Artist guide

How to set up your artist workspace, upload music, order cards, and read your fan numbers. No tech background required.

Where things live: dashboard at /artist on slappcard.amberprotocol.org, shop at /purchase.

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1. What Slappcard is

Slappcard is a physical NFC/QR card with your art on it. Fans tap it to their phone or scan the code and land on a private page — your music, downloads, and a message from you. There's no public storefront or algorithm; the only way in is a card or its link.

As an artist, that gets you:

• A real email list. Every unlock captures the fan's email into your dashboard — yours to export, not locked in a platform.
• Private hosting. Upload tracks once; they play through a card-only player with downloads included.
• Numbers that matter. Streams, unlocks, fan counts, in one place.
• Exclusivity by construction. Nothing is sitting on a public page to be scraped or algorithmically buried — it's gated behind the card.

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2. Getting started

2.1 Create your account

1. Go to slappcard.amberprotocol.org and click Sign up (top-right corner).
2. Sign in with your email (and a password) — or with Google if you'd rather not remember another password.
3. You'll land on a short welcome screen: "How will you use Slappcard?"

2.2 Tell us you're an artist

Choose Artist, then fill in:

• Display name — how we greet you in the app.
• Artist name — your stage name or project name. This is what fans see on their unlock page.
• URL slug (optional) — a short handle for your artist page, like my-project. If you leave it blank, we'll pick one for you.

Hit Continue, and your artist workspace is created. You'll be dropped into your dashboard at /artist.

2.3 Already have an account, or chose "Listen" first?

No problem — you can add an artist workspace any time:

1. Open your Library (/account).
2. Find the "Become an artist" / "Create artist workspace" button in your profile.
3. Enter your artist name (and optional slug) and hit Create artist.

Once your workspace exists, everything — releases, audio, pack orders, fan emails — attaches to it automatically.

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3. Your dashboard

Your dashboard at /artist is your command center. You'll see a navigation with these sections:

Tab	What it does
Overview	Your workspace snapshot: key numbers, your artist info, and a "Next up" list of suggested actions
Analytics	Streams, unlocks, top tracks, and your account health
Artist page	Your bio, website, and contact info that fans see after unlocking
Music	Your releases and tracks — create, upload audio, publish
Orders	Your pack purchases, card minting status, and shipping
Shipping	Your default mailing address for pack fulfillment
Fans	Every email collected through your cards, with export
Shop packs	Restock cards — shortcuts to the Slappcard shop
Fan preview	See your private page exactly as a fan does after unlocking

Two handy shortcuts are always visible:

• Preview as fan (top-right of the dashboard) — instantly see what your fans unlock.
• Public stub (on the Overview tab) — a simple placeholder page for your artist slug.

If you ever see a message like "No workspace yet", just follow the link to create your artist workspace from your Library — or ask the Slappcard team and we'll link one for you.

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4. Managing your catalog

Your catalog lives in the Music tab. It's organized in two levels: releases (albums, singles, EPs) and tracks (the songs inside them).

4.1 Creating a release

1. Go to Music in your dashboard.
2. In the "New release" box, enter the title.
3. Pick the kind: Album, EP, or Single.
4. Click Add release.

Your new release appears in the list right away. New releases are published automatically — but fans only hear tracks that have audio uploaded, so nothing shows up empty.

4.2 Adding tracks

1. Click the + on a release to open it.
2. In the "Add track" row, type the track title.
3. Optional: attach an audio file right there — you can also upload later.
4. Click Add track.

4.3 Uploading audio

Each track has an Upload button (it says Replace if the track already has audio). Click it and pick your audio file.

• You'll see a "Needs audio" badge on tracks without a file, and "Audio ready" once a file is attached.
• To swap a file, just hit Replace and pick the new one.
• To take a file off a track (without deleting the track), use Clear audio.

The golden rule: fans only hear tracks that are both on a published release and have audio attached. A track can exist without audio for as long as you like — it just won't play until it's ready.

4.4 Setting track order

Tracks play in the order they appear in the list — the order you added them. The list is sorted automatically, and your fan preview and unlock pages follow the same order.

Tip for getting the order right: add tracks in the order you want fans to hear them. Fine-grained reordering (drag-and-drop) is on the way; until then, if you need to switch two tracks, delete the one that's out of place and re-add it.

4.5 Publishing and unpublishing

Each release shows a published or draft badge. You control it with the Publish / Unpublish button:

• Published — the release is eligible to appear on your fan unlock pages.
• Draft — the release is hidden from fans. You can keep working on it and publish later.

Other release and track actions:

• Rename — retitle a release or track any time.
• Delete release — removes the release and all of its tracks. It asks you to confirm first, but there's no undo, so make sure you mean it.
• Delete track — removes a single track.

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5. Understanding card packs

Slappcard sells packs — bundles of 100 physical cards. All three packs come with the full digital setup: hosting, your private fan page, email capture, and your tracklist with downloads. They differ in the card itself.

Pack	Price	Cards	The card
QR Pack	$100	100	Scan-ready plastic cards — the QR code on the back opens your music
Metallic Pack	$125	100	Same QR power with a reflective, metallic face that looks and feels louder
Boss Pack	$150	100	Premium cards with QR + NFC — fans can tap the card to their phone or scan it

Every pack includes:

• 100 custom Slappcards with your design
• Live QR codes (your links are active within 24 hours of ordering)
• Hosted tracklist + download page (that's your private fan experience)
• A branded artist page
• Email capture on every scan

You can order 1–5 packs at a time in a single order, and mix pack types in one basket if you want. When you're building your order you also get to pick a colorway for the card face, and you can design your card right on the shop page (see below).

Designing your card

Scroll to the "Design your card" section of the shop page to preview a print-ready card (CR80 size, like a credit card), pick a face and colorway, and save. We use your saved design when we prep your pack for printing.

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6. Purchasing packs

6.1 Checkout

1. Go to the shop (/purchase).
2. Pick your pack type, colorway, and quantity, then Add to basket.
3. Open your basket and hit Checkout.

A couple of things to know:

• You need an artist workspace to check out — packs are tied to your artist profile. If you don't have one yet, the shop will point you to create it first.
• Your basket is saved on this device, so you can come back to it later.
• Checkout happens on Stripe's secure payment page (credit/debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.). Your order is locked to the signed-in account email, so it shows up under Orders in your dashboard automatically.

6.2 Shipping address

Your default shipping address lives under Orders → Default shipping (or the Shipping tab). Save it once and it automatically pre-fills at checkout every time you order. If you're moving or playing shows, update it there so your cards always arrive at the right place.

6.3 What happens after you pay (fulfillment)

Here's the journey of an order, which you can watch in real time under Orders:

1. Payment — Stripe confirms your charge.
2. Codes minted — we generate a unique code for every single card in your pack. Each code is the key that unlocks your music.
3. QR assets — a QR image is generated for each code (this is what's printed on your cards).
4. Printing — your cards get printed with your design.
5. Shipped — cards leave for your shipping address, with tracking when available.

Open any order to see its status, the ship-to address, how many cards were minted (and how many are claimed vs. unclaimed), and a timeline of events as your order moves along. When your cards ship, you'll see the carrier and tracking number right in the order detail.

Right after you pay, the confirmation page says "Thank you" (or "Order received" while we confirm payment), and we email you the details. Your "Codes ready" status appears in Orders once minting is done.

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7. What fans see

The card

Each card carries:

• A QR code (and on Boss Pack, an NFC chip too — tap or scan, both work).
• A short slap code printed under the QR on the white edge — this is the card's unique code (like hL66uYyqEKyafB). It's the same code as in the link slappcard…/c/hL66uYyqEKyafB.

The unlock

1. Fan taps the card to their phone or scans the QR — it opens slappcard…/c/\{code\}.
2. They see your artist name and a simple message: "Enter email to unlock", plus a quick bot check.
3. They enter their email and hit Unlock music — done.

The private page

• Your artist name in big type.
• Your bio and links (website, second contact).
• Your tracklist in order, with a player and downloads.
• Their email is captured in your Fans tab, and every play counts toward your streams.

The unlock also lets fans:

• Save to their library — a signed-in fan can save your card permanently to their Slappcard account so it's on every device, not just that one browser.
• Keep listening — the browser remembers the unlock for this card, so they can come back without re-entering their email. They can even "lock" the card again if they want.

Other card types

• Account-claim cards ask fans to sign in and claim the card instead of entering an email. Claimed cards live permanently in their library.
• Legacy cards (from before the current system) open a download-only experience.
• Some cards are scoped to a single release or single track — fans unlock exactly that, not your whole catalog.

The golden rule: your music stays private

There is no public storefront. Your tracks are never listed on a page anyone can browse to. The only way in is a physical card (or its unique link) — that's what makes each card feel special.

Try it yourself

Use Preview as fan in your dashboard any time to walk through your own unlock page — it skips the email gate just for you.

One thing to keep healthy: your fan-to-card ratio

We watch the ratio of fan emails to cards issued. It's how we keep cards special and stop link-sharing abuse. If unlocks ever look way out of line with the cards you've printed, your dashboard will show a warning on the abuse ratio stat and new unlocks may pause — existing fans keep their access. Practically: hand out cards to real fans, don't post your card link in public channels, and you'll never have to think about it. The team can always review and unlock your account if something looks off — just reach out (Section 10).

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8. Viewing your analytics

Your numbers live in Overview and Analytics. Everything updates automatically — no setup.

Number	Where	What it means
Streams	Overview, Analytics	Total plays across all your tracks. Overview also shows how many came in the last 7 days
Unlocks (7d)	Overview, Analytics	How many fans entered their email to unlock your cards in the last week
Fans (distinct gate emails)	Overview	Unique emails collected across all your cards, all-time
Cards issued	Overview	How many cards have been minted for your packs
Tracks with audio	Overview, Analytics	How many of your tracks are ready for fans to hear
Top tracks	Overview, Analytics	Your most-played songs, ranked by stream count
Abuse ratio	Overview, Analytics	The email-to-card health number (Section 7) — you want this to stay in "ok" territory

Your full mailing list is in the Fans tab: every email, the card code that unlocked it, and the date. Hit Export CSV to download the whole list and use it anywhere (email tools, label outreach, your newsletter).

Quick ideas once you have numbers:

• Compare unlocks vs. streams — if unlocks are high but streams are low, fans may not be discovering the player; your bio and track titles can help.
• Use top tracks to know what to lead with next time.
• Export your fan emails after a show and send a thank-you note — the people who scan your cards are your realest fans.

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9. Managing your profile

Your profile is the face of your private page. Edit it in the Artist page tab:

Field	Notes
Artist name	The name fans see on the unlock page (2–80 characters)
Short bio	One or two lines fans see after they scan (up to 800 characters) — what's the story behind the music?
Website	Your site or link (up to 200 characters)
Second contact	Instagram handle, phone, or an extra email (up to 120 characters)
Fan comments	A toggle to let fans comment on your page — moderation is coming soon, so it's off by default

Hit Save page, and fans see the update the next time they unlock. Use Fan preview to check how it looks.

Cover image and full branding: want a cover photo or deeper custom styling on your page? The dashboard doesn't have a self-serve upload for that yet — just tell the Slappcard team (Section 10) and we'll set it up with you.

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10. Getting help

Three ways to reach us:

1. Card support (for you or your fans)

The Support page (/support) handles anything card-related:

• Card won't open or scan
• Lost or damaged card (remint or replacement code)
• Wrong music or artist on an unlock
• Claim / account help
• Anything else

The form asks for your slap code — you can scan the QR from your card right on the page, type the short code, or paste a full /c/… link. A photo of the card is optional but helps if the code is damaged.

2. Free consultation

Anywhere on the site, look for the consultation option — it opens a short form ("Let's get you set up"):

1. Your name, email, and (optional) phone.
2. A message about your project — pack size, show date, custom artwork, whatever you're planning.
3. Send it, and we follow up by email, usually within one business day.

Prefer to just pick a time? There's a book-a-time link (Cal.com) right there.

3. Email us directly

slapcardz@gmail.com — for anything: white-glove setup, custom packs, cover art, affiliate questions, or just to talk about your next drop.

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Quick reference

You want to…	Go to
Manage releases, tracks, orders, fans	/artist
Preview your fan experience	/artist/preview
Order packs / restock	/purchase (shop)
See your pack details	/product/\{pack\}
View your basket and check out	/cart
Your library (claimed cards, artist workspace)	/account
Card support	/support
See how fans unlock a card	/c/\{code\}
Book a consultation or reach the team	Support page or slapcardz@gmail.com