Lonnie Knows Everything

I’ve written about WaTunes before back when I was evaluating their free service as an alternative to TuneCore, After spending some time using the service, and after having been with TuneCore since 2007, I decided to write up a comparison of the two services .. so check that out if you’re not familiar with either.

Recently the guys over at WaTunes added AmazonMP3 to the list of stores you get your music included in as part of their VIP offering, which is minimal in price especially when you consider the competiton .. This doesn’t mean that the “free” users are out in the cold, you have the option to opt-in for a $10 fee per album to get your content in Amazon.

But wait .. there’s more!

In addition to AmazonMP3, it seems the WaTunes guys have worked with amazon to offer you the ability to sell physical cd’s via their “On Demand” service ..  which is included free for VIP users, and as part of the $10 “opt-in” fee that you pay for AmazonMP3 ..

So this cool up and coming distribution channel just got cooler in my opinion!

If you’d like to read WaTunes’ news article on this, head on over here!

Ps. Other than the fact I’m a user of both TuneCore and WaTunes music services, I’m not otherwise affiliated with either.

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Oneduality’s next release entitled “Welcome to my Everlasting Nightmare”, The Best of Oneduality .. has been submitted to WaTunes today.

Hopefully you’ll see it available for general consumption within 3-4 weeks! And maybe I’ll get lucky and it’ll see it’s way into Amazon Kevin? jk

What you’ll find on this album is a collection of 22 songs that are the most popular of my releases, including a few new and unreleased tunes.. you’re looking at about an hour of electronic noise and ambient atmospheres.

I hope you enjoy!

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I have donated, and I won’t say more, I’ll just share Trent’s note ..

 A Letter from Trent:

This is for something important. Eric De La Cruz is dying and needs a heart transplant. He keeps getting turned down for a transplant list because he’s on Nevada Medicaid, and there are no transplant centers in Nevada. We want to get involved and hopefully so do you, so we’re extending a hand. His sister Veronica (former Anchor and Internet Correspondent for CNN) has started a campaign to save his life.

Eric’s situation shines a bright light on a broken health care system, and his particular set of problems are being addressed on the political front, aiming for reform in addition to the need for immediate financial help to keep him alive TODAY. I think we can help with the latter.

Here’s what we’re offering – three options:

If you have a ticket to a NIN/JA show: if you donate $1,000 to this cause, we’ll invite you to come hang out with us before the NIN/JA show of your choice. You and a guest can watch NIN and Street Sweeper Social Club’s soundchecks, eat dinner backstage with us, take pics / get autographs and watch the show from the side of the stage if you’d like.

If you donate $300, you and a friend can join us for NIN and SSSC’s soundchecks and a handshaking / hug session before doors open at the NIN/JA show of your choice.

If you do NOT have a ticket to a NIN/JA show: if you donate $1,200 to this cause, we’ll invite you to come hang out with us before the NIN/ JA show of your choice and provide 2 tickets (best available). You and a guest can watch soundcheck, eat dinner backstage with us, take pics / get autographs and watch the show from the side of the stage if you’d like.

100% of the money collected from this will go directly to Eric’s fund.

I hope you’ll consider helping out with this.

Sincerely, Trent Reznor

To help Eric … go here and donate http://store.nin.com/helperic/

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A while back I wrote an article on how to make use of TuneCore to get your music into a wide range of online stores for distribution and I’d like to follow up by introducing another competitor in the online distribution game.

Before I continue I do want to say that my experience with TuneCore has been top notch, the guys there are very responsive and have even taken part in discussions on this blog.

The new kid on the block is WaTunes .. I recently got introduced to this group and since I had a new single I was looking to release, I decided to use the opportunity to give them the test drive.. The big thing that is attractive about WaTunes is that they are entirely free and they give you 100% of your royalties.. TuneCore isn’t free, and while they do give you 100% of your royalties.. if you’re a new and relatively unknown musician I can almost guarantee that their fee to submit the album to the stores and the annual renewal will probably be more than you will earn in online sales ..

So let’s compare services..

TuneCore:

Cost: $9.99 for a single track annually and  up to $20+ depending on the number of stores you distribute to, also annually
Number of Stores: 9 – iTunes (5 countries), Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic and IMVU, La La, Shockhound and Amie Street
Usability: TuneCore is exceptionally easy to use, you upload your music right there and submit it.

WaTunes:

Cost: Free
Number of Stores: 3 – At this point, they distribute to iTunes, Rhapsody and eMusic
Usability: Not as easy to use, you have to set up your album then upload a zip file.. not hard, just not simple as TuneCore!

Also worthy to note about WaTunes – They offer services to get your music played on the radio and they have a VIP service coming soon ($29/year) to get you into more stores and get some detailed reporting..

Bottom Line:

If you’re a new, relatively unknown artist .. I would STRONGLY recommend that you give WaTunes a try first.. you can get your music out there at no cost and work on building your name… Once you’ve made a name for yourself, you have the option of switching over to TuneCore for broader distribution, or upgrade your WaTunes account to VIP and get out there more..  I also want to note that I’ve had more sales on Amazon than I have iTunes .. so I hope that WaTunes offers that option soon.

If  TuneCore had a free offering that perhaps included less stores then I doubt WaTunes could touch them, but it’s hard to beat free so I think WaTunes is going to be attractive and steal some business from TuneCore .. I personally plan to release my new work on WaTunes to maximize my profit.

It is also very important to note that WaTunes’ VIP cost of $29/year includes as many albums or singles as you want to release, and TuneCore’s offering does not .. to put this into perspective, let’s say you release 3 albums and your TuneCore cost is $19.99,  you’ll be paying $19.99 x 3 for a total of $59.97/year .. I have 5 albums so my expense is nearly $100/year with TuneCore … VIP at WaTunes makes my expense a mere $29.99/year regardless.

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Version 1.5.2 of Dynamic Header Images has been released

This version introduces support for VirtueMart categories (by request)

Head on over to this link for more information

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