# Invitation to Pro Composers.



## Flaneurette (May 2, 2017)

Hello friends,

For while I was thinking about an alternative to soundcloud. As many of you know, soundcloud has some disturbing small print, and it is uncertain what they will do with our music and compositions. I also noticed that many members are interested in a personal website. So I thought: why not combine the two, and call it: Pro Composers!

This is my invitation to you. Pro Composers will be a website for all us that focuses only on the composer. In a way, it is profile, biography and professional business card for composers. Our main feature is similar to soundcloud. We will have a similar player, where you can upload and stream your compositions. You can host your music, compositions, and contrary to soundcloud, you keep your ownership of it. We have no small print.

If you are interested, you can claim your composer name right now to prevent it from being taken by someone else. So, here is my invite to you:

https://www.composers.pro/invite

When we launch, you'll be the first one to know!

Your composer url will look like this: *composers.pro/username *
Eventually, we'll also create sub-domains like: name.composers.pro

Pro Composers is not an alternative to VI-Control. We will not have a forum. We also do not show advertisements, because, well who wants ads on their curriculum vitae? 

The service is free, but there will be premium packages as well which have more features. We'll still have to decide on that, but we have to create some form of premium in order to cover the cost of streaming audio. We're currently talking with a content delivery provider which can stream your audio with a blazing speed. If I break even, it would be nice. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I hope you'll join! ...and let's see where this goes.

Best,

Alexandra.


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## Smikes77 (May 2, 2017)

Flaneurette said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> For while I was thinking about an alternative to soundcloud. As many of you know, soundcloud has some disturbing small print, and it is uncertain what they will do with our music and compositions. I also noticed that many members are interested in a personal website. So I thought: why not combine the two, and call it: Pro Composers!
> 
> ...




I don`t know about anyone else but this sounds fantastic. Please make sure you don`t lose money on this though!


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## jononotbono (May 2, 2017)

Flaneurette said:


> Hello friends,
> 
> For while I was thinking about an alternative to soundcloud. As many of you know, soundcloud has some disturbing small print, and it is uncertain what they will do with our music and compositions. I also noticed that many members are interested in a personal website. So I thought: why not combine the two, and call it: Pro Composers!
> 
> ...



I just joined! Thanks!


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## clisma (May 2, 2017)

anthraxsnax said:


> yeah I'm in.
> 
> I wish I could change my forum name to my actual name at this point... didn't realize my 5th grade aim screen name would be my namesake.
> 
> maybe that's why I get so much random animosity...(nah, its probably just me)


Nah, you're fine. It may be that you come across a bit brash at times, but I'd say there's clearly no animosity intended. Carry on.


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## Flaneurette (May 2, 2017)

anthraxsnax said:


> yeah I'm in.
> 
> I wish I could change my forum name to my actual name at this point...



Once we launch, it is possible to change your name as well on Pro Composers, unless it's already registered by someone else. But I'm guessing that there will be enough choice. 

And contrary to Facebook, you can change your name at will. No restrictions or limitations. Full control to the users (which includes myself)


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## JTJohnson (May 2, 2017)

I'm in. Good luck with it


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## Jaap (May 2, 2017)

Looking forward to see how this pans out. Thanks


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## Flaneurette (May 2, 2017)

Forgot to mention that once you register, you will not get an e-mail confirmation. It will only be used once to inform you when your page will be ready. So it is for registration only. I don't like e-mail myself. So that was important to me.


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## d.healey (May 2, 2017)

anthraxsnax said:


> I wish I could change my forum name to my actual name at this point... didn't realize my 5th grade aim screen name would be my namesake.


I emailed the mods and got my name changed last year.


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## jonnybutter (May 2, 2017)

Sounds great to me. Thanks!


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## Alohabob (May 2, 2017)

Out of curiosity, since the poster mentioned not knowing if music from sound cloud will be used; what's to keep other people from saving our music and using it from this site, or any other for that matter? I'm mainly a photographer and I put a large watermark on my work, but how do composers battle that?


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## desert (May 2, 2017)

Signed Up!

Looks like you can create multiple usernames on the one email, is this correct?


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## Flaneurette (May 3, 2017)

desert said:


> Signed Up!
> 
> Looks like you can create multiple usernames on the one email, is this correct?



Yes it is a kind of (happily unintended) secret easter egg.  a couple of multiple names is no problem. Fair use applies I guess. Maybe we put a limit of 25 on them. I'll add the code in the next few hours. And if someone wants 50 usernames, we'll add a premium on that. Seems reasonable?

I like to create multiple accounts under one e-mail myself. Google, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook are all very obnoxious when it comes to multiple accounts. Which is a problem if you do multiple acts, or have different bands and projects. I have many different music projects. So I try to do it better.

So you can have a demo account, a playground account, private and business account.


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## Tatu (May 3, 2017)

Flaneurette said:


> Yes it is a kind of (unintended) secret easter egg.  a couple of multiple names is no problem. Fair use applies I guess.


Here's a suggestion: Allow multiple names, but also allow linking multiple names to same composers "front page". Would that be possible?


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## James Marshall (May 3, 2017)

Flaneurette said:


> Your composer url will look like this: *composers.pro/username *



This sounds like a great idea and the domain sounds cool! Quick question if you entered a username with a space, I assume that's going to automatically be dropped from the composer URL?


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## Flaneurette (May 3, 2017)

Tatu said:


> Here's a suggestion: Allow multiple names, but also allow linking multiple names to same composers "front page". Would that be possible?



Yes that would be possible. Maybe by having a choice of ticking a checkbox to either redirect them to an existing account or to a new page.


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## Flaneurette (May 3, 2017)

James Marshall said:


> This sounds like a great idea and the domain sounds cool! Quick question if you entered a username with a space, I assume that's going to automatically be dropped from the composer URL?



Yes, the spaces will be removed. Many special characters will be stripped as well, as they are problematic in the url bar. We could add dashes instead, but we'll have to see. Maybe I'll add that option and let the user decide.


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## Flaneurette (May 3, 2017)

If your name is unique, but already taken, please let me know in this thread or send a pm. We can also pre-register and reassign well known names or high profile names. We trust people to do the right thing and not register names that do not belong to or impersonate them, but since this thread can be read all over the Internet, this is not guaranteed. 

We work according to the Tilde Way:_ don't hack the gibson. no drama. be respectful. have fun. we're all trying, and we're all in this together_


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## wst3 (May 3, 2017)

I'm in, and I wish you great success, I think your idea is a good one!


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## AdamAlake (May 3, 2017)

Commendable effort, good luck.


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## IoannisGutevas (May 3, 2017)

Sounds interesting @Flaneurette ! I'm in too


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## Flaneurette (May 4, 2017)

Thank you all for signing up. We've now reached almost a 100 subscribers already! (just a few subscribers short)we now have a good estimation of how much traffic we need to buy. We are thinking of placing a server in California, Los Angeles (Hollywood) so that any possible clients for you in that area that visit your page will have the fastest streaming speed. Alternatively, we can go into the Cloud and let the Cloud decide what's best. We have an Amazon AWS account, so we can scale up or down anytime we want. The website itself will probably be placed in the cloud so that it's load-balanced and accessible from everywhere with similar speed. One company guarantees us 100% uptime with faster reading speeds than SSD disks and better load speed than the Google and Amazon Cloud, but it's more expensive. But first things first, we need to finish our beta version, so that we can test drive it.

Pro Composers is only dedicated to composers. So we will not become a second SoundCloud, just a better and professional alternative for us composers. I think it is also good to stay small, this way we can provide high quality and stability.


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## Tatu (May 4, 2017)

Flaneurette said:


> Pro Composers is only dedicated to composers. So we will not become a second SoundCloud, just a better and professional alternative for us composers. I think it is also good to stay small, this way we can provide high quality.


How do you make sure, that the site won't be filled with "DIPLO APPROVED HARDCORE-TRAP REMIX OF DIPPLO SONG DOWNLOAD AND SUPPORT AND VOTE AND LIKE OUR FACEBOOK" -stuff by the end of first week of operations? :D

Other than that, it's good to know things are moving forwards for you!


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## Flaneurette (May 4, 2017)

Tatu said:


> How do you make sure, that the site won't be filled with "DIPLO APPROVED HARDCORE-TRAP REMIX OF DIPPLO SONG DOWNLOAD AND SUPPORT AND VOTE AND LIKE OUR FACEBOOK" -stuff by the end of first week of operations? :D
> 
> Other than that, it's good to know things are moving forwards for you!



Good question indeed. We will close the invitation page at the end of the month, so we will have a community which are mostly composers. New registrations will be taken after that, but I am not sure yet in which format that will happen. Probably only through VI-Control, or upon request and invite. Maybe already registered users can send out invite codes to friend composers. We'll figure something out.  but diluting ourselves into a second soundcloud/myspace/bandcamp isn't what we want. That is also the main problem for SoundCloud. It's saturated with all sorts of music. Almost impossible to find a composer on it.


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## devonmyles (May 4, 2017)

Sounds excellent. Hope this pans out.


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## Franco (May 4, 2017)

I'm in....


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## Dear Villain (May 4, 2017)

Flaneurette said:


> That is also the main problem for SoundCloud. It's saturated with all sorts of music. Almost impossible to find a composer on it.


Almost impossible to find a composer on SoundCloud? I don't know...I'm doing pretty well with my 8 subscribers! I'm thinking, if I get to 10, I'll need to hire a management team to handle all my PR requests.

Dave
Ps. Best wishes for success with this!


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## whinecellar (May 4, 2017)

Looks great - count me in.


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## jneebz (May 6, 2017)

Interesting. I'm in. 

Any idea of the supported playback bitrate?


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## toddkedwards (May 6, 2017)

I just signed up! Thanks for doing this, best of luck with the site!


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## Flaneurette (May 7, 2017)

jneebz said:


> Interesting. I'm in.
> 
> Any idea of the supported playback bitrate?



SoundCloud streams at 128kbps, so we probably go above that.  320 maybe, probably depends how fast people can download. 128 is more stable, but has no quality. Still have to decide on that, maybe the premium package has unlimited speed and unlimited uploads. But we have to decide that later on.

Will start with 1TB traffic a month, and see how far we can go with that. Can stream about 3.000 mp3's per day with that. If it's not enough, we can add a new server within 15 minutes. The default server is located in downtown Los Angeles. Premium users will have the choice of multiple locations around the world: some of which are LA, NYC and Amsterdam. This gives a better coverage internationally.


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## thov72 (May 7, 2017)

great news. I hope the costs for you are still bearable, Flaneurette.


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## Flaneurette (May 7, 2017)

The invite page and website will not be available for a while. I am migrating everything from the test-server to the live LA server, making changes to the domain, setting up SSL, DNS etc. etc. I'll post here when the invite page is back. Can take a day or so. The website itself will be ready somewhere at the end of the month, if everything goes well.


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## AllanH (May 7, 2017)

for the "for pay" parts of the service, I'd suggest some mechanism for password protected access. I would like to be able to share access to projects, demos, etc, without Google finding it (robots.txt is not enough).


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## Flaneurette (May 8, 2017)

Been a while, but the invite page is back: https://www.composers.pro/invite
I've been busy moving the server from Amsterdam to L.A. Well, not physically of course... 

Took so long, because I could not create a SSL certificate unless the domain was moved in the DNS as well, so I had to move the domain and DNS first and then generate a SSL certificate. Because everything has to be secure. A DNS change can take up to 24 hours. Here it lasted around 7 hours. The page might still not be visible in some parts of the world though... another 5 hours maybe. Have been securing the server further, so that it only runs Pro Composers, as safe as possible.

The invite page lasts until the end of the month. After that we won't accept any new members automatically for a while, only by invite. This is to prevent a sudden run in uploads, which may destabilize the service. Have to test with a stable user pool first to see how much it can handle, and if we need more resources.

When registering a name, there will be no email confirmation. We will send an e-mail once your page is ready. This mail contains all details. These e-mails will be send out somewhere in June or earlier.


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## Lawson. (May 8, 2017)

This look really cool; just signed up! Thanks!


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## Flaneurette (May 15, 2017)

So we created a contest today. 

If you want to win a lifetime premium subscription see this thread: 
http://vi-control.net/community/threads/contest-write-a-trailer-for-composers-pro.62109/


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## Flaneurette (May 18, 2017)

Quick update:

Only two weeks left to pre-register your name... after two weeks, https://www.composers.pro/invite (the invitation page) will close. New registrations after that will only be possible through a personal invite, an invite-code by another registered member or through a PM on VI-Control. So if you are not registered on VI-Control and reading this thread, consider signing up to VI-Control, and after the registration page closes, send me a PM.

The reason why we limit registration is to keep the website free from random signups and non-composers. We aim for a professional website, without resorting to be another SoundCloud or MySpace. It is also better to give good and quality support to a limited user-base. Getting big for the sake of getting big isn't our goal. Quality is. Also, having too many members might destabilize our service, which is really undesirable.

We are close to 200 members already. I like to thank you for your trust. It means a lot to me.

Best,

Alexandra.


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## gtrwll (May 18, 2017)

Seems cool, signed up!


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## kclements (May 18, 2017)

I don't know. I have become a strong believer in the idea that if you are not paying for a product, you are the product. I see you said there would be a paid tier, but something just doesn't sit right with me on this. I wish you all the best, and I would love an alternative to the mess that is SoundCloud. 

Have you posted anything (perhaps I missed it) about what you are doing with our email and info? Will you post a terms of service about music submitted and ownership before you go live or remove the invite page? I guess I would like a bit more info before jumping in. 

Again, I am in no way saying you are not building what you say you are - or that this is anything other than you have stated, but I have become (perhaps overly) cautious about these things as I grow older.


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## Flaneurette (May 18, 2017)

kclements said:


> I don't know. I have become a strong believer in the idea that if you are not paying for a product, you are the product. I see you said there would be a paid tier, but something just doesn't sit right with me on this. I wish you all the best, and I would love an alternative to the mess that is SoundCloud.
> 
> Have you posted anything (perhaps I missed it) about what you are doing with our email and info? Will you post a terms of service about music submitted and ownership before you go live or remove the invite page? I guess I would like a bit more info before jumping in.
> 
> Again, I am in no way saying you are not building what you say you are - or that this is anything other than you have stated, but I have become (perhaps overly) cautious about these things as I grow older.



Hi Kayle,

Yes there will be a premium. But I have to work out the details for that one. Maybe we also add a donation option for the free members. All depends on what members prefer. The e-mail is used to sign into the account once it is ready and used once to e-mail the login details. There are no other details required. We will not save addresses, phone numbers etc. You could enter your real name once it's done or just use the username, it's all up to you. So the user details are very minimal, just enough to provide a service.

The invitation page is only a pre-registration. Terms of service will be posted once you actually signup. The terms of service will be minimal. I don't like reading small print and hidden stuff myself. It probably will be just one paragraph, something like: _don't upload music that doesn't belong to you, etc. etc. _Obviously, I have to cover myself for this one.

Not sure what else to say. It's easy to overcomplicate things. I'll just do it, and see how far we can take it.


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## kclements (May 18, 2017)

Thanks Alexandra. 

I do like the idea of this being by invite only - and only for composers. That appeals to me very much. Will you be able to imbed your player on our own personal website?


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## Flaneurette (May 18, 2017)

kclements said:


> Thanks Alexandra.
> 
> I do like the idea of this being by invite only - and only for composers. That appeals to me very much. Will you be able to imbed your player on our own personal website?



Yes. I am also thinking about creating forum plugins, so that we share it on forums as well.


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## Flaneurette (May 28, 2017)

Just a few days left to claim your name before the invite page will close: https://www.composers.pro/invite

When the service goes live, I will put a notification here. Day of launch is not certain yet. I have to get it right and it has to be perfect. Also, I 'll have to undergo surgery (nothing serious) in a couple weeks, so that could delay it. But I am doing my best to get it up and running as quickly as possible.

In the mean time, I've updated the home page: https://www.composers.pro

Stay tuned.


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## HiEnergy (Jun 3, 2017)

Website does not properly work for me... sign-up/sign-in links do nothing... :(

Update: seems to work again.


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## Flaneurette (Jun 7, 2017)

Hi HiEnergy,

Yes, I am working hard on it. But as usual, these IT things take a lot of time with many unforeseen issues to consider and take care of. I guess it's best to launch a good working website instead of something that is constantly worked on and filled with bugs. It's build up from scratch, all custom bespoke coded except for the bootstrap theme. But it is coming along nice so far. Can't wait for it myself! going to be awesome!


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## Mike Fox (Jun 7, 2017)

Just joined. I think this could be great.


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## Luke W (Jun 7, 2017)

I'm in.


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## mcalis (Jun 7, 2017)

I am glad some people posted in this thread recently, otherwise I would have missed it! Joined!


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## Rohann (Jun 7, 2017)

Wonderful idea! Take your time and it will be worth it, no need to rush things. I agree that a working site is better than an early launch and site-breaking bugs, this will throw some off.


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## Mr Greg G (Jun 7, 2017)

mcalis said:


> I am glad some people posted in this thread recently, otherwise I would have missed it! Joined!


Me too! Also signed up.


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## Flaneurette (Jun 8, 2017)

From today the (early public) invitation page is closed. If you still want to join, send me a PM. Registration is now only possible through a PM or invitation for reasons outlined in this thread. By joining VI-Control and using the PM as vetting mechanism, we are more or less sure that those who signup are in fact composers. This way we can keep a healthy community, to which I can also guarantee adequate support. You don't need to submit an IMDb link or other details. Just a PM and I will send back a private invite.


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