New site design: 70% discount for non-exclusive music and sfx

[Imphenzia]

UPDATE 29 Sep 2012: Scroll down to the last post to see the discount of 80%

I've been working hard the past months to launch the next generation of my Imphenzia Soundtrack web site and to celebrate going live you get 70% discount on all non-exclusive music and sound effects by using the discount voucher NEWSITE70 - but it's only valid for another 5 days.

On the site you'll find 198 pieces of music that I've composed over the years and you can use the quick keyword search or the Advanced Search to filter all tracks based on properties such as price range, duration range, tempo, seamless loops yes/no, music genre, mood, game genres, and percussion yes/no. There are a variety of music genres but I mainly focus on electronic, mellow, and orchestral music.

There is also a feature offering a free non-exclusive license every month.

I hope you like the new site and that you find the music and sound effects good. Please visit and have a look: http://soundtrack.imphenzia.com

[lennard]

Hi Imphenzia, I've checked out your site and found a few things that I think Stock20 and Sound Rangers do better.

1. Easier navigation because they have presets. I know I can search but I'd prefer to have you group them because my searches were coming up 0.

2. Shorter sound loops. For example, I would have bought a cleanly looped 20-30 second Fog of War - your pricing for shorter loops is pretty inexpensive and that's typically what I want (although I know I can step on MP3's I like a quick download) so I would have bought on impulse expecting I could have used it at some later date.

3. The Imphenzia watermark is annoying - I'm not going to steal your work and put it into my salable products. I'd much prefer a stepped on version to the watermark.


70% is an attention grabbing #, I'm going to listen to some stuff just to see if there are some bargains to be had! That said, you should try and be competitive with Sound Rangers. I go to them every time, year in year out, when I need new material and if another site was competitive I would go to it as well.

[Imphenzia]

Thanks for the feedback Lennard, I appreciate it very much!

1. Ok - point taken, I will add the ability to browse by genre / mood as well as a click through method. I'm not sure if you saw the advanced filter options? There you can click the music genre and use sliders to set the desired price range / duration range. Not sure if I should open that automatically on first visit as well.

2. Yes - it is only recently that I've started to extract short loops from my full length track and I will definitely do it for all the tracks that I can load in my most recent installation of Cubase. More to come!

3. I used to have just lo-fi versions (48kbps mp3) but I actually found it was being used - plus it is frustrating with the low quality =) I do at the same time realize that pretty much everyone in the indie game business want's to do the right thing and license the music properly so I will rethink this. It could be worth risking some tracks being used illegally in return for happy customers. Another option is to lower the watermark volume drastically so it's just there very faint?

I'd appreciate more input from everyone regarding watermarks and navigation (shorter sound loops is a definite)

Thanks again!

[Imphenzia]

Here's an update of the changes.

* Watermarks are now less annoying =) Lower in volume and further apart depending on the duration of a track (interval of watermark ranges from 5 - 30 seconds) - hopefully this is a good compromise?
* Six shorter seamless loops of Fog of War released.
* Advanced filter is shown by default as music genre is easily accessible from there (although I'll think of an alternate browsing method for categories as well)

Hope this is a step in the right direction - and thanks again.

[lennard]

I like the short Fog of War loops and was buying one, here is what I found.

Contract:

Only 1 game? I typically don't re-use sounds anyhow but this means I need to keep track of what's in my digital library now, I hope you reconsider this term. You are obligated to make a resonable effort to protect the audio file(s) in a Product - this was planned for use in a Javascript title which means the assets are pretty exposed - since they can be readily stolen anyhow you really aren't getting something for this term except making your purchasers (me) life harder. You are asking for credits but I don't always do a credits page, would not hurt for this to be an optional item as well - I wouldn't add credits to a title to be able to use one digital asset.

Coupon:

I am at checkout in Paypal and it hasn't registered my 70% off yet.

Looping:

I recognize that this is hard to accomplish in a web player but I've got loops in my library that aren't clean. It would be great if you had some kind of looping player that really let me, as a prospective buyer, hear the samples loop cleanly so I can trust that they will before I purchase.

[Imphenzia]

Thanks again for the feedback Lennard - the site is a major update so I'm hoping to iron out any issues that may still be lurking about.

Contact: Good input on all points. I looked at Soundrangers and although they have a whole bunch of different licensing options compared to my Indie/Corporate model I think I have more to gain to be just fair to keep it simple for the developers by allowing non-exclusive rights regardless of how many games. I will have to emphasize that it is a non-transferable right though. I'll also change the obligation of protecting the audio to be a request rather than a demand. Finally, I'll also go along with optional crediting.

Copupon: You can either enter the coupon at the Non-exclusive Music and Sound Effects (click "I have a coupon") and when you enter it it'll update all the pricing for all music and soundeffects with the discount applied. You can _also_ enter the coupon in the shopping cart before you click on "Checkout" - then click "Update" to apply the coupon code. If it is the "update" button you didn't press then maybe I need to create validation that if a coupon code has been entered without hitting Update it won't let you checkout until you do.

Looping: I haven't found any web players that have good looping and, in fact, no mp3s are perfectly loopable (some may be better than others) as mp3-encoding unavoidably inserts a very small period silence during the encoding process. This is why I offer the download of all previews in both MP3 and OGG (rather than just using the web player) because the OGG (and WAV) files are perfectly seamless. On my site I take great pride in making sure that all loopable tracks are 100% seamless when looping, down to a a single sample. (Additional info: I record a loop as a triple repeat of a section and then I crop out the center piece followed by ensuring that the very first sample and very last sample of the audio file is 0 in amplitude making the loop perfect as well as click free when playing it for the first time.)

Regarding the loops - is it difficult to spot that you can download the loop to preview the seamlessness?

Thanks again - Stefan

[Imphenzia]

Update following my recent post above:

Licenses have been updated: 1) License is not limited to a number of games - and they are not transferable, 2) Protecting the audio is preferable but not required, 3) Crediting Imphenzia Soundtrack is appreciated but not required.

Coupon: I've added a text in the checkout next to where you enter the coupon that "Update" must be clicked to apply the coupon

Looping: Looping has been disabled on the web player (as it gave a false impression). The download links to the preview audio files enabling you to verify the looping has been emphasize in the audio preview window.

[lennard]

Nice, I just bought one of the Fog of War tracks, loops perfectly in WinAmp even in MP3 format.

Was still a little hard to find the download thing and the dark grey right click to download instruction might be overlooked - I'd prefer a single click to download from the main menu but... not the end of the world.

Coupon thing worked well once I saw what you were saying but ideally would be right in your face as you are going through checkout (ie. if I haven't entered a coupon and click Buy then it would ideally take me to a coupon entry page).

Anyhow, I'm a satisfied customer and will come back next time I need more SFX or music.

[Imphenzia]

Great, thanks Lennard! I will continue to polish the site as well as adding more content to it =)

[Jamie W]

Looks like a nice site, and good value. Seems quite easy to browse and filter the various sounds.

By the way, your menu sounds didn't seem to have any preview working for them..

[Imphenzia]

Thanks Jamie - glad you found it to be a pleasant experience =)

Thanks for the heads up - I think they are simply too short for the web player then. I'll have to insert some silence before and after the sound effect for the preview I think.

[Imphenzia]

Hello - reviving an old thread rather than creating a new one.

Just wanted to announce that using the code 24INDIE80 at http://soundtrack.imphenzia.com/non-...usic/?discount will give you 80% discount, but it's only valid for 24 hours.

[lennard]

Hard to beat that price, just bought a mitt-ful - great timing, I was just beginning to think it was time to start adding some SFX to my latest game!

Would be great to see a few more short, non-looping, announcement type trills (start of level, bonus, bad thing happened, neutral event).

Site is now very easy to use, good job.

[Nutter2000]

that's great! thank you! Just grabbed a bunch I've been eyeing up for quite some time! :-D

Hope you keep doing these coupons :-D

Btw I put my email in for your free tracks the past couple of months, but it was only on here that I saw the coupon? Maybe consider sending it out to your list in future too? I nearly missed it because I'm not on the forums so much these days.



Big +1 for the new site design it works great
my only (v. minor) gripe is that the audio level resets each time you preview a track, have almost deafened myself a few times ;-)

[Imphenzia]

Thanks for licensing some music, and for the feedback Lennard and Nutter2000 =)

I'll act on your feedback as well - more shorter non-looping music hits and I'll have to make a mailing list!

[lennard]

I'm not a fan of giving my games away or steep sales but, in this case, it certainly worked. I was going to start looking on Sound Rangers in the next week when I saw your 80% off offer. At that rate I bought songs with less discrimination just to be able to drop them in and see which I like best. I've also bought iTunes games which I've never even downloaded just because they looked like fun and were too darn cheap not to snag. Still not a fan of super cheap but... in this case it reminded me about your site in particular so, even though it wasn't a lot, it was a sale.

Anyhow, if you do this again make sure to post - it helps reinforce and remind folks about your brand. Looking forward to dropping some of the songs I picked up into my game tomorrow.

[Imphenzia]

I'm with you when it comes to steep sales in a way. I count about 20 games I bought on steam on irresistible deals - one day when time allows (and if my mind would just give creativity craving a rest =) I'll play them because they look great. Without the deal I wouldn't have noticed them.

I thought I'd give this 80% deal a go, mainly as a reminder about my site and I'm glad it worked. I figured 20% income is better than nothing. It resulted in some licensed tracks after a very quiet period so it also sparked some inspiration to add more content to the site.

[Nutter2000]

Scarcity is one of the best marketing tactics, I should use it more often too :-D

[Adarenlon_Games]

Just subscribed to your thread - hope you continue with the coupon as I missed your previous coupon codes!

[Imphenzia]

Discount coupon valid during the leap day 2012 for 29% off. Enter code LEAPDAY at http://soundtrack.imphenzia.com/non-...usic/?discount

(Hope your subscription works Aderenlon =)

[Imphenzia]

New discount "EASTER12" gives 30% off at http://soundtrack.imphenzia.com/non-...usic/?discount during easter period.

Happy game making!

[sam1216]

[QUOTE=Imphenzia;253462]I've been working hard the past months to launch the next generation of my Imphenzia Soundtrack web site and to celebrate going live you get 70% discount on all non-exclusive music and sound effects by using the discount voucher NEWSITE70 - but it's only valid for another 5 days.

On the site you'll find 198 pieces of music that I've composed over the years and you can use the quick keyword search or the Advanced Search to filter all tracks based on properties such as price range,[URL=/ duration range, tempo, seamless loops yes/no, music genre, mood, game genres, and percussion yes/no. There are a variety of music genres but I mainly focus on electronic, mellow, and orchestral music.

There is also a feature offering a free non-exclusive license every month.

[/QUOTE]
Nice, I just bought one of the Fog of War tracks, loops perfectly in WinAmp even in MP3 format.

Was still a little hard to find the download thing and the dark grey right click to download instruction might be overlooked - I'd prefer a single click to download from the main menu but... not the end of the world.

Coupon thing worked well once I saw what you were saying but ideally would be right in your face as you are going through checkout (ie. if I haven't entered a coupon and click Buy then it would ideally take me to a coupon entry page).

Anyhow, I'm a satisfied customer and will come back next time I need more SFX or music.

[Imphenzia]

It's time again. This time JUNE70 will give you 70% discount and it's valid for a week from today =)

Just enter the code here: http://soundtrack.imphenzia.com/non-...usic/?discount and the prices will update automatically.

[lennard]

Is there a way for me to look at my account and re-download past purchases???

Thanks

[Imphenzia]

It's time again and this time I'd like to celebrate the arrival of autumn and plenty of rainy hours to come where you don't have to feel guilty to sit inside and develop your games =)

This will be the most radical discount to date of 80% but it's only valid for 24 hours from now so hurry up if you're after an absolute bargain for music for your game(s).

The discount code "INSANE80" entered at http://soundtrack.imphenzia.com/non-...usic/?discount will apply the discount.

(Lennard - I think I replied to your e-mail regarding the re-download question (or at least I hope I did =) - there is no automated way to re-download past purchases but I will re-enable download links if needed, just drop me an e-mail.)

[lennard]

80% off, why that's.... insane!

I can't see a facility on your site to let me view my past purchases. I could use a few military loops for Endless Empires Flash games. At 80% off I'm ready to shop but it would be great to have a list of what I've already bought as I've migrated machines in the past few months and not everything was dragged forward.

[Imphenzia]

Hi Lennard, I've sent you a mail so you can see which tracks you licensed in the past. Also, if you don't find any military loops that you find suitable, give me a shout what you'd like them to sound like and I'll make them asap and add them to the non-exclusive library =)