To create a new promo:

1. Login to your Haulix account

2. Click on the "Promos" menu item

3. Click the "New Promo" button

4. In the "Create Promo" dialog window, enter the Artist and Title for the album and click the "Create" button.

5. A new promo is created and you can begin to add accessories, edit the promo's details or save it for later.

6. You add cover art by clicking the green plus sign/"Add Cover Art" link.  Select the file from your computer and it will get uploaded into your promo package.  Same thing goes for PDF sheets. Upload an unlimited number of PDFs and optionally change their names. Delete any promo accessory by clicking the red "X Remove" button.

7. Secure your promo by setting various access dates and consumption settings.

Release Date - this is the date the album gets released to the public

Live Date - this is the date the promo goes live. Invited contacts will not be able to access a promo until it's live.

Expiration Date - this is the date the promo expires. Once the expiration date is hit, no contacts will be able to access it.

Download Limit  - this is the number of times each contact can download the album (we suggest giving your contacts at least 2 download attempts in case the first one fails due to a problem on their end).

Stream Limit - this is the number of times each contact can stream an album through the music player on your promo web page. **A streamed song only docks 1/4 the size of the MP3 from your bandwidth quota**

Active - this is an On/Off switch. If you set the promo's Active flag to off, it's an instant change and nobody will be able to access it.

Accessibility - a "Public" promo can be accessed by anyone in the world who knows its internet address. Downloads from a "Public" promo will show up as Anonymous in your Activities panel.  "Invitation Only" is more secure.  Only contacts you invite will be able to access the promo.  For watermarking to work, you need to choose the "Invitation Only" option.

Tags - tags are words you can associate with a promo. Tags will appear next to the promo on your dashboard screen. Your contacts will not see your tags.

Photo Gallery - click the green plus sign/"Add Photo" link to add photos to your promo's photo gallery.  Photos and videos will get formed into a slideshow. You can also optionally select one photo from each promo to appear in your email invitations.

Videos - to add a YouTube video to your promo's slideshow, visit YouTube, copy an embed address, paste the address into the textbox and click the "Attach" button. If successful, you will see a thumbnail of your video appear.

8. Haulix currently supports MP3 file types only.  You can upload one track at a time or select a zip file with multiple tracks.  Green progress bars will show your progress as tracks upload into your promo package.  Once uploaded, you can change the name of tracks and re-order tracks by dragging/dropping them into their new position.  Haulix will automatically update and write the ID3 tag information so that your promo formats nicely in common media players.

9. When you are finished editing your promo, click the "Save" button in the upper right corner of the screen.

10. If you uploaded new MP3 files, our watermark preparation process will kick in.  You will see a pink box surround your promo with a progress indicator up top. Preparation should only take a minute or so per track.  Once the watermark preparation process is complete, you can then move onto sending out email invitations to your contacts or save the promo for later.

11. You will see your newly created promo on the bottom of your dashboard screen.

Streaming a track in a Haulix promo is accomplished by clicking the stream button to the left of the respective track. The track then plays via a music player that is anchored at the top of the promo page. The music comes through speakers in the client's computer.

Multi-Layered Security

Haulix employs several levels of security when it comes to protecting streamed tracks.

Stream Limit

When editing a promo, you can set the number of allowed streams per contact. The default setting is unlimited. This feature is similar to setting the number of downloads per contact.

File Encryption

Behind the scenes, streamed track titles are encrypted - hiding the original file names from the client.

Watermarking

Tracks streamed through Haulix are watermarked with data pointing to the original recipient of the promo invitation.


**Rising Star Plan does not include watermarking**

Our watermarking technology requires that we run a few preparation steps before the .MP3s can be downloaded by your contacts. Setting the files up ahead of time results in less processing that needs to be done when your contacts download the tracks. This makes the end-watermarking experience faster, more stable and less prone to errors.

Some things to note:

- Our upgraded watermarking technology comes at no added cost to you

- File preparation is automatic and doesn't require any manual input on your part

- Scanning for watermarks works the same as before - submit suspect tracks through your dashboard and our staff will scan

- If you update a track(s) that has already been prepared for watermarking, our automatic process will kick in and RE-prepare the track(s)

- Our system will not let you send out an email invitation for a promo that is in the process of being prepared for watermarks

- Streamed files are watermarked for added security

In the context of a Haulix promo, a watermark is an inaudible piece of data injected into an .MP3 track. Haulix can use that data to pinpoint the original contact that downloaded the respective .MP3 track. Normally, watermarks are used as a security precaution in deterring leaking.

Example scenario:

You send your contact "Bob" a Haulix email invitation and he signs in. He clicks the Download button and downloads the album. At the time he clicks that Download button, Haulix silently injects 10-15 watermarks into each track. Fast forward to two weeks later. You find your album downloadable in an illegal file sharing network and wonder who put it there. You download the album and submit a track to Haulix. Haulix scans the track and finds watermarks. Haulix informs you that "Bob" leaked the album.

Frequently asked questions:

Do I have to pay extra for watermarking?
No, watermarking is included in all plans except for the Rising Star plan.

Is there a limit on the number of watermarks I can use?
No, there is no limit. Haulix will inject watermarks into every track downloaded through our system. e.g. If 1,000 contacts download one of your 12-track promos, then approximately 120,000 watermarks will get injected total in all downloaded tracks.

Can your watermarks survive re-encodings?
Yes, our watermarks can survive multiple encodings. Because there is such a large number of marks injected into each track (10-15 depending on how long the track is), a malicious user would have to re-encode the track multiple times resulting in almost unlistenable sound quality before all watermarks would get overwritten.

Did you create the watermarking technology you use yourself?
No, Haulix licenses its advanced watermarking technology from the Fraunhofer Institute.

If I find a suspect track, how long does it take you to scan it and send me the results?
Although we block out a 24-hour period of time to scan, most of the time you will hear back from us within an hour.