Members techristian Posted May 2, 2014 Members Share Posted May 2, 2014 Anyone here uploading their own original music to Itunes? I was given an account for that purpose over 8 years ago , but no real customer support ! https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0 Thanks Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdoubleyou Posted May 2, 2014 Members Share Posted May 2, 2014 I think it's a whole different system, and terms now. Must have an apple ID, and credit card. Also CD Baby, Tunecore, and others can get your music to the major digital distribution channels for a fee, you supply a CD or 24 bit files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 2, 2014 Members Share Posted May 2, 2014 TuneCore is the 'pro's choice' in the industry, no question. They've got the longest legs. But they also are the most expensive and seem to tick off their clients. (And that even includes me; I'd bought an album distro credit on sale there some years back, it didn't 'expire' -- but by the time I got around to thinking about putting an album up there, the 'renewal fees' per album had gone from a few bucks to over $50/yr.) CD Baby, by contrast, costs a little less (trade-offs), offers slightly different services but has a reputation for good customer relations. (At least under the founder, Derek Sivers, who moved on a few years back.) Check out DistroKid. (From Phil Kaplan, the Fandalism guy.) Its model is radically different -- but it's been endorsed now by both the founders of CD Baby and TuneCore (who have gone on to other ventures and so can speak on the issue, I guess). DK doesn't have the broad coverage of just about every online store/stream service in the world like TC and CDB but it is HUGELY cheaper ($20/year for unlimited artist uploads; label tiers start at $35/yr for two artists and adds the ability to schedule release dates (important for promo pushes they tell me). Now, they only service the majors: iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, Beats (beta), Rdio (beta), and Deezer (beta). That's worldwide, not just one country (in the past and maybe still TuneCore made you pay to be placed in each int'l market's iTunes independently, another way folks felt nickeled and dimed to death by them). However -- you with DistroKid you do get the full artist/label pay-out, unlike CDB, TC, MondoTunes (MT are sneaky about the 10% kept by 'their distribution partners' -- a big reason I crossed them off my list -- also, all those planted comment-spam and fake blog posts that come up when you search on MondoTunes gave it a very dicey/sleazy feel -- more like a multi-level-marketing outfit or something. ) THAT said... particularly if you do covers but you suspect your covers aren't necessarily going to shoot to the top of the charts, you might want to consider Loudr.fm. Their model is very different: no up front costs at all -- including arranging for the licensing for the cover! But they do keep a substantial back end -- 15% of the artist/label royalty for originals and public domain or 30% for licensed covers. But if you don't want to throw a bunch of money at Harry Fox Agency for the privilege of selling a handful of tracks to your church group or whatever, Loudr.fm offers a way to get going with no upfront and -- if you think about it -- assuming you are your own artist or label -- a backend that would STILL be considered VERY generous by the standards of the old line record industry I came up in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members techristian Posted May 3, 2014 Author Members Share Posted May 3, 2014 Thanks Blue....So I have to PAY to sell my music. Wow I thought that they would be happy with a percentage of it. This is as bad as paying for those "songwriting contests" . I toss all of my REVERBNATION spam in trash. Thanks again. I'll bookmark this for later use. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdoubleyou Posted May 3, 2014 Members Share Posted May 3, 2014 Thanks Blue....So I have to PAY to sell my music. Wow I thought that they would be happy with a percentage of it. This is as bad as paying for those "songwriting contests" . I toss all of my REVERBNATION spam in trash. Thanks again. I'll bookmark this for later use. Dan Yes you are paying for a service with infrastructure. You don't have to build an online store and buy space on a secure server, or do the credit card transaction. I will have to check out DistroKid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 3, 2014 Members Share Posted May 3, 2014 Thanks Blue....So I have to PAY to sell my music. Wow I thought that they would be happy with a percentage of it. This is as bad as paying for those "songwriting contests" . I toss all of my REVERBNATION spam in trash. Thanks again. I'll bookmark this for later use. Dan NOT NECESSARILY! Loudr.fm 'specializes' in covers (as well as remixes, kids!) but they also will put up original (and public domain) music with no upfront costs at all. And, as long as you own the rights or it's P.D., they 'only' keep 15% (as opposed to 30% for covers -- but don't forget, they arrange the licensing and pay the licenser royalties out of their cut). They don't cover all the lesser stores/services though.* I have a (secret) side project (I'm doing the anti-best practice and not telling a soul anything about it) and my test cover is up and presumably making money. (I know it won't show up on Forgotify because I already played it on Spotify. ) Worked great. Hasn't cost me a cent. *Anyhow, if you can be satisfied with just being on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play (and their All Access stream service), and Pandora, Loudr.fm is a pretty easy, no-cost way to go. http://www.loudr.fm/features Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 3, 2014 Members Share Posted May 3, 2014 Yes you are paying for a service with infrastructure. You don't have to build an online store and buy space on a secure server, or do the credit card transaction. I will have to check out DistroKid. Yeah, when I saw that they'd added some more stores and the 'label' tier thing (so you could schedule your drop dates), and then saw that Derek Sivers from CD Baby and Jeff Price (TuneCore founder) had both endorsed DistroKid, it pretty much made up my mind for me for my original work. (I'll go with the two artist tier, as the one man band I started in the late 90s has been putting out mutant pop but I've released mostly acoustic roots stuff under my own name. It would be awkward combining them. And you know, maybe there's something to this hype-onslaught drop-day crap, I dunno. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members techristian Posted May 4, 2014 Author Members Share Posted May 4, 2014 Yes you are paying for a service with infrastructure. You don't have to build an online store and buy space on a secure server' date=' or do the credit card transaction. I will have to check out DistroKid.[/quote'] I understand paying for a service. HOWEVER if I compare it TO A FLEA MARKET......it would be like paying my 50 dollars for the table (space)....leaving it in control of the flea market owner and never taking inventory before or after he settles up with me. Then when I get back, he tells me that he only sold 40 items...even if he really sold 400...and on top of that, he takes another 10 percent for his CUT. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted May 5, 2014 Members Share Posted May 5, 2014 You can create a website and have people pay for it through PayPal if it makes you feel better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 5, 2014 Members Share Posted May 5, 2014 There's always the option of selling direct. If you've got a WordPress blog, you can use the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. working demo: http://www.tkmajor.com/tk/got-canned-if-you-want-it/ There's still the payment processor's cut, of course, but with PayPal Micropayments, it's not too bad. ($.10 versus $.33 for a $1.00 purchase. [Micropayments US is $.05 fee + 5% -- but depending on setup it switches to regular above $10 or so for digital transactions.] Depending on your circumstances, you have to set up MicroPayments for certain types of account. https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/digital-goods ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members techristian Posted May 5, 2014 Author Members Share Posted May 5, 2014 Thanks Blue. I set up a Paypal "Donate" button on my website, but in 5 years, I only got $10 from 1 user. It will take me a little work to set up a proper catalog with prices, but thanks for the Paypal link. I'm surprised that they even allow such small transactions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted May 5, 2014 Members Share Posted May 5, 2014 It was a beta program they only started a couple years ago. It seems like it's mostly oriented to digital sales -- perhaps unsurprisingly, since most physical goods transactions are likely to exceed the 10-12 dollar 'break even'... It varies from country to country. (You're not in Canada, are you? Seems like I'm thinking you are. You'd want to check to see if it's in place up that way, if so.) PayPal didn't used to have any guidance on when to use a Donate button and when to use a blank-amount pay button -- but in the last few years I've stumbled onto a few warnings from them not to use Donate buttons except for qualified non-profits. But you can create a Pay Now button that will accept any amount. That's what I use for accepting client payments on my business site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.