wikiloops Albums are purely digital items (meaning wikiloops does not do physical distribution of CDs or vinyl), which can be listened to and downloaded via the wikiloops album collection.

The option to assemble and publish Albums which is covered on this page is available to premium members only, whereas listening to albums does not require a wikiloops membership.

Added features when publishing an Album

wikiloops albums can be described as an enhanced format of the standard playlists, which any wikiloops user can create by collecting a set of tracks.
The main benefits of albums can be summed up as:

Improved share-ability
Albums have a unique web address which can be shared & spread to listeners

Improved presentation of tracks
Albums are presented right on the wikiloops homepage and attract listeners who may have otherwise missed the tracks you have collected.
Albums may also be featured in users profile showcases.

Added feedback options
Albums can be reviewed and "liked" by wikiloops members and offer a listener & like-count statistic.

Included printable CD cover & track-list
Adding a cover image is a mandatory step in publishing an album.
wikiloops album downloads include a .pdf document which offers a ready-to-print CD cover + backside, including the list of tracks and their authors.

Publishing an album on wikiloops, step by step

Before you start / prerequisites
To be able to perform the steps listed below, make sure to:
- prepare a playlist which contains minimum 4 and maximum 14 tracks which you would like to release as an album. You may collect any wikiloops tracks you like, regardless of being a musical contributer yourself.
- make sure you have upgraded your member account to premium membership.
- prepare a cover image for your album. Images must be in .JPG or .png data format and should ideally be square-format with a resolution of not less than 465px by 465px.

Now, continue with:

Navigate to the prepared playlist on your profile and click the "edit" button offered in the top-right corner of the playlist display.

In edit-mode, click on the "prepare album" button and confirm your playlist is ready.

Your playlist is now in "Album draft" status, and you may enter the albums name,
a description text and some keywords to get the album found via text-search.
Also, choose & upload the cover artwork file.

On confirming the previous step, you are returned to the playlist screen, where you see the additional options offered in "album draft status".
Locate the "preview" button and have a first look at your still unpublished album page (opens in new browser tab).
Return to the initial tab and make changes via the "edit cover & text" if need be.

Optionally, you may
- rename tracks via the "edit track titles" button (recommended when collaboration titles include technical info, like "Supertitle + Bass")

- trim the tracks start and end times (recommended to avoid pre-clicks on albums and long silent pauses if a track ends with too many seconds silence).

Last, hit the "publish album" button and confirm you are done editing.
Within the next hour, the wikiloops server will assemble your album and prepare the downloadable .zip, set the album to published and send out newsfeed notices to the involved musicians to let them know they have been featured on your album.

Changing tracks after having switched to album draft mode

Should you want to change or remove a track on your playlist after having switched to "prepare album" status, you will have to reset the playlists status back to "standard playlist" to be able to access the needed playlist editing options.
To do the reset, click on the "dump album draft"-button offered in your playlist in draft mode.

Now, edit the playlist to exchange / remove the track as intended, and afterwards switch back to album draft mode by choosing "prepare album" from the buttons offered in edit mode.

When returning into album draft mode, any changes you may have made prior to dumping the album draft (as uploading a cover image or entering a description text) will still be available.