Digital Distribution

[tunetown]

For those that haven't seen it

http://www.tunecore.com/

Offers the unsigned or independant artist an opportunity to sell your songs on Itunes, Amazon, Napster, emusic, rhapsody and groupietunes without needing a label. You get to keep all income and copyright.

It costs .99cents per song, per retailer, per region with an annual fee of $19.98 per 10 tracks. I.e if you have 10 track album you can sell it on Itunes in Australia for 1 year for $29.98USD for the first year and $19.98USD for each year hence thereafter. Itunes Australia currently pay you $0.99AUD per download. This means, after currency conversion, you would need to sell 33 downloads to cover costs.

After reading all the fine print, I can't seem to find a downside. Anyone tried it yet?

Cheers

Peter

[Kris]

I used tunecore before I had my license with Apple direct. They're the best of the lot, but not without issues. Their main benefit, as I see it, is that they supply you with ISRC Codes as well as UPC Barcodes. They claim that once an album is inserted that it can't be changed in anyway. Which is completely false. I have done it many times and it is very simple. So they can sting you for an early "takedown fee". In your contract that fee is applicable if you exit before six months. Then there's the re-insertion fee... basically you have to start from scratch if you want to make any changes... including paying all over again. But if you're organised then this is not an issue.

I only distribute to itunes now. After a few years I added up sales figures and Rhapsody is pretty much useless. Sony Connect and Yahoo music never earned a cent (Sony has now shut down and Yahoo is rolling into Rhapsody) and Emusic... don't even get me started on subscription models. Yet to see if Amazon mp3 has any market traction but I believe iTunes is the winner. My clients and my own projects are bringing in reasonably healthy returns. Not gonna make us rich any time soon but it's still good.

And I'm not saying this to get business for myself.... we're a closed shop now, no more third parties. (unless you're a band I really love or the owner of their old catalogue that is not available anywhere in the digital domain.... )

Actually, hang on.... I can sell you UPC barcodes but that's it - $50 + GST. I'm registered with GS1 for the barcodes, so they're legit. I could probably do ISRC's... better check with ARIA first though.

Sorry Rick if that's OT and fishing.... you can delete the sales bit if necessary.

[tunetown]

Cheers for the feedback.

Apart from the 6 month exit fee, I believe this service is excellent for the independent artist. I will be encouraging my bands to use this service and promote their music through Itunes at gigs and promotional events.

What are your thoughts on http://cdbaby.com/ .

Peter

[Kris]

cdbaby...

Great for physical sales. I sell a lot of the Dreamlab EP to customers in Japan.

Digital Distribution.... if you're happy to wait 6 months to get your music online.... go for it. Notoriously slow, but Derek Sivers is a good guy.

Stick with Tunecore.