Tracks & versions

What it is

A track is one piece of music as it moves through the studio, from a first idea, through revisions and feedback, to a released master. It's the central object in Aden: albums group tracks, sessions produce them, comments and todos hang off them.

Every track belongs to a team. A track on its own is a single; group it into an album to release it together with others.

Using it

Create a track. From your team's Tracks page, click New track, give it a title, and it starts in the idea stage. Drag tracks to reorder them.

Search finds tracks by their versions too. The board's search box matches title, artist, ISRC/UPC, label, genres and tags, and also every version's name and tags (final version included), so typing "radio edit" or a version tag like "instrumental" surfaces the parent track. The list query carries the lean version fields (name, tag) for exactly this; heavier fields (lyrics, version notes) stay on the deep-search endpoint.

Naming is on us. You don't need to bake your workflow into file names or the title: drop "My Song WORKTITLE.wav", "My Song (in progress).mp3" or "My Song v2.wav" and Aden reads the markers for you. Version numbers ("v1", "v2") and stage words ("WORKTITLE", "in progress", "WIP", "final", "mastered", "idea") are stripped from the auto-filled track title, and the track's status is pre-filled from them: a file named "…WORKTITLE" lands as In progress, "…FINAL master" as Ready to be released. A small note tells you what was set, and you can change it anytime; the version keeps its own raw name since the version list already numbers versions on its own.

Typed a marker into the title? One click moves it. Type "Midnight Drive [NEW]" and a line under the field offers Set status to Idea: it drops the "[NEW]" from the title and sets the status instead. Same for priority ("[P1]", "urgent" → High) and the same line sits under version names, where it updates the track it belongs to.

The create form, section by section. Cover art on the left, everything else on the right (or, with ?featureflag=v2, cover and details on the right like the track detail page, with versions in the centre). The cover slot is its own preview. Once you pick an image it renders as the artwork the track will actually show, and clicking it swaps the image. Title, audio dropzone, slug / genre / tags (one row), lyrics and description, then status and priority (icon-only pickers, no field labels). Private/public sits on the slug row as a ghost control with a tooltip. Create and Reset stay fixed at the bottom of the viewport so they are never below the fold. The slug uses the same aden.space/@team/track/… field as the track's Metadata page, and genre and tags sit beside it unlabelled. The placeholders say what they are. Below that, three collapsible sections you open only when you need them:

• Metadata: release dates, pre-save link, identifiers and, further along, rights & licensing (see below).
• Collaborators: open by default. Add user or team, Split equally and the collaborator names parsed out of your title sit on the section header, on the right, so they're reachable whether or not the section is expanded. Each person is two lines: name + email, then split %, roles and IPI on one line, unlabelled: the placeholders and the % suffix carry the meaning.
• Advanced: playlists to drop the track into, and Facebook / Google / TikTok pixel IDs. Playlists are a searchable picker showing each playlist's cover and track count. The pixel fields carry the platform's icon and, when the team has pixels configured, show them as placeholders. Leave a field empty and the team's pixel is used. A link beside the heading opens the team's tracking settings in a new tab.

Metadata grows with the track's status. An idea is only asked for release dates and a pre-save link. From In progress, the Metadata section also asks for recording type, subgenre, title language, year written / recorded, AI tools used, an explicit-lyrics toggle and the ISRC / ISWC / UPC identifiers. From Ready to be released, a Rights & licensing block appears: label, catalog number, listen link, ℗ and © lines, society work number, splits territory, licensing contact, one-stop sync clearance and public-domain arrangement. All of it is optional and all of it stays editable afterwards on the track's Metadata page.

Record straight into the form. The audio dropzone carries a red Record button that's always visible. It's a normal way to get audio in, not something you have to hover to find.

Dropping several files offers an album. Each audio file becomes its own track. When you drop more than one, the form asks whether to group them into an album, with a title field that defaults to the track name. Say yes and the album is created after all the tracks exist, with the tracklist in the order you added the files. Say no and you just get the tracks.

Naming tips can be waved off, and acted on. When your title repeats your own artist name, the tip now carries two buttons: Clean up the title (strips the "Artist - " prefix and any "(feat. …)" section) and Add all N from title (credits every name it found as a collaborator). The × dismisses it; edit the title and the tip comes back for the new text.

Pick a team. The create form first asks which team the track belongs to. Every team in the dropdown lists who's in it. Member avatars and names under the team name, so two similarly named teams are told apart by their people, and searching matches member names too.

The picker shows the first few teams as tappable avatar tiles (recent teams, capped at five) above a searchable dropdown that covers every team. Team avatars are resolved server-side from each team's avatar_key (via getCachedOptimizedUrls), not the stale avatar_url column, so thumbnails render reliably. When you belong to only one team, that team is auto-selected and the "Which team?" step is skipped entirely, no point making you pick from a list of one.

After creation. Creating the track navigates you straight to the new track's page. The success toast keeps a single Add another action (which returns to the create form); it no longer carries an "Open track" action since you're already there.

One version = the track's own fields. When a single audio file is dropped, its tags / lyrics / description are the track's, so the per-version inline editor on the file card hides those fields. You edit them once in the main form below. As soon as a second version is added, each version card exposes its own tags / lyrics / description again (they diverge per version). Lyrics from the main form are persisted onto the created version's lyrics column.

Upload a version. Open a track and upload an audio file. Each upload is a new version. Mark one version as current and that's "the track right now" everywhere it's shown.

You don't have to find the track first. Drop a new mix anywhere in the app (or on the create page) and Aden matches the file name against the tracks your team already has. On a confident match it offers that track above the form Add version puts the file on it as a new version, New track instead keeps the create flow. Only a single dropped file is matched: several at once is an EP, not a new mix of one song.

Find the file on your computer. The empty-version dropzone (and the add-version row on a track that already has versions) carries a Find on my computer button next to Import. It asks for one folder, reads every audio file inside it in the browser, nothing is uploaded until you pick, and ranks them against this track's title, ticking the ones that clearly match. Confirm and each ticked file becomes a version, going through the same upload, BPM/key analysis and waveform generation as a drag-and-drop. Browsers without the File System Access API fall back to the native folder picker. Aden only ever sees the folder you choose; it cannot scan your machine.

A released track you haven't uploaded yet. A track imported from a streaming link plays inline from that link. The embed itself, with an Open button to jump to the release. Underneath sits the normal "add the master" dropzone, so listening and uploading are both one step away.

Record instead of uploading. Both the create-track dropzone and the add-version dialog have a Record button next to Browse / Import. It opens the same recorder used on the landing page and in studio sessions, so you can capture from your microphone, from a browser tab or your screen (a reference, a bounce playing in a web player, a call), or both mixed together then it drops straight into the flow you were already in, as if you had uploaded the file. Recording from a tab or screen needs Chrome, Edge or the Aden desktop app, and you have to tick "Also share tab audio" in the browser's share dialog; the recorder says so rather than saving a silent file. The take is subject to the same per-file upload limit as any other audio file.

Per-file upload limits. Each audio file you upload is capped by your team's plan: Free 50MB, Air 100MB, Pro 200MB, Ultra and Max 500MB. These sizes cover ordinary WAV masters, which usually run 30–200MB. A 24/96 WAV over 500MB is still rejected on Max. Dolby Atmos Renderer QC MP4s (named like *_Atmos.mp4) use a separate 4GB cap on Ultra and Max. A file over your plan's limit is rejected up front, before it starts uploading, with a message telling you the limit and offering an upgrade. Compress or convert the file, or upgrade for a higher limit. The same cap applies everywhere you add audio: creating a track, adding a new version, and adding another format to a version. Your team's total storage limit is checked at the same time.

Listen quality. Aden stores the file you uploaded and plays that. WAV, FLAC and AIFF stay lossless. MP3 and AAC stay compressed. A badge on the version shows Lossless, Atmos, or Compressed.

Dolby Atmos. Upload the QC MP4 from the Dolby Atmos Renderer (blank H.264 plus DD+JOC). Safari, iPhone and iPad play it spatially. Other browsers play the stereo or binaural file on the same version, with a line telling you to open Safari for the master. An ADM WAV is not accepted: export that QC MP4 from the Renderer and upload that instead. Aden does not invent Atmos from a stereo file.

Get feedback. Collaborators leave comments on a version, optionally pinned to a timestamp ("sub bass clips at 1:24"). Resolve them as you go.

Extract lyrics from the audio. On a version's Lyrics tab, click Analyze lyrics from audio and Aden transcribes the vocals into time-stamped [MM:SS] lyric lines you can review and edit before they save.

Move it through the stages. A track's status walks idea → in progress → mixing → mastering → ready → released. Set it on the track; the board and analytics follow the order.

Select several tracks at once. Tick cards on the board (or rows in list / table) and a bottom action bar appears, the same one contacts uses: move to a status, create a playlist & share link, set public or private, or open Archive for archive vs permanent delete.

Share it. Generate a share link to send a version to someone outside the team for review or download (see Sharing).

When the list is empty, it says why. The Tracks page distinguishes three zero-states rather than showing one message: a team with no tracks yet gets No tracks yet and a Create a track button; filters that exclude everything get No tracks match your filters and a Clear filters button that also resets the date range; and a list that failed to load gets Unable to load tracks with a Try again button, never a blank list dressed up as an empty one.

Fill gaps from the board. Show empty fields. The Display popover has a Show empty fields switch (off by default, persisted like the card fields). With it on, an enabled card field with no value still renders on the grid card as a way to add it in place: a missing ISRC becomes an inline input, a missing release date opens the date picker, and missing collaborators or label link to their add flows. Albums get the same switch; there, empty genre, tags and release date render their inline editors.

See everything at once. The Table view. On the Tracks page, open the Display popover and pick Table to get a spreadsheet-style overview of every track: cover and title, status, collaborators (with roles), team, release date, genre, listen URL, public/private, ISRC, plus hidden-by-default columns (label, duration, BPM, key, UPC, created). The table has no toolbar of its own: the Display popover's card fields drive which columns show, so one picker runs every view. The filter dropdown also has a For sale facet (For sale / Not for sale) backed by the tracks.for_sale flag, so you can isolate tracks listed on the public profile from the rest; like the other facets it lives in the URL and is included in the active-filter count. ("For sale" means currently listed. Aden holds no order data, so there is no "sold" state.) Export, inside the Display popover, downloads the current table as a landscape PDF with clickable listen links (the public track page when the track is public, otherwise its custom listen or presave URL) or as a CSV for spreadsheets: both exports are also available from the search command (⌘K → "export tracks") in any view mode.

Filter the all-teams board by team. When the tracks list spans more than one team, the filter dropdown grows a Teams facet: multi-select team rows (name + avatar), URL-backed like every other facet, counted in the active-filter total, shown as badges on the trigger and saved in filter presets. Narrowing the facet to exactly one team also unlocks drag reordering within a status on the global /app/tracks board, the same reordering a team-scoped board always has; with zero or 2+ teams selected a drag snaps back with a toast pointing at the filter ("Reordering works within a single team. Open a team, or filter to one team, then drag to reorder.").

Link the original a remix or cover is based on. When a track's type is remix, cover or mashup, the create form asks for the original. Search Aden for it, or search Spotify by song name right in the picker. Results show cover art and artist, and picking one stores the real song: title, artist, ISRC, artwork and the canonical Spotify link, so the reference is a proper link and not a pasted string. Pasting a Spotify song link resolves the same way; links from other platforms (YouTube, SoundCloud, Dropbox) are stored as plain links.

Copy the original's lyrics. On a version's Lyrics tab, when the lyrics are still empty, Copy from original pulls the words from the linked original track (its most recent version that has lyrics, along with its language). This works when the original is a track on Aden. Spotify has no public lyrics API, so an external reference can't supply them.