This policy document is currently outdated and reforms are being planned to reconstruct it. Please be cautious about what information you take away from this article.
This page documents an official NoCopyrightSounds Wiki policy. It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should follow. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.
The NoCopyrightSounds wiki has its own Manual of Style, or the style that should be followed for every page on the wiki. If you want to create a page on the wiki, you should follow these guidelines before doing so. Failure to follow these guidelines when creating a page may result in said page being deleted.
Note: This manual uses the source editor as a reference. It does not contain information regarding the visual editor, so make sure you use the source editor if you are making a page off these guidelines.
Infobox
Organization
The infobox parameters should be spread out for each line. Do not try to compact it all together in one line. Also, try to make sure that the equals signs are lined up identically in a vertical position. Most of this should be taken care of if you open the track preload.
You should also keep the parameters in order from first to last vertically. Although some will not be loaded from the preload or need to be filled out, it should be kept this way for matters of navigation through the source code. See the document that has the order of the parameters in the template.
As a minor, but still important addition, keep the equals signs of each parameter in the same place vertically and keep all parameter inputs a space away from the sign. This will allow even easier navigation for people editing the parameters.
(screenshot taken from Make Me Move (Tobu Remix))
Finally, the end brackets should not be at the end of the last parameter. They should be in the line below the last parameter, which should be the YouTube parameter.
Parameter inputs
This section digs down into how the parameter inputs should be formatted. It does not go over every parameter, though it covers over most of the important ones.
Image
This parameter is only used for the cover art of the song that has been used by the artist of the track, not any other cover.
When uploading an image into this paramter, the format for the file appears like this:
[[File:ImageName.ext|thumb]]
After the file loads in, [[File: and |thumb]] should be removed to make the image file look like this:
ImageName.ext
Artists & contributors
It is strictly advised that you put the names of the artists in as the way they are credited on the track.
- Artist
Put in the artist names of the song you’re using and make sure to link their names to their page within the wiki inside the [[]] characters. The artists’ names need to be spelled and capitalized correctly.
If there are multiple artists who made the song, use the “&” symbol if there are two. If there are more than two artists who contributed to the track, use a series of commas (,) and then use the “&” symbol before the last artist.
Do not credit any artists as featured artists if they are not credited as featured artists. Please follow along with the way all the contributors to the song are credited. Even if it seems as if a person who sang in the track should just be "featured", do not put them in the “Featuring” field if they are not credited in the song that way.
- Remix
If any artists remixed the track you are making the page for, insert the remixer(s)’ names in here. Principles are the same as for the artist template.
- Featuring
Add any artists that are labeled as “featured” in the title. As said in the artist field, do not put any unnecessary artists in this field if they are not “featured”. Use the same principles as the artist field.
- Uncredited
If there are any artists who are known to have contributed in making the song, but were uncredited, insert their names in this box. Use the same principle as the artist name for this field.
Album
If the track of the page you are creating is associated with an album, EP, or LP, use this field to link to the albums within the wiki.
If the track belongs to multiple albums, put a “*” symbol before the link to create a bulleted list.
If the track is associated with an album, but is not affiliated with NCS, you may add it in. However, there shouldn’t be a link to it in the infobox.
Brand
This field applies to most public NCS songs. If the track you are creating belongs to NCS’s main channel, type “NoCopyrightSounds” in the field. If the track was released on NCS’s alternate label, Arcade, type in “NCS Arcade”. Do not use link brackets code, as the parameter will automatically link to the label’s page.
An exception is if the track was an old promotion and was never signed to NCS.
Released
This field must have the date of when this song was distributed (this doesn’t apply to deleted songs). This doesn’t necessarily mean the day that NCS uploaded the song to YouTube, but the day it was distributed to other platforms.
When entering the date of the track’s release, please format it like this: Month Day, Year
Example: October 8, 2015
Mistakes that may be made:
- Do not abbreviate the month of the release date. The release date should include the full name of the release date.
- With new releases, their upload date may differ due to different time zones. It is recommended you use the assigned date on ncs.io when you're tracking the date of a new release.
Genres
- Genre
This field should contain the genre that NCS labeled the song, such as Drum & Bass or Future House. You have to use the genre templates which are made using this text: {{Genre}}. Make sure it’s formatted like this:
{{Genre|GenreName}}
Example: {{Genre|House}} will result in this customized text: House
The template will only customize the text for certain genre inputs. See Template:Genre to see what genres the input will accept.
- Community Genre
This field should contain the genre that the community thinks best fits the song. This doesn’t have to be the genre that NCS assigned it, but the fitting genre that describes it best. Again, use the genre templates for this. If there are multiple genres that the community detects in this song, use “*” behind each separate genre.
It may be a misconception that the subgenre of the song should be put in this parameter. Do not use subgenres for this field. It should only include the basic and independent genres. The subgenres will be covered in the next header. See List of genres for the basic genres and subgenres.
- Subgenre(s)
You may include the subgenres that the community thinks best fits the song. If there are no subgenres, do not put anything in this field.
For this field, you must use the subgenre templates, which are created using this text: {{Subgenre}}. The subgenre name should look like this:
{{Subgenre|Genre|Subgenre}}
Example: {{Subgenre|House|Commercial House}} will give you this text: Commercial House
If there are multiple subgenres, attach the “*” symbol behind the subgenre name.
If you want to request for a genre to be adjusted or added onto the page (besides what it has already been assigned), you must go to the article's talk page and give an explanation to why your genre should be included on the page. A moderator will review your explanation and determine if it is plausible. Afterwards, you may add your genre onto the page. Any edits without a given explanation will immediately be reverted, regardless of whether it is trustworthy or not.
Length
This parameter should contain the duration of the track. In situations where the length of the NCS YouTube upload is different from the actual length of the track, put:
*''Upload Length'' (YouTube) *''Actual Length'' (Original Mix)
Catalog Number
In the case where a track can have multiple catalog numbers, whereas the track is part of a single and an album that isn’t an NCS-created compilation, use the bullet point "*" to include the catalog numbers.
Example:
*NCS472 *NCSMT002EP
(from Ber Zer Ker)
BPM
This is a similar case with catalog numbers. If there are multiple BPMs in the song, use the "*" to make a bulleted list of them.
*BPM1 (section) *BPM2 (other section)
Key
This follows the same principle with BPM, though you don’t need to state which section the different keys are in.
Background
This parameter is used for songs if their backgrounds in NCS’ YouTube upload are images or are videos that are in the form of YouTube videos. When adding the background file into the parameter, you should remove the [[File: and |thumb]], like for the image parameter.
Background2
This parameter should only be used when the background is in the form of a video file that is not a YouTube video. After you insert the background file in, you should adjust the orientation so that it says this:
[[File:Background.mp4|500px]] This will make sure that the background fits in the infobox.
Streaming links
The links to streaming platforms for songs should be cut short. The following sub-chapters will show what will need to be cut off the links of certain streaming service links.
Examples are from See U
- Amazon Music
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YY2PB2Y
"https://www.amazon.com/dp/" should be removed to leave:
B09YY2PB2Y
- Apple Music
https://music.apple.com/us/album/see-u-feat-johnning/1251435116?i=1251435120
"https://music.apple.com/us/album/see-u-feat-johnning/" should be removed to leave:
1251435116?i=1251435120
- Beatport
https://www.beatport.com/release/see-u/2053985
"https://www.beatport.com/" should be removed to leave:
release/see-u/2053985
- Deezer
https://www.deezer.com/us/album/314291217
"https://www.deezer.com/us/" should be removed to leave:
album/314291217
- NCS
https://ncs.io/SeeU
"https://ncs.io/" should be removed to leave:
SeeU
- Pandora
https://www.pandora.com/artist/wateva/see-u-single/see-u-feat-johnning/TRK53z2frdrJcXP
"https://www.pandora.com/artist/" should be removed to leave:
wateva/see-u-single/see-u-feat-johnning/TRK53z2frdrJcXP
- SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/watevawateva/wateva-see-u-ft-johnningncs-release
"https://soundcloud.com/" should be removed to leave:
watevawateva/wateva-see-u-ft-johnningncs-release
- Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/track/4NxC9qFHx4xaN98V7ut7fJ
"https://open.spotify.com/" should be removed to leave:
track/4NxC9qFHx4xaN98V7ut7fJ
- Tidal
https://tidal.com/browse/track/226489955
"https://tidal.com/browse/track/" should be removed to leave:
226489955
- YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngrzvApO1Ek
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" should be removed to leave:
ngrzvApO1Ek
Here is a full visual example of how the infobox should look like:
{{Infobox song
|Image = Make Me Move (Tobu Remix).jpg
|Artist = [[Culture Code]]
|Remix = [[Tobu]]
|Featuring = [[Karra]]
|Uncredited =
|Album = [[NCS: Colors]]
|Brand = NoCopyrightSounds
|Released = May 6, 2017
|Genre = {{Genre|House}}
|Community Genre = {{Genre|House}}
|Subgenre(s) = {{Subgenre|House|Tropical House}}
|Catalog Number = NCS324
|BPM = 100
|Key = B major
|Background Image = Make Me Move (Tobu Remix) BG.jpg
|Amazon Music = B09YXDKJS4
|Apple Music = 1233375580
|Beatport = release/make-me-move-tobu-remix/2019013
|Deezer = album/314293727
|NCS = TobuRemix
|Pandora = karra-and-culture-code/ncs-colors/make-me-move-tobu-remix/TRxjpwx69vmZjhk
|SoundCloud = 7obu/make-me-move-tobu-remix
|Spotify = album/7JwRLQyNTQvbmjL45K1ETx
|Tidal = 226490039
|YouTube = MRwmxS1AL6E
}}
(example from Make Me Move (Tobu Remix))
Non-infobox
Numbers and Symbols
When writing the content of the page, refrain from using numbers or symbols, unless it is included in the infobox. Exceptions are numbers and symbols in track titles, artists' names, and dates.
Rating & notice template
The rating template, which assigns the class of the page, must be placed in the line above the infobox.
(screenshot taken from die 4 u)
Any notice templates that are applied in the article should be before the infobox, but after the rating template.
(screenshot taken from old revision of Jungle of Love)
Opening statement
The opening statement, or the first sentence(s) of the page should be placed right next to the end brackets. It should not be typed anywhere below the end brackets, as this will cause empty line breaks to be created.
(screenshot taken from Immortality)
Lyrics
If there are any lyrics that the track contains, you need to use the lyrics template. While putting in the verses of the song in the lyrics template, use one line of code for each line of the song. This means that while you’re writing down the lyrics of the song in the template, you should write one line down then continue on to the next line of code to write the next line of the verse.
(screenshot taken from Thrill Is Gone)
Artists’ discography
All the contributors of the song, whether credited or uncredited, should have their discography template at the bottom of the code just before the categories.
(screenshot taken from Make Me Move (Tobu Remix))
Categories
The categories should be at the very bottom of the code. When making categories for the track to be in, they should be put in this order:
[[Category:GenreName music]] - in order of how they appear in the infobox. [[Category:Year]] [[Category:Album/EP tracks]] (if it’s part of any album)
Any interwiki links should be added above the first category. Any other category the track could go in should be placed at the bottom.
Other
This section covers anything else that may be put in an article.
If there is any trivia, references, or any other description or content about the page, they should have their own headers (Example: ==Trivia== or ==References==) and be placed in-between the main sentence, or lyrics if there are any, and the artists’ discography templates.
Adding new artist pages
When adding a new artist page, consider if they have already released on the label or have yet to have their track released. If their track isn't released yet, their page shouldn't be added until the track is released. This keeps consistency and subtracts unnecessary edits.
If the artist has already released a track
If the artist has released on NCS before, but their upcoming track hasn't released, then you may add to the artist's discography template page. However, do not add to the timeline nor the NCS upload section to avoid inconsistency.
Infobox
The infobox parameters should be spread out for each line. Do not try to compact it all together in one line. Also, try to make sure that the equals signs are lined up identically in a vertical position. Most of this should be taken care of if you open the artist preload.
You should also keep the parameters in order from first to last vertically. Although some will not be loaded from the preload or need to be filled out, it should be kept this way for matters of navigation through the source code. See the document that has the order of the parameters in the template.
As a minor, but still important addition, keep the equals signs of each parameter in the same place vertically and keep all parameter inputs a space away from the sign. This will allow even easier navigation for people editing the parameters.
(screenshot taken from Audioscribe)
Finally, the end brackets should not be at the end of the last parameter. They should be in the line below the last parameter, which should be the YouTube parameter.
Here is a full visual example of how the infobox should look like:
{{Infobox artist
|Image = Ash O'Connor.jpg
|Real Name =
|Current Status = Inactive
|Location = United Kingdom
|Primary Genre =
|Secondary Genre(s) =
|Official Website =
|Birth Place =
|Birth Date =
|Years Active = 2014-17
|Labels = [[NoCopyrightSounds]]
|Previously Signed To =
|Occupation (Other Than Music) =
|Logo =
|Apple Music = ash-oconnor/989220705
|Beatport =
|Deezer =
|Facebook =
|Instagram =
|LinkedIn =
|NCS = 30/ash-oconnor
|SoundCloud = ashoconnor
|Spotify = 46gPTLGbjJnpvh3juX4hGQ
|Pandora =
|Tidal =
|Tumblr =
|Twitch =
|Twitter =
|YouTube =
}}
(example from Ash O'Connor)
Non-infobox
Numbers and Symbols
When writing the content of the page, refrain from using numbers or symbols, unless it is included in the infobox. Exceptions are numbers and symbols in track titles, artists' names, and dates.
Rating template
The rating template, which assigns the class of the page, must be placed in the line above the infobox.
(screenshot taken from die 4 u)
Opening statement
The opening statement, or the first sentence(s) of the page should be placed right next to the end brackets. It should not be typed anywhere below the end brackets, as this will cause empty line breaks to be created.
(screenshot taken from Ash O'Connor)
NCS Timeline
NCS uploads
Trivia
Artist's discography
The artist the page is for should have their own discography template (even if the template doesn't exist) on the bottom of the page just before the categories.
(screenshot taken from Teqq)
Note: Make sure that there isn't any additional space between artist's discography and its trivia, or NCS uploads depending on the content. It may create an unnecessary space between the trivia/NCS uploads section and the artist's discography.
(screenshots taken from an old revision of Kasger)
Categories
The categories should be at the very bottom of the code. When making categories for the track to be in, they should be put in this order:
[[Category:GenreName artists]] [[Category:RecordLabelName artists]]