Here you can find the answers to frequently asked questions about BMP. If you cannot find the answer to your question here, please use this contact form to contact us.

General

Q: What is BuyMyPlaylist?

A: BuyMyPlaylist (BMP) is an interactive online music service and social network for you to enjoy. Here, you can download and stream tracks by your favorite artists, create your own personal and/or thematic playlists and publish them at BMP or other websites to share them with other users. If you own or otherwise control all the rights to some original music, you can also upload it to BMP and create playlist containing your own tunes. More importantly, by using the BMP you can earn music! Check the Playlist Building section to see how.

Q: What is a Playlist?

A: Remember the mixtapes of the 80’s and 90’s? ( Or, look here)? Our Playlists are similar to those popular mixtapes. A single BMP Playlist is a mix of the minimum of 5, and maximum of 8 tracks, and can express virtually anything – an admiration for your favorite band/genre, your current mood and feelings, your desires and dreams… You can mix different genres, artists and styles into one concise string of tracks, title it accordingly, and submit/publish at BMP for other users to view and buy them. There are only a few conditions – (1) the length of a BMP Playlist should be no more than 35 minutes of non-stop play; and, the length of a single track no more than 7 minutes (unless the remaining minimum 4 tracks in the playlist are much shorter and the first rule is met, (2) any one Playlist contains no more than two tracks of the same artist; and (3) no more than three tracks can be found in two or more playlists.

Q: Is BuyMyPlaylist accessible to all Internet users?

A: Due to licensing restrictions, the full scope of BMP service, including downloads and streams of recommended playlists, is now available in the U.S.A., UK and Portugal. And, we have plans to expand these services to some additional 15 countries in the foreseeable future. Still, anyone can sign up and become a BMP Lite user, which allows you to views the BMP activities for FREE from any country in the world. Then, when the full BMP Music Services become available in your location, you will be able to upgrade your registration status and enjoy full access and all the benefits of BMP!

Registration & User Account

Q: I am underage. Can I register and use BMP?

A: That depends. In the US, you can use BMP ONLY if you’re 13 or older. In European countries, you must be 18 or older; however, if you’re 12 or older, ask for your parents’ or legal guardian’s permission. If they’re OK with it, you can set up an account and use our service just like any adult.

Q: How do I register with BMP?

A: It’s really quick and simple – go to our Registration Page and fill in the required fields in the registration form. You will then be asked to register as a Lite User (which is FREE and will give you access to the basic functions of BMP) or proceed to Full or Flex-level registration. The Full and Flex accounts allow you to use BMP to it’s fullest extent.

After registration of a chosen type of account, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to you. Click the link in your e-mail to confirm the registration, and presto! – you can log into BMP with your chosen login and password. In the near future, you will ba able to register with BMP using your Facebook, MySpace or Twitter accounts.

Q: What are the differences between the three types of BMP Accounts?

A: The Lite Account is free and requires only a minimum of data input. With a Lite Account, you’ve got access to the basic features of BMP – you can listen to previews of tracks and playlists, comment on playlists, read news and interact with other users. However, you cannot build your own playlists and recommend them to other users.

The Full Account is also free, yet requires you to provide billing information – your home address and a phone number – that should include your PayPal account (the e-mail you use to send/receive money via PayPal) or a valid credit card account; the billing address should match your home/mailing address. The BMP Full allows you to take advantage of the full spectrum of BMP services. In addition to the basic features of the Lite Account, it gives you a legal, fully licensed access to nearly 10 million high quality MP3 audio files in our catalogs, an ability to download and stream choice music for a special Premium fee; an opportunity to build an unlimited number of playlists, share the playlists with others to earn valuable BMP credits; and, use all the communications and social networking features.

The Flex Account is subscription-based, but otherwise very similar to the BMP Full Account. One big difference is that as the Flex member you can build up to 4 playlists of your choice per month without the necessity of buying any of the tracks you want to include into the playlists -- and still you will be eligible for the BMP credit awards and have access to all other services available to the BMP Full users. The monthly fee is 1200 credits (or the equivalent of $12, €12 or L12, depending on the country of your residence). At the time of registration or upgrading your membership status, you may select the Automatic Recurring Payment method to ensure monthly payments for 3, 6, 9 or 12 months.

Q: Can I upgrade my Account?

A: Sure, you can! Upgrade your account anytime you want. Just visit your Account Profile and click “Upgrade Account”. And remember, BMP Lite and BMP Full are FREE to sign in.

Q: Can I change the data in my Account Profile?

A: Not only change – you can change as well as make some data either private (not visible to others) or public. Just select “Account Profile” from the “Hello” section of the top menu to have instant access to your Account data. Click the “edit” button in each section of the Account – Registration Information or Payment Information – to change selected data. Or click Setting to hide/unhide certain personal information.

Q: Where can I find my Playlists and bought tracks?

A: Simply move the mouse over “Hello” in the top menu and click “MyMusic”. You will find all your Playlists and tracks there, whether they are purchased or published by you or just your favorite tunes. You can also see your Financial Summary on this page – a statistical report showing the performance of your Playlist, number of credits you have earned etc.

Q: I’m concerned about privacy issues. Can I hide my personal data?

A: Yes. You can choose to hide your data during registration (on the Lite Registration screen), and later, in the Settings section of your Account Profile.

Payment & Financial Issues

Q: How can I pay for BMP services?

A: Except for the BMP Flex membership, which requires monthly subscription fee, registration and most of the BMP services are free of charge. Should you chose to purchase some Playlists or bundles of tracks from those Playlists, or when you build and publish such Playlists, you can pay for the conditional download and/or limited streaming rights using PayPal or – what we strongly recommend – using your BMP Credits. In the future you will be able also to pay by credit cards and other alternative payment methods (APM)

Q: What are BMP Credits?

BMP Credits are rewards to you for your recommending BMP playlists to other users, and they are a form of virtual currency, good for all purchases and additional payments within BMP. Each Credit represents the smallest indivisible unit of local currency (e.g. in the U.S. 1 Credit equals $0.01, in the UK, it is L0.01, and in Portugal, €0.01). They apply to the prices of the Playlist and tracks available at BMP, as well as local taxes and fees, as required. For example, if the total for music purchased by you shown in the checkout section of your Shopping Cart is 1434 BMP Credits, and you are, say, in London, you will need to pay L14.34. This total includes applicable VAT.

The advantage of BMP Credits is that you can purchased them in advance on a pre-paid basis and then redeem or apply them to any music purchase, even the smallest one, without leaving the BMP Website and without the additional minimum transaction processing fees. You can donate or transfer the BMP Credits to another BMP user, or use them to pay for goods, services and application provided by BMP and other users in our Gear Shop or even outside the web to exchange them for real goods, if the other party except them.

You can also earn BMP Credits – see how to do it in the Playlist Building section.

Q: How do I buy BMP Credits?

A: If you are a registered Full or Flex User, you can click on the yellow record-sleeve in the upper-right hand corner of each screen, or simply click here to buy some BMP Credits and pay for them by PayPal or credit card.

Q: How do I earn BMP Credits?

A: It’s quite simple – create your own Playlist and recommend it to others. During the creation of the Playlist, you set a BMP Published Price for each of the tracks in the Playlist or chose the default price determined by our own algorithm, based on the market information and traffic patterns. This is the price that other Users will pay for the download or streaming right of the music you recommend. You will get from 10% up to 15% of the Published (or actual retail) Price in BMP Credits upon the purchase of “your” music by other users. The more successful your Playlists are, the higher the percentage of your reward. For example, if you are a BMP Full member, and your playlists or any of the tracks in your playlist was purchased 501 or more times, your share will be 12%; anything below that number of purchases will generate 10%. If you are a Flex member paying a subscription fee, your reward will be 15% and 12%, respectively.

Q: How can I “recommend” a Playlist?

A: You can send it to your friends and followers, invite them to review it and buy; you can use our embeddable Web player with your playlist and paste into your personal webpage or blog; you can insert it at Facebook or other social network sites that allows such players – the more ways and channels, the higher likelihood that the Playlist will become a hot hit. The way you compile the playlist, of course, name and describe it, is equally important. You can also increase the popularity of your Playlists, by publishing them in other available locations. For example, if you are in Portugal, you can opt for publishing the same playlist in the USA and UK, in addition to your own country, and thus increase the pool of potential fans and buyers tremendously.

Q: If my Playlist is bought by Users from another country, do I earn the same number of BMP Credits?

A: Depends. If that country uses the same currency, then yes – the amount will be the same. This is the magic of virtual tokens like the BMP Credits.

If they pay for BMP Credits with another currency, it’s a little bit more complicated, because 100 credits in the U.S. account for $1, in the UK - Ł1, and in the Euro Zone - €1, but the purchasing power of each currency is different and in some countries all music purchases must include appropriate taxes. We can transfer Credits paid for with another currency to your Account, but we have to charge a transfer fee of 2.5% of the transaction value. Additional fees of banks and transfer agencies might also apply.

Check Paragraph 10 of our Terms of Service and Use for an example of an international transfer.

Playlist Building

Q: How can I find songs to add to a Playlist?

A: Easily. Simply select “Build Your Own” from the top menu and then any of the available catalog to search for songs on-the-go while creating a new Playlist.

Q: Why can I only add two tracks by one artist to my Playlist? Are there any other mimitations?

A: Playlists – just like mixtapes – are all about diversity and creativity. Adding three or more tracks by the same artist would cause the Playlist to be dominated by this artist or one genre, which makes it sound rather like a compilation album – and we wouldn’t want that, would we? Same with multiple playlists containing more than 3 identical tracks – that too would hinder the diversity and creativity we look for.

We also encourage all playlists creators to limit the length of a standard playlist to no more than 35 minutes, and each song to be maximum 7 minutes in length. If you have an idea for a playlist that might require more tracks or longer play time, try to create Playlist 1, Playlsit 2, etc. This will only help you publish your selections and make them successful with others

Q: How do I create a Playlist?

A: Here’s a short step-by-step instruction how to create a Playlist of your own:

1. Log in to BMP. If you don’t have an account, register for a Full or Flex account.
2. Click on “Build Your Own” from the top menu.
3. Find the tracks you want to add to your Playlist in the “Search” section on the left. There are three different catalogs available. “Downloads” is our biggest catalog, 8+ million tracks from the biggest record labels; it contains music that is available for downloads only; “Downloads & Streams” has music available also for a limited 60-day streaming; this catalog consist mostly of music by independent artists and smaller labels from around the world; and , “Uploads” with independent music provided by BMP users and cooperating partners.
4. Type in the track title, artist’s name or release title to find the right track. Remember there can be multiple releases of the same album or single.
5. Click on the “+” button to add the selected track to your playlist assembly area to the right of the screen. By clicking the “play” button, adjacent to “+”, you can listen to a preview of each track.
6. Compile a list of 5 to 8 tracks in this way.
7. Enter a title for your playlist. Choose a title that corresponds with the playlist’s theme, something catchy and cool.
8. Check the right order of the tracks. The way they are listen to by other can be very important a part f the creative process. You can arrange tracks in a desired order by drag-and-drop.
9. Check the Premium Prices next to each track’s title, and the total. If you are a BMP Full member, this is the price you will be charged to own the tracks and to be able to go to the next step by clicking on the “Buy to Save” button.
10. Now you should be redirected to the Shopping Cart where the Playlist is ready to be paid for.
11. Click “Buy” to proceed to checkout.
12. See if you have enough BMP Credits to pay for the playlist. If so, click “Checkout” – the transaction is finalized! If not, you will be asked to pay by PayPal.
13. Once you have paid for and purchased the selected tracks, specify the BMP Published Prices for each track, using the default price as it is pre-entered in the appropriate box, or by entering a different recommended price from within the provided range of possible prices – be sure to balance the track prices, so that they are affordable and attractive to other Users.
14. Specify the dominant genre for the Playlist, so that other Users can find it with ease.
15. Specify up to three featured artists to attract their fans and also help with search.
16. Throw in a short but poignant playlist description to explain to others why you have selected this particular mix.
17. Click “Save” again to put the ready Playlist into your own music catalog in your “MyMysic.”
18. Check the “Publish it” or “Publish it globally” box to make the new playlist available to others in your country or in all other locations, respectively.
19. Ready! Your Playlist should now appear in the “Newest Submissions” section of the “Listen to This!” page.
20. Check if everything is as you intended it to be. If so, you are done. Congratulations! If not, you can go back to your “MyMysic” part of the site pull the playlist for editing and change desired information before you re-publish the playlist.

Q: How many Playlists can I create?

A: If you have a Full Account, there’s absolutely no limits to the number of Playlists that you can create – of course, if you have enough BMP Credits or money in your PayPal account to buy tracks!

If you’re a Flex User, you can create four (4) playlists a month within your subscription. Should you want to publish more than the limit, you can, but you will have to purchase the selected tracks using your BMP Credits or your PayPal account.

Q: Can I edit or delete my Playlists?

A: Yes. As said before, you can pull your active Playlist back to your Playlists in Progress part of your MyMusic, and edit the necessary info, including the prices of the tracks, change the order of the tracks, edit the description, etc. If you want to change the title, you will have to delete the playlist and then build it again under a different title, so it is possible but not practical. Choose the tracks wisely, name the Playlists wisely as well. Too many changes might cost you following!

Enjoying BMP Playlists

Q: How do I buy Playlists from other Users?

A: You can buy single tracks or whole Playlists (if you buy a whole Playlist, it’s cheaper!). Just click the “play” button next to the playlist of your choice – it will start playing in the webplayer on the top of the page. If you are already happy with the selection, click “add to cart” button within the webplayer. Alternatively, you might click the “View All Tracks” bookmark to see all tracks in that playlist before deciding if to buy the whole playlist or maybe only selected tracks. Clicking the “Add to Cart” button at the bottom of the page will open (on the right side) a checklist with all tracks that are available for purchase.

The checklist will tell you if the tracks are for download only, or if they can also be streamed. Check the boxes next to the entire playlist or the desired tracks to add them to your cart, and then click “Buy Selected Tracks”. Mark them again on the following screen, in case if you have second thoughts. After the confirmation, click, “Buy Now” to proceed to checkout. Click “Checkout” and it’s done!

Q: When I find an interesting Playlist, can I listen to it on BMP only, or can I download it to my computer?

A: Both. The majority of BMP tracks are licensed to be downloaded. Some of them also have a streaming license, good for unlimited number of streams within the 60 days since your purchase of such license. The streaming license is usually less expensive, but it’s temporary. For a slightly higher fee of a download to your PC, you can keep and enjoy the track or a whole playlists of tracks forever!

Neither downloading nor streaming selected music to devices other than your personal computer is not available yet. But BMP plans to have such services soon.

Q: Can I feature my Playlist on my personal website, blog or social media profile?

A: Sure! Just grab the HTML code of our Embeddable Webplayer and paste it in an appropriate place of the site of your choosing, or many such sites. But before that, check if the engine of the site allows pasting elements of external services.

Troubleshooting

Q: I have an active Account within BMP, but cannot create Playlists. Why?

A: There are some possible explanations for that:

• You have a Lite Account, which does not support creating Playlists. Upgrade your Account to Full or Flex,
• If you have a Flex Account, you may have exhausted the maximum number of Playlists (4) to be created within the subscription. If you have no additional BMP Credits, you cannot create more playlists in a given month.

If neither of the two is the case, please give us a shout through this contact form – we’ll try to answer you and fix your problem as fast as we can.

Q: I want to buy tracks and create a Playlist, but I’m told that it’s unavailable in my country. How come?

A: Our music providers have different licensing policies for different countries. Some (or all) of your tracks of choice may not be available in your location at this moment. If you are living outside of the U.S., UK or Portugal, you might be able to build and recommend playlists as the Flex subscription-paying user, but you will not be able to purchase any music.

Q: Why can’t I find a track I’m looking for on BMP?

A: We have an extensive base of 8+ million downloadable tracks from all four major record companies and many independent labels supplied by 7Digital, plus over 1 million of independent music tracks supplied by The Orchard, plus countless entries uploaded by independent labels and artists, yet we don’t have every song there is. We are constantly adding new tracks to our database, so try to find your song again in some time or select another mood- or style- matching track.

Q: Why can’t I stream/download the track that I like?

A: As explained above, some tracks have a download-only license, some have a streaming-only license, some are licensed for both streaming and download. It’s the choice and strict policies of the distributor/artist to license their creation in this very way. Look for alternate versions of the track – maybe there is one with a license suitable to your needs. With about 10 million songs available, we are pretty sure you should find something for each of your playlists.

Cooperation with BMP

Q: I am an independent artist. Can I upload my tracks to BMP?

A: Yes, but only if you own all the appropriate rights to the tracks you want to upload. If you are an independent artist, member of a band or another person in possession or full control of such rights, you can upload it here and set a price tag on it for each download or stream. You will get up to 65% of the base price as your royalty each time another User downloads or streams your tracks – ain’t it a sweet deal? You can also earn up to addition 15% in the BMP Credits. Some of these terms can be negotiated individually, so please contact us before uploading your music to BMP.

Q: I want to advertise on BMP. How can I get in touch with you?

A: Please use the contact form. Specify that you are interested in advertising on BMP and we will get in touch with you promptly.

Q: I own/am a representative of a record label. Can I cooperate with you to make my releases available for BMP Users?

A: Naturally! BMP is very much interested in promoting independent musicians and record labels. Contact us, and we’ll get back to you with a comprehensive cooperation offer!

Q: I am a concert promoter/tour manager/owner of a music club. Can I advertise my events on BMP?

A: We are currently working on a feature that will display upcoming events and hottest clubs. Please observe our website closely for new functionalities, or join us on Facebook or MySpace to get the news about new developments.

Promotion 288 credits

Q: Why are the prices that I pay for building or buying playlist different than the ones shown on purchase?

A: We have a promotional scheme for BMP Users who use the BMP288 Promotional Flex Code! Until the end of February, build Playlists for FREE! Buy the Playlists you've built for only 188 Credits each and pay only 288 BMP Credits for buying another User's Playlist. The creator of the Playlist earns 88 BMP Credits each time another User buys his/her Playlist. This promotion lasts only until February 28, 2011, so hurry!
Oh, and remember to use the BMP288 Flex Promotional Code while registering or upgrading your account to Flex level. This promotion works only for users who have used the BMP288 Promotional Code!