The TECHNICAL Details of Creating An Arts Supplement

College Majors Music Major
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<p>I don't know if I'll have a lot of luck on the Music Major forum, because ... well, you all are music MAJORS! :) And you won't have to do what we're having to do ... at least my older son, a music major, didn't have to.</p>

<p>My son is not going to major in music, but he is only applying to schools where he can play in a good-or-better orchestra while majoring in engineering. </p>

<p>As a non-major, he's not auditioning at many schools -- most don't require it or even ALLOW it for non-majors until the fall of freshman year.</p>

<p>So, the way he gets his music heard, basically for college admissions rather than orchestra acceptance, is to send in an Arts Supplement with his Common App.</p>

<p>I've searched and searched for just HOW to do this -- technically. (Really, I have, violadad! Don't be mad! I know you get flustered with those pesky non-searchers. :) )</p>

<p>Does anybody out there know exactly HOW, in a technical sense, I can get my son's music from either his CD or from the "data" versions of his music files onto some sort of website where adcoms can listen to them? (I don't even know what I'm talking about! I just know the gist of what our broken-English friend who recorded the CD for us told us! :o)</p>

<p>So, this is not about whether we need one, or how to record the music -- that's been done. It's about this: HOW do we get the music, which I have both as data files on my computer and as music on CDs, onto a website that will be accessible to adcoms?</p>

<p>We saw some YouTube arts supplements, and the friend who did the recording said Facebook might work. But, I'm kind of a privacy freak. Is there any way outside of those very permanent, very public formats to put music out there for at least a short period of time for colleges to review?</p>

<p>Any techies out there? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Hi SimpleLife,</p>

<p>My daughter submitted an arts supplement as a jazz vocalist to Columbia, where she thought she would study biochemistry, for 2009 admission (it was a reach school for her). She just took 3 songs she had performed and recorded and burned them into CDs. She added a label on the CD with all the details (her name, song names, etc.). The label software came with the kind of CD labels you buy at Staples. In the end, she was waitlisted, not accepted, but we think even the fact that she was waitlisted was because of her arts supplement. This was NOT a professional recording … it was her getting three mp3 songs burned into a CD; I saw the package she sent … it was a CD in a CD plastic holder wrapped in brown grocery bag paper and addressed to Columbia; nothing professional for sure, but they opened it up and listened to it.</p>

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<p>p.s. She was a good fit for Boston U, where she’s attending now, but will transfer to Berklee College of Music in January as she just couldn’t stay away from music. So much for the arts supplement.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Snowflake.</p>

<p>My older son submitted CD’s to a bunch of colleges also, several years ago, as a music major. So we have that part down. And I do realize this next son could just do things his own way, and send the CD. But the schools are asking for the electronic Arts Supplement as part of the Common App, and he’d like to comply.</p>

<p>Here are the instructions:</p>

<p>“Provide a web address where member institutions can view or listen to a 10-
minute sample of your work that demonstrates contrasting examples of expression and technique.”</p>

<p>Well … okay … but HOW? Why would the Common App ever expect us to know HOW?</p>

<p>Silly.</p>

<p>Anyway, I hope your daughter loves Berklee! And thanks for responding!</p>

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<p>[Vimeo</a>, Video Sharing For You](<a href=“http://www.vimeo.com%5DVimeo”>http://www.vimeo.com)</p>

<p>[ArtsApp</a> > Home](<a href=“http://www.artsapp.com%5DArtsApp”>http://www.artsapp.com)</p>

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<p>Can you point them to a website where your son has uploaded his mp3’s? Your son could open a new music account at MySpace.com … my daughter did that for showing Berklee a song she wrote.</p>

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<p>SimpleLife, are you looking for the mechanics and techniques for recording, or the procedures for uploading a finished product to the web? There is alot here on the techniques and how to’s of actual recording, venue selection, mic placement, equipment, pro versus d-i-y, etc. (which I can find for you) but vitually nothing on where and how to upload.</p>

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<p>^mtpaper, that’s awesome! Now, my son’s recording is simply an audio recording. So can I still use the Vimeo site, the same way people sometimes use YouTube without any video? We’re heading out for yet another college visit — so I’ll have to check it out in more detail later, but this looks like it will really help. Thanks.</p>

<p>^Yep, Snowflake, that’s exactly what we want to do – point them to a website where his mp3’s are sitting. We were trying to avoid really public places, like YouTube and Facebook. I’ll have my son look into MySpace. Thanks!</p>

<p>^violadad, We’re looking into the procedures for uploading a finished product to the web. The recordings were all made 2 months ago. And they sound pretty good. Thanks, though, good ol’, reliable violadad! :)</p>

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<p>For just audio files, try:</p>

<p>[4shared.com</a> - free file sharing and storage](<a href=“http://www.4shared.com%5D4shared.com”>http://www.4shared.com)
[Audio</a> File Sharing Network - Share Audio Soundbites - Upload Audio Files - Podcast File Sharing - Sound Effect File Sharing - Download Musician Files - YourListen](<a href=“http://www.yourlisten.com%5DAudio”>http://www.yourlisten.com)</p>

<p>I haven’t used any of these (except vimeo.com), but the basic concept is that you create an account, and it will lead you thru how to browse (look) on your desktop computer for the file(s) that you want to have hosted at their site.</p>

<p>You can then send an ‘invitation’ to the schools to listen, or copy the URL address into the application that you’re submitting.</p>

<p>Costs will vary from site to site. </p>

<p>Google: audio files upload</p>

<p>Also… go to youtube and search for movies and you’ll have tutorials on the process.</p>

<p>HTH
Marion</p>

<p>PS - I’m not sure about YouTube, but you can open a Facebook account, make it be private, and only those who have the invitation will have access. I’m not sure, however, if you can delete the account once you’re done, but you can surely delete whatever files you have posted. So that might be a easy, viable option too.</p>

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<p>^Perfect, mtpaper. I’m so glad I came here to CC (and the music major forum) to ask the question! I’ve already tried YourListen. It appears that colleges who want to listen to my son’s file will have to create an account through them … but I’m not exactly sure yet. We haven’t ruled that site out. I’m going to check out the other one as well.</p>

<p>And I love your tip on searching youtube for tutorials. Awesome. Very, very helpful. Thanks!!!</p>

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<p>Have you checked out <a href=“http://www.mediafire.com/[/url]”>http://www.mediafire.com/&lt;/a&gt; ?
That could work.</p>

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<p>^Oh my gosh! Sopranomom92, this is the best!</p>

<p>I tried all three audio file links, 1 from sopranomom and 2 from mtpaper. They all received very good reviews from “experts,” from what I could gather on the internet.</p>

<p>But mediafire was by far the easiest one for me to use. I don’t know much about what I’m doing, and the other 2 from mtpaper were a little more confusing to me. I’m sure I could have figured them out with time, but I was worried the whole time.</p>

<p>I didn’t have to second-guess myself much at all with the mediafire – it was pretty self-explanatory and easy. I went ahead and purchased the Bronze level MediaPro, simply because I liked the idea of providing all files in one, single folder to admissions staff. Without the Pro version, as far as I could tell, people clicking the link would have to download each of my son’s files individually. With MediaPro, adcoms and music school peeps can instantly access one complete folder, with all music selections and a word document of introduction.</p>

<p>The jury is still out, I must admit… I’m waiting to hear back from a friend and my son’s private teacher to see how it looks to them when they follow the mediafire link. But I think it’s going to be a very good, very professional, and very easy way for my son to share his music with college staff.</p>

<p>Thanks so much everybody! I am quite sure that this thread, with such great recommendations from everybody, will be useful to plenty of readers down the road!</p>

<p>SimpleLife</p>

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<p>We used a youtube link for the common app arts supplement, and it’s not permanent. Make a new account just for the common app (you need a different email - this way it won’t be with any other videos you or your student may have uploaded), upload the video with the common app number as its title and put that link into your common app where specified. Then after college season, simply remove those videos. </p>

<p>You probably don’t even need to use your student’s name if you have the common app #, and you can also leave the “tags” field blank which means it won’t be as “searchable.” We used our son’s name in the title of the video - as in John Smith’s Common App Art’s Supplement, but you don’t have to.</p>

<p>We also sent in CDs or DVDs to the schools as a backup, but perhaps this isn’t possible this year? Last year there was a choice of a link or a CD/DVD for each common app, and one school said they preferred the CD/DVD.</p>

<p>ETA: At least in previous years the Common App Arts Supplement limits you to relatively short sampling of the student’s work. We put three different pieces into one “movie” so there was no need for multiple files or links.</p>

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<p>@SimpleLife - I’m so glad this all worked out for you. I hadn’t tried any of the links I had sent to you, there were just to get you rolling along. And, it really worked out well, since you came back with your take on the different sites. Thanks! I may need something for my daughter, and I’ll check out mediafire.</p>

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<p>to keep in the back of everyone’s mind</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/930547-facebook-music-page.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/930547-facebook-music-page.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I wound up needing this myself, to share audio files with my daughter’s local teachers, so they could help choose which takes to send for pre-screening.</p>

<p>We had the files, but needed a player. And, as I already had made a website via Google Sites for my daughter, I wanted to embed the audio player at that site.</p>

<p>I tried several, and the one that worked well for me was: ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■</p>

<p>And, as luck would have it, our clips totaled 5 minutes less than that allowed by the free account, so all was well</p>