7 Ways to Sell Your Music on iTunes

Not a bad summary, thanks. But there's hidden things to look at with all stores: be sure to check for EXCLUSIVITY–do any of these stores lock you into a contract or minimum term? Also, do your homework, how is the quality of service? Do people complain of bad customer support? Established companies that have been around a while will have a lot more complaints, of course, but they've serviced tens of thousands of happy customers, so consider the percentages.

One piece of advice: if you intend to sell more than a few units, consider a distributor that doesn't take a percentage. There's nothing wrong with wanting to sell only a few, not everyone's idea of success is the same: if you just want to be in iTunes and AmazonMP3 and a few stores, sell some albums, have a hobby, great! But if you plan on making serious sales, a percentage–taken forever, without cap–may not be your best choice. Go with a service that charges a single, fair up-front price that's manageable, like TuneCore (okay, I'm biased, but I did co-found the company!).

Thanks for the mention.

–Peter
peter@tunecore.com

Besides the pricing, how do they compare in complete distribution (in addition to iTunes), ease of use, etc?

The services above are all good, reputable companies. There's another hidden cost, however, and that's the annual storage fee that several companies, including Tunecore and ReverbNation charge. This can range from $20 to $70 a year, so just make sure you know what you'll end up paying on an ongoing basis.

One advantage of CD Baby is that in addition to providing download sales through the largest number of partners of any of the companies mentioned above, we're also the only true retail store — and the largest independent music store online at that, with over 100,000 unique visitors a day. And we carry and sell physical CDs in addition to selling downloads, which is a big plus to artists, since CD sales still make up a significant chunk of music revenues today.

tvv@cdbaby.com

This is such great info! Esp when you don't know where to start–thank you!!!!!!!!

Peter, thanks for commenting, and especially for the additional points to consider when choosing a distribution partner. Admittedly, this post was purely a comparison based on price, because, quite honestly, it was some of the easiest information to collect. :) But everything you state is right on — there are a whole slew of factors to consider beyond what I included below…it was simply too much to include in a single post.

Customer service, pricing, ancillary services, etc, are all critical factors to be considered. Personally with regards to pricing model, I agree with you — a flat upfront fee makes the most sense if you're planning or hoping to achieve successful sales in the future. (One should always plan for success!) Everything I've heard from TuneCore customers has been positive, so TuneCore is a solid bet for a partner.

Perhaps I'll do a follow-up post with a deeper dive in the future… :)

Excellent subject matter for a follow-up post! :) Actually, I already started collecting additional information to compare 360 degree services offered by "all-in-one" services like some of the ones mentioned above. It may be too much for a single post, so I may break up components of such analysis into multiple section, much like I did "iTunes Distribution Pricing" here. We'll see… Thanks.

Any time, Girl Crusade. I'm happy to share anything I can while I learn these things myself… :)

Thanks for commenting, Tony, and great points. (I'll try to add those data points later this week.) There's no question that CD Baby's critically massive audience is a necessary benefit to consider. For example, I definitely plan to sell my upcoming release on CD Baby…with distribution being a free added option, I may very well consider the added service, though the 9% commission fee isn't very appealing. However, for convenience' s sake, for for simplicity's sake (managing all sales through a single dashboard), it's appealing in other ways.

Thanks!

This is a great post with a bunch of great companies distributing to iTunes. One thing that Nimbit offers that others don't is the ability for the artist (and their fans) to sell from their website, Myspace, Facebook page, and wherever else they can embed Flash, while retaining all of their fans' information. Demographics on who is buying your music is key, and iTunes offers their zip code at best, and even that is at a premium.

iTunes is certainly the leader in digital music sales right now, which is why we are seeing so many places distributing to them. However, fans do not go there to discover new music or create a relationship with the artist. With our OMT, Skin, and download cards, Nimbit provides tools to sell to the fan at every impression, through every avenue. The key is reaching the fan when they are most pumped about the music and their connection the artist, and that is what Nimbit is all about.

I look forward to following this blog, good stuff. Thanks for the mention!

Kevin Ebaugh
kevin@nimbit.com

Thanks, Kevin. Nimbit's music store functionality is pretty impressive, both the widget version and the full page version. If I could change one thing, it would be the service's name. ;) But otherwise, I've been really impressed by your offering. Looking forward to future developments…

Wow, everyone showed up to defend their companies and offerings. That is a HUGE statement about your blog, sir. Kudos.

So here I go…

There are many great ways to get music digitally distributed without a label. Many of these companies offer fantastic opportunities, and if I were an Artist, I would check them ALL out. But while these opportunities differ in terms of pennies or even dollars per year, the biggest variable on profitability for Artists ISN'T how much it costs (the costs are all very close). Its about GROWING the top line of revenue. If you sell only one additional album per year because of one of these services, it probably offsets the costs of any of them compared to the other.

As a result of that fact, Artists should be thinking about which service will help them the most on the revenue side of the equation. Once you are on iTunes, how do you drive people to buy the music?

<here comes the shameless pitch>
ReverbNation provides a myriad of tools that can help Artists grow their fan base, deepen the relationship with them, and convert them from 'fans' into 'customers', whether at MySpace, Facebook, or the Artist's homepage. And this is the key differentiator for us. We are a Fan Relationship Management company. We help Artists move their fans down the funnel from 'casual listener' to 'fan', to 'customer' with state of the art tools and best practices baked into the offerings.

We charge a simple $34.95/year to have your music posted at the 5 largest retailers (95% market share on downloads). You can have as many songs as you want in your release, and we never take a cut of your sales. In other words, we are as competitive as anybody on cost. But that is just a means to an end.

ReverbNation's Digital Distribution offering is just one small part in the overall 'profit' system we provide for Artists. Granted, its an important part. But the pricing provided by any of these offerings is a relatively insignificant part of the equation when compared to the revenue side. I would submit that the decision point for an Artist shouldn't be about the price of the distribution offering, it should be about how their partner can help them grow their popularity and drive additional sales.

Some of the companies above do this to different extents, and I am taking nothing away from them (every Artist should check them all out). I am only arguing that the evaluation metric for most Artists should be on the revenue generation side, not the cost side. Everyone on the list above is basically in the same boat on cost, and at the end of the day revenue will be the driving factor when it comes to success.

Jed Carlson
Co-Founder, COO, ReverbNation.com

So which one are you going to use?

[...] ReverbNation (Jed Carlson), CD Baby (Tony van veen), and TuneCore (Peter Wells)  in the post 7 Ways to Sell Your Music on iTunes, and happened to notice this Google ad on the page for Amazon’s music service, [...]

Great question. I reserve the right to answer until _after_ I've actually finished my LP. :) (After all, pricing models, feature sets, and user bases change monthly, and my LP is at least 3-4 months away from completion…) That said, I'll be sure to share my decision when I make it.

Jed, thanks for your thoughts. Great point here: "…the evaluation metric for most Artists should be on the revenue generation side, not the cost side." 100% true. The suite of tools and ancillary services are key…and of course, promotion is key. If an artist fails at promotion, he/she won't generate sales, and an iTunes presence will be akin to a tree falling in an empty forest…. (i.e. if noone hears it, it's not really making a sound, etc etc.)

Thanks for sharing!

First of all, I echo Jed’s comment that ALL THESE SERVICES SHOULD BE EXPLORED. After all, everyone’s after the same goal – empowering the indie artist. We all just have slightly different ways of doing that. DiscRevolt’s “DMC” is our newest product - a fully customized widget that sits on the artist’s site and allows the fan to redeem download cards and purchase music and allows the artist to collect (whatever) data they want from the fan. You drive fan traffic to your site and build YOUR brand, not the iTunes brand. This is not you driving fans to your site, then redirecting them to your paypal store. This is YOUR CUSTOMIZED STORE.

We don’t distribute to iTunes or any other online stores, so we’re not a competitor to the services above in that sense, and that’s kind of a critical point. The DMC can and should be used in conjunction with one or more of the services cited above. We focus on helping artists distribute their music through THEIR stores. As Jed mentioned, it’s not about cost, but about maximizing your opportunities for revenue. That being said, consumer behavior isn’t always rational, so we’re trying to make it a no-brainer to use the DMC as part of your marketing/distribution strategy by offering no exclusivity, no hidden fees, no storage costs and the ability to distribute your music DIRECTLY TO YOUR FANS.

Did I mention the DMC is FREE for any and all artists?

Check out and example of a DMC:
http://www.mikefarrismusic.net/store.php
(Click on “Pre-order now from DiscRevolt”)

http://www.discrevolt.net/DMC/Upgrade.aspx

-Matt
matt@discrevolt.com
http://twitter.com/matt_discrevolt

First of all, I echo Jed’s comment that ALL THESE SERVICES SHOULD BE EXPLORED. After all, everyone’s after the same goal – empowering the indie artist. We all just have slightly different ways of doing that. DiscRevolt’s “DMC” is our newest product - a fully customized widget that sits on the artist’s site and allows the fan to redeem download cards and purchase music and allows the artist to collect (whatever) data they want from the fan. You drive fan traffic to your site and build YOUR brand, not the iTunes brand. This is not you driving fans to your site, then redirecting them to your paypal store. This is YOUR CUSTOMIZED STORE.

We don’t distribute to iTunes or any other online stores, so we’re not a competitor to the services above in that sense, and that’s kind of a critical point. The DMC can and should be used in conjunction with one or more of the services cited above. We focus on helping artists distribute their music through THEIR stores. As Jed mentioned, it’s not about cost, but about maximizing your opportunities for revenue. That being said, consumer behavior isn’t always rational, so we’re trying to make it a no-brainer to use the DMC as part of your marketing/distribution strategy by offering no exclusivity, no hidden fees, no storage costs and the ability to distribute your music DIRECTLY TO YOUR FANS.

Did I mention the DMC is FREE for any and all artists?

Check out and example of a DMC:
http://www.mikefarrismusic.net/store.php
(Click on “Pre-order now from DiscRevolt”)

-Matt
matt@discrevolt.com
http://www.discrevolt.net/DMC/Upgrade.aspx

Hey, since I wear 2 hats, we can help you with making discs (http://discmakers.com) and selling them thru CD Baby. What could be sweeter than that (or easier)?

Yeah, I've heard that one before. But the fact is, you pay something for the service all these companies provide whichever way you go. The advantage of 9% is that you pay as you go. It's a tiny sliver of your revenues, and your sales subsidize the fee. As your sales slow down after year 1, we'll never kick you off our service. If you sell $20 worth of downloads one year, we only take $1.80 that year. Some of the other guys will still want their $20 fee, and they'll kick you off their service (and remove you from iTunes, amazon, et al if you don't pay the annual fee (which can amount to more than the sales revenues you generate for a title in a year).

Not to echo Tony too much, but we can too! Check out http://www.nimbit.com/solutions/storefronts and http://www.nimbit.com/services/manufacturing/deal...

Nice point. I hadn't really thought of the 5-years-down-the-line point of view, where I'd still want my albums available for sale (for bragging rights, at least!), but wouldn't want to continue paying a hosting fee. Yeah another point to weigh in…

That's good to know — Discmakers is a great service. CD manufacturing is easily worth 2-3 posts for discussiong..!

Thanks, Kevin. Clearly, I have more research ahead… :) I may need to write a "CD" post, a "widget" post, a "merch" post, and an "online store" post. :)

Agreed, or even a post for each of these companies participating in the discussion!

Good input Matt, Thanks!

But . . You said . . "Did I mention the DMC is FREE for any and all artists?"

Yes you did but I read where it's free after you spend $199.00 for 250 cards.

I'm sure it was most likely free when you joined but today . . . .

Even a page without cards is $99.00

See . .

https://secure.discrevolt.net/DMC/PurchaseDMC.asp...

Still, it may well be worth it but it's NOT FREE !

Just some findings.

Thanks,

MBM

I use CDBaby and have had no problems at all…and have actually sold physical CDs as well, so CDBaby is perfect for my needs, and very affordable.

Has anyone used http://www.ourtracks.com ?
Would someone with more knowledge check it out and post an opinion?
I know the obvious….not on Itunes…but for a start up artist looking for a place to sell songs online,
What are the hidden problems?
Thanks

[...] Ways to Sell Your Music On iTunes http://www.garagespin.com/2009/03/09/7-ways-sell-your-music-on-itunes We get a LOT of questions about this topic; this article is a pretty good answer. If you know of [...]

Hi everyone,
The Cosmic Mom here which means I need lots of help in navigating these waters. Here's what I have to sell: 15 progressive tai chi lessons and 1 seated deep relaxation. I'm selling DVDs on amazon and my website. Looking for the best pick to find interested customers.
Thanks and check out my zonky, wellness blog below.

Hi everyone,
The Cosmic Mom here which means I need lots of help in navigating these waters. Here's what I have to sell: 15 progressive tai chi lessons and 1 seated deep relaxation. I'm selling DVDs on amazon and my website. Looking for the best pick to find interested customers.
Thanks and check out my zonky, wellness blog: http://momscosmicdiner.blogspot.com

what's best? :low price 100%royalties ect

I think revernation and tunecore is ok.
What do you sugguest?

Nimbit seems nice, but the get 20%. IT's pretty much.

We used http://www.dittomusic.com for all three of our releases.
They upload you to iTunes and Spotify FREE of charge, cover over 700 stores and get you up in half the time of tunecore.
They can also make you chart eligible and collect airplay royalties.
Tunecore take too long and have no coverage, they also dont cover Spotify which is a Major player in the download market.

Most of the digital distributors have also a take down fee if you will decide for any reason to stop distributing your music through them.

I'm glad that such a rich kind discussion can take place here. It brings me good vibes about ALL companies. This is the most productive post I've seen in years.
I congratulate those who spoken in behalf of the companies.
Thank you!

This is absolutely great information - and I love how the reps are simply hemorrhaging hidden information in the interest of increasing clientele, lol. Perfect. Bookmarked.

Heck yeah man, everyone should have this bookmarked. This has been a great forum for reference. Thanks again Mike!

Totally agree. It's great to see such an open forum in full swing…which is exactly what the internets are all about.

Thanks, Libra, I'm incredibly psyched that this post has proved to be useful to so many musicians and songwriters. Awesome stuff.

Any time, thanks Kevin. :)

Thanks, Susie. I need to add them, RouteNote, and WaTunes to this list…either as an update, or a follow-up post.

This is the best collaboration of information one could ask for. My only opinion is that if you are an artist, do whatever it takes to get your name out there, hence using every one of these options. You can never do enough. So, it really does not matter if you are going crazy worried you might choose the wrong one, pick them all. You cannot lose!! Good luck and keep playing!!

Jay: I agree, in reference to different social distribution networks — get everywhere you can. However, as far as the technicality of getting your music in iTunes, you should only (and can only) have the same song exist there once. So if you get your music into iTunes using one of the sites above, you probably shouldn't make a redundant effort (unless you pull the first set of music down). Just a technicality. ;)

Hey GarageSpin,

Excellent post. It's great to see more companies offering different solutions. This gives musicians and labels different alternatives. I'd like to personally invite you to visit WaTunes as it is the world's first freemium digital distribution service. Enabling artist and labels to sell their music on iTunes, eMusic, and ShockHound entirely free while keep 100% of your royalties. Another cool point is that WaTunes also has a premium service for just $29.95 a year which gets your music into even more music stores.

Recently, we've just announced that we'll be offering the first ever iTunes Daily Trending Reports for $1.99. This enables both free and VIP users to see how their sales are doing in iTunes on day-to-day basis. If you have any questions (regarding press, company details, 1-on-1 interview with me, etc.) feel free to drop us a line at: press@watunes.com. I look forward to hearing from you :)

Kevin Rivers
CEO, WaTunes

I have a upc code so how do we from there?

Hi Kevin — thanks for sharing WaTunes' service description, as well as an update regarding the daily trending report. I'll need to add your company to the list above soon, when I can find the time… :)

Steven: Where do you want to go? If you're looking to sell music on iTunes, you're good to go with any one of the services above. You just won't need to use their UPC code creation service.

Get On Itunes
Sell Music On Itunes

Sell Music Itunes

Sell Music Itunes

Do any of these services set up agreements to pay royalties to the publisher of the song if you're doing a cover arrangment? Or do you have to do that yourself?

Hey Jette-

Nimbit enables multiple payees on a per-product basis. For example, you could have 20% of a certain album going to your manager, or any other percentage to anyone. Then when we payout, we'll cut everyone a check.

There's also awal.com

Anybody have any thoughts about video distribution? I have a slew of short comedy/parody workout videos to distribute.

It's all so new to me. I'm attempting to help my son figure out what steps to take. This site made me realize we don't have a clue where to start. My son plays guitar and writes his own songs. He has been on myspace music for 3 1/2 months and has over 34,000 views already. We have copyrighted some of his songs and have more that need done. Other than step 1, mastering his music, all of this above sounds like a foreign language to me. I thought I only had to contact itunes only to get him up and running! Can anyone point me in a direction to learn some basic things so my head won't swim!?!?

I'm on CDbaby but I'm not getting many sales. How can I drive people to buy physical CDs through CDbaby and or digital downloads through them. I'm on about 23 different digital download retailers through CDbaby and yet…not many sales. Ideas?

Everyone I've talked to that's on CdBaby doesnt sell much, if anything. Could be a testament (sp?) to their company, or could be about the artists music and [lack of] fan base. It would be nice offered marketing/advertising package along with distribution.

If there are any reps out there that can offer: iTunes, Amazon, etc distribution along with some kind of 'push' plan to market better, I'm interested!

It would also be nice if a company had a nice, neat little package to take care of retailers like Walmart as well. ** If I could find a company like this I wouldnt mind paying a higher flat rate fee ***

Chris Gilroy
namelessism@yahoo.com

Indeed. Your post is a rare example of the net at its best. Kudos to you and to the companies for being fair, civil, and honest.

Hail to thee I am anindependent artist, i produce and sell my own and several other bands music and i have my own company, no big labels nor major record deals, I am DIY. SO i appreciate this forum and such explanation, but i have also few questions:
1) I found one of my records being uploaded on Itunes, obviously without my permession how do i sort such thing out?
2) is there anychance i could pay any company i will choose, using paypal, instead of a debit or credit card?
3) cani link any of the company to my: blogs, bulletins, sites and profiles? how does that work (sorry it wasn't clearly explained)?
4) can i use the one company logo (that i will choose) on paper magazines/webzines adverts (i.e. Metal Hammer - Terrorizer - Rock Sound - Kerrang and so forth…)?

Looking forward to hear from you as i need to step in the digital market as well ASAP.

Bottom line: i need to sell and earn enough money for my up coming tour, carry on with the promotional campaign, and obviously pay back advanced money… so i need to invest to gain a bigger revenue!

Rocking Regards

AGAMOTH

Visit:
http://www.abgott.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/abgott
http://www.myspace.com/agamoth
http://www.cort-guitars.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/agamoth.abgott

BUY ABGOTT NEW ALBUM:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&a...

so on the takedown process. If you decide to back out of the digi distribution, what are the consequences? It is hard to read the fine print unless you sign up on these things.
I want to know the dangers.

hello! do i need to have a label or publisher to sell music via i tunes or tune core

Hello! No you do not, you can be your own label and publisher.

Kevin Ebaugh
kevin@nimbit.com

Dittomusic is slow.It can take them more than 2 months for your album to appear on itunes.They do not open you an account.You have to pay every month without having your album in stores. It is not a safe place to distribute music.How can you pay for your music without having an account? Tunecore is the best but they do not have enough stores.

I was on CD baby and it's very 'busy' - I didn't see any simple info about getting music onto iTunes, it needs an easily accessed FAQ.

i have been with tunecore for years and i agree with you on that, i have also been on all of the other sites, and guess where i laid my head….you rock !!!!

agreed….like this site as well

What I think is a certain drawback with Reverbnation is the fact the storage size of each song is limited to only 8MB. This might be fine for mp3 files in 128kBps but nowadays 256kBps or above are commonly used to provide a better quality so one will exceed the 8MB limit fairly easy. According to this the upgrade option to 25MB per song for 2$95/month or 29$95 should be mentionend more prominently and be considered by potential customers.
regards
wagabou

We are a UK band. I noticed there was an iTunes USA and an iTunes Japan. Is there an iTunes UK and if so how can we make sure our material is on that site?

Which of the above is the best for this?

Wooooou
Nice one Carlson, you really got me, and I know you 've got many of us out here too
but thats the problem cos you might not be able to control the crowd coming your door.
Anyway, you are my kind of guy so I choose you.

If you want to get wider distribution you are better off looking at http://www.dittomusic.com They handle sites like Spotify , we7, play , as well as 700 stores including all the ones tunecore do.
They are a lot cheaper too.

[...] need to decide upfront how best to price your music and deal with commissions and fees.  Here is a good guide that provides some details on getting started [...]

I would sure like to know which one of these companies is most technologically savvy & dependable. There is nothing worse than a site that takes hours to download music. Terrible for business. I don't mind paying the large fees if it means great customer service & top quality presentation. Unfortunately it seems you have to drink the wine to know if it's poisonous or not with all of these companies. Each one displays great selling points, but which ones run the most efficiently? In regards to downloads & web access, internationally. Anyone with past or present experience in dealing with one of these companies?

Iam very talented singer,, i got like 3.000.000 in youtube i need nice company to sell my cd
contact me pls
saeonline2009@gmail,com

What would happen if somebody ever tries to sell somebody's else music on these webs, specifically underground music that few people recognize? Will the owner or producer know?

Question for anyone with the answer. I am a writer/singer who has never recorded beyond a demo. My father who has stage 4 cancer has always wanted me to record. Well, now is the time because time is running out for him. I don’t have resources to go into a studio. I’ve been playing around on garage band. It’s pretty simple acoustic and vocals. What’s the chance that I can pull this off in garage band with enough quality? It’s something I have to find a way to do before he’s gone. Thanks for any comments.

How come http://routenote.com isnt on the list??

This is a very enlightening site, I will say! Very informative! But I have a question if anyone can help… I'm assuming besides the usp codes etc. that the online distribution provider will take care of, as far as the pre-distribution (i.e. publishing, etc.) how does that come into play when working with an online distribution co.? So say that I have my songs down on CD, I'm an Independent etc. by working with the online distributors, I'm not having sign over any publishing rights, correct? I can just copyright my music, get it down on CD, become my own publisher and then as far as distribution is where the online dist co.'s come in, right?

How do you turn off the annoying music playing when you come onto this site?

Hit the "pause/stop" button in the audio player at the top right corner of this page. (That's my annoying music playing, sorry.) :)

Nope, your rights are yours to keep.

Great question, it should be. There have actually been about 5-6 other sites mentioned in the comments here. I'm a new dad in a new home, and a little swamped…hopefully, I'll be able to catch up some time soon. :)

Frenchie: That correct, the rights are yours to keep in most cases. Be sure to read through each site's Terms and Conditions to be sure that's the case — don't sign anything blind.

Thanks Peter,
I appreciate your candor…. I actually just spoke to one of your people. She was outstanding at customer service. Everthing seems great. Hope to do business in a few weeks. Dave

ok, so I'll ask a question about the ugly word I haven't seen yet - taxes. Who takes care of collecting and remitting sales taxes, especially overseas?

it doesn't matter if itz cdbaby or tunecore, u better have sum money 2 promote urself. how else r u gonna sell ur trax if no 1 knows ur on itunes, amazon, zune & etc…

thanks man, this was very helpful.

Glad I could help, new5thpants. -Mike

Good question. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe the websites themselves (iTunes, plus all the vendors mentioned above), handle taxes on the front end.

You're ok.

Each to their own which is totally cool. I chose not to turn it off. Very nice for me.

Hi Chris. Did you ever get any feedback on this? The promotion end of town is one of the toughest areas to walk through.

Dittomusic ripped me off. They don't account properly.