Online digital music distribution

Everybody who is interested can Digital distribution of music is something that can be done independently by anyone who wants to with the aid of an aggregator. This is an intermediary in digital music distribution, making repertory of the master owners like record companies or artists available for listenening or sale at music download sites or online music stores. Usually, the aggregator receives a specific percentage of the download or sales proceeds. The best-known aggregators are Norma, Tunecore and CD Baby.

Physical or digital distribution of music

Downloading music on the Internet is faster and easier than buying a CD in a shop. At the moment, Apple's iTunes Store is the most popular download site. Other well-known music download sites are Napster, Rhapsody, MySpace.com, MusicNet, eMusic, Spotify, Amazon.com and Verizon V-Cast. In the Netherlands there are online stores where you can make paid legal music downloads, such as Free Record Shop, Van Leest, TMF, MTV, Radio 538 and Music Store. Usually, these online music stores re-route visitors indirectly to the above mentioned popular download sites. Offering music to iTunes Store and other download sites directly is nearly impossible, because they usually cooperate with well-known aggregators.

Aggregator Norma distributes digital music only via the iTune Stores, whereas Tunecore and CD Baby also distribute via other download sites.

As to distributing music, you can opt for digital distribution only or physical distribution as well. Studies have shown that 50% of the music lovers buy physical CDs. The fact is that, apart from having the music, they want to lay their hands on the artwork of their favorite artist as well. In case of CD Baby, you have to send a physical CD by mail, unlike aggregator Tunecore and others that allow you to upload the repertory at their site.

Differences between CD Baby and Tunecore

Apart from being an aggregator, CD Baby is also one of the major online music stores where you can purchase CDs, whereas Tunecore is an aggregator only. Both Tunecore and CD Baby take care of global distribution of music via the major music download sites.

Costs

When dealing with CD Baby, you pay a once-only amount of 39 dollars (23.73 GBP) for an album or 9.95 USD (6.04 GBP) for a single. If you take your chance with Tunecore, you pay 49.99 USD (30.42 GBP) for an album and 9.99 USD (6.08 GBP) for a single on an annual basis, increased furthermore by 0.99 USD (0.6 GBP) per download site where they are placed. If you are in arrears with the annual payment for an album or single, the repertory will be removed from the music download sites without fail. You won't have this problem with CD Baby because you owe them the once-only payment for placing the album or single only.

Mind, Tunecore charges you expenses for receiving reports and statistics and making transfers, whereas there are no hidden costs in dealing with CD Baby.

Proceeds

Suppose a single of yours is downloaded for 1 USD (0.61 GBP) in the iTunes Store, then 30%* will always be reserved for Apple and 70% for the aggregator. Aggregator CD Baby deducts 9% of this amount and the remaining 91% will be paid to the master owner, who will get 0.61 USD (0.37 GBP) in this case. Tunecore does not deduct a percentage of the sales amount, so the master owner will receive 0.7 USD (0.43 GBP) from them.

*The 30% amount for iTunes Store includes VAT and payment to Buma Stemra, the collecting society for composers and music publishers in the Netherlands.

Sending repertory to aggregators

Tunecore offers you the possibility to sell your CD only digitally, whereas CD Baby enables you to sell it both digitally and physically. Furthermore, Tunecore allows you to supply music via uploading at the site, whereas CD Baby obliges you to send CDs only. Unlike Tunecore, CD Baby has a huge online music store where people can purchase CDs. They also give you a webpage of your own, which enables you to make a link to your own website for selling physical CDs. If you prefer to have your music distributed at CD Baby's website only digitally, an audio CD-R without artwork (imprint on CD and cover) will do.

As most people know, master owners like artists or record companies do not gain much by selling CDs online or in shops. The money they make out of it is nothing more than a pleasant side-effect, so what really matters to them is having gigs and merchandise. If you are dealing with Tunecore, you will have to sell hundreds of singles and albums to cut down on annually recurring expenses.

In order to accommodate the master owner's wishes satisfactorily, it is necessary to download the music via legal download sites. An extra stimulus to do so may be that Fred Teeven, the State Secretary for the Ministery of Security and Justice in the Netherlands, has taken a hard line in suing illegal download sites lately.

Making an account at CD Baby's website

Making an account at CD Baby's website won't take long, providing you have all the information of the release concerning rightful claimants, release date, ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) and a UPC (Universal Product Code) bar code. If you haven't got an International Standard Recording Code, CD Baby will give you one. Though you can make your own Universal Product Code in case you are not willing to spend any money on that, it is advisable to purchase this at CD Baby's website for 20 USD an album, because making one can be pretty complex. For payments to CD Baby, a credit card or Paypal account is required.

If you haven't got an American bank account number, you need a Paypal account enabling them to pay the monthly proceeds.

The International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) makes it possible to identify sound recordings and music video recordings on an international scale. Apart from the protection of the copy rights of the recording, the code was developed to simplify both the exchange of data concerning the recording and its use and the administration involved in this. If you are interested, there is a lot of information about the ISRC on the Net.

Sources: www.todio.nl