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Sell your videos on iTunes
Good news, everyone! TuneCore has finally introduced a video distribution option for iTunes. If you're a wedding videographer, a school play coordinator, or a computer tutorial specialist, you can now package up your video for a flat fee (60 minutes costs $550, 90 minutes costs $770, other lengths vary in pricing according to TuneCore). Here are some points you'll want to know. The approval process for iTunes usually takes about two weeks and must meet the iTunes store terms and conditions. iTunes store customers can either buy or rent your video. All proceeds go directly to you after Apple takes its cut. The flat fee covers all of TuneCore's take. You retain all rights and the agreement is non-exclusive. Want more information? Fire off an email to movies@tunecore.com or visit their webpage.
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.
34 Free Songs at iTunes
TuneCore is offering 34 free song downloads at the US iTunes store. No, it's not any 34 songs, it's 34 songs by artists who are TuneCore customers. TuneCore, as we've posted before, is an iTunes listing service that helps artists get their music on the iTunes Store. To get your free tracks, visit their free album page and generate a unique iTunes code. Artists on the free album include the Dandy Warhols (famous for the Veronica Mars intro) and Maureen McCormick, of the Brady Bunch. How is the actual music? The quality, er, varies. Let us know what you liked or disliked in the comments.
TuneCore offers iTunes Music Video sales
Earlier this year, I posted about TuneCore, a service that allows you to sell your music on iTunes. Now TuneCore has given us the heads up that the service has expanded to include Music Video sales. You can upload your music videos to iTunes and sell them alongside all the normal music labels. Selling your music video is kinda pricey. Expect to pay $125 plus $20/year for a 5 minute-or-less video. Compare that with the $20 you'd pay to upload an album with eight tracks that I priced out in my original post. Unfortunately, the service I'd really like to see isn't there yet. You can't use this feature to host non-music videos. TuneCore writes that iTunes has a different set of standards for short films, shows and movies and that you can only sell music videos at this time. Hopefully regular videos will soon follow because I know of a lot of wedding videographers, ballet and karate schools, and other for-profit and not-for-profit organizations who would love to get access to the iTunes store to sell their products.
Who needs a record label? Submit your own music to the iTMS with Tunecore
Are you a musician with some tracks that deserve their time in the iTMS spotlight? No one's promising you'll make the Top Songs list, but Tunecore can at least help you take a shot.While Apple offers an online application through which you can ask them to 'consider your music for the iTMS,' Tunecore (notice the hip 'beta' marking) can actually submit your music to not only the iTMS, but Rhapsody, MusicNet and Napster too. They offer what I would consider a reasonable one-time fee structure (meaning: the don't take a % of each song/album sale), and they can add your music to a number of international stores (not just the U.S.) with 'more coming soon!' One last feature to note about their service which might be music to indie musicians' ears: you keep all the rights and ownership of your music, i.e. - Tunecore a middle-man who actually remains a middle-man.This sounds like a great service. I hope more musicians can use it to hop on the digital distribution bandwagon.[thanks Andre Dupont!]
