Music

If you’re planning to upload audio files for sale on Pond5, please be sure to follow these guidelines on audio quality, file size, file format, and other important details.

Audio Quality

Audio files should be cleanly recorded and professionally prepared in the highest quality possible.

Moderate distortion or creative tinkering is okay. However, please remember that many buyers will modify the sound of the audio after purchase and will therefore desire a high-quality, minimally manipulated file to work with.

Music files should ideally be under 10 minutes in length.

The file size limit is 1GB; however, 100MB for a music file is acceptable.

Music files may be prepared as 16, 24 or 32 bit, 44.1, 48 kHz or 96kHz, WAV or AIFF.

We accept stereo submissions only.

We are no longer accepting MP3 or FLAC files. If submitted, these will be rejected.

Note: If your audio file is in a different format, please convert it to WAV or AIFF before uploading. Another option is to export it natively from your audio-editing program as a high-quality WAV. Avoid compression as much as you can and always export as close to native quality as possible.

Please check your files before uploading to make sure they are broadcast ready.

Please be sure your file names do not contain any special characters or accents.
Examples: &, å, ñ, é, ß, ®, ©, §, ç, ä, ø, ü, quote marks (“ ” or ‘ ’), or commas (,)

Spaces and dashes are not allowed.

Uploaders are now required to list composer info when submitting tracks.

Once all versions of your file are approved and online, contact us with a list of the clip IDs you would like associated and we will group them as multiple versions of the same file.

Requesting Association

We suggest only associating time edits of the same track (:15, :30, :60 version), as they’ll appear on the Edit Item page when the master track is opened.

Alternate versions should be submitted separately (you can use the same keywords and track name, with something like “loop” or “alternate version” at the end). That way, they will appear in search results.

Guidelines:

• Titles should be a combo of both creative and practical. Examples: “Purple Sunrise” (Uplifting Acoustic)
• Titles must be a combination of Capital and lowercase letter.  NO ALL CAPS TITLES!
• Example of proper titling for sub-versions:

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – Sting – Bumper

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – Loop

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – 15 Second

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – 30 Second

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – 60 Second

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – DnB (drum and bass mix)

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – Bed

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – V2

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – Guitar

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – Bass

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – Keyboard

Morning Sunrise (Uplifting Acoustic) – Drums & Percussion

We are no longer approving references to known/copyrighted artists, bands, brands, video games, TV channels, TV shows, book or film titles, director/actor names, company names etc. among your titles, keywords and descriptions. Please avoid adding these types of tags as keywords or in the description or referring to them in any way. Descriptions like ‘sounds like…’, ‘tribute to…‘, similar to…’, ‘remix of…’ etc. or keywords consisting of any copyrighted names will not be approved. We advise you to use genre or non-trademarked terms instead.

All metadata (titles, description and keywords) MUST be in English.

If you are affiliated with a performing rights organization (“PRO”), you can add the name your PRO to the “PRO” field.

Additionally, you can include your IPI# along with your name in the “Composer” field.

If you don’t have a separate publishing company, you can include your name in the “Publisher” field.

There are two ways to sell your audio content with Pond5. Artists have the ability to adjust these settings on a file by file basis.

Cleared For Sampling – YES

This applies mostly to sound effects, loops and samples. In addition to synchronization rights, the licensee is granted the right to remix, blend, and integrate content to produce new original musical works.

Cleared For Sampling – NO

This applies mostly to musical compositions. This content is sold under a standard synchronization license.  The licensee is granted the right to synchronize this music to film or other media, and to apply basic editing (such as setting start/end points, fades, etc.), but is not allowed to fundamentally alter the character, harmonic structure, lyrics or melody of the work.  In other words, they may not modify the content in any way that would result in a new, copyrightable musical work.

When you upload a clip to Pond5, you are offering it for licensing to Pond5’s end-users, who will be able to use your work according to the terms of our Royalty-Free License.

You must be the copyright-owner or authorized representative of the owner for any audio you make available for licensing on Pond5. Generally, if you created the file, you are the copyright owner and are free to upload and market your work. If you are unsure whether you are the legal copyright-holder of a clip, don’t upload it.

Audio files must be wholly the work of the person submitting the file.

In the case of third-party sound effects or loops incorporated into a larger work, the seller must ensure that all elements of their composition are cleared for resale and for use in a commercial project.

If you’re using third-party loops, make sure that you know your rights and whether or not you can incorporate the work into your stock files before you upload.

For royalty-free loops available through audio-manipulation programs, as long as the loops are overlaid with other content and there’s a majority of original content in the track, there should be no problem incorporating them into your files.

If you’re interested in finding out more about copyright, or in registering your work with the US copyright office (this is not necessary, but it can afford you additional legal protections), you can take a look at their website at www.copyright.gov.

Note: You may submit your content to ContentID Distributors, but as outlined in number 6, letter d of our contributor agreement: “You may not take any action on or with respect to YouTube, Vimeo (or other networks that allow for the so-called “claiming” or “monetization of content”) that would interfere with the ability of Content Users to monetize or collect revenue from any such network with respect to their works.”

For more information, contact our Customer Support at support@pond5.com.