what mp3 download sevice pays us the most?

[buzzsmith]

You guys seem to know what you're talking about, so just out of curiosity, of the .99 cents that iTunes charges, what does Apple keep?

I know that the probable existence of iTunes is to encourage the sale of iPods, and maybe switch a few PC users to Macs, but just wondering what Apple keeps from each sale.

Thanks!

=bz=

[Timeline]

You guys seem to know what you're talking about, so just out of curiosity, of the .99 cents that iTunes charges, what does Apple keep?

I know that the probable existence of iTunes is to encourage the sale of iPods, and maybe switch a few PC users to Macs, but just wondering what Apple keeps from each sale.

Thanks!

=bz=

Here is the blurb from CDBABY's DD page:

How much do I get paid?
Every company is different, but the average is 60 cents per song downloaded, $6.50 per full-album download, and up to 1 cent (yep, some companies pay fractions of a cent) per listen or stream (when people listen to your song as if on a radio station, but don't download or buy it). Remember we only keep a 9% cut of the total income, and pay you 91%.

[James Steele]

Hmmm... interesting discussion. I have a dilemma here myself. I have a CD (probably EP) that I will finish about the beginning of 2006. I have a song that is soon to be done that I don't want to simply give away as free downloads, but charge something for. Is there a service that will just let you upload a tune and charge for downloads? Sounds like with CD Baby I would either have to burn 20 CDRs and make covers for them (do-able) to have a digital download available for purchase. But I want to put the digital download up before the CD comes out. I have large enough network locally that I could sell a few downloads easily, and I'm concerned about "perceived value"-- meaning if you just start *GIVING* your music away for FREE, it will be perceived as only worth that. Once your "fan base" is in the habit of FREE downloads, it seems like there's no going back.

What's the best way to accomplish this? I'm really at Square 1 here right now as I want to put a CD out in January and I'm thinking about how to get a UPC code, getting the music on iTunes. There's even a book out about how you can get stuff on iTunes as an independent label. Also, I'm planning on doing a remake of a tune or two and Harry Fox Agency wants to know your UPC as part of the license app.

I'm confused. If anybody knows a good reference to help someone negotiate this maze I'd appreciate some advice.

Also... what do people here think of sites like garageband.com, soundclick.com and myspace.com. I put a tune up there and created a band profile, but was careful to make the music streaming only, as it has been implied that once it's out there for free, the song is worth much less.

[Timeline]

Hmmm... interesting discussion. I have a dilemma here myself. I have a CD (probably EP) that I will finish about the beginning of 2006. I have a song that is soon to be done that I don't want to simply give away as free downloads, but charge something for. Is there a service that will just let you upload a tune and charge for downloads? Sounds like with CD Baby I would either have to burn 20 CDRs and make covers for them (do-able) to have a digital download available for purchase. But I want to put the digital download up before the CD comes out. I have large enough network locally that I could sell a few downloads easily, and I'm concerned about "perceived value"-- meaning if you just start *GIVING* your music away for FREE, it will be perceived as only worth that. Once your "fan base" is in the habit of FREE downloads, it seems like there's no going back.

What's the best way to accomplish this? I'm really at Square 1 here right now as I want to put a CD out in January and I'm thinking about how to get a UPC code, getting the music on iTunes. There's even a book out about how you can get stuff on iTunes as an independent label. Also, I'm planning on doing a remake of a tune or two and Harry Fox Agency wants to know your UPC as part of the license app.

I'm confused. If anybody knows a good reference to help someone negotiate this maze I'd appreciate some advice.

Also... what do people here think of sites like garageband.com, soundclick.com and myspace.com. I put a tune up there and created a band profile, but was careful to make the music streaming only, as it has been implied that once it's out there for free, the song is worth much less.

Just did it ourselves on CD BABY, (www.cdbaby.com/cd/retrobeast2) but didn't use digi distribution. If your selling an EP just set the price to 5.99 or 6.99 send them 5 and let it fly. Any digi release deefuses the value so won't matter James. Do what you feel is best.

Make sure if you list it you buy one to get it published to sound scan though. You would only do 2-3 bucks a cd. CDBABY will sell you the UPC. Considering Green day sells an entire EP for less than 3 bucks on iTunes you might consider putting a few more tunes on it but at least it'll be out there.

Once you release digital rights to anybody its totally gone into the frey. Don't plan on getting that back cause they can't. Not sure it matters for unknown artists anyway. Don't know about the others you mentioned but CDB is the best shot currently because it includes iTunes.

[James Steele]

Just did it ourselves on CD BABY, (www.cdbaby.com/cd/retrobeast2) but didn't use digi distribution. If your selling an EP just set the price to 5.99 or 6.99 send them 5 and let it fly. Any digi release deefuses the value so won't matter James. Do what you feel is best.

Make sure if you list it you buy one to get it published to sound scan though. You would only do 2-3 bucks a cd. CDBABY will sell you the UPC. Considering Green day sells an entire EP for less than 3 bucks on iTunes you might consider putting a few more tunes on it but at least it'll be out there.

Once you release digital rights to anybody its totally gone into the frey. Don't plan on getting that back cause they can't. Not sure it matters for unknown artists anyway. Don't know about the others you mentioned but CDB is the best shot currently because it includes iTunes.

Okay... thanks for the info. I was considering just doing a 4 song EP for starters and would probably sell them primarily through my email list of people my band had, but I've also got quite a number of hits to my web site due to a very lucky publicity opportunity recently. I don't know how many I would move, but it sounds like CD Baby would be the way to go. Do you know how long it takes from when they receive your CD to the time it takes to get it up on iTunes? What was the reason you didn't want to be on iTunes again? They're not secure enough?

Sorry if the questions seem pedestrian. I'm clueless.

[James Steele]

By the way, nothing prevents the artist from just adding shopping cart functionality to their own site and selling them direct of course, right? I'm getting hundreds of visits daily to my site, but it is declining daily and by the time the entire EP is in the can, it could be much lower. I wish I had some way to charge for a download in the meantime. This is going to require much thought. I could set up a PayPal purchase and people would be emailed a URL to the download upon payment. I have no illusions of getting rich here, but I think one of my tunes is worth 99 cents... LOL. Many of the "fanbase" of my former band would likely buy it, and I don't think they're savvy enough to hijack a stream into a file to circumvent it if I only allowed streaming before they purchased.