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How to make money on iTunes!

April 8, 2008

Our favorite help desk manager / lead singer, Shannon Barrett took some time out of his busy schedule this morning to show me how ANYONE can start making money on iTunes.  I suggested that my musical chops weren’t up-to-speed, but Shannon told me it didn’t matter and explained this sure-fire way people without talent can make money on iTunes:

  • Step One: Find an unsigned band’s album.
  • Step Two: Scan the cover art.
  • Step Three: Covert the music to ACC format.
  • Step Four: Submit ACC files and cover art to iTunes.
  • Step Five: Promote the album and start watching money roll in.

Wait a second, I thought, don’t you have to share the revenue with the artist?  I remember hearing something about that on one of the blogs ~ i.e. that artist get pissed when you make money on their music without paying them too.  Shannon set me straight; evidently on iTunes it isn’t terribly important who owns the music, simply who posted it first.  Think of it like a domain name, whoever registers it first wins.

So can ANYONE releases someone else’s music on iTunes?  According to Shannon Barrett, it seems as though this is the case.  Why is this a big deal? Now that iTunes has overtaken Wal-Mart to become the top music seller in the U.S. it is a huge deal.  Shannon and his band are now researching the ins-and-outs of the DCMA and will be sending a take down notice as soon as a) they can figure out how to do it and b) where to send it.  Good luck guys!

Written by Alexander Muse · Filed Under Blog, Personal 

Comments

5 Responses to “How to make money on iTunes!”

  1. Shannon Barrett Says:
    April 8th, 2008 at 8:15 am

    To add another layer of difficulty - most bands don’t work directly with iTunes to get their music listed. Farstar had to go through a 3rd party - a company called Tunecore just to get on iTunes.

    So not only is the artist at the mercy of iTunes, but also a middle-man.

  2. Pete Wann Says:
    April 8th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    You could try e-mailing “steve@apple.com.” (As in Steve Jobs, of course.) It might be an urban legend, but apparently someone monitors that address and responds to customers who have bad experiences.

    I’d say that blatant theft of copyrighted material would constitute a “bad experience,” even though it’s not really Apple doing the theft. (I’m not saying they’re not culpable or responsible for aiding in the theft, just that it wouldn’t be hard to fool them into thinking that one was the representative of a particular indie band or label.)

    I KNOW they would take that sort of accusation seriously and investigate it, though.

    FWIW

  3. Ben Says:
    May 9th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    When you create a piece of music and fix it in tangeble form (i.e. make a recording), you automatically have the copyright to both the musical composition and the sound recording (assuming you haven’t signed away these rights to a record label and/or publishing company). This means you have the EXCLUSIVE right to make copies of and distribute that song. This means you can sue the hell out of whoever put your music on iTunes without your consent: statutory damages for willful copyright infringement can range up to $150,000. If this is really a big deal for you please contact an experienced music attorney before you do anything else. There are certain things you must do properly (including registering your copyright) before you can sue for copyright infringement. That said, if you don’t really make much money from your music in the first place, this all may not be worth the time, money, and headache involved with litigation.

  4. j andrei Says:
    August 19th, 2008 at 1:44 am

    Comment number 3 sounds right to me. There might be money in doing a
    share deal with the bands, but keeping all monies outright sounds proposterous.

    J

  5. Paul Says:
    September 24th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    What is being described above is nothing more than THEFT. I am an artist who sells on iTunes under the name Delphinium Blue. I can assure you that if I discovered some idiot stealing my tracks and my album artwork and attempting to resell this copyrighted material back to iTunes (or anyone else) I would call my attorney immediately. And YES I have one. A well paid one.

    By the way it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for an unknown individual to simply put tracks up on iTunes. Perhaps Bono could do it. Or Madonna. But unless you’re at that level you aren’t going to get much a response from Apple. Every single artist on iTunes is repped by some kind of “content aggregator” or record label. Still the bottom line is that YOU CAN NOT STEAL OTHER PEOPLE’S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT. A sizeable amount of U.S. law is devoted to the rules and regulations of this stuff. It’s called COPYRIGHT LAW. Really.

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