Get Your Own Orignal Music ( even covers) For Sale On iTunes
I recently started a new company called TuneCore - http://www.tunecore.com
The goal of TuneCore is to allow anyone to get their music into iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, etc., 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.
I currently co-own and run spinART Records - releases include The Pixies, Apples In Stereo, Frank Black, The Dears, Richard Thompson and many more.
To this point in time, the only way to get into iTunes etc., is 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 upset 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. The artists Album, EP or single will appear in iTunes etc., along with their album art, band name, album title and liner notes. Anyone can buy their music, see your album art, listen to 30 second samples just like any other release on iTunes.
Once someone buys a song or album the artist is paid 100% of the money that iTunes etc., pays for the sale of their 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. They 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.
Artist fund their own tour, play night after night, eat Taco Bell, max out their credit cards and cause the sales and now they have to give up the money to some company that merely delivered it?!
Labels and aggregators pay out artists money in “royalty periods”. For example, they might pay you every three months and send your money only after they have taken their 9% - 50% cut.
With TuneCore, artists can get their money whenever they want - they just log into their TuneCore account and transfer it out via direct deposit, PayPal or we can mail 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 comments.
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
Spin.com piece on TuneCore
http://www.spin.com/features/news/2006/01/060119_tunecore/
London Daily Mirror piece on TuneCore
http://www.mirror.co.uk/webandgadgets/iblog/tm_objectid=16631728%26method=full%26siteid=94762-name_page.html
ABC World News Piece on Tune Core
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1533847
Lots more on us out there in the blogosphere
Thank You
Jeff Price
jeff@tunecore.com
http://www.tunecore.com
