You may have noticed the new Kompoz Dashboard feature added last week. We've kept it quiet, opting to run a short beta test of the feature before making the announcement.
It's now fully live and ready for you to use!
The Dashboard is a single customizable page that allows you to get a quick view of what's going on at Kompoz, with your projects, your inbox, and more. You can edit the page to choose the components most important to you.
There is a view for:
Top 10 Member Picks
Most Active Projects
Newest Projects
Most Recent Kompoz Activity
Most Recent Activity for Your Projects
Most Recent Activity for Projects You've Joined
List of Your Projects Sorted by Recent Activity
Inbox Messages
Kompoz Radio Stations
Kompoz Radio Player
You'll find a link to the Dashboard under the My Stuff drop-down menu on the top of every Kompoz page.
I'm telling ya... community-made -- No, Kompoz-made! -- music is going to rule the airways soon enough. The stuff you guys are producing is amazing. I had the Kompoz iPhone app streaming music the other day while I was outside by the pool, and song-after-song I was blown away. I tagged a few of my favorites.
Kompoz Konnect, our desktop application for uploading files, will be retired this Sunday. It has served us well over the last two years, but it is time to put Konnect on the shelf and focus our efforts on the new online multi-track uploader.
Why don't we keep both? Several reasons.
Konnect uses FTP to upload files. We've noticed several attempts by hackers to try to work their way in using the open FTP ports. We can lock that down better over HTTP.
We've added (and plan to add) additional features to the online uploader, that have not been added to Konnect. It's out of date.
Supporting multiple operating systems is tough! Konnect runs on Windows and Mac. Testing Konnect on all the variations of Windows (from XP through Windows 7 -- and even ME!), plus Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard, is labor-intensive.
The online uploader is faster and more reliable. Konnect occasionally stops working and/or drops files.
I've posted a couple of blogs now about the RPM Challenge 2010, and I've applauded the 40+ members that successfully completed the challenge by producing the Kompozite CD. I've just come to learn that a second CD was also completed by another smaller (and quieter) group of Kompozers. Check out Two of Seven Minds, a virtual band that includes Cascia, Matt, Tracy, Dean, Gord and Nate.
One of my favorite songs on the Kompozite RPM CD is Howlin' Blues, by Alberto, Bill, Bjorn, Brooke, Casia, Matt, Rab & Roger. Brooke (a/k/a 40milecreek) has created a video to go along with the music. Check it out below.
They did it! Forty-three Kompozers wrote/recorded/mastered seventeen songs in twenty-eight days, and produced a CD for the RPM Challenge. It's an amazing accomplishment.
You can download their CD in a ready-to-burn format. Erik has uploaded a ZIP file that includes all of the songs, a printable PDF CD "album" cover, and a free program to burn the songs to disc (Windows only). Just follow the easy instructions included in the ZIP file.
I'm really excited about an update we just rolled out. We've totally revamped our online uploader, and added some really cool new features. I think you're gonna like this.
Upload Multiple Files at Once
You can now upload more than one file at a time. Until today, the only way to do this was to use our desktop software called Kompoz Konnect. Uploading multiple files is now supported via the Kompoz web site directly. Simply go to the project you wish to upload to, select the Upload New Track link, then choose the files you want to upload. You can use the standard Windows or Mac keyboard shortcuts to choose multiple files, or pick one at a time, adding each to the upload queue. When you've selected all the files you want, click the Upload button and send them up all at once.
Upload a ZIP File with Multiple Audio Files
You can now upload a ZIP file containing all of the tracks you wish to upload. We'll auto-expand the ZIP once it's uploaded, and add each track individually to the project so that other members can playback, comment, and download each.
Faster Uplooads
The new uploader is 20% faster and more reliable than using Kompoz Konnect. You'll notice a significant improvement in upload times!
Auto-Detect Track Types
Kompoz will now guess at the track types, saving you time. We'll check for certain keywords in the track file names, and suggest a track title and track type for each. For example, if the track file name contains the any of the words 'snare', 'drum', 'cymbal', 'kick', etc., we'll mark it as a Drum track. If the track file name contains the words 'vox', 'vocal', or 'harmony', we'll mark it as a vocal track. Choose good names for your tracks before uploading them to make adding them to Kompoz easier!
It's stated in the Kompoz Terms of Use, and again on the track upload page. Unless you personally own the copyright, you may not upload songs, tracks, or PDFs that have a no-use/no-share traditional copyright. Material released under a creative commons license is generally OK, as is public domain material (as long as you abide by the attribution and commercial use requirements of those licenses).
For the most part, Kompoz members have been very good about adhering to the Kompoz Terms of Use. Unfortunately, as the site has grown and gained attention, people with no intention of collaborating have been abusing the service and using it as a free personal file sharing system. When I find those violations, I immediately delete the projects and usually suspend the members.
I can't keep up with the number of files uploaded, and inspect each and every track. Fortunately, many of you have been alerting me via private message when you spot one. Thank you! I want to publicly thank Rich, Erik, and Enrico who have been so vigilant.
I've recently added a new link on every track page to help make reporting violations easier. You'll see it just below the track details, and just above the track comments. It looks like this:
When you click that link, it will open a popup window with the track details. There's an optional comment field if you want to send me a note, otherwise, just click the "Report It" button and I'll get a message with all the details. No need to send me private messages anymore! Easy and fast.
With the help of the community, we can keep this site clean and ensure the lawyers stay away. Kompoz depends on you!
Creative developers in London have launched a new site called CodeOrgan, which translates Web page code into instrumental songs.
CodeOrgan analyses the text in the body of the supplied URL and follows an algorithm to render that site into a musical composition. It chooses a drum pattern, synth style and key based on the contents of the page, and plays back the associated music via the "Play this website" button.
Here's my idea... Record what CodeOrgan comes up with for Kompoz.com, then incorporate that into a completed Kompoz project. Best new song gets a Kompoz t-shirt and 2 free private projects. Send me a link to the project by March 20th. Who's up for the challenge?
It's stated in the Kompoz 
