Associating data with your finished sound effects products is the final step before submitting your material to sound distributors. This data, called metadata, offers interested buyers information on each sound in your library. Details about the seven main types of metadata to be used when cataloging your sound effects follow.
Initially you want to pick the right format for listing your metadata. I have found that .xls projects and the most requested format for metadata which assign each sound a row and each category a column. This type of document, as opposed to a text file, will let you search your sounds easily in the future according to each characteristic.
1. The first column should be title Main Category and should broadly include categories such as Amusement and Games, Home and Office, and Web Buttons. Minimalism in choosing main categories is the best means of having a tightly organized library right off the bat.
2. The Sub-Category column is meant to break down each main category into various elements such as Animals:Birds, Animals:Dogs, Animals:Pigs etc.
3. For excellent organization from the beginning, create a SKU number for each sound sample as you make then that begins with three unique letters, such as a personal acronym, and 5 digits like SFX00001_CarHonk. The sample which follows will begin with SFX00002 and so on giving each product a unique name. This SKU method is superior to alphabetical organization, especially if you record multiple versions of bird chirps, for example, over a number of years.
4. A friendly title for Title is simply intended to inform the buyer on the type of sound like Bird Chirp 1.
5. Since shorter sound effects are generally worth less than longer sound effects it is important to include the Time Length in your metadata so that interested clients know the length of each sample they might license.
6. The quality of each sample is given by stating the Track Info which includes stereo/mono information, the sample rate, the bit rate, and file type such as Mono 44.1k 16 bit Stereo .wav.
7. Keywords are very important in letting potentials buyers find your sounds and should not be ignored. They should contain the plurals of the sound, associated sounds, phrases, and even misspellings such as dog, dogs, dog bark, dog barks, bark, barks, dog pack, pack, wolf, canine, wolves, canines, barck, barcks.
After successfully organizing your sound effects according to the seven above characteristics you can market and submit your library to online distributors for profit through licensing.
Initially you want to pick the right format for listing your metadata. I have found that .xls projects and the most requested format for metadata which assign each sound a row and each category a column. This type of document, as opposed to a text file, will let you search your sounds easily in the future according to each characteristic.
1. The first column should be title Main Category and should broadly include categories such as Amusement and Games, Home and Office, and Web Buttons. Minimalism in choosing main categories is the best means of having a tightly organized library right off the bat.
2. The Sub-Category column is meant to break down each main category into various elements such as Animals:Birds, Animals:Dogs, Animals:Pigs etc.
3. For excellent organization from the beginning, create a SKU number for each sound sample as you make then that begins with three unique letters, such as a personal acronym, and 5 digits like SFX00001_CarHonk. The sample which follows will begin with SFX00002 and so on giving each product a unique name. This SKU method is superior to alphabetical organization, especially if you record multiple versions of bird chirps, for example, over a number of years.
4. A friendly title for Title is simply intended to inform the buyer on the type of sound like Bird Chirp 1.
5. Since shorter sound effects are generally worth less than longer sound effects it is important to include the Time Length in your metadata so that interested clients know the length of each sample they might license.
6. The quality of each sample is given by stating the Track Info which includes stereo/mono information, the sample rate, the bit rate, and file type such as Mono 44.1k 16 bit Stereo .wav.
7. Keywords are very important in letting potentials buyers find your sounds and should not be ignored. They should contain the plurals of the sound, associated sounds, phrases, and even misspellings such as dog, dogs, dog bark, dog barks, bark, barks, dog pack, pack, wolf, canine, wolves, canines, barck, barcks.
After successfully organizing your sound effects according to the seven above characteristics you can market and submit your library to online distributors for profit through licensing.
About the Author:
SFXsource ponders and writes on multimedia production and produces Voice samples and free animal sound samples for sampling in animation, flash, and video
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