selling music on amazon, itunes etc?

[gdomeier]

I am thinking of offering some of my music for sale on amazon and itunes. I did a little google searching and found some info, but thought I would pick all your brains here.

Any best practices to use or traps to avoid?

[MichaelL]

I sell my old smooth jazz and new age stuff on Amazon and iTunes through CD Baby, but not my library music.

If you do that be very careful that you do not opt-in to, or make sure that you opt-out of, any youtube Content ID programs, or you may find yourself in conflict with libraries that you are in.

CD Baby does content ID through Rumbelfish. I did not opt-in.

The “tens” of dollars trickle in every once in a while.

[gdomeier]

Thanks, This would be all new music specifically for electronic sale. None of my library stuff.

[MichaelL]

Thanks, This would be all new music specifically for electronic sale. None of my library stuff.

In that case, CD Baby can handle distribution to numerous digital outlets efficiently. No complaints.

[The Dude]

Here is a link I found helpful:http://aristake.com/?post=92

iTunes takes 30% off the bat, so you might want to consider a distributor that doesn’t take a percentage (CDBaby takes 9% last I checked). Also, if your distributor pays through Paypal, they might absorb the fees, they might not.

[AaronM]

I’ve heard good things about these two:
https://www.amadeamusic.com
http://www.mondotunes.com

I haven’t tried either one myself thought.

Good luck!

[MichaelL]

Just to add…. I only put old commercial releases on CD Baby to monetize them a little more. I’m no longer involved in being an “artist.”

Without doing all of the other promotional things that you should do like playing live, social media, developing a fan base etc, it’s a marginal source of income.

[Mark_Petrie]

I sell an album of 20+ tracks of mostly trailer and library music through CDBaby. They also distribute to iTunes (where the vast majority of my sales come from) and Amazon. The trailer music sells pretty well, but I put yoga and Christmas albums up on the same account and those only sold once or twice.

As Michael mentioned – definitely OPT OUT of content ID if you’re selling non-exclusive library music to the public, Rumblefish and CDBaby both have their own schemes.

[Mark]

Here’s a cool article I saw that rates and compares the 7 top music distribution sites

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[Greg]

Thanks again. Do you use your name or a band name/pseudonym for itunes? Did you spend the extra $ for a upc/barcode?

[Author]

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