Before you can do anything on Download.com Music, we need to get some vital information about you. Even if you have registered with another CNET site, you must register again for Download.com Music.

Fill in all of your information, read our terms and conditions, check all appropriate boxes, and hit the "Register Me" button.

At this point you'll have to wait for an e-mail to arrive in your e-mail account with a link to activate your Music account. After clicking the link, you may continue on to the welcome page.

Step 2: Read the instructions

After registering, you will be redirected to the Music artist welcome page. It's best that you thoroughly read through everything on this page before you proceed; it will make your uploading life much easier.

There are also submission guidelines and an knowledge base that you should read to ensure your submission goes smoothly.

Once you have read the welcome page and these other submission documents thoroughly, you can create your first artist listing.

NOTE: You may not reserve or use artist names that you do not have the right to use. Your account may be terminated or suspended if you claim an artist name you clearly do not own.

Before you begin, you'll need to prepare your artist description, .mp3 format files (192k), and images (which must be in .jpg or .gif format and be square -- ie: 100x100 NOT 100x99).

When you have everything ready, click on the "Add New Artist" button.

Step 3: Create an artist page

On this page you can create an artist and enter some basic data.

Note: The fields that are orange and bold are required.

You should first enter your artist name. The "sort by" and "express url" fields should automatically populate. Please note that odd characters (such as /, &, and @) will be removed from your URL.

If your artist name or the majority of its content has explicit language or content, you must select the "parental advisory" button. This will not hide your content from the site, but allow us to mark it as being explicit in nature. Please see our Submission Guidelines and Terms and Conditions for details on unacceptable content (such as hate speech and pornography).

You can also enter your artist homepage URL here. Don't forget the http:// portion.

The artist's location ("home town") is not required, but we highly recommend that you enter your location into this field, so users who search by location will be able to find your music.

Next, enter your artist description. The "short description" field should be a one- or two-sentence description of the artist. The "long description" section is where you should input your full bio. For best results, please refer to our style guide for best practices for your descriptions.

In the full bio field you can use basic HTML formatting. (On a Mac, you can enter basic HTML manually; Windows Internet Explorer users will see a formatting toolbar.)

Step 4: Select your genre

Next, we'll ask you to choose your main and additional genres.

Main Genre: Our users will search and browse the site by genre, so think carefully about where you want to appear on the site before you choose your main genre. Once you select a genre and submit your artist details, you cannot change this selection. You should start by selecting the top-level genre (Rock, Electronic, Country, etc.). As you select a level, a new drop-down list appears below it; keep drilling down until you see a "select genre" button. Clicking this button will make your selection for main genre.

Additional Genres: You may choose up to four additional genres to describe yourself. These have less impact on how users find your music, but instead serve to better describe you. You cannot choose the genre which you selected as your main genre. You will have the ability to change these or add additional ones if you choose not to select four now. As above, select a top-level genre, then the next level down, and so on until you see the "select genre" button. Clicking this will add the selected genre to your list of additional genres. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Step 5: Suggest similar artists

In the "suggested similar artists" field, please enter the names of bands or artists to which your bear a resemblance. Please be sure to separate names with a comma and space.

Step 6: Save your changes

Before you can move on, you will need to save all of your information by clicking the "save changes" button.

The page should refresh and a small window for uploading your artist image should pop up. Note to those with popup blockers: you should disable your popup blockers for this site. You can also scroll down and click "upload file" to manually re-open the window.

Step 7: Upload an image

At this point, you can now upload an image to represent your artist. Download.com Music can only accept images that are in GIF or JPEG format (.gif or .jpg), they must be an exact square (width=height), at least 75-by-75 pixels, and no larger than 500k. We also do not accept animated GIF files.

Click the "choose file" button, find the image file on your hard drive, and select it. Once it is selected, you may add a caption and credit for the image. Once you are ready, click the "upload" button.

You will have to wait a minute for the file to be uploaded. Once it has been uploaded, the window will refresh and you can close it.

If you need an image editor, you can find one on our sister site, Download.com. Be sure to choose one that best suites your operating system.

Step 8: Upload a song

Note: Your song files must be mp3 files encoded at 192kbps.

To start the process, click the green button labeled "songs" button near the top of the page. This will pop up a small window, where you can select "add new song." Once you select "add new song," you can start entering information about the song. Again, all fields that are orange and bold are required.

First, enter the name and release date of your song. For your convenience, there is a "today" button that will automatically fill that field with today's date. Note: The date must be in this format: mm/dd/yyyy (example: 01/01/2004).

Next, if the song has explicit content, select "yes" next to the question "does this artist have content not suitable for minors?" Selecting "yes" will not hide the song from the site, but will put an "explicit" warning next to the song. See the note above about unacceptable material.

Step 9: Enter a song description

As with your artist information, you can enter a description for your song. You may explain what the song is about or leave it blank. Note that you are limited to 250 characters, and you may not input HTML.

Step 10: Select a main song genre

As you did with your artist information, enter the genres under which your song will be categorized. This is a required field, but you can enter the same genres that you selected for your artist. (As we process your songs, we reserve the right to change the genre on any song that is absolutely incorrect.)

Select a main song genre by drilling down through the series of drop-down lists until you see and click the "select" button.

Step 11: Select additional song genres

You can optionally select up to four additional genres that you feel also describe your song. You can always leave this blank for now and change it later.

When all of your information has been entered, click the "save changes" button, which pops up a window that will enable you to start uploading your song file. (If you have a pop-up blocker on, you may need to click the "upload file" button manually.)

Step 12: Upload your song file

In the song pop-up window, click the "choose file" button, find the file on your hard drive, and select it.

You should now see your song file listed in the window.

By default you will give us the option to offer this song for download. If you do not want your song to be available for download, check "no."

Note: By selecting 'no', your song will still be uploaded and you are giving us permission to let our users stream it.

When you are ready, click the "upload file" button.

Please allow a few minutes for your file to be uploaded. When it is finished, you will see a success page. When you see it, close the window.

Repeat steps 8-12 if you would like to upload more songs.

Note: You will have a space limit of 50MB per artist to store your songs.

Almost there! Now it's time to submit your artist.

Step 13: Submit Your Artist

Once you have created your artist details and uploaded your image and songs, you can submit your artist to us for approval. To do so, click the "submit changes" button. In the confirmation window, select "I'm ready to submit my changes."

The submit page lists everything you have created: the artist name and descriptions, image files, songs, and all song files listed. If you are ready, click the "submit changes" button.

NOTE: Once you submit your changes, you cannot modify anything until we process your listing.

Select "OK" in the confirmation window to proceed. If you're not done modifying your information or uploading files, select "cancel."

You're all done! A confirmation page appears, letting you know that you have completed the process. Your music will be available at Download.com Music in late April. We'll send you an e-mail shortly before we launch so you can preview your content.