frequently asked questions



? what is thinner?

 !  thinner is a german netlabel, distributing music in various formats. thinner is most notably known for distributing digital downloads for free.



? what about autoplate?

 !  autoplate will come back soon.



? when did thinner begin?

 !  thinner very originally started in 1998. for further details please read the the thinner retrospective.



? i would like to exchange links with thinner.

 !  if you’re special in what you’re doing you’re welcome to contact us.



? when is the next release coming up?

!  if the release date is not posted on the website then there is probably good reason for it. grab the rss feed, become friends with us at myspace or watch the website for news.



? why are not all tracks free anymore?

 !  many thinner artists became member of a collecting society during the past years, which makes it hardly possible to keep releases online that were released under a creative commons® license. why is that?

if an artist signs up a contract after joining a collecting society, his possibilities become limited because upon signing he agrees to the policies of the collecting society. in most cases these policies cut the freedom of art and don’t allow the artist to release music under a different license than the collecting society licenses, which in most cases incompatible to creative commons® licenses, which is what thinner uses.



? how do i send a demo to thinner?

 !  if we like your music and you agree to our policies then there is nothing speaking against a collaboration. if you want to communicate with us please make sure to understand our way of communication according to certain standards.

  • before you think of sending us a demo, do you fully believe your demo is incredible?
  • do not send tracks by email unless requested
  • do not send links to check out your tracks on third party mp3 sites – we will not check them
  • do not send us a link to your myspace account – we don’t use their player to evaluate demos
  • instead send us a .zip using services like yousendit.com or sendspace.com
  • we also like accessing ftp accounts to download your tracks
  • the demo hq is in mannheim, so if you mail your demo to our frankfurt adress it will cause an unnecessary long delay to get to listen to the music.
  • please date your cd and letter.
  • put your email adress on the actual cd.
  • keep your cv or other press information to a minimum, the music will speak for itself.
  • 2 tracks mean you dont have any material, 20 tracks mean you have no quality control, be sensible and representative.
  • if you like naming your tracks maurizio like "m1", "m4" or something, the chances are it will go the bottom of the pile.
  • same goes for autechre type names like "psh", "bws" or "bllcks"
  • if we like your music we will communicate it to you
  • then we wait for your feedback to send you a contract and wait for you returning a copy back with your signature.
  • in between we ask you to upload the mixdowns, in accordance with the mastering specifications, to our private ftp dump.
  • then we ask you to compile a set of liner notes, which will eventually get mixed into the release text by us
  • we design the artwork for the release and present it to you
  • the masters are encoded by us to the necessary file formats
  • after all these steps have been accomplished, the release is ready to go!



? what happens if a vinyllabel is interested in my thinner released tracks?

!  the vinyl label may license the material from us and pay licensing fees, however we will not remove contracted material for any reason.



? i haven't received a reply regarding my demo submission

 !  we appreciate that you want to know what we think of your music. if your music interests us, we will be in touch. please accept the "don't call us, we call you" policy.



? i want to make a deal with thinner - who shall i contact?

!  drop a mail to info   thinner.cc and express your concern.



? using/redistributing thinner tracks explained in a nutshell

 !  is it ok if i use thinner mp3s in my website?

it depends, however in most cases we will not appreciate it – if you’re a journalist writing about thinner or covering a story about netlabels then this is possible but please contact us in advance.

!  is it ok if i mirror the thinner mp3 archive?

although we appreciate the intention to support us we ask you not to redistribute the files, as there can be no better host than scene.org. scene.org is a superfast server which is already mirrored several times, so the availability of thinner repertoire is 100% convenient.

!  am i allowed to use thinner mp3s in my movie?

you may license our repertoire. please contact us to find out about the possibilities. synchronizing our repertoire with moving pictures on an unlicensed basis violates our terms of agreement.

!  am i allowed to share the thinner catalogue on soulseek?

you may share the cc tagged thinner releases. however it is fairly pointless, as the material is available from much faster servers anyway – so in your own interest don’t block the file transfer queues and rather put a .txt file in your directory that tells people where to download the releases.

!  am i allowed to sell thinner music on a record?

this is not possible without a prior written consent from thinner group gbr. however, you may license our repertoire. please contact us to find out about the possibilities.

!  may i use thinner material in my netlabel dj-mix?

you may do that if you redistribute your netlabel dj-mix under creative commons® attribution-noncommercial-noderivs 2.0 germany

!  may i stream thinner music on my webradio?

yes, for as long as you stream the id3 metadata, so people can read that you’re playing thinner material.

!  may i use deeplinks to pictures hosted on thinner?

please don’t do that cause the links might change one day. if you want to embed thinner artwork on your blog please download the cover and upload it to imageshack® or photobucket®.

!  may i embedd thinner artwork on my homepage?

please contact us before doing that.



? djs: do i have to report thinner track plays to the collecting society?

 !  it depends – if you play free cc tracks then you don’t need to report, as cc tagged tracks indivate freedom of collecting societies. all other tracks (cs tracks, pd tracks) are from collecting society members, so yes, you need to report your playlist.