UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

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MIDI Life Crisis
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UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Can someone with knowledge of iTunes please confirm for me that in order to sell on iTunes I have to buy a UPC code for each song ($89/each album) and for each album ISRC ($80/each song).

IOW, a song with 16 cuts will cost me $1049 before i see a penny from iTunes?

Seriously, is that correct?
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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by oldecuriosity »

Don't think so . . . if you go through CDBaby or a similar company, I believe they will take care of the UPC codes for much cheaper (maybe $5 an album?) and assign ISRC codes. I haven't released anything new in a while, but I believe I paid a one-time fee that was around $80 (if memory serves) that allowed me the ability to assign my own ISRC codes - more than I'll probably ever use.

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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

Thanks, I'll check that out.
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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by mikehalloran »

ISRCs

For a one time fee of $80, you get the lifetime ability to generate up to 99,999 ISRC codes per year.

These are arbitrary catalog codes. The only part that is registered to you are the first five characters of which the first two are letters (QM for the USA) are your country code. Every year you start with a new sequence. For everyone in 2013, it's 13-00001 up to 13-99999. On Jan 1, it becomes 14-00001 and so on.

http://www.usisrc.org/


UPCs

Although there are companies that are glad to do you the favor of selling you a UPC or two, generally at $89 or so, this gets expensive and might not be a practical solution. CD Baby is another way to go.

You can generate your own. Here is a Wall Street Journal article with the info you need to go that route:

http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/st ... roducts-2/
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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by mikehalloran »

CD Baby Bar Codes

UPC Bar Code FAQ
http://members.cdbaby.com/faq.aspx#upc2

What is a UPC bar code and why do I need one?

A UPC bar code is a unique 12-digit serial number that identifies your specific product (in this case, an album) amongst all the other products on the marketplace. You need a UPC if you want to:

take advantage of our digital distribution program
take advantage of our in-store distribution program
have CD Baby report your sales to SoundScan.
This is because all of these organizations track and report sales based on the UPC code.

If you already have a UPC code for your album, you can use that one. If not, you can easily purchase one from us.

We can make you your own permanent UPC bar code for only $20 for an album, $5 for a single song.

You may have heard that UPC bar codes cost $750. You could go register as a company with the GS1 US organization, and pay them $750 to be a GS1 US member. They would assign you a UPC prefix, and you could release thousands of products under that company registration.

But most of us independent artists are only going to release a few records - and paying $750 wipes out all the profit you'd make from your first 100 album sales.

So - CD Baby has paid the $750, and can give you your own unique UPC bar code for only $20 for an album, $5 for a single song. It will be entirely yours, forever. When your bar code on your CD is scanned by a retail store, it will show up on the register as YOUR album, YOUR band, YOUR record company. Not CD Baby.

If you want to do this, you need to be a CD Baby member. If you sign up now, give us the information about your CD, pay the $20 for an album or $5 for a single song, then we can make your UPC bar code now, and you'll be ready-to-go on CD Baby when your CDs get back from the factory. If you're already a CD Baby member, login to pay for it, and we'll do the rest.

It takes just a few hours for us to make your bar code, so watch your email after you pay. We give you a BITMAP graphic file, which you can either place into your album art, or print onto stickers. We don't do the printing for you. We just give you the unique UPC bar code graphic and digits.


Why is it NOT OK for me to change my album's UPC bar code?

A UPC bar code identifies an individual product in the marketplace. If you want SoundScan to track each sale, then you should purchase a valid unique bar code for your album/single and have all sales tallied and reported according to THAT serial number. It is acceptable to have different bar codes for different formats of the same album: vinyl, download, CD, etc. However, if you assign another album's bar code to a new release, combine two bar code numbers, or make up an invalid bar code number, you may be removed from CD Baby or any of our third party distributors (digital and in-store). Using an incorrect or invalid bar code causes serious confusion for our distribution partners and can potentially limit another artist's ability to have their sales reported accurately.
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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

What a PITA! Thanks.
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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by mikehalloran »

Michael,

Your question couldn't be more timely. I paid the $80 for ISRCs just last week and dedicated this afternoon to finding out more about UPCs and iTunes when I saw your question.

I happened to stumble on this FAQ from the iTunes Store:

Indie Music Signup FAQs
http://www.apple.com/itunes/content-pro ... c-faq.html

I assume that most of us know this but for those who don't, especially non US residents. Sole Proprietors without employees can use their Social Security Numbers as their U.S. Tax ID referred to in the FAQ or apply for a business tax ID from irs.gov. Everyone else must apply for a U.S. Tax ID. Many of us also know it as an EIN (Employer Identification Number).
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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by mikehalloran »

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:What a PITA! Thanks.
The ISRC application took a few minutes and was processed in 24 hours.

Assigning them to a track couldn't be easier. In Toast, click on a track then click on the More button to the right. Under Disk, you'll see where to enter the UPC; under Track you enter the ISRC.

It looks like signing up with CD Baby is worth it for the inexpensive UPCs - even if you do nothing else with the membership.

Here's the GS1 pricing matrix if you go direct:

Step 2: Determine your GS1 Company Prefix Pricing

A GS1 Company Prefix comes in five different “capacities” that allow you to create as few as 10 unique items and as many as 100,000 unique items. Our pricing schedule is based on the number of unique items that you need to identify. Your Initial Fee licenses the Company Prefix to you for one year. After that, you’ll pay the Annual Renewal Fee to continue using the licensed Company Prefix for your barcodes.

Number of Items Needing a Barcode/GTIN* Initial Fee Annual Renewal Fee
1 - 10 ..... $250 .... $50
1 - 100 ...... $750 ........ $150
1 - 1,000 ........ $2,500 ......... $500
1 - 10,000 ...... $6,500 ........ $1,300
1 - 100,000 ...... $10,500 ............ $2,100

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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by MIDI Life Crisis »

That's the page that I found too. I'm not sure what to do. I have over 1000 works, several which contain multiple works within them and a collaborator is urging me to get my stuff online for sale. She is pushing me in the direction of the rolyalty-free houses as the profits are potentially great, but you become "anonymous" in the credits and the houses aren't answering me about BMI and ASCAP ramifications. As you know, one short title in a commercial or TV show could bring in as much in one national airing as years of little $10/20 one off uses might bring.

Much to ponder... I'm not about to sell off the farm with dreams of millions and I'm not about to make my music "anon." But I also am not going to pay to play on iTunes either. DYI? Hmmmm....

So if I do decide to do this, CDBaby does look like the logical choice.
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Re: UPCs and ISRC for iTunes?

Post by mikehalloran »

So if I do decide to do this, CDBaby does look like the logical choice.
I have to agree. $6,500/$1,300 is a chunk to amortize without a firm revenue stream to justify it. OTOH, $20 album + $5 song is easier to swallow as part of the the cost of a project.

Fortunately, the $80 is easy to justify as a one-time overhead cost.
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