For a lot of musicians, getting on iTunes is one of those things before that somehow seemed like a dream. Everybody wanted in on it because the world was their stage and there were millions of people "watching" thru the iTunes platform. But in this day and age, it seems easier but a lot of people I know still ask me how I got on it. With this in mind, I'd like to share some ideas on how to get your music onto iTunes for distribution.
There are a few options I can think of and I hope these can help you on your way :)
1. The most obvious is to get signed onto a label - ok don't dismiss this first if you feel like getting on a label may be another huge hurdle for you. I know you're reading this because of the fact that you may want to skip that but bear with me here. It's not as hard to get on a label these days. I recently wrote and blogged on getting signed and even had a video done on how to get your music onto beatport which is somewhat related so you might also wanna watch that. With a little work put in, you may just find yourself on iTunes WITHOUT having to shell out any cash.
2. Get distributed - There are a couple of routes here so it depends on how you want to go about it...
I got into itunes via my account on Reverbnation. It's a music social networking site that has really great features. They have a distribution package that you pay for annually and you get a lot of analytics/stats that lets you know if you're creating an impact or even having people listen to your tunes. I like the stats that are free for any RN account and the instant payout updates you get from their sales reports is great. The only thing I don't like is the annual fee because a lot of the competition doesn't have that. Though in their defense, it's because you keep 100% royalties. But for an indie artist, I'd rather go with a percentage cut rather than paying upfront and annually for my album to be sold. But for the purpose of getting your music on iTunes and a lot of other digital stores PLUS the stats, this is a good option. I think this is the quickest and cheapest option so far given the pluses.
The other option is looking into its competition like Tunecore.com. Tunecore is actually the big gun in this game and you can look at their packages and page that they really mean business. You can also consider them if you're not into the whole social network thing of Reverbnation.
The last option is formal distribution... I know you may be asking aren't the above two distribution already? Are they informal? Well, it's more like a use of terms on my end. For me formally getting yourself distributed is more by the way of putting up a label or applying for distribution to companies who really handle label distribution. These companies may or may not charge upfront fees so take the time to look around and see which packages they offer fit your catalog if you're planning to put up a label or if you wanna sign up as an artist. One thing to note however, is that most take in labels and they sometimes seem like record labels themselves in the sense that they will really listen to your material first before taking you in for distribution because a lot of them also have some standard or focus more on a particular type of sound. You may be applying into some distributor as a rock band when in fact, they focus on dance labels. So be sure to do your research. This writeup is the first step so I hope this makes things easier on your part instead of just going round in circles.
It's worth looking into the following distribution companies that came up in my research :)
feiyr
believe digital
rebeat digital
kvz
bleep
baseware
ingrooves
ioda
labelworx
So there! I hope this little tutorial will help you on your way to getting and sharing your music with the world. If you have any question, feel free to post away :)
God bless!
Cy
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