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Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 5:46 pm
by BKK-OZ
Further to my thread on SoundCloud, BandCamp et al, here is an email I received today from Distrokid:
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Hi,
DistroKid is already the easiest way to get your music into iTunes. Today, we made it super easy to get into Apple's upcoming new service, Apple Music.
You may have heard about Apple Music. It's Apple's forthcoming streaming service that will go head-to-head with existing streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, and more.
If you missed Apple's announcement, see this video (skip to minute 104 for the relevant part):
http://apple.co/1cwHDNv
DistroKid can get your music into Apple Music (for no additional cost!)
Existing albums- Sign into DistroKid, click your album, then click "add to new stores." (if you've opted into Store Maximizer, we'll do this for you.)
New albums- Just select "Apple Music" when you upload a new album.
Apple Music officially goes live June 30, 2015. Follow the steps above before then, and you'll be there when Apple Music goes live.
One more thing...
Apple also announced something called Apple Connect. That's your personal artist profile within Apple Music. You'll be able to upload photos, video and more to your Apple Music profile--directly to Apple. To claim your Apple Connect profile, go here and login with your Apple ID:
https://artist.itunes.apple.com/p/artistconnect/
Apple will notify you when your claim is approved. If you're not on a record label, just enter your personal info as the "record label" details.
Thanks for using DistroKid! We're happy to always bring you the latest. And to do it better than anyone else.
Rock on,
DistroKid
https://distrokid.com
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Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 6:18 pm
by BKK-OZ
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 6:48 pm
by mikehalloran
Well you know that CD Baby will have their gateway packages any day now.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 7:20 pm
by BKK-OZ
mikehalloran wrote:Well you know that CD Baby will have their gateway packages any day now.
No, I didn't. More info?
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 10:22 pm
by James Steele
Well, I would think that Apple would just push the music on iTunes to Apple Music wouldn't they? BTW, you don't need to go through your aggregator like TuneCore in order to apply to have control over your Apple Music artist space. I already put in my request.
http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/09/how-to-ge ... tist-page/
As for submitting music to Apple Music versus iTunes, is there a difference? TuneCore has no separate "store" indicated for Apple Music that I could see. Additionally, when you apply to control your artist page, you're asked for either the artist name or the link to the iTunes artist page. I had to use the latter, because there's a saxophone player by the same name... a situation that has dogged me for a long time and caused me to have to abandon MY artist ID # at iTunes when the other guy's aggregator lumped his stuff in with mine and TuneCore could only offer to create a NEW artist ID, with no guarantee that it might not happen again.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 10:40 pm
by BKK-OZ
AFAIK, Apple Music and iTunes are separate - being on the latter does not automatically get you on the former. Not sure about Tunecore, but I know (as per the email above) that a separate step is required with Distrokid.
And you are right about the artist identity thing - my advice is that people should jump on that straight away.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 11:53 pm
by James Steele
Well if they are separate entities, TuneCore is not onboard yet as far as I can tell. Why Apple would ask you for your iTunes info to manage your Apple Music identity though I don't understand.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:04 am
by James Steele
BKK-OZ wrote:mikehalloran wrote:Well you know that CD Baby will have their gateway packages any day now.
No, I didn't. More info?
Actually, I read the email from distrokid, and technically they don't seem to be ready now either. But they are asking their users to check a box to "Add to new stores" now, in advance, so when it comes online, they can then add it to Apple Music. I received a reply today from TuneCore asking them about this, and they told me:
At this time, we don't know what's going on with Apple Music. We have the same information you do. Apple has not sent us any information for our customers yet. Once we have information on the service, we will post it on our site.
DistroKid does look like a much better deal than TuneCore, and I began to sign up just out of curiosity, however, the options they present at signup confuse me a bit.
The plans break down as follows:
Musician: $19.99/year, includes 1 artist or band name, upload limited songs.
Musician Plus: $25.99/year, includes 2 artist or band names, upload unlimited songs, Daily sales stats, Custom release date, Custom ISRC codes, Custom label name
Label: $25.99/year, includes 5+ artist & band names, upload unlimited songs, Daily sales stats, Custom release date, Custom ISRC codes, Custom label name
From what I gather, Musician Plus is the minimum I'd need since it seems like if you don't pop for this, DistroKid supplies their own ISRC code and label name. If you want to use your own, which TuneCore already allows me, you need that level membership or better. If you release a lot in the year though, this flat rate is obviously attractive. I wonder what's involved if you are an independent and you wish to switch aggregators. I'll perhaps write to them and see.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:10 am
by James Steele
Found some more information:
https://distrokid.desk.com/customer/por ... distrokid-
Can I transfer albums from another distributor to DistroKid?
There's no way to transfer songs from, say, TuneCore to DistroKid.
However, if you want to switch to DistroKid from another distributor (a good idea if you ask us!), you can always delete the music you have in stores with them, and then upload it using DistroKid.
That right there presents a problem. I have some singles on iTunes right now, one in particular has 37 reviews that are all five stars. I'm assuming that if I removed that song from TuneCore, I'd lose the ratings and reviews when I re-uploaded it via DistroKid. Major problem there.
I need to email them though and see if basically DistroKid can tap into an existing artist's releases and upload them there, leaving the existing songs from the previous aggregator untouched and all future releases can be done through them and I send TuneCore a few bucks here and there to keep the existing catalog online.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 4:14 pm
by BKK-OZ
I can't recall if the Distrokid sign-up process asked anywhere for one's Apple (or other store) ID. Maybe start the signup process and see if they do that (before committing).
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:37 pm
by James Steele
Well I had to learn the hard way about artist ID numbers. There's a saxophone player named James Steele and so when I use a service, it's crucial they post as the correct artist. I already had to abandon my established ID once when his aggregator uploaded a new album to my account, forcing my Facebook band musician page to show his album artwork for its thumbnail preview in a users "Likes." If you have a very distinct band name, you may not need to know that info.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 7:17 pm
by BKK-OZ
It took multiple attempts to lodge my request to manage my Apple ID, and I am pretty sure it is going to be problematic - it appears as though I share my artist name with someone else (iTunes confuses both of us up).
hmmmm...
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 7:57 pm
by James Steele
BKK-OZ wrote:It took multiple attempts to lodge my request to manage my Apple ID, and I am pretty sure it is going to be problematic - it appears as though I share my artist name with someone else (iTunes confuses both of us up).
Right. I feel your pain having dealt with this a lot. It was a nightmare to untangle the mess in Spotify and also to get my Facebook linked music sorted out. I had to get over 5,000 likes (which I did), but then make repeated requests to Facebook for the ability to manage my music... which EVENTUALLY I did.
As for as managing your Apple ID... for your artist presence on Apple Music, when you fill out the form at Apple's website, you can either give them your artist name (dangerous!) or you can paste in the link to your iTunes artist listing, which will have your unique artist ID embedded in it, which should prevent Apple from getting you confused.
Re: Distrokid and Apple streaming & Artist profiles...
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2015 9:26 pm
by BKK-OZ
James Steele wrote:...you can either give them your artist name (dangerous!) or you can paste in the link to your iTunes artist listing, which will have your unique artist ID embedded in it...
I tried to do that, but for some reason, the form wouldn't accept it.