RPM 2022: How to Register, Submit, Listen and Discuss!

To prevent the inevitable server crashes that would happen every year when people were submitting their music in March, we implemented a few changes. Since last year we’ve moved temporarily away from user accounts and hosting all of the RPM music on our site. We’re working toward reintroducing some of those features in a careful and thoughtful way (just taking our time just so we don't accidentally set the internet on fire), but in the meantime, here’s the system we have in place:

Registering

This year our signup is accountless, so it’s a simple form that creates a profile listed here: www.rpmchallenge.com/2022participants. If you’d like to update anything on your listing you can email elling{at}rpmchallenge.com and I can hook you up!

Submitting

To mark your project complete you'll use a similar basic form. The info you put there will create a listing on our site, and you can explore the list of projects from last year to get an idea how that looks in the end: www.rpmchallenge.com/2021submissions. We’re trying to dress it up a bit more this year, but that’ll give you the idea.

On that submission form we’ll ask you to upload one selected mp3 for the listening party, and will ask you to paste a link where people can hear the rest of the music you made. Because we don’t host complete albums on the site we ask people to upload their complete projects to a music hosting service like Alonetone, Bandcamp, Audiomack, or Soundcloud.

(The host you choose is totally up to you, but we recommend giving Alonetone a try if you don’t already have one. It’s totally free, they’re friends of the RPM and they’ve given us a secret RPM link to skip the queue and get an account right away: https://alonetone.com/invite/n6twfUlNNg)

Listening

You can explore the list of projects from last year and use the listen links to listen to the music! Check that out at www.rpmchallenge.com/2021submissions

We also have an online radio station playing RPM Challenge music from from around the world, playing 24/7. Right now it’s playing through the tracks submitted last year. Tune in at www.rpmchallenge.com/radio

At the end of February we’re also aiming to put the submitted track from each record on a player on the site.

Discussing

For online discussion we use Discord, which has its own login system. If you’re brand new to Discord and looking for a primer, I made a video that walks you through a few things below. If you are reluctant to sign up for Discord or want to see what it looks like before signing up, we’ve set up an easy way for you to take part in the chat conversations at www.rpmchallenge.com/discord.

Once you’re ready to join the RPM Discord server, you can use this link: discord.gg/2Qb7DCaX8p​

I think that’s it! If you have any questions, feel free to check out the RPM FAQ (www.rpmchallenge.com/faq) or email me at elling{at}rpmchallenge.com!

Good luck this February! Have fun making that music!

— Elling at RPM HQ