Higgs Communications has published a detailed guide to selling your music on the iTunes Music Store. Written primarily for existing (and fledgling) independant record labels, this guide will also be useful for producers, engineers, artists, managers, and attorneys who are handling band and label affairs. Covering the entire process from initially approaching Apple to encoding and submitting your music to the iTunes Music Store, it illustrates the major requirements for getting your music into the iTunes Music Store and shows you where the pitfalls are in the process. The guide costs US$20.
More info here.
anyone heard word from Apple records…this must be infringing on that agreement. I hope Apple’s lawyers are right about the wording in the contract because itunes could go from breaking even to losing money on each sale.
It’s still not infringing on the agreement becasue Apple isn’t “producing” the music, they are only providing the software.
if Apple were doing directly, then yes it would be infringing on the agreement with Apple records. but from what i can gather, this guide shows you how to become your own independent record company. And Apple is just providing the avenue to ditribute the digital format of the music.
Speaking of the infringement stuff, I am not a lawyer but couldn’t Apple just like “spin off” ITMS as a separate company with Apple as the sole or majority shareholder and that would avoid any infringement?
No. It is specific that Apple Computer, Inc. CANNOT be in the music business at all. That conflicts with the “agreement” with Apple Records. That’s the impression I get.
Who cares? Where�s my new G5(or G6)???
“No. It is specific that Apple Computer, Inc. CANNOT be in the music business at all. That conflicts with the “agreement” with Apple Records. That’s the impression I get.” – giofoto
Hah, it took a while to google a link.
But the court has not decided whether Apple cannot be in music downloading business. That is the major argument Apple presented in the lawsuit. Since the litigation is still going, I don’t think we should make any judgement on it either.
Apple war pits Beatles label against computer maker
… The computer company’s lawyer said that the 1991 agreement allows Apple Computer to use the name for data transmission services, even if the data included material such as music, which was within the record label’s “field of use”.(Related story: Beatles label sues Apple iTunes in trademark suit) …
FYI, two ways for an independent ARTIST without a label to get into iTunes very cheaply and take the majority of profits for themselves:
http://cdbaby.net/dd
http://www.oasiscd.com/raindog/
(Those services, and Apple themselves, screen for quality–otherwise iTunes would be like some other music stores that will accept any old audio file that gets sent to them, just to make their library look bigger on paper. But these services don’t have to screen for popularity and marketing reasons: their small expenses to upload your music to iTunes are covered by your initial fee, and unlike a record label, they have no huge promotion costs after that. So unlike a conventional label they can accept music without being convinced it will be a hit.)
And examples of independent artists who are currently on iTunes without a label on their back:
http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/05/1545222&mode=thread
giofoto.. the whole purpose for this freakin’ lawsuit is that THAT definition is bloody vague.. apple can be an electronics company.. the mp3 player is defensible in court i believe…but the store.. ugh.. that’s an online retail shop, pretty much.. i wish they’d buy apple records and just rename it window’s fund records…
Hello community Just letting you know http://www.24hr-cdrduplication.com is a new duplication website that offers some great services. You should visit them if you’re a artist looking for the finish look.
I own a small record label, Unseen Records, with one artist. The artist name is Jacob Zachary – [url=http://www.jacobzachary.com]http://www.jacobzachary.com[/url] – he has some incredible music that needs to get out there. I just purchased this guide to help with that goal and will try to comment later if it is worth the $25.