託す

This page is for musicians, teachers, ensembles and small labels who play the traditional music of Japan and China and might share recordings with Kotone. It explains in plain words what sharing involves, so you can decide without needing to know anything about copyright law.

What we're looking for

Kotone is about the old repertoire: classical, court, ritual and folk music. New recordings are very welcome, but only of old pieces, such as honkyoku, sankyoku and jiuta, gagaku, the qin canon, regional zheng schools or folk song. We don't take new compositions, fusion or improvisation. Concert recordings, ensemble and student recitals are welcome too, not only studio albums. Kotone is a record of how this music is played today, not a hall of fame.

What you need

• The recording must be yours to share. It is yours if you made it yourself, or paid for it, and never signed it over to a label.
• If it came out on a label, the label usually owns the recording, even though you played it. That's not a problem: tell us the label, and we can ask them ourselves, or simply link to the album on our modern recordings page instead.
• If you're not sure, tell us what you know about how it was made and released. We'll work it out with you and add nothing until it's clear.
• The pieces should be traditional. Old pieces are free for anyone to play, so the music itself raises no questions. Your own arrangement or reconstruction (dapu) of an old piece is fine too.

What you give

• Permission to stream the recording on Kotone, free for listeners, unedited, with your name on it.
• That's all. The copyright stays with you. The permission is not exclusive, so you can still sell, publish and share the recording anywhere else.
• We never sell your recording, license it to anyone, or put it next to ads. Like everything on Kotone, listeners can save it in their browser to listen offline, but there's no download button.

What you get

• A page about you, credited exactly as you wish, in the original script of your name.
• Links to your own site and to wherever people can buy your music.
• Notes on each piece and instrument, so listeners understand what they're hearing.
• A place in a carefully organised archive of this music, next to the historical recordings it continues.

Kotone earns nothing, so it can't pay. It has no ads and no tracking.

Changing your mind

You can take a recording down at any time, for any reason. Send one email and it comes down within a week. You don't have to explain.

How to share

For now, sharing happens by email. An upload page is planned.

• The audio files (WAV or FLAC if you have them, otherwise good-quality MP3), or a link to download them.
• For each piece: its title (in the original script too, if you can), the school or tradition, who plays, and when and where it was recorded.
• How you'd like to be credited, and the links you'd like on your page.
• The permission line below, with the brackets filled in.

I, [name], hold the rights to the recording(s) listed below and give Kotone (kotone.co) non-exclusive permission to stream them, unedited and free of charge, credited as "[credit]". I can withdraw this permission at any time. Recordings: [titles / links]

Share your recordings · or write to support@kotone.co with any question first. English, Japanese and Chinese are all fine.