About the Collectorz.com Music Database

We try to process all submitted data fully automatically (apart from the cover images). To make this possible and to ensure the quality of the database, we have created some guidelines to help you submit the right data in the right way. Please read these guideline before submitting. Thanks!

Which CDs should you submit?

Basically, this can be summarized simply as:

• Only submit correct data and images. In particular, make sure the barcode and cover image matches the edition you own and scanned in your computer.
  (CDs that have not been added by scanning will automatically be rejected by the Submit screen.)
  
  
• Only submit images that you have scanned yourself
  We are not allowed to use images that have been downloaded from other websites (see the Copyrighted Material section below).
  
  
• Submit only ONCE
  Submitted cover images are processed manually, in order of popularity. Other data will be processed automatically but this could still take a while. So depending on the popularity of the submitted CDs, it may take a while before your submissions are processed and included in the online database. Please do not re-submit.
  
  

About barcodes
Only submit CDs with a correct barcode.
"Correct" means that the barcode matches the one on the back of your case, and it's 12 digits long for region 1 (US), and 13 digits long for the other regions. Also make sure that the cover image that you submit matches the edition you own (and thus matches the barcode and matches the CD ID that was scanned from the CD when adding it to your database).
Submitting CDs with an incorrect barcode causes a lot of trouble, because the record will be matched to the wrong entry in the database.

When not to submit your data

This may sound strange, but there really are situations where we'd rather not receive your data, either because it would endanger the quality of our database or because it would take us a huge amount of time processing the submissions while gaining little or no added value.
So please do not submit your entries, when one or more of the following applies to your usage of Music Collector:

• You are not using the main Music Collector fields the way they were meant to be used. This especially applies to the main identifying fields Artist, Title, track titles, Barcode. In other words, please only submit if you used the Artist field for the artist name, e.g. "Metallica", the Title field for the Title (e.g. "St. Anger") and the Barcode field for the barcode (e.g. "085391900726").
• You have your own non-standard conventions for field values. You may like to enter all values in ALL CAPS, or maybe you enclosed all your Title fields in double quotes because that makes them show up in a nicer way, or maybe you included your own numbering system in the titles. You are free to do so, but please do not submit your data.

Please note that you are of course welcome to use Music Collector any way you like. But if you use it in a non-standard way then please help us maintain our standards by not submitting your data.

How to submit your data

Submitting to the online database is quite easy and can be done right from your Music Collector program. Just select one ore more items in the Music Collector main screen and then choose Submit to Collectorz.com Music Database from the Edit menu.
Tip: you can submit multiple albums in one go by selecting multiple items in the list panel on the right of the main screen. Use the standard Windows method of Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking to select multiple items.

Collectorz.com is committed to protecting the copyrights of itself and all third parties. If you own the copyright for content present in the Collectorz.com database and wish to have it removed, please contact us and we will do so immediately.
Please help us prevent copyrighted material from being included in the database by not submitting any material that may be copyrighted by 3rd parties. This mainly applies to cover images:

Cover images

Copyright issues on images are quite complicated, as there are two kinds of copyrights involved here:

• The copyright on the original image: This copyright is either owned by the record label, the distributor of the CD or the cover artist. The "fair use" policy says that copyrighted cover images can be used as long as they are used for illustrational purpose only. General consensus is that low-resolution images can be regarded as just illustrational.
  That is why the Collectorz.com Music Database only delivers cover images with a maximum height of 400 pixels. Submitted cover images with a higher resolution will be automatically resized to 400 pixels in height.
• The copyright on the image file: Another thing to consider when using images on the internet is the ownership of the digitized image file. Other sites have invested time and money in digitizing (scanning) the cover images and creating good looking digital image files. Without permission from those sites we cannot just use their image files in our database, we would be stealing their work.
  So please do not submit any cover images that have been downloaded from other sites. If we have any reason to suspect that the images have not been "home-scanned", we will reject the submitted images. If you did not scan your own images, please save yourself and us some time and uncheck the "Submit Cover Images" checkbox in the Submit screen. Thanks!