Anyone on itunes?
- Thread starter Rukas
- Start date
Yes I am on iTunes. Search for Swami, I believe there's two of our albums on there.
For our back catalogue (ie the two albums that are on there now), we did a deal with a label. They are a big company with a management arm and a label arm that represent Avril Lavigne and many others...it's effectively no different than signing a regular record deal, or in this case licensing your back catalogue for a label to re-release, it's just a digital license and not a physical one. It's a full worldwide digital license though, so not just iTunes but Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic etc etc etc as well.
In all honesty I don't know all the ins and outs of that particular deal, it all went through the lawyers and our management like all the contracts do. I'll try and find out a bit more about it.
We could do a deal with the same people for our new album, but we most likely won't, and there's a simple reason why - with the industry the way it is right now, if you want to sign with a major - they want exclusive digital rights for their market. So if we did a worldwide digital deal with the same people we used before, we're effectively closing the lid on the entire way we operate - ie licensing the album to different labels in different world territories.
Of course, there are alternative ways to simply get your music on there. I believe TuneCore offers a service whereby you pay them and your music gets on iTunes. Part of me thinks this is a cool idea for DIY acts and niche genres. The other part of me thinks it's a cop-out for people who don't take their music seriously enough to network, make the contacts and secure professional representation. The other problem I have with those services is not just paying them, but also that they tend to charge you per territory as well - ie you pay them to get your song on say iTunes USA, but then if you want it on iTunes UK, or iTunes Japan, or iTunes wherever...you have to pay them again for each one.
To me it kinda seems like the equivalent of walking to Virgin Megastore or HMV and paying someone to put your CD on the shelf. Sure it's in there, but does that mean anyone's gonna find it? If you do it legitimately it's gonna get promoted like a label would with any release....for example, we were on the front page of the iTunes store here in the UK at one point.
I'd suggest that once you have a finished and pressed physical product, do a bit of research and find some independant labels that have deals with iTunes and support music of that genre. Make a few phone calls, speak to a few people, try and get a digital deal. The problem is that if you're going to them as opposed to them coming to you, you've got less flexibility and you're probably gonna have to relinquish your rights to them exclusively for at least your home market, for that product.
For our back catalogue (ie the two albums that are on there now), we did a deal with a label. They are a big company with a management arm and a label arm that represent Avril Lavigne and many others...it's effectively no different than signing a regular record deal, or in this case licensing your back catalogue for a label to re-release, it's just a digital license and not a physical one. It's a full worldwide digital license though, so not just iTunes but Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic etc etc etc as well.
In all honesty I don't know all the ins and outs of that particular deal, it all went through the lawyers and our management like all the contracts do. I'll try and find out a bit more about it.
We could do a deal with the same people for our new album, but we most likely won't, and there's a simple reason why - with the industry the way it is right now, if you want to sign with a major - they want exclusive digital rights for their market. So if we did a worldwide digital deal with the same people we used before, we're effectively closing the lid on the entire way we operate - ie licensing the album to different labels in different world territories.
Of course, there are alternative ways to simply get your music on there. I believe TuneCore offers a service whereby you pay them and your music gets on iTunes. Part of me thinks this is a cool idea for DIY acts and niche genres. The other part of me thinks it's a cop-out for people who don't take their music seriously enough to network, make the contacts and secure professional representation. The other problem I have with those services is not just paying them, but also that they tend to charge you per territory as well - ie you pay them to get your song on say iTunes USA, but then if you want it on iTunes UK, or iTunes Japan, or iTunes wherever...you have to pay them again for each one.
To me it kinda seems like the equivalent of walking to Virgin Megastore or HMV and paying someone to put your CD on the shelf. Sure it's in there, but does that mean anyone's gonna find it? If you do it legitimately it's gonna get promoted like a label would with any release....for example, we were on the front page of the iTunes store here in the UK at one point.
I'd suggest that once you have a finished and pressed physical product, do a bit of research and find some independant labels that have deals with iTunes and support music of that genre. Make a few phone calls, speak to a few people, try and get a digital deal. The problem is that if you're going to them as opposed to them coming to you, you've got less flexibility and you're probably gonna have to relinquish your rights to them exclusively for at least your home market, for that product.
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