iTunes Music Store music video audio level question...

[Whitecat]

Hey everyone

I'm finishing up the post on a music video which is ultimately destined, among other places, for the iTunes music store.

Strictly going by the info available on Tunecore, they want broadcast tapes or broadcast-codec quicktimes - but there is no info on levels. Will their QC reject a tape or a quicktime if it's too hot? Or can I "assume" [har, love doing that in this business, it ALWAYS fails] because there's no instruction as to levels that you can go as hot as you want?

I'm pretty sure they're actually _not_ going through Tunecore, the band has a label deal but I'm just trying to get a head start because getting anything out of their management is like pulling teeth from hen's beaks... I'm still (after two weeks) trying to get something better than an MP3 of the damn song let alone specs for the deliverables.. ** sigh **

Advice welcome from anyone who's done this before!

[Rick Sanchez]

Originally Posted by terminal3

Hey everyone

I'm finishing up the post on a music video which is ultimately destined, among other places, for the iTunes music store.

Strictly going by the info available on Tunecore, they want broadcast tapes or broadcast-codec quicktimes - but there is no info on levels. Will their QC reject a tape or a quicktime if it's too hot? Or can I "assume" [har, love doing that in this business, it ALWAYS fails] because there's no instruction as to levels that you can go as hot as you want?

I'm pretty sure they're actually _not_ going through Tunecore, the band has a label deal but I'm just trying to get a head start because getting anything out of their management is like pulling teeth from hen's beaks... I'm still (after two weeks) trying to get something better than an MP3 of the damn song let alone specs for the deliverables.. ** sigh **

Advice welcome from anyone who's done this before!

Lacking any more information, I would stay within general broadcast audio specs. Nothing over -10dBfs would probably be a fairly safe bet. Going over may get you into trouble with their encoders, which may have limiters.

[Whitecat]

Originally Posted by Rick Sanchez

Lacking any more information, I would stay within general broadcast audio specs. Nothing over -10dBfs would probably be a fairly safe bet. Going over may get you into trouble with their encoders, which may have limiters.

I'm probably going to go down that road anyway. I have a few music videos downloaded from the iTMS and they're all quieter than my music, so I think that's the way forward.

Unfortunately, the encode for Myspace needs to be "as loud as possible" according to the director... hmmm...

[musikwerks]

You can safely go to CD level with a music video for itunes. If it's via tunecore they will likely be encoding at BitMax.

[Whitecat]

Originally Posted by musikwerks

You can safely go to CD level with a music video for itunes. If it's via tunecore they will likely be encoding at BitMax.

Aha, cool, thanks for that. If I ever hear back from band management/label then I'll know for sure how it's getting to the iTMS. Would be easier of course just to use the track as-is.

[musikwerks]

You still can. It's no problem to send a -10db master. I have done it and had no issues.

[Whitecat]

Originally Posted by musikwerks

You still can. It's no problem to send a -10db master. I have done it and had no issues.

Cool, good to know for the future - they've decided not to do a tape-out yet so everything's gonna be CD level, although I've knocked 1db off it just because the loud bits are touching 0dbFS and I don't want to be accused of clipping it!

They're not going through Tunecore, I finally found out... it's going through PIAS, apparently.