Frequently-asked-questions

WHAT KIND OF MUSIC VIDEOS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

We’re all about creativity and pushing the boundaries in terms of what music video is and what it can be. There are no real guidelines on what we’re looking for, but make it creative, innovative, high quality and entertaining. The winning video becomes the official music video for the song so keep that in mind when making your video.

We can only accept high quality videos that have the potential to become official videos. We don't want lip syncing videos or travel/family/stock footage set to music, in fact we probably won't publish them. Make sure your video is also shot in 16:9 or wider so it can be used across all of today's media platforms.

We moderate every video to check not only for appropriateness, but also for quality of concept, creativity and film making. We apologise in advance if your video isn't published because it isn't deemed of sufficient quality to potentially be used as an official music video, but we have a responsibility to each of the artists and labels we work with to make sure the videos being made for their music and published on our site are of a high quality.

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WE DON’T HAVE ANY FOOTAGE OF THE ARTISTS; HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO MAKE A VIDEO FOR THE SONG?

Some of the best videos don’t use any footage of the artists. So use the fact that no footage has been provided as an opportunity to have complete creative freedom for your music video.

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I’VE GOT A GREAT VIDEO OF ME LIP-SYNCING TO ONE OF THE FEATURED SONGS. WHAT ARE MY CHANCES OF WINNING?

Even though your friends would probably find it funny to watch you, basic lip-syncing videos aren’t what we’re looking for. So apart from not winning it probably wouldn’t make it past our moderators because we’re really focused on quality videos, not quantity.

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HOW DO I UPLOAD A VIDEO?

Go to the page for the Artist/Song you've made your video for and click on the ENTER button on the right hand side. You'll then be taken to an Upload form - browse to find your video and upload it, fill out the forms and click SUBMIT. If there is no ENTER button on the Artist page it means that either it's not open for entries yet or it's closed so make sure you check the dates.

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HOW MANY TIMES CAN I VOTE ON EACH VIDEO?

Each user is limited to one vote per video, but you can vote for as many different videos as you like.

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WHAT FILE FORMATS DO YOU SUPPORT?

We always prefer .mov or .mp4, but here are the file types supported and common extensions:

• video/quicktime: .mov, .qt
• video/mp4: .mp4
• video/mpeg: .mp2, .mpa, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2
• video/x-msvideo: .avi

Please note we no longer support .wmv.

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WHAT ASPECT RATIOS DO YOU SUPPORT?

We only support 16:9 format (widescreen) or wider so please don't upload any 4:3 videos. The aim is for the winning video to be used as the official music video so it needs to be compatible with the standards of all today's media platforms, which is currently 16:9 or wider. Please note that we don't accept videos that are wider than 2.39:1.

For more help about aspect ratios, this Wikipedia page is a good source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image).

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WHAT ARE THE RECOMMENDED SETTINGS FOR VIDEOS?

Export and compression settings vary depending on what software you are using, and it can get tricky! We've tried to simplify the key settings though that you should be aware of, to make it as easy as possible! Look for the following settings in the software you use, they may appear under the "Advanced", "Settings" or "Options" tabs.

Codec
• Select H.264 for the video codec and AAC for the audio codec

Frame Rate
• This should usually be set to 25

Keyframes
• Refers to how often the compressor references your uncompressed video, set it to every 30 frames

Data Rate
• 5,000 Kbits/second for widescreen high definition

Resolution
• Minimum 1280x720 for widescreen high definition, or preferably 1920x1080. We no longer accept any SD videos as these cannot be used as an official video in today's media. We also don't accept 4:3 videos, or videos that are wider than 2.39:1.

Deinterlace
• Yes, otherwise strange horizontal lines might appear in your video

Sound Sample Rate
• 44.1 KHz or 44,100 Hz

Audio quality
• Select a bit rate of at least 128 Kbps

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WHAT IS THE LIMIT ON FILE SIZES?

Please ensure your video upload is less than 300MB.

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WHAT IS HD?

HD stands for “high definition”, which gives a richer, clearer, and more life-like picture than standard TV and even DVDs. Please note, we no longer allow SD video entries, this is because they cannot be used as an official music video in today's media. Please upload an HD version that has a minimum resolution of 1280×720, or even better if it has a resolution of 1920x1080.

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HOW DO I CHANGE SOME OF THE SUMMARY INFO FOR MY VIDEO LIKE THE TITLE, DESCRIPTION, TAGS ETC.

First log in so we know which videos you've uploaded. Then just go to PROFILE and under each of the videos you've uploaded you'll see an UPDATE link. That will take you to a page where you can update the Description, Other Credits and Tags for your video.

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HOW DO I CHANGE THE PREVIEW THUMBNAIL FOR MY VIDEO?

At the moment you can't so you'll have to stick with the thumbnail that's automatically generated. We'll introduce this soon though so hang tight.

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HOW CAN I EMBED A VIDEO FROM GENERO.TV ON ANOTHER WEBPAGE?

When you roll over the video player you'll see a <E> in the top right corner. If you click on that you'll see a light box with the Embed code. Grab it and you're away!

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WHY ARE SOME VIDEOS NOT PUBLISHED?

Before you get started, make sure your video content is suitable. Here are the main reasons for videos not getting approved;

- creatively or conceptually, there is not much of an idea (eg. family/travel/stock footage set to music)
- the overall production or editing quality level is too low
- your video has racist, violent or defamatory content

Creativity is very subjective, for that reason we often can't give specific reasons why your video hasn't been published. Remember we're looking for videos that could potentially be used as the official music video for the artists and songs we feature.

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HOW DO I GET MY VIDEOS FEATURED ON THE HOMEPAGE?

In short: make great videos! We choose the videos to showcase on the Homepage based on the quality of the video and the appeal to our audience. We’ll also take into account the videos that are getting rated the most highly and watched the most. No amount of lobbying or money (well maybe a really large amount!) will improve your chances so just keep trying to improve the quality of your videos.

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HOW CAN I UPLOAD AN HD VERSION OF MY VIDEO?

We no longer allow SD video entries, this is because they cannot be used as an official music video in today's media. Please upload an HD version that has a minimum resolution of 1280×720, or even better if it has a resolution of 1920x1080.

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CAN I UPLOAD A NEW VERSION OF MY VIDEO?

You can upload an updated version of your entry and you’ll keep all of the votes, views and comments your previous version had.

Just follow these simple steps;

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CAN I DOWNLOAD THE ORIGINAL FILE I UPLOADED?

At the moment we don't allow downloads of original videos so make sure you keep your own copies of any of your videos you've uploaded. If you've lost your version though let us know and we should be able to get it to you.

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HOW LONG SHOULD MY VIDEO BE?

Your video should be at least as long as the song you're creating it for if you want to be able to win. Obviously a video can't be used as the official video for the song if it doesn't use the whole track, but it's not against the Competition Terms to create a video which is shorter (especially for some of the longer tracks we feature). You can also include footage before and after the track starts if you think it adds to the overall music video.

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WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH FILMING IN PUBLIC? DO I NEED A PERMIT?

The laws for filming in public differ between countries and even cities so we can't give you a complete answer on this. You'll need to check with your local film commission or similar body. Here are a few resources though that might help as a starting point.

• UK Film Council: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/publicspaces
• Paris Film Office (in English): http://www.parisfilm.fr/uk/guidelines.html
• Australian Copyright Council: Filmmakers and Copyright infosheet
• New York: http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/permits/shooting_home.shtml
• California: http://www.film.ca.gov/Permits/index.html
• Seattle: http://www.seattle.gov/filmoffice/film_permits.htm

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SHOULD I ADD TITLES OR CREDITS TO MY VIDEO?

No, please don't add any credits or titles in your video. You can use the Description and Other Credits areas to provide any further details about your video and other contributors. If there are titles or credits appearing in your video you'll be asked to remove them and resubmit it.

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MY VIDEO HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED BECAUSE IT HAS BLACK BARS, OR IS THE WRONG ASPECT RATIO

If your video has not been approved, it is probably due to one of the following reasons;

Aspect Ratio
We need your video in HD, and 16:9 or wider so that we can use it in all media types if selected as the official video. If you want to check your aspect ratio, you can divide the width by the height, eg. the minimum resolution we accept is 1280x720. Dividing the width by the height gives you 1.7778, which is 16:9 (16 divided by 9). Remember, don't include black bars in the resolution width or height though. Read more about aspect ratios here.

Black Bars
Horizontal or vertical black bars are not acceptable. Sometimes, exporting a 4:3 movie to 16:9 simply adds black vertical bars left and right of your footage, this is still a 4:3 video, and therefore won't be approved. If your video is wider than 16:9 (eg. 1.85:1 or 2.39:1) then our transcoding process will add top and bottom black bars so that it plays within our 16:9 player. Never add any black bars, regardless of what resolution you are uploading.

Titles/Credits
Sorry, but we don't allow any titles or credits to appear on the video. There is space on your video's page (when uploading) where you can put credit and extra information. Titles are added by the media outlet that ends up playing the winning video (eg. MTV).

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CAN I CHANGE THE THUMBNAIL IMAGE OF MY VIDEO?

It is easy to change your video thumbnail to something that you like, just follow these steps;

- Login to Genero.tv
- Choose EDIT PROFILE from the top dropdown menu
- Click the thumbnail of the video you want to update
- At the bottom of the page, you will see an EDIT THUMBNAIL section, just put the time in minutes:seconds, and click EDIT THUMBNAIL, eg. 01:35

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ARE ALL VIDEO ENTRIES PUBLISHED ON GENERO.TV?

No not all videos entered are published on the site. We moderate every video to not only check for anything inappropriate, but also to check the videos are of a standard that could potentially be used as an official music video.

You can think of this moderation as the first round of the competition, like having your video accepted into a film festival, and we do this on behalf of the artists and labels we represent who don't have the time to go through every video entered.

We apologise in advance if your video isn't published on the site.

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DO YOU PUBLISH SECOND LIFE VIDEOS?

It's our view that Second Life videos aren't generally suitable or up to the standard to become an official music video. We don't rule them out completely and do publish some given they represent a different medium, but in most cases, we won't be publishing them.

We feel that they aren't in line with what artists and labels are looking for, unless they are very creatively done and in consideration of the song.

The way competitions run on Genero.tv is that being published is basically the first round of the competition - like being accepted into a film festival. We moderate the videos on behalf of the artists and labels we represent and many other videos have also not been published for the same reason. You can read more about that here.

We apologise if your Second Life video hasn't been published, and we appreciate the time and effort you would have spent making your video.

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CAN'T PLAY VIDEOS USING IE9 - INTERNET EXPLORER 9

If you are unable to play videos when using IE9 (Internet Explorer 9), please follow these steps;
- in the area you enter a URL, to the right there is an icon which looks like a page with a tear through the middle
- clicking this icon will turn 'compatibility view' on
- the icon should change from a grey colour to a blue colour, and it should also force the page to reload
- you should now be able to play all videos

If you are still having problems, please contact us

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