Everything you need — for fans, artists, and admins. Search below or pick a chapter. This manual updates every time we ship a new feature.
The 60-second tour. If you only read one chapter, read this one.
MeloCraft is an artist-first music marketplace. Fans stream a free radio of everyone's top tracks, and buy songs for $0.99 or full albums for $15. Artists keep 100% of every sale (Stripe fees excluded) and pay $2/month to sell.
There's no middleman taking a cut of your music. That's the whole idea.
Click 'Join MeloCraft' in the top right, pick a username and password. You'll get a verification email — click the link inside to confirm your address. If you don't see it, check spam.
You can browse and listen to the free radio without an account. You only need to sign up to buy music, tip artists, follow, or upload.
The home page shows a 'Trending Station' — every artist's top tracks, streamed FULL-length and free, no login required, no ads. Hit 'Tune In' or click any track to start playing.
The player sits at the bottom of the screen and follows you as you browse. Skip, pause, and scrub freely. Tap the song's title in the player at any time to jump to the artist's profile — great for grabbing their album or checking their other work.
Note: radio plays FULL songs (that's the point of a radio). To download a track for keeps, buy it for $0.99 from any track row. Downloads are always paid — listening is always free.
Buy music, tip artists, follow the ones you love, wear the record.
The Browse page shows every track and album on the platform, filterable by genre. Click any track to preview 30 seconds. Click 'Buy $0.99' to purchase a full-quality download, or open an album page and buy the whole record for $15.
Payments go through Stripe. After purchase you'll get a receipt in your email with a direct download link, and the track/album shows up under 'My Library' on your dashboard.
Every artist page has a 'Tip Jar' button. Send any amount you want — 100% goes to the artist.
Hit 'Follow' on an artist's page to get their new drops in your Follow Feed on the home page. Followed artists' new releases also show up in the Weekly Digest email.
Every album cover can be printed on a hat, hoodie, or tee. Visit the Merch page or click 'Wear the record' on any album page.
Merch is print-on-demand through Printful (once enabled) — no inventory, no waste. Shipping takes 5-10 business days.
Every signed-in fan can hang out in #everyone — live chat with the artists you follow, drop reactions on their new tracks, ask questions. Open it from the Chat link in the top nav.
Chats are moderated by AI in the background — slurs, harassment, and obvious spam get blocked before they post. Something slipped through? Hover any message and click the flag icon to report it.
React with any of six emoji (🔥 ❤️ 🎧 💯 👀 😂). Hit @username to mention someone — they'll get a bell notification. Admin pins important messages to the top of the room.
Release-note emails: every time we ship a new update to MeloCraft we email you a short note about what's new. You can turn these off any time from Studio → Profile → Release-note emails, or by clicking Unsubscribe in the email footer.
Upload, price, get paid. Keep 100%. Up to 150 tracks per artist.
Every Monday, every artist gets to give away one song for free. YOU pick which one. Fans have to visit each artist's profile to hunt down the freebie — creating a weekly discovery ritual that drives thousands of profile views across the platform.
Set your Monday pick in Studio → Payouts → 'Melo Mondays' card. You can change it up until Monday morning. Track downloads count as normal — no charge to fans, no charge to you, just pure exposure.
Bonus: on Mondays the home-page radio switches to a Melo Monday Radio — it ONLY plays every artist's free pick. Fans tune in and hear a preview reel of every single freebie waiting on the platform. If they like what they hear, they head to the artist's profile to download.
To upload and sell music you need the Artist Plan — $2/month. Go to Studio → Subscribe. That's the only fee MeloCraft ever charges you.
You can cancel anytime; your account stays active through the billing period.
Artists get paid via Stripe Connect — the money for a sale goes directly from the fan's card to your Stripe account. MeloCraft never holds your money.
Go to Studio → Payouts → 'Connect Stripe' and complete the Stripe onboarding (name, address, bank/debit card, ID). Once approved, payouts land automatically in your bank on Stripe's normal schedule.
There are TWO buttons in the New Track form and they run in sequence. Get this order right and it feels obvious — get it wrong and you'll wonder why nothing happens.
Studio → Upload → 'Audio (mp3, wav, m4a)'. Click the file picker and choose your track from your device.
Hit the small upload button (arrow icon next to the file picker). This uploads the actual audio to MeloCraft. Wait for the tiny orange '✓ Audio ready' confirmation to appear right below the file picker. That's your green light.
Now fill in the rest — Title, Album (optional; pick one to add this song to an existing record, or leave as 'Standalone single'), Genre, and toggle Explicit if the track has explicit lyrics.
Hit 'Publish track' — the big orange button at the bottom. This is the one that actually posts it to the store. Don't hit it before Step 2 finishes or you'll get an 'Upload audio first' error.
Pricing is fixed at $0.99 per track site-wide — no undercutting, no race to the bottom. Artists can upload up to 150 tracks; the founder account has no cap.
iOS users: works in Safari. The file picker accepts audio files directly from your Files app or iCloud Drive.
To move an already-published track into an album afterwards, go to Studio → My Music → find the album card at the top → hit 'Manage songs' → tick your singles → Save. No need to re-upload.
Studio → Upload → 'New album'. Pick a title, upload cover art (square, 1000x1000+), then click 'Create album'. This makes an empty record — no songs in it yet.
Upload every song you want on the album as its own single (see 'Uploading tracks' above). Leave the Album dropdown alone during upload — it'll say 'Standalone single'. You'll add them to the album in the next step.
Studio → My Music. At the top you'll see your albums as cards. Click 'Manage songs' on the album you want to fill.
Tick every song that belongs on this record. Save. Done. Up to 15 songs per album (founder has no cap).
Songs already in a different album show up grayed out — you can only be in one album at a time. If you want to move one, open the album it's currently in and untick it first.
Albums are priced at $15 flat. Fans can still buy any single song for $0.99 even if it's on an album — buying the whole album just gets them the discount + a keepsake record.
Mark the album 'Published' when it's ready (or hit publish per-track from My Music). Until then it stays private.
Promotions page has Social Boost and Spotlight Ad packages. Pricing is 'platform cost + $1' — we don't inflate ad rates.
Referrals: every artist gets a personal referral link (Studio → Referrals). Anyone who joins MeloCraft as a paid artist through your link earns you a reward.
Studio → Profile lets you set a display name, bio, banner image, and social links. A strong profile converts casual listeners into buyers.
Subscribed artists get a private room — #artist-lounge — inside The Green Room chat. Same live chat interface, but only paid artists and the founder can read + post.
Talk about the craft, coordinate collab releases, share what's working. It's off-limits to fans by design.
You can also drop a track into either room — click the Music icon next to the chat input to open the track picker. Any signed-in listener in the room can hit Play on the preview instantly. Great for announcing a new single without waiting for people to check your profile.
Where every dollar goes. No hidden fees.
100% to artist (minus Stripe's ~$0.32 processing fee). MeloCraft gets $0.
100% to artist (minus Stripe's ~$0.74 processing fee). MeloCraft gets $0.
100% to artist (minus Stripe's fee).
Cost of goods + Printful's markup + $1 platform margin.
This is the only recurring fee. It funds hosting, streaming, storage, and email.
Whatever the platform (Meta/Google/etc.) charges + $1 flat.
Digital goods are non-refundable once downloaded (industry standard for MP3/FLAC). Merch refunds follow Printful's policy. Subscriptions can be canceled anytime — remaining time stays active until the period ends.
Common issues and the quickest fix.
Check spam / promotions. Emails come from onboarding@resend.dev. If it still isn't there, sign in and go to Profile → 'Resend verification', or email Marcus_nelson_7@live.com.
MP3, WAV, and FLAC are supported. Max 25 MB per track for now. If the upload spins forever, try a smaller file or a different browser. Chrome and Safari both work.
Stripe requires a legal name, address, DOB, and bank/debit info. If you're stuck, click 'Get Started' inside your real Stripe dashboard first — that unlocks the onboarding flow. Then come back to Studio → Payouts.
Some browsers block autoplay. Click any track manually to start it. On iOS, tap the play button once to unlock audio for the session.
Email Marcus_nelson_7@live.com — usually replies within 24 hours. Include the browser, device, and a screenshot if you can.