This is arguably our biggest release to date! It is so big, we almost thought to call it 3.0, but we have some even bigger things planned so we couldn’t quite go there yet.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Branded Reports

We are thrilled to release this powerful feature: branded reports. Currently this branding applies to the Audition “repertoire selections” report — so when you print your rep list for your next audition, you can make it look just like your resume.

You can customize the font, size, bold, italics, add a headshot or add your own customized header logo image.

Navigate to the Main Menu, Settings, “Edit Branding and Resume Information”.

Now that we have this, think of what else might be on the horizon! If you can brand your rep list, why not use Velvet Singer to create your resume? More to come on that.

“Favorite” Reports

You can easily flag any report as a “favorite”, and even personalize the name of the report. We have started to build so many reports, that it is finally becoming necessary to be able to sift through and get to just what you need.

You will notice that we started you off with a few of our favorites. These reports are likely to be useful to you as well, so click through and to get a sense of what they each provide insight into.

Dashboard Menu and Totals

The top menu now has another menu item called “Dashboard.” We thought of calling it “Quick Menu” or “Quick Find” because we are convinced this feature will really help you do things faster.

Also, the Dashboard Menu (ie. the new thing) as well as the Dashboard layout, now display total record counts (including total dollar amounts for the Finance module). This is hugely powerful! That means that you can get a quick snapshot of how much you have been singing, how much money you have earned from your church job, or where your Auditions stand, just by looking up at this menu drop-down.

This should make reporting more powerful too:
1) Select your report
2) Use the Dashboard Menu to limit the records

Simple as that!

Three Contact Categories

The Contacts module now has a few new powerful ways you can group your contacts, making it more powerful than ever to invest the time in documenting your network.

Using the Category field, you can set which of the three primary ways you relate to this contact:

• Professionally,
• for Artistic Development, or
• Personally.

Your contact might be a “VIP Contact” (in the Type field), but you primarily rely on them for your artistic development (coach or teacher) not for getting a job. Now you can more accurately record the nature of your relationship, and it will all be sitting there waiting for you when you need it.

Also, our professional contacts often have multiple jobs, so now you can mark up to three as this example shows. The information will appear on all reports and based on any Quick Find you run.

IPA Source

www.ipasource.com is a fantastic resource for singers, and now you can access it directly from within Velvet Singer. You may login to your IPA Source account or purchase songs “a-la-carte.”

From any Repertoire record, simply navigate to the Web Page layout, and toggle to the IPA Source option. That will search to see if your aria or song is among the thousands that IPA Source translates.