You must have at least 20 albums. You must buy a Universal Product Code (UPC) and International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) for each song. You must have a Mac running OS X 10. 5. 8 or later.
Popular aggregators include Tunecore, CDBaby, and Catapult. There are many other popular aggregators that work with iTunes but are not on Apple’s list, including ADED. US Music Distribution, RecordUnion, Distrokid, Ditto, and ReverbNation.
’’’Single Songs:’’’ $10-$15 per song. ’’’Albums:’’’ $20-$60 per album (first year) Some companies charge annual fees to keep you album on iTunes, usually $40-$50 each year. [2] X Research source
’’’CDBaby and Catapult:’’’ Take 9% off of every song sold, but they have no annual fees. ’’’Tunecore and ReverbNation:’’’ Take nothing for each song, but they charge $50/year. Companies that take a percentage of royalties usually make you more money if you sell less than 1000 albums. [3] X Research source
Some aggregators pay monthly, others bi-monthly, and some weekly. Research your aggregators “royalties report” timeline to find when they will pay you.
’’’Outside Royalties:’’’ Tunecore, for example, will handle TV and film rights for you for a flat fee of $75, while CDBaby will collect royalties from other sites like SoundExchange for free. ’’’iTunes Preorder:’’’ Some companies (CDBaby, LouderFM) offer this for free, while others do not offer pre-orders (Distrokid) or have extra costs (Tunecore). ’’’Reporting:’’’ Almost every aggregator will send you statistics based on how your album or song is selling. Some will send you trend reports each day (Distrokid, Tunecore), while others sent reports weekly or monthly (CDBaby, ReverbNation). [4] X Research source
New musicians should avoid annual fees. Unless you can sell thousands of copies, you will make more money paying a cut of royalties to a company like CDBaby or MondoTunes. This allows you to keep your music on iTunes forever, not until you the day you can’t afford an annual fee anymore. [5] X Research source Established musicians should contact small, niche aggregators. Companies like InGroove and The Orchard only a few bands based on their quality and following. However, this means that they spend more time marketing your band and working with you to maximize sales. [6] X Research source Musicians with a large online backing should keep their royalties. Sites that charge annual fees but let you keep royalties are more profitable if you can sell over 1,000 copies a year. These sites are made for mid-range to large bands who can tap into an online community to drive sales.
Send the aggregator the best quality sound and picture files you have – they will convert them to the preferred iTunes format. [7] X Research source Some sites, like Tunecore, offer offer custom album artwork if you don’t have it.
Twitter: Try for 3-5 tweets per day. Facebook: Post at least twice a day. Pinterest: Post or re-pin another band 4-5 times a day. Blog: Try to write a post 3-4 times a week. Connect these accounts for the most success. For example, put your Twitter handle at the bottom of every blog post.
Create a QR code to send smartphone users directly to your music without clicking on any links.
