This serves to answer many of the typical questions and issues the average user may experience when browsing the StarPolish site. If you are not the average user, and this list cannot solve your problem, please contact us at info@starpolish.com for further assistance.

1) FORGOTTEN PASSWORDS:
Q: I have forgotten my password, or I have the wrong password. How can I log in?
A: Have your password emailed to you at the main log in page:
http://www.starpolish.com/account

2) BEING FEATURED AS AN ARTIST:
Q: I am a StarPolish artist, and see all of these great artists being featured on the site. How can I be one of those artists?
A: Currently, there are 4 ways to be featured on the site, all of them begin with making sure you are indeed signed up as a StarPolish Artist, which is free and easy, and have properly created your artist page (start at www.starpolish.com/account). At that point, you will have access to these 4 outlets:

3) ARTISTS - UPLOADING SONGS/MP3 CONVERSIONS:
Q: I am a StarPolish artist and would like to put my songs up on my StarPolish page, but am not technically savvy and have no idea where to start. Can you help?
A: Sure can! Take a look at our digital audio primer in our advice section: http://www.starpolish.com/advice/article.asp?id=41

Read through that section, and make the decision on whether you want your songs to stream (be instantly listenable, but not able to be saved on a hard drive, somewhat like radio) or DOWNLOAD (higher quality, but able to be saved and therefore burned onto CD or traded online, etc). Then it's just a matter of ripping (digitizing your audio) the songs off of your CD and then converting the .wav (pc) or .aiff (mac) files to a smaller compressed format that can be tossed around on the web.

If you would like to stream, real audio is currently the format of choice, although you can also do Quicktime and Windows Media encoding. I would suggest going to www.real.com and looking at ways to encode your file into a real audio file.

For downloading, mp3 is still the way to go. We personally use Audio Catalyst by Xing to do our encoding here in the office, but there are a variety of programs that will do an outstanding job (see the advice article for more ideas).

If you still can't seem to get it on your own, send your CD or CD-R to us here in the office, and we'll happily take care of it. Our address:

StarPolish
Attn: CD Encoding
1 Irving Place Suite P8C
New York, NY 10003

4) TRAFFIC TO AN ARTIST PAGE:
Q: I was charted as your #3 (for example) song on your hot downloads chart. How many downloads of my song have there been? How many people have come to my page?
A: Unfortunately, we do not have an automated system in place for tracking the traffic to all of our artists' homepages. And, because of the number of StarPolish artists (in the many thousands), we are unable to accommodate individual requests for traffic information. The StarPolish website itself receives in upwards of a million pageviews and tens of thousands of downloads. To drive more traffic to your page, you may try being featured (see question #1).

5) ACCESS TO INDUSTRY PANELS:
Q: I would love to have my music reviewed by the panels of industry veterans represented on your site. How can I do that?
A: The A&R Panel members regularly scour the StarPolish community in search of new talent. They recognize that it is a goldmine of up and coming artists, and we receive requests for individual artists' contact info all the time coming from our A&R panel. However, because of the number of artists in the StarPolish community, we cannot make available the contact information of our panel members. There are ways to guarantee yourself to be heard by the panels, like winning contests or being featured as a Buzzing Artist (see question #1). Sign up for the StarPolish Newsletter (http://www.starpolish.com/about/mailing_list.asp) and stay tuned for your all of the opportunities as they are announced.

6) ARTIST SIGNUP PROBLEMS:
Q: I can't seem to create an account. What am I doing wrong?
A: Seriously, it seems that 9 times out of 10 when someone is asking this question, they are a non-American and are entering your birthdate differently than we do here. Make sure you're using our method of MM/DD/YYYY. If that isn't the case, then there may be a larger issue, and you should email you problem to info@starpolish.com

7) (BLANK) WON'T WORK:
Q: I'm [ordering a cd/posting on the message boards/logging in/using an artist tool] and it's not working for me. What should I do?
A: It doesn't solve all problems, but you should make sure your browser is properly configured before contacting us.

BROWSER / PLATFORM VERSION:
Q: What browser is Starpolish.com best viewed using?
A: The simple answer, is the following list in order from best to worst browser to use:
Internet Explorer 5.5+
Internet Explorer 5.0+
Internet Explorer 4.0+
Netscape Navigator 4.7+

Q: Why do you recommend browsers in this order?
A: As a resource for artists universally, Starpolish.com is designed for the largest audiences. The idea is basic: design for the largest audience; embrace the future, without excluding anyone. Over 85% of web-viewers are using Internet Explorer versions 5.0 or greater. Starpolish therefore caters to this group, as it makes up most of its viewers (hey, we aim to please!). This does not mean that other browsers are not “supported” they are most certainly welcome, it simply means that the look, feel, and functionality of starpolish.com is best experienced with Internet Explorer v5.0 or greater. Other browsers may experience slight visual or performance differences.

For more information on browser statistics:
http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/bstats/latest.html

When contacting us, please send your problem to info@starpolish.com with a detailed description of what is going on, as well as which platform (WIN/MAC) and what browser (Netscape/IE) and version number you are using. That will help us get to the bottom of your issue. Please allow a little time for a response.

8) MULTIMEDIA ISSUES:
Q: I'm trying to watch one of your fantastic video interviews, but the media player is displaying a broken link and no video is coming through. Help me!
A: Most likely you don't have Real Player. Just go to www.real.com and download the latest free player. That will enable you to watch our interview videos or listen to audio multimedia.

9) ARTISTS TRACK DOWNLOADS:
Q: How do I listen to music? I click on an artist's song on their artist page, but I can't get it to play, or it plays back really choppy.
A: We allow artists to upload any format of multimedia they like for their audio files, but 99% use the tried and true mp3 format, which is a downloadable format where a typical song is 3-5 megabytes. Sometimes, depending on what software you have on your computer, just left clicking on the track name will attempt to "stream" the file using whatever software player you have installed. That is the root of your problem… you want to download the file, not stream it. It helps if you have a broadband connection, otherwise you may experience download times of over 10 minutes per song. To download, just right click on the track, and choose "save as."

10) NEWSLETTER:
Q: How do I stay updated on all things StarPolish?
A: Why, the newsletter, of course! Subscribe now (http://www.starpolish.com/about/mailing_list.asp), and you'll receive the weekly update and be in the loop when we make important announcements.

This FAQ is constantly being updated. Once again, if we did not address your concerns, please send us an email at info@starpolish.com. Thanks and Good Luck.