How do I get my music on iTunes ???

[firby]

Ok. For a couple of years I have been trudging around practicing, composing, recording. Now I have some stuff that is not bad at all coming out of my rig. Its stuff like Justice or perhaps LCD Soundsystem, or Thievery Corporation.

Not bad stuff at all. I have done absolutely zero as far as playing out, press stuff or anything with this material so far. I am not a wanker though I have done all of the live stuff before Playing as a drummer in about 50 bands. I need to figure out what happens next and I would like to sell this stuff.

Because I bought alot of the stuff that influenced me as of late via iTunes I am wondering how you do it. How do you sell on iTunes ?? Is it worth it ? Basically can some of you with experience chime in and tell me what I should do and where I should go to figure this stuff out ?

Thanks for your time slutz.

Regards.

[tubehead]

Signup with CDbaby.

cdbaby.net

or try going it alone.

[Classic]

Go the CDbaby route if you're testing the waters for digital downloads (iTunes), but it's important to get on iTunes IMO.

[underworld]

another option is TuneCore (TuneCore: Welcome) - they handle publishing independent artists to iTunes, Rhapsody, and other digital music e-tailers. it's not very expensive, although - for me - it took quite a while (months) to get a single song onto iTunes.

[GitWizards]

I've been interested in TuneCore. That sucks that it took so long to get a song up on iTunes. Do you plan to use them again in the future because of the delay?

[underworld]

Originally Posted by GitWizards

I've been interested in TuneCore. That sucks that it took so long to get a song up on iTunes. Do you plan to use them again in the future because of the delay?

i'm undecided. i went that route to try and figure out the mechanics of it. i'm in the process of working on my own "EP", and wanted to know what to expect in terms of costs and logistics to get on iTunes. Tunecore seemed to offer an easy solution, so I tested the waters.

i believe i posted my song to iTunes in like february - and it was scheduled to go-live on itunes in like may ... which is already a long time. then, i was told, there was some problem with the batch of songs that included mine, which delayed me until sometime in june. it's kind of hard to imagine exactly what took so long, since i provided a digital audio file - you would think they could post that nearly instantly. i realize there's additional setup (accounting and what-not), but most of that could be automated as well.

so - once I finish my EP - i'll look at Tunecore as one of my options, but probably not the only option.

[ismokind]

CDBaby is the way to go. Our newest release was on iTunes within three weeks of cdbaby receiving it. Also 13 other sites (So far) even sold a CD to a guy in Japan off CDBaby the first hour it was up. They have gone out of their way to accommodate us.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/M...stId=270519281

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by firby

I have done absolutely zero as far as playing out, press stuff or anything with this material so far. I am not a wanker though I have done all of the live stuff before Playing as a drummer in about 50 bands. I need to figure out what happens next and I would like to sell this stuff

Selling it is the hard part. Putting it on iTunes won't magically get people looking for your music. The labels used to be so important for their ability to market music. I don't know what the model is anymore, but just becoming another one of 50 millions songs available isn't going to get you found.

[GitWizards]

Thanks for the details Underworld. With TuneCore I've heard you retain all the rights and get all the sales money after the initial fee. Is this the same for CD Baby?
Thanks

[Classic]

I've done both TuneCore and CDbaby, and I really feel CDbaby is the way to go for the long run. With TuneCore, you have the setup fee, plus a yearly maintenance fee (although it's small), whereas CDbaby, you pay them once and it's done. Why keep pumping money into something that isn't selling 8 years down the road?

As far as how fast they get it on digital download sites, Tunecore was the fastest for me, about 3 weeks.

[GitWizards]

Ahh, I didn't know about the maintenance fee. That is very good to know. I'm a good three to six months from releasing anything anyway, but it's great to be prepared when I get there. As someone mentioned, I suppose promotion is the hard part.

[Protools Guy]

I'm another advocate of CD Baby. They get your songs up on iTunes pretty quickly and their checks are good!!