.

Some email providers like Hotmail, yahoo and AOL have junk email filters that may filter out valid messages. To ensure delivery of all overplays emails please add overplays email address service@overplay.com to your contact list. Also check your junk email folder to see if our email is there. Or simply email us at service@overplay.com and we will re-send your details.

The 'Add' button appears next to your song if you want fan members to add your song (because they love your music) to their music player. The fans have the chance to collect their favourite songs for their player which gives the artist extra exposure and extra plays. This enables more people to listen to your songs and create more interest in listening to more of your music.  It also gives the artist extra plays as your song can feature on your player and the fan's player giving more people the chance to play and listen to your songs, plus everytime a song has been added you the artist have gained an extra fan.

The rate button does what it says rate your music. If an artist or fan member clicks on the button they will see the rating card where they can score and leave comments on your music. All these rating reviews are stored in the artist admin area and if you wish you can publish these reviews to be see and read on your site area.

You have complete control of the content in your site area and where you can edit or delete your music at anytime you wish.  If you don't have any CD's to sell then get recording or get your MP3's on sale, remember CD's and merchandise are the main source to artists making money.

If you are a Gold account member you can submit a song to be played on overplays radio player.

Login to your artist account. Click on the link to 'Stats' and you'll find a record of your stats of your account from song plays to how many visitors to where you are ranked overall in overplay.

If you want a professional review from Overplay of your latest CD single or album then you must be a silver or gold member. Then simply post your CD to us to the address below: Overplay PO Box 11188 Sutton Coldfield B76 1WX England For interviews Overplay randomly selected Silver or Gold members. If you are a Silver or Gold member and would like to take the interview simply email us at service@overplay.com

Login to your account. Then go to the artists site or fans page who you want to add as a friend/fan and click on the "Add to friends" link. Once they accept your friend request it will add them as a friend/fan and link their page to your artist site. This will not only get them to check out your music but will also encourage their friends to check out your site.

You will see within your admin area when your account is due to expire and we will email you a month in advance when it is time to renew your membership.

In the artists admin area you will be able to view all your sale orders where payment will be sent to you once your sales have reached or exceeded your chosen sales target. Sale target is the amount you select - between £10 - £50 in your admin area. When your sales target has been reached overplay will then make full payment to you through Paypal.

When you visit an artist or a fans site simply click on 'Add to friends' in the top right hand corner of their page. Once you have added them as a fan, the artist or fan member will have to approve your request. Once approved your profile link will be on their site and their profile link on your site.

????

Artists are able to sell their MP3's, CD's and any merchandise at any price. So you have full control. When a sale item is bought payment is made through Paypal (payment service provider) where Paypal charges a small transaction fee on each sale of: minus 3.4% + £0.20 GBP for payments in Pounds Sterling, $0.30 USD for US Dollars, $0.55 CAD for Canadian Dollar, ¥40 JPY for Yen, €0.35 EUR for Euro, $0.40 AUD for Australian Dollar. An example of MP3 sale breakdown: MP3 song on sale for      89p Paypal transaction cost      -23p (-3.4% + £0.20 GBP) overplays handling fee      -10p total artist receives =      56p        An example of a CD sale breakdown: CD on sale for      £7.99 Paypal transaction cost      -£0.47 (-3.4% + £0.20 GBP) overplays handling fee      0 (nothing) total artist receives =      £7.52 When your account balance reaches your sales target overplay will then send you payment to your paypal account where a small Paypal transaction charge will be deducted from your amount. An example of account balance: If your account balance is      £10 Paypal transaction cost      - £0.54 (-3.4% + £0.20 GBP) total artist receives =      £9.46 majority of sales to the artist, not bad. For full details in how to sell your music and merchandise please click here.

When you have chosen your pictures that best show off you or your band then you can simply upload them onto your artists website from your admin area. We ask all pictures to be uploaded at 72dpi as a jpeg so these pics can be uploaded and seen quickly by visitors (there's nothing worse than waiting for a large image to appear). Within your admin area there is a tips section to guide you through the uploading process.

The artists media music player lists all their songs, CD's and videos. The playlist tab will list all the artists songs. If the song has been put on sale a 'BUY' button will appear. A 'RATE' button will appear so visitors can rate their music. The other featured button will be 'Add'. This is for fans to add their favourite songs to their own personal music player. The Album tab will list all the artists albums on sale. The video tab will list and play any videos uploaded. What is the benefit of the 'Add' button on the artist media music player? The 'Add' button appears next to a song if the artist has selected that song to be added by fans. Fans then have the chance to collect their favourite overplay songs for their player which gives the artist extra exposure and extra plays and fans a chance to earn more points. If a fan decides to add a song it also sends a request to the artist to join their fan profile listing. What is the 'Rate' button the artist media player? The rate button does what it says you are able to rate the music.  All these rating reviews are sent to the artist  and overplay who will decide whether this reviews are genuine to be approved so fans can earn points. Once approved the artist can decide whether to publish the review on their site.

Once an artist member, within your admin area you are able to enter and list your forthcoming gigs. Any gigs you list within your site area will automatically get listed in overplays overall 'Gig Guide'.

Overplay does not accept the responsibility of copyrighting your material. We advise you to copyright all your material before registering with Overplay. It is the artist/bands full responsibility to deal with copyrighting.

When artists joins overplay they will have their own personal media music player. The media player has 3 tabs - Playlist, Albums and Videos. The playlist tab will list all the artists songs. If the song has been put on sale a 'BUY' button will appear. Also a 'RATE' button will appear so visitors can rate your music. The other featured button will be 'Add'. This is for fan members to add their favourite songs to their own music player. The Albums tab will list all the artists albums on sale. The video tab will list and play any videos uploaded or if you have a youtube video you can add the youtube video link to have the video played in the media player.

No. Once a record label has signed an artist that originally was recognised on Overplay then our work has been done and successful. There are no contracts to sign as we don’t own the rights to you.

When you have chosen the tracks you wish to feature on your site, you will need to convert these tracks to MP3 format. Then simply upload the MP3 files from your admin area to your artists media player, then depending on how fast your internet access your songs will be live within minutes. Once uploaded your songs will be abled to be played online. If you have a Silver or Gold account you will have the option to instruct your songs to be just played online or allow visitors to download your songs for free or select a price in how much you wish to sell your songs. Within your admin area there is a tips section to guide you through the uploading process.

This is simply for convenience for the buyer. If the buyer is buying multiple amounts of songs from different artists in one visit then the buyer cannot be expected to pay direct to each of the individual artists they have bought from. It is easier to pay direct to one source and then for overplay to distribute payments to the artists. For full details in how to sell your music and merchandise please click here.

Yes you will have to be a member of our FREE music fans account to be able yo use the main overplay message board and the artists individual message boards. You can open a FREE music fans account to get your own personal area on overplay. You'll be able to play and rate songs, gain easy access to artists and overplays messageboard and have your very own personal area. Here you can monitor your favourite artists, make quick links, hear their latest songs or view their latest gig, receive latest news and updates, buy music and monitor any buys from the artists.

If you want to sell your music and merchandise to a wider audience you can get your sale items online in just a few minutes when you become a member of overplay. If you just want to sell your MP3's then you will need a Silver or Gold overplay account. If you wish to sell your CD's and merchandise too then you'll need to choose a Gold account. With a gold account you'll have your own artists shop window dedicated to showcase your CD’s and other merchandise items giving you the opportunity to reach audiences beyond gigs and traditional distribution. Overplay provides the platform and tools to start selling your merchandise with a difference as we give the artist the power and sole responsibility for the posting and packaging of your CD's and merchandise. The major difference and benefit compared to other sites is that the artist will receive a near 100% return of any sales. There are no contracts to sign as we don’t own the rights to you, the artist has total control with the majority of sales going to the artist. Key benefits 1.     Sell your CD’s and other merchandise items - all sales to the artist 2.     Sell your mp3 songs - 89p per song, overplays handling fee is only 10p per song and the only other deduction is the small transaction charge from Paypal. See breakdown of costs below. 3.     There are no additional fees you can sell as many different merchandise items as long as they are related to your band. 4.     Opportunity to sell to listeners worldwide. 5.     Total control of what you are selling and how much you want to sell for. 6.     Artist have control and full responsibility in packaging and posting any sold items. 7.     You don’t need any technical know-how as overplay have created the platform and tools for you to easily sell your music and merchandise worldwide. It’s so simple to use you could be up and selling in a few minutes. For full details in how to sell your music and merchandise please click here.

Any ratings will be sent to the artist and overplay. Once a rating has been approved by either artist or overplay the fan will receive their points. This is to prevent any senseless comments appearing on the site and points not being awarded incorrectly. The artist then has the option to make that rating appear live from their admin area on their site. The fan who has made the rating can show the rating on their site immediately when approved.

Artists select what genre of music that best reflects their music. Your most played song for the week will automatically feature within your genre chart and overplays overall chart. Visitors to the artist sites and song plays and buys are monitored and recorded in our database. The more hits, song plays or sales you get on your site the higher up the chart you go. So it would be useful to advertise your site to get fans and friends to visit and get you up that top 20 listing. We have an IP blocker on the charts which means our system will only register 1 hit from your computer per day. So if you keep hitting a song a dozen times in one day it makes no difference we will only register one of those hits. Charts are updated every 24 hours.

Media player playing mp3 files at wrong or double speed. The media players are flash players, unfortunately flash do not like certain files which cause the sound problem. Saying that some of the mp3's that you may have a problem with work perfectly in some flash players on different computers. The reason for this problem is the encoding of the mp3 file. Flash only supports mp3 files encoded at a multiple rate of 11.025, so you should only use mp3 files encoded at 11, 22, 44... bitrate, where 44 would cause the least of problems. Using other than these bitrates will (in some players) play the sound at a wrong or double speed. Sorry about the inconvenience but Adobe have not fixed this problem yet. Anyhow, this encoding should do the trick, and your sound will play perfectly.

Click here to open a FREE fan account. Here fans can create your own profile page. Upload your photos. Listen and buy music. Rate songs, leave feedback, write blogs. Create your own personal music player where you can add your favourite songs to the player. Make friends, interact with other members. Earn points to win prizes and a lot more.

When you open a fan account you automatically get a music player for your profile area where you can add your favourite overplay artist songs to your music player. Not every song will be available to add to a fans music player as the artists make it optional for their song to be added. To get these songs added to your player simply log in, visit an artists site area and within their music player their songs are listed where an 'Add' button will be available. Then simply click on the 'Add' button to add that song to your own personal player. If an add button is not there you could always email the artist to request the song to be made available.

Login to your account. Then go to the artists or fans site who you want to add as a friend/fan and click on "Add to friends" link in the top right hand corner. Once they have accepted your friend request it will add you as a friend/fan and link their page to your page. Or if you're an artist the fan can click on 'Add' next to one of the artists songs on their media music player. This will ask the artist if the fan can add that song to the fans music player and add their profile as a fan. This will not only promote the artists music but will also encourage other people to check out your music and site.

You can simply delete a fan from your profile by from within your admin area or log in and visit your fans page and there you will have the option to delete fans.

The artists have full control in what they sell and how much they sell their music for.

The artists have the choice in whether to allow visitors to just play their songs online or make them free for download or on sale. If the 'FREE' button appears then the artist has allowed you to freely download the song. If there is the 'BUY' button then the song is on sale priced by the artist.

When you have purchased a song, go to your admin area and under 'BUYS' your song will be listed to download. Click the 'download' button and your song will start to download to your computer. You will have 28 days from the purchase date to download your song before the link disappears. Any download problems please email us at service@overplay.com.

To rate/review music you need to have a free fan account. Once a member, log in and visit an artists site and play a song. Next to the song will be a 'RATE' button and when selected it will take you to overplays rating system where you can give your rating and comments. Also when you buy a song or CD you will receive with your order an email asking for you to review your buy.  The artists would appreciate the feedback and you will be rewarded more fan points with every review.

Any ratings and reviews will be sent to the artist and overplay for approval. Once a rating has been approved by either artist or overplay the fan will be rewarded points (click here to see how to earn points). This is to prevent any senseless comments appearing on the site and points not being awarded incorrectly. The artist then has the option to make that rating appear live on their page from their admin area or the option to keep it private on their site. The fan who has made the rating can show the rating on their site immediately when approved.