Get Your Own Orignal Music ( even covers) For Sale On iTunes

Posted January 28th, 2006 by Enabler

News & Rumors

My name is Jeff Price and I co-own and run spinART Records ( http://www.spinartrecords.com) - releases by The Pixies, Dears, Echo & The Bunnymen, Richard Thompson Apples In Stereo, Clem Snide etc.

Next, I started a new company called TuneCore. The goal of TuneCore is to allow anyone to get their music into iTunes without having to give up any rights and get 100% of the money from the sale of their music. It sounds like a simple idea, but honestly it has never been done before.

To this point in time, the only way to get into iTunes etc., was to be signed to a record label or go through an "aggregator" - an aggregator is a middleman between unsigned artists and places like iTunes. Aggregators are not labels. With both aggregators and labels, to get your music into places like iTunes you must give up some of your rights and between 9% - 50% of the money generated from the sale of your music.

This pissed me off so I decided to do something about.

TuneCore will get ANY band or artist's music into iTunes, Rhapsody and all of the other on-line digital stores. Your Album, EP or single will appear in iTunes etc., along with your album art, band name, album title and liner notes. Anyone can buy your music, see your album art, listen to 30 second samples just like any other release on iTunes.

Once someone buys a song or album you get paid 100% of the money that iTunes etc., pays for the sale of your song(s) or album(s). The amount iTunes etc., pays is the exact same amount of money any other indie artist/record label gets paid.

Actually, that's not totally accurate. You actually get paid more. Any other artist in iTunes has to give up between 9% - 50% of the money earned from the sale of their music to their record label or aggregator that got them into the store. TuneCore takes none of it.

In addition, labels and aggregators take their 9% - 50% cut for around three to five years.

This is ridiculous as aggregators did NOTHING to cause these sales. It's like going into Fed Ex to send your album to iTunes and Fed Ex says the cost for delivering the package will be 9% - 50% of the money generated from the sale of your music for the next three years.

You go out, bust your ass, eat Taco Bell, max out your credit cards and you cause the sales and now you have to give up the money to some company that merely delivered it?!

Labels and aggregators pay out your money in "royalty periods". For example, they will pay you every three months and send your money only after they have taken their 9% - 50% cut.

With TuneCore, you can get your money whenever you want - just log into your TuneCore account and transfer it out via direct deposit, PayPal or we can mail you a check.

I tried to keep the costs for TuneCore cheap. I honestly wanted all artists to be able to afford it.

TuneCore charges:
$0.99 per song on each Album, EP, or Single - this cost includes getting your music in the iTunes US store.

For other optional stores and services - Rhapsody, Napster, iTunes UK, etc.:
$0.99 each per Album, EP or single

There is also an annual Maintenance & Storage Fee
$7.98 per Album, EP or Single

So there you are - is this email spam? Maybe, but it is also my rant against these companies screwing over artists.

It was time to do something about it.

Feel free to email me back with any questions or comment.

Some more info on TuneCore can be found:
FAQ
http://www.tunecore.com/index/faq

About The Founders
http://www.tunecore.com/index/bios

MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/tunecore

Some recent press
London Daily Mirror piece
http://www.mirror.co.uk/webandgadgets/iblog/tm_objectid=16631728%26method=full%26siteid=94762-name_page.html

Spin.com piece on TuneCore
http://www.spin.com/features/news/2006/01/060119_tunecore/