BrokenPromiseKeeper
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CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 17:11
Last year, I spent the $35 to put up my 2007 album on CDBaby (and from there, they put it on iTunes, Napster, Amazon.com, and a zillion other places).
I think I might have come close to breaking even in terms of sales, but I didn't do it to get rich, it was done in that early-March euphoria: "I completed the Challenge, I can do anything!"
This year, I know I have a better "product" (not necessarily a bad word, IMO) and am thinking about this again. Of course, I'll still give my songs away for free to fellow RPM'ers, friends, family, and basically anybody who shows interest or has a pulse, but somehow the idea of putting it out there to see if somebody's willing to pay for it is appealing. Sort of a real-world litmus test.
Anybody else out there thinking of putting up your recent creation for sale? Just wonderin'...
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johnpaulsharp
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 17:20
I put up all my projects on CDBaby and iTunes. This RPM Challenge was my 14th CD. It's great because you do get a little bit of income every month -- even if you don't promote your music heavily (I'm too busy to promote most of the time). It's not a lot of money, but it is some and who knows .. maybe some day you'll get a lot of exposure for some reason. You'd be glad you had songs on iTunes and such that people could go download after they hear about you.
jps*
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mick
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 17:26
Yeah, I am. All proceeds going to World Neighbors (www.wn.org)
I doubt I'll sell that many but it costs about $4 a disk if I make them in lots of 100 and ship myself. I'd like to basically say, "take a disk for at least $6 but more means for charity money". I think maybe that way I can raise a couple hundred maybe a little more for World Neighbors.
Everything little bit helps.
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Gumbo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 18:24
If you use kunaki.com to supply CDBaby you get a free UPC barcode. This does however tie you to Kunaki as the supplier but it's a good deal.
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ilovejen
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 18:27
BrokenPromiseKeeper wrote:
Anybody else out there thinking of putting up your recent creation for sale? Just wonderin'...
Yup, I'll be using CDBaby again this year for digital distribution. But, I broke even in iTunes sales fairly quickly, and evreything else is icing. And really $35 is nothing compared to what some of the startups out there like tunecore charge and what have you.
Plus it's local to my area in the NW, and if I need to I can email the founder or drive over and complain - which I haven't.
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tangmo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:04
If you are using Kunaki, you can also set up a sales page with them as well. It's basic, but the thing I like about selling CD's through them is that they pass the 'handling' charge (3,00) to the cusotmer rather than what CDBaby does (deduct it --4.00--from your retail).
This allows you to set your price as low as 'cost' if you want. It would probably be possible to have your checks cut to the charity of your choice. My charity currently is LTUMC (Lift Tangmo Up to the Middle Class) but I might do a tie in with a more reputable outfit since that one really ought to be renamed to HTBGSO (Help Tangmo Buy Guitar Strings Occasionally).
Kunaki (free barcode)>>CDbaby (free and permanant listing with Digital Distributors) is the best way I've found.
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ilovejen
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:08
And yes, I also used Kunaki for the free bar code
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malocchio
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:25
I really wish Kunaki would offer a four-panel insert...that's a deal-breaker for me. But I'll be going the CDbaby route myself, along with Snocap for the Myspace page.
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ilovejen
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:34
Haha. You'll never get paid for Snocap sales. I never did.
CD baby severed ties with Snocap because of it.
If you want your songs on myspace just upload them to Last.fm and use their playlist widgets to embed the whole thang on your page.
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skidoo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:36
What? You mean you can make money from this music thing? I've been doing it for years and never made a penny (unless you count the high school version of Grease that I played bass for once, but the less said about that the better).
My music is released for free under a Creative Commons Licence. Can't imagine anyone actually parting with cash for it.
S.
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ilovejen
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:43
What's great is you can give away your music for free, and make money from it
People will casually find your music on iTunes and will want to buy it. That doesn't stop you from giving it away as well
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skidoo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:46
I see. So I just give CDBaby 35 of your American Dollars, then wait for the cash to roll in? Sounds simple!
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:49
I'll be using http://www.tunecore.com
Pretty similar outfit to CD Baby - Low run CD duplication, digital distribution, but much more flexible about where and when your music gets distributed IMO.
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ilovejen
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 19:56
except tunecore charges yearly storage fees right? or did they drop that asinine shit?
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ilovejen
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:00
From tunecore's main page:
TuneCore charges $0.99 per track, $0.99 per store per album, and $19.98 per album per year storage and maintenance.
That's a complete rip off. Just to upload your ten track album to ONE online retailer it would cost more than uploading it to every online retailer through CD baby.
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malocchio
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:02
ilovejen wrote:
Haha. You'll never get paid for Snocap sales. I never did.
CD baby severed ties with Snocap because of it.
If you want your songs on myspace just upload them to Last.fm and use their playlist widgets to embed the whole thang on your page.
Yeah, I was a little worried about Snocap, it looks like they are going under.
That's good to know. Thanks!
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:07
ilovejen wrote:
From tunecore's main page:
TuneCore charges $0.99 per track, $0.99 per store per album, and $19.98 per album per year storage and maintenance.
That's a complete rip off. Just to upload your ten track album to ONE online retailer it would cost more than uploading it to every online retailer through CD baby.
That's £10 per year. I have that in loose change in my pocket right now. That's the price of 3 beers, for one year.
Besides, the cheapest isn't necessarily the best, it depends on your circumstances and what you want from a service. For example, CD Baby would want me to send them 5 CDs minimum. That's going to cost me twice as much as the yearly hosting on TuneCore for a start from over here in the UK.
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brykmantra
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:16
Wow, I'm glad you guys are here -- this is a virtual Wikipedia for getting started as an indie act.
Thanks especially @ ILJ for the specifics ...
Hey, for those of you on Kunaki: The album info screen asks for "catalog number (ASIN)". What would you put in there, where would you get this??? (See, I don't even know how to ask the question!)
Plus, on the subject of the barcode: Do you have to supply specific information for that too, or just check "Yes, I want a barcode"?
Thanks again, in advance ...
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ilovejen
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:17
Um.. you can do digital only through CD baby.
They have Zero of my CDs and have never had more than the one CDR copy I sent them to setup digital distribution.
So my single payment of $35 has my gotten my last RPM album up for life, without yearly maintenance fees, on the following:
AudioLunchbox, BuyMusic, Inprodicon, MusicIsHere, PayPlay, Tradebit, Bitmunk, Daiki, MP3tunes, Napster, Ruckus, Verizon, Muze, ZuKool, Sonific, GroupieTunes, rVibe, GreatIndieMusic, Apple iTunes, iMusica, Last.fm, Txttunes , and Amazon MP3
I guess if you want to toss $19 at tune core very year per album that is your prerogative.
Post edited by: ilovejen, at: 2008/03/03 20:18
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Gumbo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:36
mparker wrote:
That's £10 per year. I have that in loose change in my pocket right now. That's the price of 3 beers, for one year.
Besides, the cheapest isn't necessarily the best, it depends on your circumstances and what you want from a service. For example, CD Baby would want me to send them 5 CDs minimum. That's going to cost me twice as much as the yearly hosting on TuneCore for a start from over here in the UK.
5 cds from kunaki is $1.75 per disc plus $3 order charge + postage. That's what $20, tops. kunaki will send them to CD baby, (and Amazon, too if you like). So CD baby is stocked for the cost of their (CD baby's) barcode.
Tune core is $1 per track + $1 per store (count the stores) + $20 per year 'storage'. So yes the first year is cheaper with Tunecore if you don't do too many stores).
CD baby is for life.
imho 
Post edited by: Gumbo, at: 2008/03/03 20:37
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:40
CD Baby pay 91% royalties and keep 9% as a fee, TuneCore give you 100% of royalties and charge a yearly fee. Depending on how much you sell one or the other is cheaper.
I'm not trying to start a war here between the two services. They both offer different things to different people. YMMV etc etc
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Gumbo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:44
mparker wrote:
I'm not trying to start a war here between the two services. They both offer different things to different people. YMMV etc etc
Absolutely - let's understand the small print 
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room34
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 20:59
mparker wrote:
I'll be using http://www.tunecore.com
Pretty similar outfit to CD Baby - Low run CD duplication, digital distribution, but much more flexible about where and when your music gets distributed IMO.
At this point I would not recommend TuneCore, as I have had a very bad experience with them.
I signed up, paid my money (about $30 total), and uploaded my tracks (a 3-song EP I did late last year) and eagerly waited for them to show up in iTunes. They did, much sooner than expected, but to my horror, all 3 tracks were truncated at 45 seconds!
Since then (Feb. 1) I have been involved in a very slow email exchange with them trying to resolve the issue. Their customer service is not very responsive and doesn't seem to know how to handle the problem. Apparently my files got corrupted during or after the upload process; their initial solution was to ask me to EMAIL them the files, which of course was not feasible -- too big -- and at the moment they are now awaiting a physical CD from me, which I have not yet bothered to send. The idea that they couldn't simply "unlock" my album on their website and allow me to re-upload the tracks is ludicrous. What's worse, they have not even heeded my request to PLEASE HAVE ITUNES REMOVE THE SCREWED-UP VERSIONS of my songs!
At this point I'm not even sure it's worth bothering with, but I do really want to have my stuff up on iTunes.
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Bigstarlet
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/03 23:01
Discmakers has a web promotion deal that, for at the most $50, in addition to your first CD orders, they will give you a UPC code, send your CDs to CD Baby for you (so that you don't have to pay the $35 fee), get you signed up with Soundscan, and I even recall Itunes being mentioned in there somewhere...
http://www.discmakers.com/products/WebDistribution.asp
Has anyone here tried this? Did it work?
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strummindude
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/04 12:07
Thanks so much guys for sharing all of the info in this thread! I'm definitely putting an album out on cdbaby. And for a European like myself it would seem lika a deal through Kunaki or Discmakers would actually be cheaper than covering the shipping expense.
The Discmaker deal Bigstarlet talks about is actually the sweetest, by the looks of it. But like her, I'd really like to hear from someone actually using it before trying it out myself. Right now, I'm leaning towards Kunaki.
Oh, and by the way, are there any places you can send your cd's to for some guaranteed stellar reviews to put on your sales page...? 
S. Dude
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luxdivon
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/06 01:58
Check out EARBUZZ.com they give you 100% of download sales, after a $25 album upload fee, and a $2 a month membership fee. If you plan to sell enough CD's, than this is the best deal I've found.
www.myspace.com/luxdivon for my music
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agedmachine
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/06 05:23
OK, check this out:
http://www.watunes.com
They put your CD on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Rhapsody, and tons of other services... not anything 'physical' like CDBaby does, but digital downloads... and they give you most of the proceeds.
The setup is kind of a pain in the ass, but I think it works out in the end. They send you quarterly statements on your proceeds, how many downloads, streams, sales, etc.
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/06 09:53
For me its important that my music is not available on any music sites that force DRM use - at the moment that means that I'm only submitting to iTunes and Amazon.
Most of these sites just splat your music everywhere without giving you a choice in the matter. I prefer to have that choice.
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Gumbo
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/06 10:51
mparker wrote:
For me its important that my music is not available on any music sites that force DRM use - at the moment that means that I'm only submitting to iTunes and Amazon.
Most of these sites just splat your music everywhere without giving you a choice in the matter. I prefer to have that choice.
Can you have your music drm free on iTunes now? I thought that was only an option for major labels. Cool if you can.
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mparker
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Re:CDBaby? iTunes? What Say You? - 2008/03/06 11:08
Gumbo wrote:
mparker wrote:
For me its important that my music is not available on any music sites that force DRM use - at the moment that means that I'm only submitting to iTunes and Amazon.
Most of these sites just splat your music everywhere without giving you a choice in the matter. I prefer to have that choice.
Can you have your music drm free on iTunes now? I thought that was only an option for major labels. Cool if you can.
Not yet, but it's coming, so I'm prepared to overlook their current policy for now.
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