How do I get help using your site? 

Read on! We’ve tried to provide all the information you need to use the site effectively in this FAQ. We also offer a Help link on each page of the site that you can click to get information. But if you have a question or problem that isn’t addressed in either of these places, by all means send us an email.

What is GearDemo.com?

“Hear the gear. Meet the players. Listen to the music.” That pretty much sums it up! GearDemo.com is a community website created by musicians and enthusiasts for musicians and enthusiasts that provides a unique library of artist-generated content—gear demos, video lessons, original tracks and albums—to its members. 

GearDemo.com provides a professional online venue for established and emerging artists to share their expertise and gain exposure within the music community. The site establishes a revenue stream for all levels of artists who upload content to the site, and creates an environment that rewards excellent work that might otherwise go unnoticed. 

GearDemo.com is committed to developing a passionate community where musicians and music lovers alike can explore, listen, view, download and rate the gear, demos and music that rocks their soul, while giving something back to the artists that make it all happen.

On the GearDemo.com site, you can

• Browse our library of exceptional gear-demo videos and artist albums
• Upload your own music or videos
• Purchase lesson videos that provide instruction on special techniques and gear
• Purchase unlimited playbacks of never-before-seen gear demos
• Listen to sample music tracks from featured artists
• Download tracks and albums from your favorite artists
  

Why should I pay for GearDemo.com videos when I can view other gear demos for free on sites such as YouTube?

GearDemo.com wholeheartedly believes that an artist’s expertise and hard-earned knowhow is valuable information that’s worthy of compensation. By paying a small fee for unlimited access to each video you choose, you are directly supporting the artist who created it—GearDemo.com returns a lion’s share of the profit from purchases to the artist. Through your purchase, you send a loud-and-clear message that you value the expertise that artist is sharing with the music community, and you’re providing incentive and means for them to create and share more of their work.

What methods of payment do you accept?

We accept four major credit cards: AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa.

How do I make a purchase on GearDemo.com?

On GearDemo.com, you use “credits” to make purchase payments on the site. Here’s how the system works: 

Before making your first purchase, you set up a user account on the GearDemo.com. Next, you use a major credit card (AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa) to purchase five or more credits to give your account a positive balance. Finally, whenever you make a purchase, credits are deducted from your account balance to cover the cost of your purchase.

What are credits?

Credits are non-transferable, non-refundable “currency” that you use like money on GearDemo.com to make purchases. The value of a credit is $1US. You can purchase credits in increments of $5US—the more you spend, the higher your savings.

Credits never expire, and you can easily replenish your supply as you need to by making another credit card transaction. GearDemo.com tracks your purchases for you, and your credit balance is visible on every page of the site as well as on your detailed Account Info page.

Can I get a refund?

No, all purchases are final. Because you cannot “return” a GearDemo.com video, track or album, we do not give refunds.  

How do I set up a user account?

It’s easy. Simply click Register in the upper right portion of the GearDemo.com Homepage and provide the required information. That’s it!

How can I tell how many credits I currently have?

The upper-right corner of every page displays the number of credits in your account. If you’d like more detail about how you’ve spent your credits in the past, click the Account Info tab (also in the upper-right portion of the page) then click My Transactions.

How do I add more credits to my account?

There are a couple of ways to buy more credits. On the GearDemo.com Homepage, click one of the Purchase Credits options. You’ll be taken to a transaction page where you can use a major credit card (AMEX, Discover, MasterCard, Visa) to purchase credits. 

If you try to make a purchase and you don’t have enough credits in your account, you’ll be automatically directed to the transaction page to purchase additional credits. Remember that you get the best deals with the  $15 (17 credits), $20 (23 credits) and $25 (30 credits) packages.

How do I submit a video to the site?

Just follow these simple steps:

• First, if you haven’t already done so, set up a user account.
• Next, before you begin the actual upload process on the site, have the following information at hand: the title of the video, any tags you want to associate with it, a short (100 words or less) description of the video and information about the gear you feature.
  

Important: Once you start the actual upload process, you need to enter all the information you want to include with the video. You will not be able to Save and enter more information at a later date. 

• When you’re ready to upload your materials, click the Account Info tab in the upper-right portion of any page on the GearDemo.com site.
• In the Manage My Videos section of your account page, click Add Video.
• Enter a Title, Tags and Description for your video.
• Select whether you want to submit the video as a Featured Video.
• Select the Lesson checkbox if your video is a “lesson.”
• Use the Define Your Gear! interface to describe the gear you’re demonstrating in your video: guitars, keyboards, amps, pedals, drums and percussions, bass, studio and recording/software. Be sure to select any additional information in the Features box that displays for certain types of gear.
• Review the GearDemo.com Video Upload Agreement and select the “I agree to the terms” checkbox.
• Browse your computer to find the file you wish to upload and click “Upload.” (Be patient, the upload may take a little time.)
• After the upload is complete, you’ll be redirected to your account page. Now you can preview your video to see how it will appear to others on the site

What are “tags”?

A tag is a bit of metadata that is attached to the content you upload to help it “be found” when visitors search the site. It’s definitely to your advantage to provide descriptive keywords in the Tags field during the upload process to ensure that lots of people can find your content.

What is a “lesson video” and how does it differ from a “demo video”?

A “lesson video” is simply a video that provides instruction about a particular technique or piece of equipment. A “demo video” demonstrates the capabilities of a particular piece of equipment and provides a review or critique of it, but doesn’t teach you how to use it.

How do I upload music to the site?

Just follow these simple steps:

• First, if you haven’t already done so, set up a user account.
• Next, before you begin the actual upload process on the site, have the following information at hand: name of the album (an album contains one or more tracks) and the artist, music genre (e.g., blues, Latin, rock), any tags you want to associate with it, a short (100 words or less) description of the album and cover art (optional).
  

Important: Once you start the album creation process, you need to enter all the information you want to include about the album. You will not be able to Save and enter more information at a later date. (You can, however, return at any time to add/edit/delete tracks within the album.)

• When you’re ready to upload, click the Account Info tab in the upper-right portion of any page on the GearDemo.com site.
• In the Manage My Music section of your account page, click Add Music.
• Enter the album name, artist name, music genre, path to your cover art (browse to locate the file on your computer), tags and description.
• Select whether you want to submit your music as a Sample CD for the Homepage.
• Review the GearDemo.com Music Upload Agreement and select the “I agree to the terms” checkbox.
• Click Create Album to proceed to the Upload Album Tracks page.
• On the Upload Album Tracks page, you can choose to upload a music file at this time or return to your account profile page. You can return to add/edit/delete album tracks at any time.
• To upload a music file, click Browse to locate it on your computer and click Upload. (Be patient, the upload may take a little time.)
• After the upload is complete, you’ll be redirected to your account page. To add more tracks (or to edit or delete existing tracks), click Tracks in the box that displays your album within the Manage My Music section.
• Otherwise, you’re done! Now you can preview your music to see how it will sound to others on the site. 

If I don’t see what I’m looking for, can I make a request?

Of course! We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email with your suggestion! 

How do I access my account?

On the GearDemo.com Homepage, click the Sign In link in the upper-right portion of the page (or scroll down until you see the Sign In box in the left column) and enter the email address and password that you indicated when you set up your account. You’ll be directed to your Account Info page where you can enter and edit information about yourself (your profile), manage your videos and music and view your transactions.

How do I review my transaction history?

Click the Account Info tab in the upper-right portion of any page on the site to go to your account page. Then click the My Transactions tab to view your complete transaction history.

How do I edit my profile?

Click the Account Info tab in the upper-right portion of any page on the site to go to your account page. In the My Profile section, click the Edit link.

I’ve uploaded content to GearDemo.com. Where can I view statistics about how well my content is doing and find out how much money I’m making?

Everyone can see basic stats about how many people have viewed/downloaded a particular piece of content, along with an overall rating, in the content listing that displays on the site.

To view a “your-eyes-only” report that shows stats for all the content you’ve uploaded, click the Account Info link in the upper-right portion of the page. When your account page displays, click My Reports to see how your uploads are performing.

How will I get paid?

GearDemo.com is happy to share the revenues generated from your video and music uploads to encourage and enable you to continue to make and upload quality content to the website. GearDemo will pay your share of revenues on a regular schedule once you provide all the necessary information (e.g., name, address, 1099 form) to allow GearDemo to make a payment, and your unpaid revenues exceed $50. For details about how GearDemo calculates revenue share, please refer to our Video Upload Agreement and Music Upload Agreement.

Why was my video taken down from GearDemo.com?

GearDemo.com will take down a video for three reasons: (1) copyright infringement, (2) failure to meet GearDemo’s quality standards (3) video is inappropriate for the site.

GearDemo.com wholeheartedly supports the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows copyright owners to provide notice to us if they believe a video is infringing on their rights and requires us to take down the video.

GearDemo.com strives to provide high-quality content to musicians and gear enthusiasts who want to learn about the thousands of types and models of musical equipment out there. Contributors stand to benefit most if other videos on the site are also of high quality—more people will want to visit the site and access videos if they know it is a source for quality content. GearDemo.com will take down a video if it fails to meet any of the standards outlined in our Video Upload Agreement or if GearDemo believes for any reason the video is not appropriate for the site.

Please contact us directly if you have any questions about why your video was taken down.

Why was my music taken down from GearDemo.com?

GearDemo.com will take down music files for three reasons: (1) copyright infringement, (2) failure to meet GearDemo’s quality standards (3) music is inappropriate for the site.

GearDemo.com wholeheartedly supports the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows copyright owners to provide notice to us if they believe a music upload is infringing on their rights and requires us to take down the file.

GearDemo.com provides a venue for artists to sell high-quality, original music (i.e., music you have written or have the legal right to perform, make copies of and sell) as downloads on the site. GearDemo.com will take down a music file if it does not meet any of the technical and quality standards outlined in our Music Upload Agreement or if GearDemo believes for any reason the music is not appropriate for the site.

Please contact us directly if you have any questions about why your music file was taken down.

How do I report a copyright violation?

GearDemo.com wholeheartedly supports the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which allows copyright owners to provide notice to us if they believe a video or music recording is infringing on their rights and requires us to take down the recording. 

Please send us an email with supporting information if you think a copyright violation exists for content on the GearDemo.com site, and we’ll promptly report the infringement to the proper authority and remove the content from the site.

How do I know GearDemo.com is secure?

GearDemo.com incorporates appropriate safeguards to protect the security, accuracy, integrity, completeness and privacy of the personal information we collect on the site, and we’ve put in place reasonable precautions to protect information from misuse, alteration and loss. We periodically review and enhance our security and privacy policies, and only authorized individuals have access to the information you provide us. Please review our privacy policy for more details about data security on GearDemo.com.

When I upload a video to GearDemo.com, who holds the rights to the content?

GearDemo.com does. GearDemo’s goal is to make your video available to the public and to share the profits earned from the video with you. To achieve that goal, GearDemo needs exclusive and permanent rights to the video—we can’t generate revenue if you put the video out all over the Internet, effectively competing with us. 

An important consequence of GearDemo’s permanent and exclusive right to make the video available on the Internet for streaming or download to the public that you need to be aware of is this:

Once you sign the upload agreement and upload your video to GearDemo.com, you will not be able to remove it from the site.

 

Because GearDemo customers purchase unlimited views of the video, the video must remain available on the site to deliver those views.

Be sure to refer to our Video Upload Agreement for details about your and GearDemo’s specific rights regarding video submissions.

When I upload a music file to GearDemo.com, who holds the rights to the content?

You do. Unlike GearDemo.com’s rights policy for videos, you retain full copyrights to your music. You can sell the music on your own website or through other sites. You can sell copies in stores or anywhere else. You can link your personal website to a page on GearDemo.com that contains your music or a link to your music.

Should you decide that you no longer want to sell music through GearDemo.com, send written notification of your intent to GearDemo.com, and we’ll remove the music from the site or disable the public’s ability to listen or purchase it within 7 days of receipt of your notification.

Be sure to refer to our Music Upload Agreement for details about your and GearDemo’s specific rights regarding music submissions.

How do I get a high-resolution file of the GearDemo logo to put on my site or include in materials I print?

Thanks for your interest! Click here to download a logo file now.