Whats the point of selling using Itunes? any alternatives?

[musicman09]

can someone tell me what is the point of selling on itunes?

they take a big cut from what is essentially doing nothing other hosting your files.

and the fact that they are a company with one of the worst cases of awful working conditions for its employees in China for example.

What is the best place to sell online without using itunes?

anybody have any examples of what they've used and their experiences?

[grawk]

bandcamp

[Thefife]

The point of iTunes is ease of purchase for the largest number of potential buyers. For instance, if I want to buy an mp3 1 click will do it on iTunes since all of my payment info is set up. That's not the case at any other seller. So I am more likely to make a $.99 impulse buy with iTunes.

Beyond the ease of purchase, all of my music is stored in iTunes. When I download it I can easily add it to the place I want it. Other services require an extra step here as well.

You can complain about iTunes fees or about lazy customers, but it's just reality. If you want to the best chance to sell your music, put it on iTunes.

[musicman09]

ok thanks

but how does itunes pay you?

do they use paypal?

and do you get a full analysis of what you've sold?

[spaceman]

Originally Posted by musicman09

ok thanks

but how does itunes pay you?

do they use paypal?

and do you get a full analysis of what you've sold?

To be on iTunes, if you're an indie, use an aggregator like Tunecore, CDbaby, etc...
iTunes pays you thru your aggregator (70% of the sale). Each one has a different pricing model( Tunecore takes a flat fee of 50$ a year for each album and no percentage, CDbaby takes 9% and no fee each year, etc..). You have to compare them and find the one that suits you best.
You do get an analysis of what you sold, every month or so ( units sold, country, sometimes city, name of the track sold..)

Otherwise, Bandcamp does a fine job for direct to fan sales, Topspin is a bit more complex to setup and takes more money , but they have their strong points too. I still prefer Bandcamp.

PS: as other said here, 70% back to you is not bad at all, for what is the biggest online music store in the world, iTunes.

[rack gear]

Originally Posted by musicman09

can someone tell me what is the point of selling on itunes?

they take a big cut from what is essentially doing nothing other hosting your files.

and the fact that they are a company with one of the worst cases of awful working conditions for its employees in China for example.

What is the best place to sell online without using itunes?

anybody have any examples of what they've used and their experiences?

30% is too much? really?

[narcoman]

indeed. Especially as shop markups were as much as 100% so the MOST a label got was 50%.....

[ciperlone]

Originally Posted by spaceman

To be on iTunes, if you're an indie, use an aggregator like Tunecore, CDbaby, etc...
iTunes pays you thru your aggregator (70% of the sale). Each one has a different pricing model( Tunecore takes a flat fee of 50$ a year for each album and no percentage, CDbaby takes 9% and no fee each year, etc..). You have to compare them and find the one that suits you best.
You do get an analysis of what you sold, every month or so ( units sold, country, sometimes city, name of the track sold..)

Otherwise, Bandcamp does a fine job for direct to fan sales, Topspin is a bit more complex to setup and takes more money , but they have their strong points too. I still prefer Bandcamp.

PS: as other said here, 70% back to you is not bad at all, for what is the biggest online music store in the world, iTunes.

There's also ReverbNation. I think it's the cheapest aggregator on the market, but I've never tryed it. Anyone?

Bandcamp is cool because one can create cupon discounts and send special codes for fans, so they can downlod music for free. Also, you can post an album for free (or a price), and people can donate whatever they want more.

[Gary Ladd]

Originally Posted by ciperlone

There's also ReverbNation. I think it's the cheapest aggregator on the market, but I've never tryed it. Anyone?

Bandcamp is cool because one can create cupon discounts and send special codes for fans, so they can downlod music for free. Also, you can post an album for free (or a price), and people can donate whatever they want more.

You can download off BandCamp all day for free, if the music is linked to listen...I'm not talking about recording the audio via soundcard, I'm talking about DLing it directly.

ReverbNation is a little tougher, but it can also be DLed directly too

Most artists have no idea, but I check sites like these from time-to-time to see, and they're all for the most part only partially secure...

[RRCHON]

Originally Posted by musicman09

and the fact that they are a company with one of the worst cases of awful working conditions for its employees in China for example.

If you think Apple is the company to have a deal with FOXCONN or that FOXCONN is much more evil than any other sweatbox in China you are sorely mistaken.

At least Apple might do something about it, most other large offshore fabrication companies would probably just fire one factory and hire an other that does the same stuff with some added PR spin to boot.

Conditions in China in general need to get better, which means things will cost more to make in China which mean currency valuation with means good for the entire world when it comes to competing in manufacturing (but things will cost more everywhere.)

In the end - it is now and will always be an issue of cost and as long as you think 30 cents out of 100 is too much to pay someone for basically making your song available to a whole lot of people who "might" look for it, then you shouldn't really be throwing stones about people c heaping out on X or Y.

Back in the day music store probably had a 150% markup, publishing, printing and production costs probably took 60% and the rest got divided up contractually. You would have been lucky to make 30-40 cents per single.

[rogerbrain]

Originally Posted by Gary Ladd

You can download off BandCamp all day for free, if the music is linked to listen...I'm not talking about recording the audio via soundcard, I'm talking about DLing it directly.

ReverbNation is a little tougher, but it can also be DLed directly too

Most artists have no idea, but I check sites like these from time-to-time to see, and they're all for the most part only partially secure...

good to know .. I fall into the "no idea' group... but the folks that would do that probably would not pay for it anyway.. the ones that will pay probably won't do that...

[Gary Ladd]

Originally Posted by rogerbrain

good to know .. I fall into the "no idea' group... but the folks that would do that probably would not pay for it anyway.. the ones that will pay probably won't do that...

Have no idea about iTunes or the other techie-land based get rich quick schemes, and I don't want my PC loaded with bloatware/spyware/adware, so I have not even installed iTunes on a computer in 5+ years - no idea if iTunes can be leeched directly...

Of course, I'm not a sheepster browsing on pastures of ignorant bliss, as I don't suffer from facebook psychosis - I still buy my music by CD/Vinyl Disc, imagine that!

Not supporting IT looting operations has narrowed it down a bit for me, but as I have been running my own e-Biz since the early days, I can always set-up and run my own Apache HTTP Server if/when I get serious about selling music again...

IMHO the artist should ALWAYS receive at minimum 50% of download income, and given the ever cheaper nature and expansion of broadband, I see no reason why it should be ethically less than 70-80% once sites are established and running good traffic stats.

Of course everyone wants to be a rock star, just asked an untalented POS like Suckerberg

Now, we just have to get those nasty terrorists/pirates that create/support file-sharing locked-up, terminated or otherwise dealt on the same level Civilized Nations have dealt with threats from the Golden Horde > al-Qaeda

Then (and only then) can IP creators once again be able to enjoy economic viability, even if it's just a decent middle class lifestyle.

[rogerbrain]

Originally Posted by Gary Ladd

Have no idea about iTunes or the other techie-land based get rich quick schemes, and I don't want my PC loaded with bloatware/spyware/adware, so I have not even opened iTunes in my browser in 5+ years to see if direct leeching is possible...

Of course, I'm not a sheepster browsing on pastures of ignorant bliss, as I don't suffer from facebook psychosis - I still buy my music by CD/Vinyl Disc, imagine that!

Not supporting IT looting operations has narrowed it down a bit for me, but as I have been running my own e-Biz since the early days, I can always set-up and run my own Apache HTTP Server if/when I get serious about selling music again...

IMHO the artist should ALWAYS receive at minimum 50% of download income, and given the ever cheaper nature and expansion of broadband, I see no reason why it should be ethically less than 70-80% once sites are established and running good traffic stats.

Of course everyone wants to be a rock star, just asked an untalented POS like Suckerberg

Now, we just have to get those nasty terrorists/pirates that create/support file-sharing locked-up, terminated or otherwise dealt on the same level Civilized Nations have dealt with threats from the Golden Horde > al-Qaeda

Then (and only then) can IP creators once again be able to enjoy economic viability, even if it's just a decent middle class lifestyle.

actually wondering specifically about how easy is it to pirate from Bandcamp .. I have a good bit of music there..

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by Gary Ladd

Have no idea about iTunes or the other techie-land based get rich quick schemes, and I don't want my PC loaded with bloatware/spyware/adware, so I have not even opened iTunes in my browser in 5+ years to see if direct leeching is possible...

eh?

[Gary Ladd]

Originally Posted by rogerbrain

actually wondering specifically about how easy is it to pirate from Bandcamp .. I have a good bit of music there..

I could say more, but it would only help ignorant degenerates with becoming more adept @ piracy

Underneath the whole file-sharing phenom - that has enabled thievery globally, down to even uneducated masses - there lies a WORSE problem:

Anything you can hear/see streaming on the internet is basically unsecured, and we're at least a generation away from that even being addressed, and there's -0- methods to 100% secure streaming IP with current hardware/software (that I'm aware of).

NEVER put FULL-HD samples of your work online, unless you want to give it away for free