Submit this...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
We normally use CD Baby’s digital submission thingie to get all the Positron product in the digital stores, but for the most recent Micronaut release, we’re going to give Tunecore a shot, I think. While the net cost is not significantly cheaper (in fact, I believe it could be more expensive over the long run if an album doesn’t sell very well) it looks like a more logical method.
The main benefit is thus: when you submit to iTunes through CD Baby, your album can’t be browsed to via the genre browsing in that store. But with Tunecore, it can be. For a relatively well-known artist (e.g. Sister Machine Gun) that’s not such a big deal, but for an unknown, it basically makes the difference between selling a record and not selling a record.
The other deciding factor is that it can take up to three months for a CD Baby digital submission to get in to iTunes, while Tunecore submissions take a week or two. It’s basically impossible to get a CD Baby-submitted iTunes release to line up with its hard-copy counterpart, but that’s not such a trick with Tunecore.
So, we’re gonna give it a shot. I’ll report back when we know if it makes a difference or not, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has Tunecore experiences they’d like to share.
17 comments
I used Tunecore for my last release, and it took about 6 weeks to hit iTunes. Their uploading system and user area is nice though.
Really. I specifically asked Fletcher about this, because it was a point of contention I have with CD Baby, and he said "a few days." Although, in his defense, that was some months ago.
I agree that the upload feature is nice. The CD Baby method for a digital-only release is kind of a pain in the ass.
-CR
I'd be interested in seeing how this works out. It would seem like the annual storage feeds would add up for a label submitting a ton of releases though.
I think, in running the numbers, if you know you're going to sell a certain amount of digital downloads, Tunecore is much better than CD Baby in the long run, whether you have a lot of albums or not.
If you've got a vanity project and you just want to be able to say "hey, my album is in iTunes" then CD Baby is by far the wiser choice.
Since we move a pretty large quantity of digital downloads, both via shopPOSI and iTunes, Tunecore makes a lot of sense. You only have to sell one copy of an album to pay for the annual storage.
-CR
Ive used both CDBaby and Tunecore for digital distrobution. I find Tunecore to be much better (imho) and gives you far more control of your submission than CDBaby does, (not to mention faster). the accouning reports seem to come more regularly on tuncore as well.
Speaking of getting paid for stuff, Chris - did you realize that SMG is on the SoundExchange Unpaid Artist List?
http://63.236.111.137/jsp/unpaidArtistList.jsp
For christ's sake, can people stop sending me that? For once and all, yes, I'm aware. Yes, it's taken care of. No, they haven't actually sent me a check yet or taken my fucking name off their fucking list.
I swear to god, I get at least one, if not several, emails a day telling me that, and have for about six months. For the record, those people are just this side of criminally stupid. Their "service" largely consists of shaking down podcasters, collecting money, then sitting on it for years.
(Edit: sorry if I sound annoyed there, but just linking to a page that had a link to that engendered 3 emails to me stating the above in as many minutes.)
-CR
"Moses Avalon" (Josh Melville) did a comparison of 7 content distributors and came up with the same conclusion; tunecore is best. His data is summarized in chart form here:
Go to home -> cool resources -> digital distributor comparisons
from the following page:
http://www.mosesavalon.com/mosupposefr.htm
AFAIK his page is organized so you can't link directly to the chart; probably for promotional reasons (you have to go through the rest of the dreck to get to it).
I'd guess that most people here know who this guy is. I thought his first book "confessions of a record producer" was pretty good.
He's carved out a unique niche for himself and has managed to really piss some people off:
http://cdbaby.org/stories/03/09/24/0052575.html
I use IODA for digital distribution, and aside from the fact that they still have yet to implement their uploading system (we still need to send a CDR, which I'm told will not be the case much longer), they have so far always hit every digital outlet within 2 weeks (or less in some cases). They also are building a huge international presence, which can't hurt. I'd check them out if you haven't done so already.
Actually, it's funny those two comments came back to back, as I specifically ruled out IODA because of their contract. I have about as good an understanding of copyright and master use contracts as someone that hasn't gone to law school can have, and I had some serious issues with their contract.
Basically, as Josh sort of points out, any time you see the term "underlying composition," your sensor array should come on line. For something like this, you want to see something on the order of "non-exclusive worldwide rights in perpetuity, unless either party cancels." If you don't see that right at the top, run (don't walk) in another direction. There's no need for them to even mention underlying compositions, as all they're supposed to be is a middleman.
In short, almost every sob story I've ever heard in the music industry that isn't directly related to heroin abuse involves a musician signing away rights he didn't know he had. Buy the Donald Passman book and read it cover to cover three times, then go find a good entertainment attorney. Seriously.
-CR
I'm with Tunecore. First of all, I think they are a good company, and can't imagine a more fair arrangement than that they've come up with.
To clear up any confusion: You do have to submit a physical CD in addition to uploading.
Early on, the processing could take quite awhile, but I don't know how this is now.
My question is: what company is doing a good job of getting indie CD's into online retail catalogs/fullfillling orders??
Chris,
While it is true that it is easy to get burned with a bad contract, if you are simply clicking a button on a webpage, or faxing a contract in, it is very unlikely that anything "signing away all your rights" would hold up in court. That kind of thing is reasonably binding for placing a wholesale order, or to loosly give permission for someone to resell your music, but not for transfering ownership of intellectual property.
I have seen how major label contracts work, it is nowhere near as trivial as signing a form and faxing it to someone. These are very serious things that involve lawyers specializing in music contracts, and usually take place in person in a board room or lawyers office. A lot of artists DO end up signing contracts that screw them, but it is non-accidental. I have never, ever, heard of anyone "accidentally" signing the rights to their music away, in the way I believe you are saying.
I think for these kinds of contracts are more "lets cover our asses" catch-all things to protect the online distributer service from being sued or harrased... they are not really planning to "steal" your music. You can't sign away your rights to your intellectual property by clicking on a EULA or signing a form, any more than you can accidentally sign away your house, know what I mean?
Maybe they're not _currently_ planning to, but the company that buys them after they go in to receivership has to make their coin somehow, and suddenly finding out that they can shop a "Best Of The Unsigned Masses" boxed set to Rykodisk without actually having to pay royalties on the thing is a nice discovery, especially if one of those bands broke in the meantime.
And I'll give you a very basic example of how "signing your rights away" happens: most larger indie labels will offer a new signing a publishing contract as well, with a second advance on top of the one for the first album. The artist will then use this money to buy clothes, a car, and a half kilo of coke. Then their first album doesn't sell too well, and there isn't enough mechanicals (at 40% of 3/4 rate, which is what they agreed to in order to get that $25,000 publishing advance) to cover the advance. So they're in the hole viz. mechanicals, and need to take a publishing advance on the second record as well, because they don't have any royalty income from the first one. Now the second record's mechanicals have to pay off the first one _and_ the second one before the artist sees another check.
So, assuming the artist gets to make a third record, he's going to take _another_ advance, because he still hasn't seen a royalty check, even though the second record sold better than the first one. Then the third one tanks, and he actually _never_ sees a royalty check, even though he sold a couple hundred thousand records.
This story is so common as to be almost comical. If you want case studies, I'll be happy to provide them. In fact, I'll go so far as to name the actual example above: Gravity Kills. Six figure sales of their first record, and they've never received a mechanical royalty check, ever. There's never been a mechanical royalty check issued for a single copy of Pretty Hate Machine, either.
I could go on and on, and that's just from _one_ record label, and an indie at that. I, on the other hand, had a very smart person guiding me, who kept me from making bad decisions like that, and have been a successful professional musician for almost 20 years, with a steady stream of mechanical and performance royalty checks that have managed to pay my bills, even though my best-selling album barely cracked six figures.
Now, a _real_ negotiated major label contract will of course be negotiated between lawyers. However, almost all new signings come in to that fold via demo deals, and if you want to see miscarried justice in its most blatant form, a demo deal is what you want to look at, especially one with multiple options. You're really better off just pressing CDs yourself at that point.
In any case, long story short, yes, you're correct, inasmuch as it's never an accident. It's a matter of people not knowing what to look for, or not having people around them that do. But being a polyanna about it ("oh, they won't fuck me. It's just like clicking on a EULA") is _ABSOLUTELY_ the wrong tack. You can think everything else I've said is complete steaming horseshit, but you can take this one fact to the bank: record labels, like any other business, buy low and sell high. The lower they buy, the bigger the profit. Make no mistake, because this is business, and has nothing to do with art.
-CR
I've been using Tunecore for a few months now and definitely have no complaints. In the beginning, it DID take about 6 weeks, but the last release I submitted was up in a much shorter time. Their customer service is also about as good as it gets. Anytime I have a question or problem, I usually get an email back from them within a few hours. As for the fees... Your mileage may vary, but my first payment more than covered the fees. Sales haven't been HUGE so far, but it is income we probably wouldn't otherwise have, so I am hoping we will be able to build on that a bit.
The easiest way of using the link itdoesntsuck sent is to go here:
http://www.mosesavalon.com/digidist.htm
Overall I've had good experiences with CD Baby, but I was annoyed that it took seven months (!) for my CD to make it onto iTunes. It started showing up with other companies (Napster, Rhapsody) much sooner, a matter of weeks, but I kept checking for iTunes, and it just wasn't happening. I emailed them about it, they apologized and said they'd try to move it along, but it was another month until it was actually up.
For your reference, I submitted the album for digital distro in Nov '05, and it showed up on iTunes in June '06. I can only hope that they've gotten better at handling the process in the meantime. I plan to still work with them on upcoming releases, in any case, but I might peek over at Tunecore...
On another note, has anyone had experiences with Rumblefish that they could share? It's an online music licensing service:
http://rumblefish.com/
Interesting thread, and thanks for all the kind words. Our CEO Jeff Price just put up a blog post on TuneCorner (blog.tunecore.com) that ties into some of this:
http://tunecore.typepad.com/tunecorner/2006/04/the_argument_on.html
To set the record straight, if you rip your music into Apple Lossless format and upload that, you don't need to send us a CD. We only ask for a CD when folks use a compression, just in case there's a fault in the process, so we have a backup.
Anyway, thanks again, and feel free to write me if you've any questions or want a comment.
--Peter
Peter Wells
TuneCore.com
peter@tunecore.com
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