Get Listed!

If you have a square dance music label which is not listed on the main page of this site, please contact the Music Producers' Committee chair for information on adding your label.

In order to list your label on the main page, we'll need the following info. If you have subsidiary labels, include the same information for them as well. (Subsidiary labels normally aren't listed on the main page, unless they have a website separate from the main label's website, but we still need the information to create links from our search results.)

Link To Us!

One of the ways that search engines rank websites is how many other sites link to them. We're linking to you; if you, in turn, link back to us, it'll let us rank higher in search results, which can help drive customers to your website through us!

A regular text link is fine, but here are a couple of images that might help dress it up a bit. Just right-click an image and choose "Save Image As" (or similar wording -- different web browsers will say it in slightly different ways) to save the image to your computer. Or, just use the copy on our server by choosing "Copy Image Location" from the right-click menu, then paste that address into the image source on your website, like I did below.

We Support...
MFC Logo Please Visit Them!
This is a plain JPG image. I included it in a DIV (the box) with some text, like so...
<div id="mfcJPG" style="float: left; width: 140px; text-align: center;">
  <b>We Support...</b><br>
  <a href="http://www.musicforcallers.com"><img alt="MFC Logo" src="http://www.musicforcallers.com/images/mfc_link.jpg"></a>
  Please Visit Them!
</div>
That just makes it easier to keep the text and image together as a single unit. "Float: left" makes it hug the left margin and lets text wrap around it.

If you're using website software that doesn't give you the ability to insert code fragments like that, here's an animated GIF that you can use that includes the "We Support"  text in the graphic -- all you have to do is supply the image and put in the link target:
MFC animated logo
<a href="http://www.musicforcallers.com><img alt="MFC animated logo" src="http://www.musicforcallers.com/images/mfc_link_ani.gif"></a>

We appreciate your support for us, as we try our best to support you!

Data Formats For Producers

The MusicForCallers website includes a database of music currently available in MP3 format. This database can be searched by visitors to the site, so that they can find music by either

In order to have this capability, the participating producers must supply us with their catalog data. An initial catalog is needed to add the currently-available list of songs into the database; this information should be sent to the Producers Committee chair along with the request to be listed. Then, each time new music is released, we'll need an update containing only those new releases; these can be sent to either the chair or the webmaster.

In order for the data to be easily and quickly incorporated into the database, it should be given in the following format:

Field
 Label
 Nbr
 Title
 Type
 Artist
 Orig_Artist
 Released
 Pkg_Until
Explanation
 Code letters for the record label
 Number of this item in the label's catalog
(digits only, no letters)
 Obviously, the title of the song
  • HD
    (hoedown)
  • SC
    (singing call)
  • RD
    (round dance)
  • etc.
 Caller who recorded the title
(leave blank if not known or no caller [i.e., hoedown])
 Original artist of popular version of song
(leave blank if not known)
 Date of release, if known, as
yyyy-mm-dd
(leave blank if not known)
 Date of general availability, as
yyyy-mm-dd
if part of a package
(leave blank if not part of a package, or use 9999-01-01 if general avail. date not known)
Example
 RIV
 409
 Green Door
 SC
 Elmer Sheffield
 Jim Lowe
 2014-10-27
 2015-11-01

A search for titles containing "green" might then return something like this:
search result

The underlined link at the left side of each search result line is a link back to your website, so that people can listen to samples and purchase the song. The entire purpose of this searchable database is to drive traffic to your site and hopefully increase your sales!

Here is a sample spreadsheet (in Microsoft Excel format) with the data for a fictitious label called GMO, which has released two hoedowns and a package containing 4 singing calls:

label nbr title type artist orig_artist released pkg_until
GMO 101 Little Brown Jug HD Glenn Miller Orchestra
1939-06-01
GMO 102 Rug Cutter's Swing HD Glenn Miller Orchestra
1940-06-01
GMO 103 Elmer's Tune SC Glenn Miller Orchestra Ray Eberle, Modernaires 1941-09-01 1943-09-01
GMO 104 I Guess I'll Have To Dream The Rest SC Glenn Miller Orchestra Ray Eberle, Modernaires 1941-07-01 1943-09-01
GMO 105 (I've Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo SC Glenn Miller Orchestra Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Modernaires 1942-07-01 1943-09-01
GMO 106 At Last SC Glenn Miller Orchestra Ray Eberle 1942-07-01 1943-09-01

(The same spreadsheet, with only the column headings and no data, is here — you can use it as a basis for your own, if you want. The date columns have the ISO formatting applied, so if you enter a date as m/d/y, it'll automatically convert to yyyy-mm-dd.)

Note: if you list all of your titles on one page, and each song's row has an HTML ID coded into it consisting of the song's label code and number (i.e., the row for GMO 103 would have an id="GMO103" [all caps, no punctuation or spaces] in its HTML declaration), then we can set things up to jump directly to that song in the listing from our search results.

Why use yyyy-mm-dd for dates?

Because this is the format used by the MySQL database that powers the website. MySQL uses it because it's the ISO standard format, and because it is arranged so that it sorts properly without having to be broken apart and treated specially.

You can send files that have dates in other formats. If you do, though, we'll have to edit them manually into the proper format before importing them, which will take a bit longer.

What if I have a package that will never be broken apart into singles?

Use the special code 9999-01-01 for songs in that package, or for songs in a package for which you don't know the date that it will break apart. That code means "forever, or I don't know," and the search results will just say "Package Only" instead of "Package Only (untill yyyy-mm-dd)." We can always change it later!

What if I don't know the original artist?

Leave it blank, as in the example above. (But fill it in if at all possible, please!)

Square Dance Music Producers' Clearinghouse

The MusicForCallers website also hosts the Music Producers' Clearinghouse. This is a cooperative effort by all participating music producers to avoid stepping on each other's toes. Songs intended for production are registered at the Clearinghouse, and by gentlemen's agreement will have a 12-month period in which other producers will refrain from producing the same song. Clearinghouse members can see the list of songs reserved by other producers, as well as place and edit their own reservations.

If you, as a music producer, are not already a member of the Clearinghouse, we invite you to go to the Clearinghouse site and submit a producer profile so that you can participate in the process.