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16. Songtree etiquette (how to respect other users and be respected)

• Should I ask permission to overdub a song?
  
  No - but you can if you want to. The idea behind Songtree is to be an open collaborative platform, where any user can overdub any song by any other user. If an overdub turns out to be not so great, that's not a problem for the author(s) of the original songs. Having one of your songs overdubbed increases the prestige (badge score) of the original song owner so even if one doesn't like an overdub he/she should still be happy because it means that his/her song was chosen because it was good or interesting and deserved to be overdubbed (bad songs rarely get overdubbed). Also an overdub doesn't in any way alter the original song, which continues to remain open for listening and for other overdubs.
  If you don't want your songs to be overdubbed at all you can set your song to be "locked" (using the lock icon on the song on your profile page), which prohibits any user from overdubbing the song.
  
  
• One my songs received an overdub that I don't like, what should I do?
  
  Nothing - a bad overdub is still an overdub, it's a token to the quality of the song that was overdubbed, and will work to improve your status in the Songtree community. You'll receive a badge when you will have received many overdubs, so even bad overdubs contribute to that goal. If you think that the user who overdubbed missed something in your song (key, spirit or something) you can politely tell him in the song comments, and maybe he'll give it another shot and come up with a better result, or maybe it was his/her intention to create something different.
  Also we encourage novice musicians to use Songtree. This inevitably makes some bad songs appear on the platform. While that may sometimes be annoying we think that ultimately having inexperience musicians on Songtree is a good thing, as the community grows bigger new talents emerge and creativity thrives.
  Some users have told us that they think that other users create overdubs of bad quality simply to increase their Songtree ranking. That's not accurate, as a bad song or overdub actually works to decrease your ranking, which, among other factors, is computer by your total number of likes divided by the number of songs. One bad song may detract from your average score and worsen your ranking.
  BTW, if you are annoyed by seeing certain artists on your songs list, you can choose to permanently hide some (or all) of their songs by clicking the hide button. Or if you don't like a particular genre you can hide the whole genre.
  
  
• Is it ok to take solo tracks and use them to remix the same or another song? How does that work?
  
  We encourage remixing songs either via the Songtree desktop (Windows and Mac) app, which lets you download a multitrack version of any song and remix the separate tracks, each corresponding to a contribution made by each user, or by manually downloading the solo tracks from the website (press the S button and then click download), and mixing them using your audio software of choice.
  When you upload the remix using the desktop app it automatically creates a special 'remix' node in the song tree.
  If you upload the song manually you can choose which branch to upload to. To manually upload a remix select the song you want to attach to, from the website select the Overdub link, then in the web recorder mute the base track and upload your remix in the 2nd track.
  When you do so please remember to credit the users (mentioning the user names so that they get a link to their profile) whose solos you used in the notes to the song.
  If when remixing you edit out all or a significant part of an user's contribution, it's a good practice to mention why you did the edit. The user may have significantly contributed to the evolution of the song, but who does the remixing should have the creative freedom to edit out parts that he feels do not fit into his version of the song. Mentioning the "why" and possibly thanking the users who contributed but got left out could alleviate their frustration.
  
  

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