Get your music on iTunes, Amazon and others… quick and easy!
by Lonnie on Jan.14, 2009, under Music
I’m a musician who deals in experimental sounds, I’m not at all main stream! so of course, when it came time to getting my music heard and making it available to the world, I naturally thought that it’d benefit me greatly to get my music into iTunes, being that it’s the most popular online store available.
I submitted my work to iTunes and was rejected a few days later with a note suggesting that I need/should get myself signed to a label and that the label should then submit my work.
This quick article tells you how you can get into all of the major online music stores, literally, in a matter of minutes!
This article is going to be rather short because the process is amazingly simple..
The first thing you need to do is make sure that you’ve saved out your music as a high quality MP3, I would suggest 256kb bitrate or higher! the file size will be huge, but quality is important.
The next thing you need to do is create some album art, at least one graphic for the album in a decent resolution.. my first release was in 600×600 .. but higher is better! and I was excited :)
Set up a paypal account if you don’t already have one! but it’s 2009, you have one already, I’m sure..
Finally – go to www.tunecore.com and register an account, it takes no time at all … once you’re registered, you can submit an album and the artwork to them and they will submit it to whichever online music stores you want, you have quite a few options! .. It typically takes a few days/weeks to appear in the catalogs, but it always happens .. tunecore charges a one time fee for this … and you own your music! no labels and complete control!
Your royalty payments will come through tunecore and you will be notified via e-mail when they are ready to collect! you login and send the funds to your paypal account .. it’s very easy.
Another option that has been around longer than TuneCore is CD Baby … the disadvantage is that you cannot upload MP3 files, you need to send them a cd with your music on it.
Have fun .. check me out on iTunes/Amazon .. search for oneduality :)
Next, I recommend you look in to how to market your music for free on the internet!
If you found this helpful, please consider a donation!
If you have a question you’d like me to try to solve, go ahead and ask it :)
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January 16th, 2009 on 11:15 am
Thanks very much for the mention! We really are doing all we can to be there for artists. That’s why we take 0% of their earnings, making sure whatever the store pays, we pass on every penny to them, and we never take any rights. For too long, “gate keepers” have used their power to grab hold of artist’s rights, because they had that power. I remember when we started TuneCore, in my living room, we were so upset that companies were still doing this, in an age of file transfers, we just wanted to do something about it!
Anyway, thanks again for the mention. For TuneCore, we need REALLY high quality files, so save your material as 44.1 kHz .wav files (16 bit). We’ve got tutorials showing how. But you just upload them, it’s easy and surprisingly fast. Also, if you do experimental music, there are some tricks, such as long silences which might get interpreted as track breaks, we should talk about those.
If you or any of your readers have questions about us, feel free to drop me an email.
Thanks!
–Peter
peter@tunecore.com
January 16th, 2009 on 12:18 pm
As Peter said – they don’t charge you a percentage of your earnings, though there is an annual fee for storing your songs .. This fee is minimal, unless of-course your music simply doesn’t sell.
My experience with tunecore has been a very positive one, and I certainly suggest you look at them if you’re an artist trying to get your music out there.
Thanks also to Peter for stopping by and leaving a comment!
February 10th, 2009 on 5:57 am
Are you sure that they don’t take money from artists?How do they track or distribute sales?Do artists have their own digital sales accounts?They do not have enough stores.I know some artists who are signed with them.I suggest Reverbnation.
February 10th, 2009 on 8:02 am
Magnabyo,
TuneCore does charge an up front fee when you first submit your album, this fee covers things such as storing your files and the work involved in distributing to the various online stores that are out there. Once the submission is complete, you make 100% of the profit… but let me clarify what 100% means … 100% is the money you get from Amazon, iTunes, Rhapsody and any other store AFTER they take their own percentage… this fee comes directly from the store itself and has nothing to do with TuneCore, you’d have to deal with that using Reverbnation or any other service.. Additionally, if you choose to receive your funds via paypal, you obviously have a fee there as well… Just as with Reverbnation, you maintain all rights to your music when using TuneCore.
After reviewing Reverbnation, it looks like their services are pretty similar, but RN charges a little less … their feature comparison list is also not entirely correct, while I don’t really get promotional tools, I do get pretty detailed reporting including totals of each song sold by each retailer broken down by month.. TuneCore also distributes in more online stores than RN does, which allows your music to be heard by more people.
I think the biggest advantage TuneCore has however, is just the fact that they’ve been at it longer and I’ve been using them for a few years now, the support has been stellar ..
I do encourage everyone to evaluate your options and choose the best for you!
http://www.tunecore.com
http://www.reverbnation.com
http://www.cdbaby.com (hands down, the best for physical distribution in my opinion … down side, you have to send physical media.. so it’s not as convenient)
March 22nd, 2009 on 10:31 pm
There’s other reasons, especially when it comes to promotions and things we’re doing to help artists, like widgets and our iPhone app, all free.
I need to check back here more often, nice threads build up! Thanks again.
–Peter
peter@tunecore.com
March 26th, 2009 on 9:29 am
Always welcome here, Peter! I should be a featured artist for all the nice things I say *wink* .. kidding, my music is too out in left field :) Cya around sir.