iTunes Distribution: Ten bucks for one tune
If you're an artist and have dreamed about selling through iTunes, TuneCore has a deal for you. For just ten bucks, you can deliver a single to 11 digital stores around the world. Participating stores include the US, Canadian, Japanese, Australian/NZ, and UK/European iTunes stores plus Rhapsody, Napster and a few others.
You keep 100% of the revenue generated and retain all rights to your masters. Your single is hosted at iTunes for one year. (Additional years cost the same $10/year.)
TuneCore automatically issues payments into your account when they're received from each store. The time of receipt varies by store, each has their own policy, which you can read about in TuneCore's FAQ.
You can check into your account at any time and cash out any earnings on demand. Be aware that although it only takes about 6 hours to submit your music to iTunes, on average it takes about 4 weeks for it to actually appear on the iTunes "shelf". This delay can occasionally go as long as 8 weeks, so if you want to sell a Christmas single, you'll probably want to submit it by the end of the summer just to be sure. Update: TuneCore has advised that this new pricing is active as of June 20.
TUAW has previously posted about TuneCore.
