Sell Your Music on iTunes Music Store

Photo_Designer writes "CD Baby is now accepting music to be sold via digital distibution through iTunes Music Store, Listen.com and others. Their cut is 9 percent. The artists get 91 percent of the sale and retain all the rights to their music. There is a $40 fee for each album submitted. It will be interesting to see how much indie music gets on and how it does. Imagine being a touring indie band and be able to tell people to go to iTunes and buy your songs; it seems this could be a huge boon to musicians wanting to circumvent/boycott/avoid/destroy the RIAA." Note that this is not an agreement to get on iTMS or any other service, only for CD Baby to be your distributor. iTMS can still reject your sorry attempt at fame.

No, please don't.

[Anonymous Coward]

I really don't wanna hear you guys sing.

Methinks...

[Spazntwich]

that pudge is harboring some ill will from a previous failed attempt at a career in indie music.

In other news ...

[bigjocker]

It has been anounced today that the long expected album "CowboyNeal in the Tub / Greatest Hits" will hit the digital shelves any time this week

Screw that!

[EinarH]

I'm already hooked up to a major RIAA label for life you insensitive clod!

CD Baby Cares

[BeetMonster]

Here's the proof, came with my invoice:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Tuesday, July 15th. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'. We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

All that, and shipping was only $2.25!

In your dreams...

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine being a touring indie band and be able to tell people to go to iTunes and buy your songs; it seems this could be a huge boon to musicians wanting to circumvent/boycott/avoid/destroy the RIAA.

Imagine being a touring indie band and telling 95% of your audience that your music is on the iTunes store but they cannot listen to it because they don't have a Mac! That will really show the RIAA!

Industry Response

[American AC in Paris]

BuyMusic.com, a recently-launched competitor to Apple iTunes Music Store, announced today that they would begin distributing independent artists' work, much like CDBaby's newly unveiled distribution plan. Through BuyMusic.com, independent artists would see up to 99.9% profit per sale(1), with one-time setup costs as low as $30(2). Artists would receive their checks in as little as one week(3) after BuyMusic.com receives payment for the sale. Artists wishing to leave the service may be able to do so as quickly as within twenty days.(4)

(1) Typical profit per sale will range between -5% and 3% depending on marketing terms and market conditions
(2) Setup costs of $30 available to Ultra Platinum Plus artists only. Typical setup costs between $80-200 per song.
(3) Payment processing is facilitated by a third party contractor; allow 5-8 months lead time for most transactions.
(4) Expedited 20-day cancellation requires rapid cancellation charge of $10,000. Expedited cancellation not available for top-selling titles. Standard requests for contract cancellation will be considered on a per-request basis.

Wait!

[msimm]

Thats what they did with my CD!

Re:Go forth, but cautiously...

[seasleepy]

I've never bought from them personally, but they sound like a bunch of people that really love music...very small record-shop-ish. (See the bonus free CD [cdbaby.com] for returning customers.)
A friend of mine who got something from them a while ago also thought their e-mail confirmation was absolutely hilarious:

"Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Thursday, April 17th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year". We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM"

Re:CD Baby Cares

[Xerithane]

I'm from Portland. It's true. We have a ceremony every day at 3:36PM. It gets a bit crowded, but they also provide free dinners for us all. Afterwards, if you are over 21, they buy you a beer.

All the companies know this, and revere this sacred time and let all of us get off work for it. Don't worry, it's all paid time off. Sometimes they even will allow us to use the company limo to travel down there, complete with caviar.

Re:Great idea!

[FatRatBastard]

Most muscians I've known have no money:)

That's what their girlfriends are for. If they're not mercinary enough to be nailing a girl with some cashflow they should have their "rock star" badge confiscated.

Re:We'll see

[TopShelf]

Go check out the CDBaby website, and you'll see that they haven't hooked up with those services. They're pitching to obtain digital distribution rights, with no firm outlet channels as of yet.

Silly coward - you trust what the editors put in the title???

Oh no, Elliot Smith becomes huge after all...

[tjstork]

This is the worst thing imaginable..!!!

Re:CD Baby Cares

[Binestar]

All the companies know this, and revere this sacred time and let all of us get off work for it. Don't worry, it's all paid time off. Sometimes they even will allow us to use the company limo to travel down there, complete with caviar.

1999, Is that you?

Re:Great for highschool bands

[darkov]

Maybe a moderation system is in order?

I can see my tracks getting modded -1, Troll

Re:Fantastic!

[happystink]

> (aside: If artists can start to be compensated for their work, what's to stop us IT workers and software developers?)

What? You work for free?

Re:Go forth, but cautiously...

[Anonymous Coward]

Think their website looks shoddy? You must not have seen slashdot's main page.

Re:Great for highschool bands

[grub]

Maybe a moderation system is in order?

As long as they have a +1 Motorhead [imotorhead.com] option you can count me in!

Re:Great idea!

[Alsee]

aht if it's a girl to begin with?

Then obviously it should be read as "boyfriend". Unless of course it's a group like T.A.T.U. and it would still be read "girlfriend".

-

Re:Great for highschool bands

[strAtEdgE]

Even if they fully automate the submission process, can Apple swallow the cost of thousands of albums sitting on their hard disks?

If I can, why can't they?

Re:Great for highschool bands

[Joey7F]

Oh my god, someone that argues pleasantly and without slander? Am I still on slashdot? :D Mod parent up. He deserves it.

Yeah I know, it IS refreshing, but I still would feel better if I saw a 'fucktard' or two. :\

--Joey

Re:$40 an album seems cheap

[mrogers]

iTunes would have any song you ever might want, so what if only a small handful of people ever download a particular song? It's only (cheap) hard disk space.

I don't know why but I'm picturing an enormous 40-foot-high iPod sitting in an aircraft hangar outside Cupertino...