Dear HarmonySite administrator,

We've had a few requests to be able to track how many times a given song file (e.g. sheet music) has been downloaded by members, usually because of copyright considerations.  This system has now been developed and is operational.  There's nothing you need to do to enable it, but you DO need to specify which files from which songs you wish to track downloads for.  This is done as follows:

1.       Visit any song's page (as an administrator)

2.       In the "Files/Resources" section, click the little "update" icon just under the name of any file that you wish to track the downloads for (e.g. the sheet music)

3.       Click the (new) "Copyright" tab

4.       Tick the box called "Track member downloads?"

5.       Optionally specify how many copies of the file you have paid for and are authorised to distribute

6.       Optionally specify a number of downloads that should trigger a warning message (see below for more info)

7.       Click "Save" at the bottom

Once that's done, you'll see something like the following, just above the "Download" button...

If you click to download the file, and then return to the page and refresh the page, you'll see that the download count has increased by 1.

NOTES:

·         It doesn't matter how many times any given member downloads the file, the system will still only record that as a SINGLE download.  So, in effect, we're tracking the number of MEMBERS that have downloaded the file, not the number of times the file has been downloaded.  In other words, if you download the file a second time, the count will not increase further.

·         Regular members can NOT see those download counts - only administrators of the songs database.

You can click the "0" number to see a full summary of the downloads for that file (and for all files from that song).  There are totals at the bottom for each of the files, showing the total number of members that have downloaded each file, and whether that is approaching or exceeding the allowed number of files.

That summary contains a tickbox for each member for each file, allowing you record the fact that certain members have been given copies of certain files in some other way than clicking on each file's "Download" button.  They may have downloaded the files before this new system was introduced, or they may have been given a paper (or CD) copy, etc.  These tickboxes allow you to record this.  Note that you need to click the big button at the bottom to record the changes you make to that summary.

Note that this summary lists ALL members in your database, including former members.  This is because former members may also have a copy of the file, which would count towards any copyright allowance.

There's also a new report which summarises the counts of ALL downloadable files from ALL songs.  There's a new link to this report in the Administration box on the main Members page.  That link is called "View the Song file download summary".

Note:  This new report is supposed to exclude polecats and tags.  If it's not doing this correctly, let me know and I'll adjust it for you.

Finally, if you're logged in as an administrator of the "Song Files/Resources" database, and you visit the main Members page, and one or more song files have reached the (optional) warning level you added above, then a warning message will be shown across the top of the page.

As usual, if you have any questions, issues or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Cheers,

Mark Virtue

HarmonySite

Australia

+61 2 8005 4277 (Australian number)

In North America, call:  1-415-651-7009 (San Francisco number)

Skype name:  mvirtue

mark@harmonysite.com

www.harmonysite.com