triple j Unearthed began as a competition to discover and nurture the latest Australian music. It has been running for over a decade and has helped kick start careers of artists such as Killing Heidi, Missy Higgins and Grinspoon. The latest incarnation of Unearthed means that artists can now upload their tracks to the site for everyone to listen to. We’ll continue to run competitions to spotlight particular regions and genres but all the music on the site will continue to grow, making Unearthed the first-stop for anyone looking for fresh new Australian music - which is what it’s been about from the beginning! So be part of it – register now!

The charts are ranked on an extremely complicated mathematical equation - aggregating, averaging and multiplying prime numbers drawn through user actions through the site. Get it? Basically, the charts are based on how many ratings (not published on the site) and reviews you have received, what your average rating is, and who is rating you. The charts are run weekly (every Monday morning) and the data is calculated over a certain period (currently 2 weeks).

The artist spotlight and feature artist sections are chosen by us here at triple j. We will be listening to the tracks as they come in and keeping an eye on what's proving popular in the charts and reviews. The presenters will also be going through the site to find tracks to play on-air.

Make sure you have your best stuff on the site and good luck!

Unearthed is now an on-going initiative and we are excited about letting users listen to all the music and have their input on the site. However, this is not used as the basis for picking competition winners. The competitions are judged by a panel of triple j staff - not based on user ratings/reviews. All tracks are listened to and judged on their own merit.

Anyone can be Unearthed. The only conditions are that you are Australian, DON'T have a recording contract with a record label and you have an original track to submit.

Yep. C'mon Aussie c'mon. You must be an Australian citizen or resident.

First the hard part - you've got to create the music and get it recorded.

Entering is the easy part. Find out more on how to enter.

The beauty of technology is that it never sleeps. You can come to this site to enter Unearthed, 24/7. You no longer have to wait until we call your region to enter. As soon as you've got stuff to send us, get online and put your stuff out there. We'll still be running competitions to inspire you and invigorate particular regions but in the meantime, get your music out there. The triple j presenters will be continually keeping an ear out for good stuff to play on the radio and you can also work your way up the Unearthed Charts by ratings and reviews from Unearthed members.

'fraid not. We will only be accepting online submissions. Don't worry - it's easy. You just need to get your tracks into mp3 format. Read our mp3 guide for more information. Once you've got your music in mp3 format you just need to sign up as an artist.

Fame, fortune and groupies are just around the corner... At the very least, Unearthed provides you with the opportunity to get your music into the ears of people all around Australia. All the competitions have different prizes, but the outcome is always aimed at getting you more exposure and helping you make more music. You'll definitely get airplay on triple j, you might get professionally re-recorded and even a chance to play at a national music festival. Keep your eye on current and upcoming competitions.

Take a look at the Unearthed history to see what some of our past winners have achieved.

We're on the hunt for fresh new talent. The style of music is completely up to you. We are open to all voices and opinions, but we won't play music that promotes hatred, discrimination, unnecessary violence, pornography or uses gratuitous profanity.

To appear on the site you must submit at least one track. Once you submit your stuff it will appear in a 'pending' state until we listen/look and approve it. This normally takes 1 week but may take a little longer in busy periods. Rest assured we'll get your stuff up as soon as we can.

You can have up to 3 tracks available at one time. If you delete a track you will no longer be able to listen to this track anywhere on the site and it will not be visible on your artist profile page. However, if has been reviewed by a Guest Reviewer, triple j presenter or SuperUser the review will still be available from their reviews page.

If you want to update your track with a better version of the same track, you can re-upload this track without deleting it. This will retain all reviews and ratings associated with this track.

You have the power to change your details at any time. Just login and go to your 'artist toolkit' where you can update your image, bio, tracks...everything!

Certainly not. You can trust us - we're the national broadcaster. This is a non-profit project with our primary aim to support and encourage young musicians around the country, so we won't be trying to scam you out of money or rights. In extremely basic terms, if you send us your music we have the right to play it on triple j radio and put it up on the site and use it to promote Unearthed. You will retain complete copyright of your music.

Users will be able to listen and download ALL tracks which are live on the website but will only be allowed to use it for their personal use. We've outlined the user responsibilities in our terms and conditions.

If you are a member of APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) you are entitled to royalities ($$!!) every time you are played on-air. Visit the APRA website to find out more about joining.

Yes. If you have won a past competition you are still running for things in the future. Make sure you keep your profile page and tracks up to date with your best stuff.

Reviews also need to be moderated before they can be made live. This normally takes 3-4 days. Once approved, any reviews for your tracks will appear on your artist profile page. We are working on ways to notify you when your tracks get a new review, but for now just keep an eye out on your profile page to see your latest reviews.

A healthy music scene depends on a strong community of listeners. Registering with Unearthed will allow you to rate and review tracks on the site. Ratings are used when calculating the charts, so you can have input into how successful the tracks become. You can also create your own playlist of tracks you like within the Jukebox which you can save and email to your friends.

Yes. Despite all the wonderful technological advances, we need to keep the triple j forums separate from the Unearthed registration. So, you will need:

• Unearthed login - to review tracks and save your playlist on the Unearthed site, post messages to The Board.
• triple j forum login - to use the triple J forums.

We are going to keep an eye out for particularly active users (lots of reviews and ratings). These users will be rewarded by becoming SuperUsers. SuperUsers will get their own page on the website which will show all the reviews they've submitted. Their playlist will be available for the public to listen and download. Don't contact us...we'll contact you.

Use the jukebox to listen to music. You will need Flash Player 8 to use the jukebox. This can be downloaded for free.

If you click 'play' this will launch the jukebox and begin playing the selected track immediately. If you'd rather browse through the site gathering music and then play it all in one go, simply click '+' to add tracks to your listening queue and then launch the jukebox when you're ready to listen. All music in the jukebox can be played at either hi (96kb) or low (32kb) quality.

Alternatively, you can download a hi quality (128kb) mp3 so you can listen to it with any mp3 player. Music can be downloaded from the jukebox or from the artist profile pages by right/ctrl clicking the download link.

The artists are providing this music for you to enjoy for free so remember to treat it with respect. You are not allowed to transfer them to other people or use file-sharing networks. If you'd like to use the music for your own projects make sure you contact the artist through their artist profile page. Read the terms and conditions for more detail.

If you listen to music in the jukebox you will be listening to a streaming mp3. This means that it will start playing as it downloads. This is the fastest way to listen to music on unearthed. If you want to listen at a higher quality or use another program, such as itunes or through an mp3 player, you will need to download the mp3. This will save a high quality mp3 to your computer.

The listening queue lets you collect music you are interested in while browsing the Unearthed website. Click '+' to add the selected track or playlist to your listening queue without interrupting what you are currently playing. Then, when you want to listen to all your collected tracks, just launch the jukebox.

If you are registered with Unearthed you can use the jukebox to create your very own playlists which you can save and send to your friends. You can have up to 5 playlists which means you can organise your favourite tracks however you like!

First, add tracks to your listening queue by clicking '+' from the website, and then move them from the listening queue to your playlist by clicking the heart icon in the jukebox. You can reorder your playlist by dragging the tracks by the left-hand icon. To share one of your playlists, just click the email icon.

You can save your playlists and they will be available every time you log back into the Unearthed.

'Tags' are like keywords or labels which help users find music. Use the tag search to find music.

Only registered users can assign tags.
Once you are logged in, you can assign tags by clicking the 'tag' button next to the track or you can also 'tag' an artist. Think about words or emotions that describe the sound or lyrics of the song. You can tag a track or artist several times but not with the same tag.

The tag search allows you to find music using the power of all the tags submitted by users on the site. Just type in a mood, emotion, genre, name, lyric or similar sounding artist and see what the mighty tag search returns! The search results are ordered by the frequency of times that track has been tagged with the relevant tag.

You can also see related tags to your search and 'tag hop' to find new music.
Get searching »