frequently asked questions

What does it cost me?

If you are delivering just one track (a single) the only fee is an annual payment of $9.99. If you are delivering more than one song (an album) the annual fee is $19.98. The only additional charges (for an album) are one time fees of .99 cents per store you choose and per track that you upload to TuneCore. For example if you deliver a two track album to only iTunes US this would total to, $21.96 with an annual renewal fee of 19.98 after the initial payment.

How long does it take for an album to go live once paid for?

On average it takes about 4-6 weeks to go live on all stores. Some stores review faster than others with Amazon taking under a week, Napster and Emusic about a week or two, Rhapsody about 2-3 weeks and the same for GroupieTunes. So far we have been unable to determine the average time to go live in Lala.com and Shockhound as they are so new. Remember TuneCore does not have control over when your album goes live but these are averages based on long-term distribution relationships with each DSP (digital service provider).

Is there a way to expedite my release?

Unfortunately no, not at this time, but we promise to cross our fingers for you.

How and when do I get my money?

Most stores (like iTunes) send your sales information and money within 45 days after the end of the month in which the sale took place. As an example, if you had sales in the month of February, the stores send your sales information and money by April 15 (45 days after the end of February). Some stores, like eMusic and Napster (for streams only) send your sales information and money within 45 days after the end of each QUARTER. So if your music sold in those stores any time during January, February or March, you'll know about all three months by May 15. On the rare occasion that your sales information and money is posted late, it is due to delays in reporting from the stores.

We also offer weekly trending reports which are posted to you’re My Account page by every Wednesday for the following week. For more on trending, click here.

How do I make changes to an album once I have paid for it?

Unfortunately there is no easy way to make changes to an album once you have paid for the delivery. We distribute your album immediately to the stores and therefore cannot make changes to the delivered album. If you have made a spelling error, uploaded incorrect files for either music or artwork, the best way to make a change is to takedown the current version and upload a completely new one. More on takedowns.

How do I takedown an album that has already been paid for?

If your album has been live on any of the stores for at least six months then just contact us and we will process a takedown for you. For albums that have not been live for at least six months there is an early takedown fee of $20. You can make this payment to accounts@tunecore.com and contact us to process your request.

My go live date has passed, why is my album not live?

There could be multiple reasons for why an album may not be live before or after the projected go live date has passed. More often then not it is because there is an open issue that needs to be resolved. If your album is not live but your go live date has passed and/or your album has been listed in processing for more than 48 hours please contact us.

What format must my music be in, in order to upload to TuneCore?

We have found .wav files to be the most reliable and therefore recommend them first and foremost. Remember that they must be set at a 44.1 khz sample rate, 16 bit sample size and the channel set to stereo. Not sure how to convert your music? – Check out our tutorial.

What format must my artwork be in, in order to upload to TuneCore?

Artwork can be in one of the following file formats: JPG, GIF or PNG. The image must be a perfect square and at least 600x600 pixels in size (1600x1600 is suggested). All artwork must be in best-quality RGB Color mode (including black and white images) and must have a resolution of at least 72 dpi. You may not include: email addresses, URLs, any other contact information or any pricing information. You must include both the artist name and album title on the artwork and remove any stickers or other items from your artwork in case you are scanning it in from a physical CD.

Below is a more detailed Q+A which we believe should answer every question you and your mother may come up with... (at least twice). So please let us know if we missed something!

The TuneCore FAQ is the place to go for answers, from the most simple to the most advanced. Find out what it all means.

What basic things should I know?

How do I get my music in to the stores/services I chose?

Rhapsody

iLike

TuneCore Video

What are Trending Reports and how do they work?

What do I need to know about Accounting?

How does yearly renewal work?

What basic things should I know?

Got questions about our service, or how to get your music onto your computer or what to do with it once it's there? Here's information everyone with a computer should know.

Do I have to be at least 18 years old to get an account?

No! But you do have to be at least 18 years old to do a financial transaction. If you have music you'd like to put into our service and you are under 18 years old, ask for help from a parent or guardian.

How is music stored on a computer?

A computer has a hard drive that stores data. From pictures to music to word processing files, its all just data to a computer. Software programs allow you to use and view the data however you need to, as pictures or text or music. iTunes is software from Apple Computer, Inc., that lets you store, organize, buy and play music.

All music lives on computers as data in digital files. Files live in folders throughout your computer. All files and folders have names, but files end in a three- or four-letter "extension" found after the "dot" (.) in the file name. Most PC computers show these extensions, but most Apple computers do not. Music can be stored in many ways, and the extension tells you and the computer how that file is stored. Some ways of storage "compress" the data to keep the size down (sometimes resulting in loss of sound quality).

For music files, the most common extensions are:

.WAV = Not compressed at all, these large files are playable on most any computer as well as some CD players. TuneCore requires that you rip your music into .WAV format at 44.1khz.
.AIFF = A large file very similar to .WAV, also used on normal music CDs and playable on any CD player. TuneCore's uploader does not accept .AIFF files.
.MP3 = A music file compressed to a small size. This is the most common form of music compression found today (see Compression).
AAC = A compressed, small file format. The AAC name only sometimes appears as an extension. More commonly, AAC files carry one of two different extensions: .M4A, which is what iTunes software creates when you rip a disc into AAC, and .M4P, which the "protected" file that iTunes music stores sell and you download to your hard drive.
.FLAC = A larger but still compressed file that has no loss of sound quality: "lossless" compression.
Apple Lossless = Although this carries a ".M4A" extension just like AACs, this format (sometimes called ALE) is compressed, but in such a way that nothing is lost: "lossless" compression.

For questions about TuneCore Video, please click here.

What should I know about compression?

Music files primarily come in two varieties: "compressed" and "uncompressed." An uncompressed music file is the music stored as faithfully as the computer can hold it, just like the music on normal audio CDs. These are large files and hold every scrap of data the computer needs to reproduce the music as closely as it can to the original recording. These files are often named with .WAV or .AIFF extensions.

Since these files are large and in most cases contain data not necessary in order to have the computer reproduce your music at an acceptable level of sound quality, they are often "compressed" into smaller files. Compression is a kind of shortcut, and in most cases even a trained ear cannot tell the difference between music reproduced from a compressed or uncompressed file. Music files that have been compressed are often given .MP3 and AAC (.M4A) and .FLAC extensions.

Here's how it works. An audio CD you buy at a record store has data on it, and a CD player knows how to read that data and turn it back into music. The amount of data on an audio CD for just one song is quite large: around 35 to 60 megabytes per song, depending on the length of the song. But a lot of that data is unnecessary: it's possible to "compress" big data files into smaller, more manageable sizes. Sure you lose some information, but mostly the unimportant stuff that most people won't miss. After compression, the 35 to 60 MB file gets much smaller: only 3 to 7 MB.

But not all compression is the same. Compressions can be very subtle. If a compressed music file retains 100% of the original sound, it's called "lossless" (no sound quality is lost in compression), such as FLAC files. A FLAC file is smaller than a .WAV or .AIFF, but it's still quite large. The smaller the file is compressed, the more data is lost, the less faithfully a computer can reproduce the music. Usually this is represented by a number called the "sampling rate," which describes how much data (in groups of one thousand bytes) is captured from the music by the computer in any given second. The number is abbreviated "kilobits per second" or "kbps." Here are common compressions and their impact on the music:

.WAV or .AIFF = Uncompressed (TuneCore requires that you rip your music into .WAV format; we cannot currently accept .AIFF files.)
.MP3 = Compressed. Music is sampled at your choice of rates, commonly 128 kbps (average sound quality), 192 kbps (better sound quality), 256 kbps (much better sound quality) and even higher (320 kbps is the MINIMUM for MP3s uploaded to TuneCore, but if you want to be in iTunes, you must use .WAV). The higher the number, the larger the file.
AAC = Compressed. These are usually found as .M4A or .M4P extensions. Music is sampled at your choice of rates. However, AAC files can sound better than MP3 files of the same size. Music sampled at 128 kbps for AAC files sounds much better than 128 kbps .MP3 files. Don't be fooled by the small number!
.FLAC = Lossless Compressed = A big but still manageable file compressed in such a way that no sound quality is lost: "lossless" compression.
Apple Lossless = Although this carries a ".M4A" extension just like AACs, this format (sometimes called ALE) is compressed, but in such a way that nothing is lost: "lossless" compression.

Generally, the higher the kbps, the better the reproduction, but the larger the file.

For questions about TuneCore Video and compression, please click here.

What should I know about 'ripping' and uploading?

However you normally store your music (on a compact disk, on reel-to-reel tape, on a cassette, on vinyl record, etc.), the most common way to get it into your computer is to "rip" it, or as Apple says, "Import." Ripping almost always begins with a regular audio CD placed in the disk drive in your computer, then software like iTunes is told to "import" or "rip" the songs. Even music you get off the Internet or from other computers in a network was probably ripped some time in the past by someone else (EXCEPTIONS: music created on a computer in the first place, music downloaded to your computer off the Internet, sent in an email or from a Website, or music you enter into your computer directly, through a microphone or electronic instrument).

If your music isn't yet on your computer but is on an audio CD, you'll need to rip it yourself to get it onto your computer. Many software programs let you rip music, and they all give you a choice how to rip it. Don't have any ripping software? TuneCore recommends the FREE iTunes software created by Apple Computer, Inc., and available on both Mac and PC: click here for iTunes.

Whichever software you use, you'll be able to rip your music in your choice of formats. To upload your music to TuneCore, we need your songs in any of these formats and at these minimum kbps:

320 kbps .M4A or .MP3 or AAC (TuneCore can accept these formats but not if you intend to place your music in iTunes)
.WAV files. If you are uploading .WAV files make make sure that files have a bit rate of 11411, 16 bit sample size, a sample rate of 44.100 kHz and they must be in stereo. NOTE: This is the required format if you intend to have TuneCore deliver your music to iTunes.

If you have a CD of your songs and want to rip and upload them to TuneCore for delivery to iTunes and the other stores, please see our Rip/Upload Tutorial

At the moment, TuneCore is not accepting uploads for music videos. For questions about TuneCore Video, please click here.

What should I know about UPC and ISRC numbers?

UPC

A UPC ("Universal Product Code") number is nothing more than a group of numbers that are exclusively associated with your album, EP or single. That's it. A BARCODE is a way for a machine to read the UPC numbers. The UPC numbers appear in graphic form as vertical lines: the lines represent the numbers of your UPC in a way that can be scanned and understand by a computer. A UPC/Bar Code allows physical stores to order your CDs easily. It also allows easy tracking of what has sold in both physical and digital form.

For CDs, UPC/Barcodes tend to be between 12 and 15 numbers long. There is a mathematical formula involved in calculating some of the numbers. That is, some numbers are assigned, others appear due to a math formula based on all the other numbers.

Your album, EP or single should have its very own, one-of-a-kind UPC/Barcode. If not, two albums, EPs or singles with the same UPC/Barcode will confuse computers and people: they will not know which album, EP or single they are ordering or tracking.

Your album, EP or single needs a unique UPC. With TuneCore, there are two options:

You already have a UPC/Barcode and want to use it. No problem, just enter it and it will be used.
You do not yet have a UPC/Barcode. No problem, we will make one for you. At the moment, we are offering this service free of charge.

If we assign you a UPC/Barcode, your UPC will appear on your My Discography page very shortly after you complete your payment has been received. You are free to use it for your physical CDs as well at no extra charge. You can continue using it even if you are no longer a TuneCore customer. TuneCore will never re-use your UPC/Barcode number. If you want it, it's yours forever.

To receive a barcode (currently offered free of charge), please contact barcode@tunecore.com with your UPC number and ID Number and we will email you back a barcode. You can find your UPC number and ID Number on your My Discogrpahy page next to your album, EP or single. Remember, if you don't have a UPC, TuneCore will auto-generate one for you when you use the TuneCore service, currently at no extra charge. Also if you wand any CDs replicated or duplicated, please click here for details click here.

IMPORTANT: UPCs and barcodes issued by TuneCore are for you to use, now and forever. But they are just for you. Please don't resell them! There are penalties for reselling to discourage this: you'll have to pay a $25.00 (U.S. dollars) fee plus all the revenue you received from the sale of the UPC or barcode or both, and TuneCore can take this money from the proceeds of music sales. Please keep the UPC and barcode what they are meant to be: a free and convenient part of the TuneCore experience for you, the TuneCore client.

ISRC

For tracking and accounting purposes, each of your songs needs its own unique ISRC number. An ISRC ("International Standard Recording Code") is assigned to each song. This allows easy tracking of each song, such as keeping track of how many copies of it sold. Each ISRC is associated with only one song.

Each ISRC number is a total of twelve characters in a combination of letters and numbers. For example: US SB5 0501001.

Your songs need unique ISRC numbers. With TuneCore, there are two options:

You already have your own ISRC codes for each song and want to use them. No problem, just enter each song's ISRC and they will be used.
You do not yet have ISRC codes. No problem, we will make them for you free of charge.

If we assign your songs ISRC numbers, you are free to use them any way you like for anything else you like at no extra charge. You can continue using them even if you are no longer a TuneCore customer. TuneCore will never re-use your ISRC numbers. If you want them, they're yours forever.

Both your UPC/Barcode and ISRC numbers will be used on your "My Account" page in calculating and displaying how many songs and albums, EPs or singles sold.

IMPORTANT: A single requires both an ISRC (for the song) and a UPC (for the "album"): as far as stores are concerned, a single is merely an album with one song.

TuneCore Video customers do not have the option of using their own custom UPC or ISRC codes. However, TuneCore will assign each music video submission a UPC and ISRC code at no charge. They will be visible on your My Videography page after you have paid to have your music video delivered. For questions about TuneCore Video, please click here.

How do I get my music in to the stores/services I chose?

Here you'll find everything you need to know to get your music from your computer to us. For questions about TuneCore Video delivery, please click here.

How do I deliver my albums, EPs, singles and songs to TuneCore?

All TuneCore customers deliver their music using the TuneCore Web tool to upload directly to us as fast as your Internet connection lets you. You will need a free, no-obligation account. Then, from the My Discography page, just click "Add Album," or "Add Single" ("Add EP coming soon!) and you're ready to go. You'll be asked to enter in all the information we'll need to delivery your music. You'll eventually be asked to upload your music. It's easy, though it also helps to have high-speed broadband Internet and a reliable computer. Even if your connection to the Internet drops, the songs you've uploaded will be saved and the rest you can upload later, when your connection comes back. If you have a CD of your music and want to rip and upload them to TuneCore for delivery to iTunes and the other stores, please see our Rip/Upload Tutorial

What if I attempt to upload something in a format TuneCore can't accept, and what if my upload gets interrupted?

We analyze all files uploaded--all of them. If we find it's corrupted or it's anything other than a 256 kbps AAC (.M4A) (or better) or 320 kbps .MP3 file (or better), we'll notify you. You can then try to upload them again.

Don't worry if any of your uploads are interrupted! Any song that you uploaded successfully will still be there. You'll only have to resend the song that got interrupted. The album, EP or single and its information will be intact, awaiting your return.

Information for Labels

TuneCore was specifically created for use by Record Labels and distributors. With one label or distributor account you can:

List and include an unlimited amount of titles/releases.
List and include an unlimited amount of bands/artists.
List and include multiple labels or sub-labels.
Assign each title its own UPC and/or ISRC codes. If you do not have UPC and/or ISRC codes, TuneCore will create them for you, currently for free. TuneCore created UPC codes and ISRC codes are uniquely yours, will never be re-used and are recognized and accepted by Soundscan.
Use the TuneCore generated UPC on your physical CDs.
Add more titles/releases any time you want.

All of the titles you enter via TuneCore will appear only under your one account. When you log in, you will see all of your release titles, album cover graphics, song titles, order of songs on each title/release, UPC for each title/release and the ISRC for each song, all under your one account.

When you go to your My Account page, you will be able to see, and download, itemized sales information for each album and song in each store and service. Your data is very secure: the only way to gain access to the information under your account is to have the email address and password associated with the account. IMPORTANT: There is no way to view only information on just one release. Anyone that logs into your account with the user name and password will be able to see all the information for all of your releases and titles. Please guard your password carefully.

Labels are also welcome to use TuneCore Video to distribute their music videos. For questions about TuneCore Video, please click here.

What does TuneCore call a "song," how long can it be, and what makes up an album, EP or single?

Find out how TuneCore organizes music into songs, albums, EPs and singles.

What can I name an album, EP, single or a song, or even my band?

Although you can choose almost any title you want for your album, EP or single and almost any song name for your songs, there are important restrictions:

You cannot include in any name such reserved characters as a slash, an asterisk and others.
Neither your band name, your album/EP/single name nor your song titles can be URLs or email addresses.
Abnormal or unusual capitalization may be ignored or undone by the stores. Consider your listing in the stores as a catalog entry, not a place to establish your identity with unusual capitalization.

What makes up a song?

We call a "song" (some people call them "tracks") any piece of music or sound that appears on an album, even if it's the only item on the album. No matter how short it is, it's still a song: every audio file you send us is considered a song, even if it's called "Part One" of a larger work. Songs are separate from one another, even if artistically they belong together as sections of a larger work. For important restrictions, click here

How long can a song be?

A song can be as long as standard audio CD can hold: about 74 minutes. If your song is very long, it may not leave much room for other songs. Don't forget the golden rule: an album/EP/single can only have 74 minutes of music on it, no matter how many songs it's divided into. If you have one song longer than 74 minutes, you can break it up into multiple albums/EPs/singles.

What makes up an album, EP and single?

We call an "album" anything from two songs to as many as you want. Even if it's an EP, we still call it an "album." If your album has dozens and dozens of songs, you can still upload them, but remember, an album can hold no more than 74 minute's worth of songs, no matter how many songs it's divided into. For example, you can have an album with ten songs, each song about 7 1/2 minutes long. You might have an album with only one song that's 74 minutes. You might have lots of songs and they add up to less than 74 minutes. The only rule is, an album can't be longer than 74 minutes.

We don't yet have a category for "EP," but it's coming soon!

We call a "single" any one song delivered on its own to a digital store. Technically, everything we deliver is an "album": a single is merely an album with one song. However, we've created special processes and special prices for singles and given them their own category. IMPORTANT: Anything that applies to albums applies to singles. So all singles must be 74 minutes or less, all singles require a UPC, and so on.

If you have an album, EP or single longer than 74 minutes, or if you have an album, EP or single in many parts, click here.

What about audiobooks?

Although TuneCore can accept spoken word albums, EPs and singles, we cannot deliver audiobook content to iTunes or the other stores. There is a private company separate from TuneCore or the stores called "Audible" that has the exclusive right to distribute audiobook content. If your album, EP or single is an audiobook, you'll have to work with them. However, all other spoken word content is free to use TuneCore for digital distribution.

What if my album, EP or single is longer than 74 minutes?

Nothing TuneCore delivers can be longer than 74 minutes, no matter how few or many songs it's divided into, whether it's an album, EP or single. But some artists have double albums or albums with many parts. That's not a problem.

Simply divide your songs into multiple albums and treat each one as its own album. We recommend you give each album a title that shows it's part of a larger work. For example, if you have an album named "Starflight" that has twenty songs totaling 100 minutes, you'll have to break it into two entirely separate albums you could call "Starflight (Part One)" and "Starflight (Part Two)" and divide the songs between the two so that neither album exceeds 74 minutes in length.

The cost for each album will be calculated separately.

Can I put some or all of my songs together into one or a few long songs?

Sure. But remember, an album, EP or single can never exceed 74 minutes in total, no matter how many songs it's divided into. It stands, therefore, that the limit on a single song is 74 minutes.

Classical is missing from the genre lists, what's going on?

Unfortunately, the stores/services are unable to accept classical music through their regular digital delivery system. An alternate system has been introduced. We are working with the stores to build this new delivery system. We hope to have this working soon. Thanks for understanding.

How do Explicit Lyrics work?

Albums, EPs or singles with explicit lyrics are permitted on iTunes and other stores (except GroupieTunes), but they must be marked explicit. This is voluntary, but if it is later discovered your album, EP or single has explicit lyrics and you failed to indicate it, both TuneCore and the stores/services reserve the right to remove it at any time, or it may be rejected right from the beginning.

IMPORTANT: Although the TuneCore Web tool lets you mark individual songs explicit, right now if even ONE song on an album, EP or single is marked explicit, the ENTIRE ALBUM, EP or SINGLE will be marked explicit. There is no way to restrict it to a select few songs. It works just like the sticker affixed to the covers of CDs: it indicates the CD has explicit content, not just any given song. Please be aware of this when you make your choice.

IMPORTANT: GroupieTunes will not accept any explicit content. If you mark even a single track explicit, the whole album, EP or single is explicit, and no part of it can be delivered to GroupieTunes. This restriction is created by the telephone carriers themselves, and is enforced very strictly. For more information about GroupieTunes, please click here

TuneCore Video customers also have the option to mark their music videos explicit. For questions about TuneCore Video, please click here.

What does "Status:" mean on My Discography?

Albums at TuneCore have several states:

X Steps to Go: This means you still have X things to do: your album, EP or single is in process. It will stay in process until you've entered all the required information, artwork, track information and you've fully uploaded every song. It knows how many steps you have to go before you're Ready to Go (see next state), and X will match that number. For example, if you have added album artwork but haven't yet added songs, X will be 1, and it will read "1 Step to Go" until you've added all songs and uploaded them.
Ready to Go: This is your chance to CHECK and VERIFY that the album, EP or single is exactly the way you want it. Is everything spelled right? Does it have all the tracks it should, are they named correctly, is the correct file uploaded for each? If so, you need only pay. The site will send you to the payment areas. REMEMBER, paying means you are perfectly happy with it, that it's exactly the way you want it to be, and you acknowledge no further changes can be made.
Processing: Your album, EP or single takes a few hours to process. If you add a store later, the album, EP or single will have to go through the processing again. While in processing, you cannot add stores or renew it. If your album, EP or single is in the processing stage for more than a couple of days, please contact TuneCore support.
Sent: This means you have given all the information the album, EP or single needs, uploaded and paid for it (which means you APPROVE it and know nothing more can be changed). It's on its way to the store(s) you chose. No changes can be made, but if you want to add destination stores for $0.99 (U.S.) each, look on your My Discography page beside it for a link that lets you add as many stores as you want. Once you add stores and pay to have them delivered, the status will return to "Processing" (see above).

My artist/band name, album, EP, single name or song names show up on the My Discography page cut short. Will it show up that way in the stores/services I chose?

No. We truncate some names so they fit on our pages, but your full name will always be delivered to the stores/services you chose.

My album, EP or single needs an album cover! How do I deliver cover art, and once I create/upload it, what if it doesn't look good?

We want you to have a unique album, EP or single cover artwork you can be proud of.

All TuneCore customers can upload their own image by clicking the "Upload Image" link on the Your Album or Your Single page.

IMPORTANT: Images cannot contain URLs or email addresses. Please remember that this is a small, "thumbnail" image that most likely already has text on it (the name of your band/artist and the album name, while not required, are strongly encouraged). It must be legible at small size and not blurry. The stores also require proper spelling and other professional touches, though "artistic" and intentional misspellings are acceptable. This is a gray area, please use your judgment, and remember that all the stores have the right to refuse or require different artwork.

For those who don't have artwork of their own yet, we have created an Artwork Tool. Simply click "create artwork for me" and the site will guide you.

No matter how you create it, please make sure your artwork meets all these requirements:

You fully own the rights to the image.
You have the rights to use the face or image of anyone in your artwork, especially if it's a photograph.
If someone else provided you the image, you have permission from them to use it.
No logos, trademarks or any other text or images can appear unless you own them or have permission from the owner(s) to use them. For example, you can not have a logo from a soda company, restaurant, gas station, store, etc., in the background. If things like that show up in your artwork, TuneCore might ask you to prove you have ownership or permission.
No obscenity or pornography can appear in the image.
Words that appear in the image are spelled correctly and are legible
The image is not blurry or distorted.
The image is square.
The image does not include any "stickers" or indications of limited sale. For example, if your artwork has a blaze on it reading "iTunes U.S. Exclusive!" please make sure you deliver it only to iTunes U.S., or alter the artwork accordingly.
Remember: TuneCore and its partners reserve the right to reject any artwork at any time for any reason.

If your image meets all these requirements, then upload it as a 600 x 600 pixel (or better, so long as it's square) .JPEG, .GIF, or .PNG file in best-quality RGB Color mode and at least 72 dpi. For best results, don't scale up smaller images, and don't submit anything that contains an embedded color profile. The most common reason why uploaded art doesn't look good is that the file you uploaded was not to specifications. IMPORTANT: TuneCore can't accept artwork emailed, sent to us through the post, attached as files or any other way but our Web tool.

How long until my album, EP or single shows up in the stores/services I chose after I deliver everything needed to TuneCore?

Once TuneCore has received all of your required information, music, art and payment, we will deliver your music WITHIN ABOUT SIX HOURS! Yes, it's very fast.

HOWEVER, once we deliver your music, it's up to the stores to get it onto their "shelves." Each of the stores/services you chose will treat your music with the same careful attention they provide for all their record labels and artists. However, for reasons entirely out of TuneCore's control, the amount of time it will take for your music to appear may vary. Here is the general rule (not a guarantee), from the moment TuneCore receives the complete set of data (music, information, art, payment, files, etc.) for your album, EP or single, it should be up for sale on the stores you chose within six to eight weeks. Please allow time for this.

IMPORTANT: Once we deliver the music to the stores/services you chose, TuneCore has no control over when your music will appear for sale.

IMPORTANT: Some stores are slower than the other stores/services. We have no estimate on when music can be delivered to any particular store. Thank you for understanding and for being patient.

Here are some common things that can cause a delay:

Missing information is the most common delay. Before we can deliver your album, EP or single to the stores/services you chose, we need to have all of the required information, such as song/track names, title, etc. If any of the required information is missing, the delivery process will stop until the information is complete.
Music and art files not meeting the requirements will be rejected quickly, but art files that are blurry or unreadable may be rejected by the stores even if they get past our checks.
It is possible, for reasons out of TuneCore's control, that it could take some time before your music appears in your chose stores/services. There is no way we can rush them. Once we've delivered your music and information, we can only wait patiently. To date, all TuneCore partners have been very good with getting music into their stores/services quickly.

For questions about TuneCore Video, please click here.

How do sales and payments work?

There are three ways your music (and one way your music videos) can earn you money in the stores and services you choose:

PERMANENT DOWNLOADS

A Permanent Download means someone bought your music or your music video from a store and downloaded it to their computer, cell phone or some other media device. Each time your music is bought, you get paid. There are currently two ways that you get paid by Permanent download:

You get a Fixed Pay Rate every time someone purchases your music or music video for download, where you receive an unchanging, predetermined amount of money each time your music is bought. The Fixed Pay Rate remains the same no matter what the store sells it for. Even if the store sells your music for a hundred dollars or a penny, you still get the Fixed Pay Rate.
You get a Subscription Pay Rate every time someone purchases your music (not music videos) for download, where you receive a variable amount of money each time your music is bought. The Subscription Pay Rate is different every pay period, and is typically based on four things:

How many songs were downloaded in a set period of time (monthly or every three months),
How much money was made by the store in the same time frame,
What "expenses" are deducted by the store, and
What percentage of the remainder is contractually owed to you.

The following stores all offer a Fixed Permanent Download model

iTunes (all stores)
iTunes Video
Napster (also offers Streams, see below)
Rhapsody (also offers Streams, see below)
MusicNet (all stores; also offers Streams, see below)
Groupie Tunes
Amazon MP3
Lala.com
ShockHound
Amie Street (SPECIAL: permanent download rate is variable; for more information, please click here)

An example of a Subscription Pay Rate Permanent Download model

Unlike Fixed Pay Rate models, Subscription Pay Rates can be confusing. Here's an example using eMusic, which has a Subscription Pay Rate Permanent Download model:

For Example: Say, in the months of January, February, March there were a total of 1,000,000 songs downloaded from eMusic by all customers downloading all songs. Imagine in those same months eMusic took in $750,000 in digital download pre-pay revenue. That makes each individual download worth $0.75.

From this $0.75, eMusic then deducts expenses (credit card processing fees, bandwidth, other expenses). For this example, let's say the expenses come to $0.10 per song. This is subtracted from the $0.75 per song, leaving $0.65.

From this remaining $0.65, 60% goes to you. So in this example, you would make $0.39 per song bought: $0.39 is the Subscription Permanent Download Pay Rate for this store in this period. If you had forty downloads from eMusic in this period, you'd make 40 x $0.39 = $15.60 (U.S.), and as always, TuneCore takes nothing, 100% of that money goes to you.

Remember, the amount you make will vary from statement to statement and from store to store as the number of songs bought and the amount of money made in each period will not be the same, and some stores may have different deals.

The following stores offer a Subscription Permanent Download model:

eMusic

STREAMS

A Stream is when someone listens to your song (not music video) but does not own it and has not downloaded it. People usually listen to streams as part of a subscription model similar to the Subscription Permanent Downloads (see above), paying a monthly subscription fee for the access. In many ways, it's like your fans joined a service that lets them rent your music. As soon as they stop paying their monthly rental fee, they will not have access to listen to your music. Each time more than thirty seconds of your music is listened to, you get paid a fee called a Streaming Pay Rate

There are typically two ways to listen to a music as a stream: "Tethered" and "Non-Tethered" streams:

A Tethered Stream means the media player (usually a computer) must be connected (or "tethered") to the Internet at all times in order to listen to the music.
A Non-Tethered Stream means the media player (either a computer or, more often, a portable iPod or iPod-like device, like a Creative Zen Vision, Toshiba Gigabeat, and so on) only needs to be connected to the Internet once a month for the service to confirm that the user has paid their monthly subscription fee. After one month, if the person either stops paying their fee OR if the person does not connect their device to the Internet to verify that they have paid, the songs will stop playing on their computer or portable player.

Each time your music streams, you get paid the Streaming Pay Rate for that store. EXCEPTION: Some stores let potential customers stream for promotion or as a "free trial." In those cases, even though your music may stream, you will not get paid.

The following stores/services offer Streaming Pay Rate:

Napster
Rhapsody
MusicNet (all stores)

ADVERTISING

There are some new services that allow people to listen to your music (not music videos) for free. In return, the services sell advertising space on the Website where people must go and stay in order to listen to the music. The amount of money you receive each time your music is listened to is predicated on how much money the service made in advertising revenue.

At this time, TuneCore is not working with any stores or services that pay out money based on advertising revenue.

When do I see how much I got paid, and when do I get my money?

SPECIAL NOTE: iTunes provides weekly Trending Reports that show unofficial sales trends every Wednesday for the previous Monday-Sunday. To learn more, please click here.

Until the stores and services you chose send information, there is no way of knowing what has sold, where it has sold, how many copies it has sold or how much money you have made from the sale of your music or music videos.

All of the stores and services send out this information in one of two ways:

Within 45 days after the end of each month, or
Within 45 days after the end of every three months.

For example, iTunes sends information and payment by 45 days after the end of each month, so sales and information for the month of March are sent by iTunes by May 15th (May 15th is 45 days after the end of March). Sales and information on what your music sold in the month of April is sent by iTunes (and all other services that account monthly) by June 15th, and so on.

For exmple, eMusic sends out all information and money by 45 days after the end of every three months. Sales and information for the months of January, Febuary and March gets sent by eMusic by May 15th, which is 45 days after the end of March. Sales and information for the months of April, May and June gets sent by eMusic by August 15th, which is 45 days after the end of June, and so on.

IMPORTANT: Until the stores and services send the information and payment for the sales, there is no way of knowing what has sold, where it has sold, how many copies sold or anything else. Rest assured, as soon as the information is received, it will appear in your My Accounts page and your money will be available to take.

STORES/SERVICES THAT SEND INFORMATION AND MONEY by 45 days after the end of EACH MONTH:

iTunes U.S.
iTunes Canada
iTunes Australia
iTunes New Zealand
iTunes U.K.
iTunes European Union
iTunes Japan
iTunes Video (all territories)
Rhapsody
MusicNet
Napster (digital downloads only)
GroupieTunes
Amazon MP3
Lala.com
ShockHound

STORES/SERVICES THAT SEND INFORMATION by 45 days after the end of EVERY THREE MONTHS:

eMusic
Napster (digital downloads for that month and streams for the full three months)
Amie Street

iTunes

How does iTunes sell my music and/or music videos?

There are currently seven iTunes stores:

iTunes United States, selling music and music videos only in the U.S.
iTunes Canada, selling music and music videos only in Canada
iTunes U.K., selling music and music videos only in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
iTunes Europe, selling music and music videos only in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland (Republic), Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland
iTunes Japan, selling music and music videos only in Japan
iTunes Australia, selling music and music videos only in Australia
iTunes New Zealand, selling music and music videos only in New Zealand

IMPORTANT: At TuneCore, some stores are bundled together to save you money and for ease of use. The following iTunes stores are bundled together so that when you purchase one, you get your music delivered to both for the same single-store price:

iTunes U.K. and iTunes European Union are bundled as a single destination store for your album, EP or single for the same low one-store price, as iTunes U.K./Europe.
iTunes Australia and iTunes New Zealand are bundled as a single destination store for your album, EP or single for the same low one-store price, as iTunes Australia/New Zealand.

All iTunes stores sell music and music videos only as permanent digital downloads (no streaming is offered) that the customer owns and uses in the Fixed Pay Rate Permanent Digital Download model. Customers can purchase songs or music videos individually for a per-song/per-video price, or customers can buy albums whole (not music videos), getting every song on that album for one set price. However, this isn't always the case. See below for EXCEPTIONS.

Most often, iTunes sells individual songs at $0.99 each. Most often, albums are sold for either the sum of all the songs on the album (for albums with ten or less songs), or for a single set price of $9.99 for albums over ten songs. See below for EXCEPTIONS.

For example, if your album has five songs, an iTunes U.S. customer can either buy the songs individually for $0.99 or the whole album for 5 x $0.99 = $4.95. If you had another album with 12 songs, an iTunes U.S. customer can either buy the songs individually for $0.99 or the whole album for $9.99.

EXCEPTIONS: iTunes (and all other digital retailers, for that matter) reserves the right to sell music and/or music videos any way they want and at any price they want. When your songs or albums or music videos sell, you will always receive the required amount, but iTunes can sell your music or video for a penny, a million dollars or anything in between. For music, iTunes reserves the right to make a song "purchasable only with the album." That is, no button would be placed next to the song itself, no option to download it on its own would be available to the iTunes customer. iTunes does this solely at their own discretion. Sometimes they do it to long songs (presumably because a 73-minute song would be too much of a bargain for just $0.99, since that's a whole album's worth of music on a single song). Sometimes they do it to very short songs (presumably because $0.99 is too much for a 10-second song). Sometimes they simply adjust the price. However iTunes decides, TuneCore has no say in the matter, and neither do our patrons. Regardless, once a song or an album or a music video sells, you will be paid the required amount the moment iTunes sends the money. There is no withholding of any sort, not from iTunes, not from TuneCore.

Remember, only albums, EPs and singles can be set to sell in stores/services, not individual songs. All songs are grouped into albums (technically, an EP and a single is an album of few or one song), and however the album is set to sell, so will all the songs on that album.

What is iTunes Plus, and will my music sell as iTunes Plus?

In the middle of 2007, iTunes launched a new initiative, "iTunes Plus." Music would now be sold in iTunes in two different ways:

iTunes "regular" (it has no official name)

Available to all
Music encoded at 128 kbps .AAC files (to learn more, click here)
Music protected with Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Music is NOT available for sale as an iTunes Ring Tone for iPhones

iTunes Plus

Available to all
Music encoded at 256 kbps .AAC files (to learn more, click here)
Music NOT protected with Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Music is available for sale as an iTunes Ring Tone for iPhones

Prior to the middle of 2007, all music for sale in iTunes was available only as iTunes "regular."

IMPORTANT: If you had your music delivered by TuneCore into iTunes prior to the first half of 2007, your music was likely for sale as iTunes "regular" through October 2007, and may still be available only as iTunes "regular," or it may have been converted automatically into iTunes Plus (see below).

iTunes announced it would be converting its entire catalog to iTunes Plus in October, 2007, which they did: all music in all iTunes stores that could be converted into iTunes Plus, were. This may or may not include your music (see below).

IMPORTANT: If you had your music delivered by TuneCore into iTunes during the latter part of 2007, your music is likely for sale as iTunes Plus. ALL MUSIC currently delivered into iTunes through TuneCore is AUTOMATICALLY for sale as iTunes Plus. If you do not want your music as iTunes Plus, please contact TuneCore's Customer Support at support@tunecore.com before you pay to have your album delivered to iTunes.

How do I know if my music in iTunes is for sale as iTunes Plus?

iTunes did not begin putting music into iTunes Plus on a specific day or at some specific time. Thus, it's difficult for us to tell you directly if your music is for sale as iTunes Plus if you used TuneCore prior to mid-2007. Furthermore, TuneCore delivers high quality music to iTunes and all the stores we service, but some of the files we delivered to iTunes prior to mid-2007 were of insufficient bit rate to be converted to iTunes Plus in October 2007, and so may still exist as iTunes "regular" files.

Please keep in mind:

If your music was delivered by TuneCore in October or November, 2007, it's very likely to be in iTunes Plus.
All music delivered by TuneCore from December, 2007, is iTunes Plus.
Even if your music was delivered earlier, it may have been converted to iTunes Plus in October, 2007.

To check if your music is for sale in iTunes as iTunes Plus:

STEP ONE: Download and install the iTunes Player from www.itunes.com, if you don't already have it.
STEP TWO: Search for your music in the iTunes store you had TuneCore deliver it to (you only need to find it in one store for this test: if a song is iTunes Plus for one store, it is iTunes Plus for all).
STEP THREE: Examine any of the songs from any of your albums: if there is a "plus" icon in the price column, that song is for sale as iTunes Plus.
OPTIONAL: Examine the column headed by an icon of a bell: if there is a bell icon in the song's row, that song is for sale as iTunes Plus (the bell icon indicates it's for sale as a Ring Tone for iPhones, which is only available for iTunes Plus songs).

If you discover your music is for sale as iTunes "regular" and you wish it to be available in iTunes Plus or vice versa, please contact TuneCore's Customer Support at support@tunecore.com immediately.

IMPORTANT: If a customer acquired your album, EP or single as a "regular" iTunes purchase in the past and the same album, EP or single is offered in iTunes Plus, they can UPGRADE their purchase for a small fee. You will see part of that fee as a royalty payment when the accounting for that month is reported. The price for an album "upgraded" will be about $2.00 (U.S. dollars), depending on the number of tracks on the album upgraded.

For questions about how iTunes sells music videos, please click here.

For questions about how iTunes Trending Reports work, please click here.

What do I get paid when my songs, albums, EPs or singles sell from the iTunes store(s) I chose?

SPECIAL NOTE: iTunes provides weekly Trending Reports that show unofficial sales trends every Wednesday for the previous Monday-Sunday. To learn more, please click here.

When an individual song or album/EP/single or music video sells from an iTunes store, you get a fixed "pay rate," the same pay rate for all independent record labels. (Click for more information about the Fixed Pay Rate for music Permanent Download model). Remember, only iTunes can set the sale price, but no matter what they sell that song or album/EP/single or music video for, you always get the current pay rate. Even if iTunes wants to have a discount, say, offering its customers your content for a penny each, you still get the full pay rate every time it sells.

Albums, EPs, singles and individual songs sell differently, so the pay rate is different:

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE FOR MUSIC?

TuneCore takes none of the money from the sale of your music. You get it all. For the iTunes U.S. store, you receive $0.70 per song sold individually and $7.00 per album with 11 or more songs sold in its entirety.

You are paid the pay rate in the local currency of the country where the sale occurred. For example, if an album or song sells from the iTunes Japan store, iTunes Japan pays in Japanese yen (¥). The money is converted into U.S. dollars by the bank and forwarded on to you. As always, TuneCore takes none of the money from the sale of your music. You get it all, but be aware that bank conversion rates are out of our control and can change from day to day--the bank will convert the currency into U.S. dollars based on what the exchange rate is at the time the bank receives the money.

For songs sold individually off an EP or album through the iTunes stores, you receive the following:

iTunes Stores Worldwide:	You receive
iTunes U.S. Store	US$0.70 (no exchange required)
iTunes Australia Store	Australian Dollars AU$0.99 (EXCEPTION BELOW!)
iTunes New Zealand Store	New Zealand Dollars NZ$1.17 (EXCEPTION BELOW!)
iTunes Canada Store	Canadian Dollars CAD$0.78
iTunes Japan Store	Japanese Yen ¥100 (EXCEPTION BELOW!)
iTunes U.K. Store	British Pounds £0.49
iTunes Europe Store	Euros €0.71 (after September, 2007)

Albums and EPs are sold in their entirety in two possible ways:

Albums under 11 songs and EPs are priced by the song. To calculate how much you would receive from the sale of an album with less than 11 songs or an EP, multiply the number of songs by the pay rate of that iTunes store.
Albums with 11 songs or more sold in their entirety have a set pay rate listed below.

For albums with 11 or more songs sold in their entirety, you receive the following:

iTunes Stores Worldwide	You receive
iTunes U.S. Store	US$7.00 (no exchange required)
iTunes Australia Store	Australian Dollars AU$9.99 (EXCEPTION BELOW!)
iTunes New Zealand Store	New Zealand Dollars NZ$11.75 (EXCEPTION BELOW!)
iTunes Canada Store	Canadian Dollars CAD$7.80
iTunes Japan Store	Japanese Yen ¥1000 (EXCEPTION BELOW!)
iTunes UK Store	British Pounds £4.90
iTunes Europe Store	Euros €7.10 (after September, 2007)

IMPORTANT: Special iTunes Pricing and Pay Rates:

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE FOR "COMPLETE MY ALBUM" PURCHASES?

iTunes lets customers who purchased some of the tracks off one of your albums to, on some future date, "Complete My Album" (CMA) and get the rest of the album for only the cost of the remaining tracks.

For accounting purposes, CMA purchases do not appear: rather, the album counts as a full sale, and the previously purchased track is considered refunded.

EXAMPLE: If you had an album in iTunes U.S. with 15 songs/tracks and one of your fans purchased a song from it (say, track #8) you'd get the track Pay Rate of $0.70. If later the same customer came back and purchased the album in its entirety as a CMA, you would earn the Pay Rate for a whole album sale for albums over 11 songs/tracks, $7.00; a refund for the original track #8 purchase would be generated, but not appear in your accounting: it would "cancel out" the next sale you had of that particular track. That is, if in the same month, someone (anyone) purchased track #8, that sale would be "cancelled out" by the CMA refund and not appear. The refund remains until cancelled out by a sale, and can persist over many months until another track #8 is purchased.

NOTE: None of this has anything to do with the Trending Reports, which do not take into consideration the royalties. This is just one of many ways the Trending Reports are different from the Royalty Reports, and should not be compared side-by-side.

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE FOR "UPGRADED" ALBUM PURCHASES?

If a customer acquired your album, EP or single as a "regular" iTunes purchase in the past and the same album, EP or single is offered in iTunes Plus, they can UPGRADE their purchase for a small fee. You will see part of that fee as a royalty payment when the accounting for that month is reported. The price for an album "upgraded" will be about $2.00 (U.S. dollars), depending on the number of tracks on the album upgraded.

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE FOR MUSIC VIDEOS?

For questions about sales work for music videos through iTunes, please click here.

IMPORTANT: All of the amounts for music and/or music video sales outside of the United States are subject to the terms, conditions, taxes and laws of those countries, including:

International treaties
Fluctuating exchange rates
Local city, state or federal taxes
Tariffs and local restrictions
Current trade status any countries enjoy with the United States
Some countries have special rules, so that even before taxes, tariffs, exchange rates or treaties kick in, some money is deducted by the store to pay fees and royalties dictated by local copyright laws. So from the amount you receive for sales of your music in that country, some amount will be deducted to pay the copyright holders under the local copyright laws. Even if the copyright holder is you, some laws require certain royalties to be paid out in that country. However, no matter what, you will get paid the pay rate, after taxes, exchange rate adjustments, etc.

Remember, because of currency exchange, these pay rates can vary from country to country and from day to day. For example, if you sell one of your songs through the iTunes U.K./Europe store, you ultimately may get a little more or less than the pay rate listed in the above tables, depending only on the foreign currency exchange rate the moment the bank received the money. How much more or less? That changes from day to day, but always, we promise that you get 100% of whatever your songs earn for you.

EXCEPTION: Japan has some special rules, so that even before taxes, tariffs, exchange rates or treaties kick in, some money is deducted by the iTunes Japan store to pay fees and royalties dictated by local Japanese copyright laws. So from the sales of your music in Japan, some portion will be deducted to pay the copyright holders under the copyright laws of Japan. Even if the copyright holder is you, Japanese laws require certain royalties to be paid out in Japan. However, no matter what, you will get paid the pay rate less this amount, after taxes, exchange rate, etc.

EXCEPTION: Both Australia's and New Zealand's governments withhold 5% as a tax on all sales. This amount is already deducted when you receive your accounting.

What is iTunes Latino, and how do I get into it?

iTunes Latino is a sub-store within iTunes U.S. specifically for content of interest to the Latino community. It consists of a home page and feature pages, lists, reviews, specials and other promotional material targeting the Latino demographic. Depending on the sales of your music, iTunes may direct the editors of iTunes Latino to place your music on best-seller lists and other promotionals.

All the rules, restrictions, pay rates and territories of the iTunes U.S. store apply: music in the iTunes Latino sub-store is sold as iTunes U.S. music, and is available only in the United States. All sales will be reported as regular iTunes U.S. sales. For all the information you need to know on iTunes U.S. sales and payments, please see the section on iTunes.

Your content does NOT have be in Spanish or Portuguese to be in the iTunes Latino sub-store, but it must be germane and appeal to the Latino community. iTunes reserves the right to determine what is or is not appropriate for the iTunes Latino store, and will remove any items it decides are misplaced there. IMPORTANT: TuneCore cannot decide if your content is appropriate for iTunes Latino, and iTunes does not provide specific guidelines. It is up to you to decide if your material belongs in the iTunes Latino store or not. If iTunes rejects or otherwise flags your material as misplaced in the iTunes Latino store, TuneCore will abide by iTunes's decision unilaterally.

To have your album, EP or single included in the iTunes Latino sub-store, simply CHOOSE LATIN AS ONE OF THE TWO GENRES when selecting genres from the Your Album or Your Single page. IMPORTANT: All content with the genre selection "Latin" will be eligible for the iTunes Latino store. All content with "Latin" as one of its genres WILL BE PLACED in the iTunes Latino sub-store, unless iTunes's editorial staff determines otherwise. Again, only iTunes decides what should or should not be in iTunes Latino.

Rhapsody

How does Rhapsody sell my music?

Real Networks has a digital music service called Rhapsody which lets customers buy permanent digital downloads as well as stream digital music directly from their site to a computer and, if customers choose to use Rhapsody's "To Go" program, on selected portable devices. For help with the Rhapsody service, we suggest you use Rhapsody Support.

Rhapsody has several ways of allowing its customers to buy or listen to music:

RealPlayer Music Store (http://musicstore.real.com) sells music only as permanent digital downloads that the customer owns and uses. Visit our section on Fixed Pay Rate Permanent Download models to learn more.
Rhapsody streaming subscription service lets Rhapsody Subscribers listen to music as much as they want as streams (not downloads) for a single flat subscription fee. However, if that subscription lapses, the music becomes inaccessible to the customer. Visit our section on Subscription Streaming models

There are several kinds of Rhapsody customers each with their own options for buying your music, each of which generates money for you in a different way:

Rhapsody Subscribers can listen to an unlimited number of full-length songs while they are connected to the Internet and download an unlimited number of high quality music files to their PC. They can listen to these downloaded songs online or offline and keep the music they download so long as their subscription is current. These songs and albums aren't "purchased" or "permanent" downloads, there's no way for a customer to burn or save the music, and as soon as the customer's subscription lapses, they lose access to these "tethered downloads."
Rhapsody Subscribers can also buy permanent downloads (at a lower price than non-subscribers pay, currently a 10% discount per track).
Rhapsody Non-Subscribing Customers (any person who goes to the website) can stream 25 songs each month before they are asked to put down a credit card to continue either as a Trial Subscriber or a Subscriber.
Rhapsody Non-Subscribing Customers can also buy permanent downloads, but they pay more than subscribers.
Rhapsody Trial Subscribers are trying out the Rhapsody subscription streaming service. Trial Subscriptions last 14 days. Trial subscribers have put down a credit card and typically get access for free for 14 days before being charged for the first month of subscription (see below for important details).
Rhapsody Trial Subscribers can also buy permanent downloads at the market rate of $0.99 per track.

What do I get paid when my music sells or stream from Rhapsody?

Each time a Rhapsody Non-Subscribing Customer permanently downloads your music, you get a payment. When a Rhapsody Subscriber or Rhapsody Trial Subscriber permanently downloads, you also get a payment, but a fraction less. When a Rhapsody Subscriber streams or "tethered downloads" your songs, you get a payment, but when a Rhapsody Trial Subscriber streams, you don't get a payment (see below). Non-Subscribers can stream only up to 25 whole songs per month before they put down a credit card and opt in either to become Trail Subscribers or Subscribers, but if they stream one of your songs during this "Rhapsody 25," you will receive payment.

IMPORTANT: Anyone in the United States can sign up for a Rhapsody Trial by putting down a credit card and get unlimited free streams for 14 days. If a customer streams your music during this period, you will not get any payment for the streams--it's considered promotional. This is a Rhapsody policy. If you do not like the idea of people streaming your music for free, please do not choose Rhapsody as one of your digital distribution stores.

Albums and EPs are sold in two possible ways:

Albums under 11 songs and EPs are priced by the song. To calculate how much you would receive from the sale of an album with less than 11 songs, multiply the number of songs by the pay rate for that kind of Rhapsody customer.
Albums with 11 songs or more sold in their entirety have a set pay rate.

You will be able to see the exact pay rate TuneCore pays you for each song or album/EP/single every time it's downloaded or streamed from Rhapsody in your TuneCore accounting report. The pay rate is available as an element in every line item. As always, this is all the money owed to you for that stream or download, NOTHING was taken by TuneCore.

iLike

TuneCore and iLike have joined forces. This is great news, because it means you get to market and promote your music, and that translates into real royalties right in your pocket: as always, TuneCore takes nothing, you keep 100% of whatever any store pays. There's much more information to come as the partnership matures, but here's the beginnings:

Marketing and Promotion: iLike offers a range of free and paid music-promotion services for artists to reach new fans on leading social networks and platforms across the Web.
Making Money: Artists will also earn royalties when their music is streamed on iLike.com, Facebook, and other platforms where iLike is available.
Artists will earn royalties when their music is streamed not only on iLike.com but also on iLike's unrivaled music syndication network, which provides music on Facebook, hi5, Orkut, Bebo, iLike's third-party developer platform (www.iLike.com/developer) and other leading channels across the Web.

TO GET YOUR MUSIC INTO iLIKE simply choose Rhapsody for digital distribution.

All music sent to Rhapsody will also be sent to iLike. All music sales from iLike will be reported as sales from Rhapsody and paid as Rhapsody sales.

TuneCore is working on a more detailed tutorial to help you take full advantage of iLike, but in the meantime, we recommend you visit these links at the iLike site. They'll give you a great introduction and show you a lot of important details:

The artist sign-up: http://www.ilike.com/account/artist_signup

The tour http://www.ilike.com/forartists

Napster

How does Napster sell my music?

Napster lets customers listen to an unlimited number of full-length songs while they are connected to the Internet and download an unlimited number of high quality music files to their PC. They can listen to these downloaded songs online or offline and keep the music they download for as long as they want to be a "Member."

Napster subscribers can access music in two ways: as "Members" and "To Go Members." Although Napster sometimes differentiates between the Napster store and the Napster Light store, these contain the same music, and your albums will be in both. For a complete description of the Napster service, we suggest you read the Napster FAQ. NOTE: TuneCore is aware of the Napster Ringtones service, and we are currently working on how to make this available for our customers.

Napster Permanent Download Store sells music only as permanent digital downloads that the customer owns and uses. These files are 256 kbps .MP3 files, and are the customer's to keep forever, even if they are not (or cease to be) a Napster "member." Visit our section on Fixed Pay Rate Permanent Download models to learn more.
Napster Streaming Service lets Napster Subscribers listen to music as much as they want as streams (not downloads) for a single flat subscription fee. However, when that subscription lapses, the music becomes inaccessible to the customer. Visit our section on Subscription Streaming models

What do I get paid when music sells or streams from Napster?

Remember that no matter how an individual song or album sells from Napster, you get a fixed "pay rate," the same pay rate for all independent record labels. Only Napster can set the sale price, but no matter what they sell that song or album for, you always get the current pay rate. Even if Napster wants to have a discount, say, offering its customers your songs for a penny each, you still get the full pay rate every time one of your songs or albums sell. Visit our section on Subscription Streaming models to learn more.

Napster works in several ways:

Napster Subscribers ("Members" and "To Go Members") have a variety of services available to them. For details, please click here
Napster Subscribers ("Members" and "To Go Members") can also buy permanent downloads, by using the Napster Light store, if they wish.
Napster Light Customers also have services available. For details, please click here
Napster Trial Subscribers ("Trial Members") are trying out the Napster subscription streaming service, and can also buy permanent downloads through the Napster Light store, if they wish.

Each time a Napster Subscriber ("Member" or "To Go Member") streams more than 30 seconds of your song, you get paid. When anyone, even a Napster Subscriber ("Member" or "To Go Member") permanently downloads one of your songs or albums, you also get paid. Here is a chart that tells you what you will you get when a song streams or downloads from the countries Napster sells in:

For Permanent Downloads PER SONG through the Napster Light Store:

Napster Light Worldwide:	You receive per song
Napster U.S. Store	US$0.65
Napster Canada Store	Canadian Dollars CAD$0.65
Napster U.K. Store	British Pounds £0.48
Napster Europe Store	Euros €0.65

Albums and EPs are sold in two possible ways:

Albums under 11 songs and EPs are priced by the song. To calculate how much you would receive from the sale of an album with less than 11 songs, multiply the number of songs by the pay rate of that country. For example, from the sale in the U.S. Napster Light Store of a 5-song album, you would receive $3.25 for the whole album.
Albums with 11 songs or more sold in their entirety have a set pay rate listed below.

For Permanent Downloads PER ALBUM (11 songs or more) through the Napster Light Store:

Napster Light Worldwide:	You receive per album
Napster U.S. Store	US$6.50
Napster Canada Store	Canadian Dollars CAD$6.50
Napster U.K. Store	British Pounds £4.80
Napster Europe Store	Euros €6.50

For each of your songs streamed by a Napster Subscriber ("Member" or "To Go Member"), you receive a proportionate share of the membership fees, based on the number of streams of your music in that pay period, minus any applicable expenses. As always, TuneCore keeps NONE of this money.

MPORTANT: Napster currently distributes in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Napster may add more countries at any time. For the moment, you MUST have worldwide rights to your music before you select to have it available in Napster. In the near future, TuneCore will offer you the ability to control what parts of the world you make your music available in.

MusicNet

How does MusicNet sell my music?

IMPORTANT: As of Tuesday, July 24, 2007, MusicNet (currently renaming itself to "MediaNet") no longer accepts submissions. Although TuneCore has successfully delivered music to MusicNet and its partner stores for many months, MusicNet has informed us that it is no longer accepting any submissions. TuneCore is continuing its partnership with MusicNet in the hopes that in the future we can begin redelivery. IMPORTANT: If you have albums already for sale in the stores MusicNet delivers to, those albums will remain available for sale. If your music was slated for delivery to MusicNet but has not yet been accepted by them, they will be unable to process your request. TuneCore is working with MusicNet to compile a list of those affected; if your album(s) was affected, your account will receive a complete refund for the store. Tunecore will pro-actively contact you and add $0.99 to your account balance for each album MusicNet was unable to process. Thank you for understanding.

MusicNet provides branded digital music stores for other companies. At the moment, MusicNet's comprehensive suite of digital music services include Yahoo!, Cdigix Ctrax (on more than 30 college campuses), iMesh, HMV Digital, Virgin Digital U.K., FYE Download Zone, MTV's Urge, Microsoft's Zune and MusicGremlin. MusicNet is the world's leading business-to-business digital music service provider.

When you selected to have your albums delivered to MusicNet, your music was be placed in all the stores/services MusicNet currently provides and any future ones they may add. IMPORTANT: There is no way to pick and choose which stores you want to be in at MusicNet--it is an "all or nothing" choice. If you choose to have your music delivered to MusicNet, be aware they may drop or add stores/services, and your music will be removed from any dropped stores/services and/or into any new stores/services. IMPORTANT: Some current or some future stores that are part of MusicNet may distribute in countries outside the United States. You currently MUST have worldwide rights to your music before you select to have it available in the MusicNet group of stores. In the near future, TuneCore will offer you the ability to control what parts of the world you make your music available in.

MusicNet sells music in various ways:

MusicNet Subscribers ("Members") can stream all the music they want for as long as they want as many times as they want for as long as they are subscribers. They can also buy permanent downloads, if they wish.
MusicNet Customers can buy permanent downloads, if they wish, without subscribing to any membership. They cannot stream songs on demand, like subscribers can.
MusicNet Trial Subscribers ("Trial Members") are trying out the MusicNet subscription streaming service, and will be able to stream as many songs as they want as many times as they want for 30 days at no charge; after the thirty days, they will have to pay to subscribe to keep on-demand streaming. NOTE: They can also buy permanent downloads, if they wish. YOU ARE NOT PAID FOR ANY SONGS STREAMED IN A TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION.

IMPORTANT: Anyone can sign up for MusicNet and get unlimited free streams for 30 days. If a customer streams your music during this period, you will not get any payment for them--it's considered promotional. This is a MusicNet policy. If you do not like the idea of people streaming your music for free, please do not choose MusicNet as one of your digital distribution stores.

What do I get paid when songs STREAM from MusicNet?

For STREAMS, MusicNet works on a Subscription Pay Rate Permanent Download model. MusicNet does not pay a pre-set amount for each stream. For each three month period, MusicNet calculates how many songs were streamed and how much money was paid to MusicNet for subscriptions in that period. This rate changes from period to period based on how many songs are streamed and how much money was paid to MusicNet for subscriptions.

To get the per-song Pay Rate, MusicNet divides the amount of money made by the number of songs streamed. This sets the Pay Rate for each song streamed. From this Pay Rate, MusicNet then deducts out Allowed Expenses (these are not negotiable and are the same Allowed Expenses deducted from all other labels and artists working with MusicNet). As always, TuneCore takes nothing, passing all of your money on to you. You get 45% of what remains.

For Example: Say, in the months of January, February, March there were a total of 1,000,000 songs streamed from MusicNet by all customers streaming all songs. Imagine in those same months MusicNet took in $250,000 in digital streaming pre-pay revenue. That makes each individual stream worth $0.25.

From this $0.25, MusicNet then deducts expenses (credit card processing fees, advertising, bandwidth, other expenses). For this example, let's say the expenses come to $0.05 per song. This is subtracted from the $0.25 per song, leaving $0.20.

From this remaining $0.20, 45% goes to you. So in this example, you would make $0.09 per song streamed: $0.09 is the Subscription Streaming Pay Rate for this store in this period. If you had forty streams from MusicNet in this period, you'd make 40 x $0.09 = $3.60 (U.S.), and as always, TuneCore takes nothing, 100% of that money goes to you.

What do I get paid when songs ARE DOWNLOADED from MusicNet?

For DOWNLOADS from MusicNet, regardless of whether or not the customer is a "Member," you get a fixed "pay rate," the same pay rate for all independent record labels. (Click for more information about the Fixed Pay Rate Permanent Download model). Remember, only MusicNet can set the sale price, but no matter what they sell that song or album for, you always get the current pay rate. Even if they want to have a discount, say, offering its customers your songs for a penny each, you still get the full pay rate every time one of your songs or albums sell.

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE?

TuneCore takes none of the money from the sale of your music. You get it all. Music can be downloaded from MusicNet in several possible ways:

Songs downloaded individually generate the song pay rate for that country (see below)
Albums under 11 songs and EPs are priced by the song. To calculate how much you would receive from the sale of an album with less than 11 songs or an EP, multiply the number of songs on the album by the song pay rate for that country (see below)
For albums with 11 or more sold in their entirety, you receive the album pay rate for that country (see below).

Song Pay Rates, By Country:

MusicNet Downloads Worldwide:	You receive per song
MusicNet U.S. Store	US$0.70
MusicNet Canada Store	Canadian Dollars CAD$0.72
MusicNet U.K. Store	British Pounds £0.47
MusicNet Europe Store	Euros €0.68

Album Pay Rates for Albums Sold In Their Entirety, By Country:

MusicNet Whole-Album Downloads Worldwide:	You receive
MusicNet U.S. Store	US$7.00
MusicNet Canada Store	Canadian Dollars CAD$7.20
MusicNet U.K. Store	British Pounds £4.60
MusicNet Europe Store	Euros €6.70

eMusic

How does eMusic sell my music?

eMusic is a service that lets people download music (no streaming is offered) on a pre-buy model. eMusic's customers sign up at one of three different pre-buy rates which sets how many songs they can download each month. eMusic currently offers:

eMusic Free Trial Period: 25 free downloads
eMusic Basic: 30 songs per month for $9.99, which comes to $0.33 a song
eMusic Plus: 50 songs per month for $14.99, which comes to $0.30 a song
eMusic Premium: 75 songs per month for $19.99, which comes to $0.27 a song

IMPORTANT: Anyone can sign up for eMusic and get 25 free downloads. If a customer downloads your music as one or more of these 25 free downloads, you will not get any payment for them--it's considered promotional. This is an eMusic policy. If you do not like the idea of people downloading your music for free, please do not choose eMusic as one of your digital distribution stores.

Once an eMusic customer signs up and passes the free trial period, they have one month to download any 30, 50 or 75 songs they want. At the end of the month, any songs not downloaded expire. For Example, if, by the last day of their month, an eMusic Basic customer downloaded only 23 of their 30 pre-bought songs, the eight "leftovers" expire and the customer has to buy another 30 (or more) songs in order to download more music.

For a complete description of the eMusic service, we suggest you read the eMusic FAQ.

IMPORTANT: eMusic now distributes in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, but may add more countries at any time. For the moment, you MUST have worldwide rights to your music before you select to have it available in eMusic. In the near future, TuneCore will offer you the ability to control what parts of the world you make your music available in.

What do I get paid when songs or albums sell from eMusic?

eMusic works on a Subscription Pay Rate Permanent Download model, so the Pay Rate varies depending on how much money eMusic made in pre-sales each pay period. eMusic calculates how many songs were downloaded and how much money was made in the same three month period. This rate changes from month to month based on how many songs are downloaded and if customers that pre-paid for their songs downloaded everything they pre-bought.

To get the per-song Pay Rate, eMusic divides the amount of money made by the number of songs downloaded. This sets the Pay Rate for each song downloaded. From this Pay Rate, eMusic then deducts out Allowed Expenses (these are not negotiable and are the same Allowed Expenses deducted from all other labels and artists working with eMusic). Of what remains, you get 60%, and that sum is delivered to you by TuneCore. As always, TuneCore takes nothing, passing all of your money on to you.

GroupieTunes

GroupieTunes is a company that provides a way for telecom companies such as Sprint and T-Mobile to carry ring tones and other music content. Furthermore, GroupieTunes "powers" other companies, such as music.com, imvu.com and more, supplying infrastructure to offer and sell music for the end user. When you choose to have your music in GroupieTunes, you agree to have it in ALL the places GroupieTunes sends music.

How does GroupieTunes sell my music?

There are three ways GroupieTunes can sell your music:

Ringtones: Your fans visit the GroupieTunes site and purchase a 30 second portion (or less) of your music to hear over their phone when it rings (if the ring lasts longer than 30 seconds, the ringtone loops).
Downloads to Computer: Your fans visit the GroupieTunes or Music.com site, imvu.com and SonicTap.com (more coming soon) and purchase an entire song as a digital download to your computer, the same way most other digital delivery stores sell music.
Downloads to Mobile Digital Devices with DUAL DELIVERY to Computer: Your fans visit the GroupieTunes or Music.com (with more coming) and purchase your music as a permanent digital download (the entire song), to a mobile device and the entire song is ALSO delivered to their computer at no extra charge.

What do I get paid when songs sell from GroupieTunes?

RINGTONES

GroupieTunes currently partners with these cellular phone providers:

Cingular/AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint/NEXTEL

Unfortunately, at the moment, people on the Verizon or other networks will be unable to purchase your music through GroupieTunes with their phones. GroupieTunes tells us they expect to add Verizon back into their lineup as soon as possible.

Each time a GroupieTunes customer purchases your music as a ringtone, you get a payment. It starts at a base level for each cellular service (see the table below) and climbs proportionally, depending on how much GroupieTunes sold the music for.

For songs sold individually as through GroupieTunes as ringtones at the standard price of $2.49 (U.S. Dollars), you receive the following:

Cellular Service	You receive (all $U.S.)
Cingular/AT&T	$0.71
T-Mobile	$0.54
Sprint/NEXTEL	$0.54

Sometimes, GroupieTunes will sell a song for greater than $2.49 (U.S. Dollars). If that happens, you'll get more in the same proportion as the base pay rate for each cellular service (see table above). As always, TuneCore takes NONE of this, it all goes to you.

EXAMPLES

Say a fan purchased a song of yours from GroupieTunes for the normal base price of $2.49 (U.S. Dollars) to their cell phone that happens to be on the T-Mobile network. You would get the base pay rate of $0.54. But if GroupieTunes had priced your song for $4.98 and it sold on the T-Mobile network, you would get $1.08, which is twice the pay rate, because the song sold for twice the base rate.

Say a fan purchased a song of yours from GroupieTunes for the normal base price of $2.49 (U.S. Dollars) to their cell phone that happens to be on the Cingular/AT&T network. You would get the base pay rate of $0.71. But if GroupieTunes had priced your song for $3.74 and it sold on the Cingular/AT&T network, you would get $1.06, which is 1.5 times the pay rate, because the song sold for 1.5 times the base rate.

DOWNLOADS TO COMPUTER

Each time a GroupieTunes customer purchases your music as a download to their computer (from the GroupieTunes or Music.com site, or any new stores that may be added later), you get a payment.

For songs sold individually as a download to computer, you receive $0.71 (U.S. Dollars).

DOWNLOADS TO MOBILE DEVICES WITH DUAL DELIVERY TO COMPUTER

When your fans purchase a song for download to their mobile device, they get the FREE option to have that song downloaded to their computer as well: this is called "dual delivery."

Each time a GroupieTunes customer purchases your music as a download to their computer (from the GroupieTunes or Music.com site, or any new stores that may be added later), you get a payment.

For songs sold individually as a download to mobile device with dual delivery to computer, you receive $0.71 (U.S. Dollars).

IMPORTANT: When you choose to have your music for sale with GroupieTunes, it will automatically be included for sale at Music.com and any other stores or services that could be added in the future. Please be certain you control worldwide rights and you are comfortable being in these other stores when you select GroupieTunes.

IMPORTANT: GroupieTunes cannot accept any music with explicit lyrics. If any of the songs on your album have explicit lyrics or content, no songs from that album can be delivered to GroupieTunes. This restriction is set not by GroupieTunes itself, but by the telephone carriers, who monitor this policy strictly and will remove any content they wish at any time, without discrimination.

For example, if you mark any song on your album as explicit, the entire album (all songs on the album) will be marked explicit and will be delivered to all the stores you chose except GroupieTunes. At the stores, your album will be marked "explicit," but it will not be sent to GroupieTunes at all. If you know your album contains explicit lyrics, please do not select GroupieTunes as a destination store.

For more information about explicit material, please click here.

IMPORTANT: Your display page on GroupieTunes will have a space for band photo, for a listing of a home city and for a short biography. Although TuneCore cannot supply this information right now, you can contact GroupieTunes on your own and get set up with a GroupieTunes "artist account", so that you can supply a band photo, bio and city of origin yourself! To get set up on GroupieTunes, please wrote customerservice@groupietunes.com or call 1 (888) 760-9977.

Once you have been set up by GroupieTunes with one of their "artist accounts," you'll even be able to check your sales! NOTE: Please remember that GroupieTunes only sends out earnings 45 days after the end of the month in which the sale took place. So even though you can see your sales results on the GroupieTunes sites, you won't have access to your earnings until they appear on your TuneCore My Discography page. As always, the moment the revenue gets to us, it goes right into your My Account page where you can request any or all of it, any time, day or night.

IMPORTANT: GroupieTunes has its own unique way to display music: as a single list, not separated or grouped into albums. All of your songs will be listed on a single page, as a single list. Please be aware this could cause confusion and choose accordingly. In the near future, GroupieTunes hopes to provide a more traditional organization, but until then, there is no way to group your music into albums. Thank you for understanding.

POWERED STORES: IMVU, SonicTap, Music.com

TuneCore customers choosing to have their music delivered to GroupieTunes will automatically have their content sent to all the stores "powered" by GroupieTunes, currently IMVU, SonicTap (owned by DMX) and Music.com. Music.com and IMVU are currently live, SonicTap is projected to be live by early 2009.

IMVU and SonicTap will be selling music in several ways. At the moment, we have information regarding digital download sales, which will be DRM-free MP3s at 256 kbps. GroupieTunes does not work on a per-album model, so only tracks will sell. All the rules of pricing for GroupieTules apply, which will be per-track only, and you'll get $0.70 each time one downloads.

But IMVU in particular has a new wrinkle worth considering. IMVU.com is not a traditional online music retailer. People go to IMVU, create an avatar (a graphical representation of you on the internet) and wander, interact, socialize, buy virtual items and buy music for download. But an avatar can also put together a "radio playlist" of songs and let other avatars listen to them, just like a radio station puts together a playlist of songs and lets listeners hear them. As this is the internet, in the United States, when a "radio station" plays songs on the Internet, U.S. law requires you get paid. The money that is owed to you is paid to a collection agency called Sound Exchange. Sound Exchange's job is to collect the money owed to you and then give it to you, once you register with them (registration with Sound Exchange is free).

We are still looking in to how this will work, but rest assured, as always, however this money gets paid, if any of it ever flows through TuneCore, we will never take a percentage, and we will always help you whenever we can.

Amazon MP3

How does Amazon MP3 sell my music?

TuneCore delivers your music to the Amazon MP3 music store, which sells music only as permanent digital downloads through the Web (no streaming is offered other than 30-second sample streams for each song). IMPORTANT: There is no physical distribution available through Amazon MP3. Your fans will be able to purchase songs individually or entire albums digitally as downloads to their computers and/or portable devices.

Amazon MP3 sells individual songs and albums at various price levels:

Front Line: The highest retail price in the store (good for new releases)
Mid Line: Slightly lower than Front Line (good for new releases and other current releases)
Catalog: Slightly lower than Mid Line (good for older or lower selling releases)
Special: The lowest retail price in the store (good for promotions, old and/or low selling catalog)

At this time, digital songs and albums are only sold in the Amazon MP3 US store, they will not be for sale in Amazon stores outside the US; be sure you have the rights to sell the music within the United States.

IMPORTANT: Amazon MP3 does not use Digital Rights Management (DRM) on music they sell. Music will be sold unprotected as MP3s. If you are concerned about the lack of DRM, please do not choose to sell your music through Amazon MP3.

IMPORTANT: Although for each album you submit to Amazon MP3, TuneCore lets you request its price level, an album can only be at one level, and all songs on that album will be sold at that level. Currently, Amazon does not offer regular or scheduled opportunities to change an album's pricing level, so please choose carefully before you finalize your decision!

IMPORTANT: Amazon MP3 reserves the right to sell music any way they want and at any price they want. Even though you may choose which price level you'd like for your album, the exact dollar amount of that level is set by Amazon and can change at any time. But remember: when your songs or albums sell, you will be paid at the rate you selected.

What do I get paid when my songs or albums sell from Amazon MP3?

When an individual song or album sells from Amazon MP3, you get a fixed "pay rate" (for more information about the Fixed Pay Rate, click here: Permanent Download model).

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE?

When you choose to have your album delivered to Amazon MP3 for digital distribution, you will be provided tables that reflect the Pay Rate for each price level. On occasion, Amazon MP3 will enter into promotions to help drive sales and raise profile of the music in the Amazon store (i.e., download codes bundled with a non-music product). For these promotions, the Pay Rate will automatically decrease. Please consider carefully when you decide how you want your album priced or if you are comfortable with Amazon MP3's promotional policies at all. If not, please do not choose to have your album distributed through Amazon MP3.

Lala.com

Lala.com is a digital download and streaming service that lets its members store their personal music collection and play it anywhere, any time, through any computer with an Internet connection or iPod (excluding the iPhone and iPod Touch). Membership is free. Members upload music from their MP3 collections into a free, unlimited locker "account" at Lala.com, and later can listen (stream) via a web browser and even sync (download) the content to their iPods and other compatible devices through an Web browser plugin. Members can also buy new music for sale directly from Lala.com while sitting at any computer (no need to do it at home) and simply store it in their Lala.com accounts. Lala.com resembles a subscription model, only the member actually owns the files rather than rents them.

TuneCore customers can select to have their albums delivered into the Lala.com system, where Lala.com members can buy them. When a Lala.com member buys your song(s) or album(s), you get paid the PAY RATE for that purchase, and the album appears in that Lala.com member's account. For every stream, you will get paid the streaming pay rate. For every download, you will get paid the download pay rate.

Lala.com sells downloads as 256 kbps MP3s and streams as 128 kbps MP3s. All 30-second samples are taken from the first thirty seconds of each song. Lala.com reports all sales monthly, 45 days after the end of the sales month.

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE?

Each time your tracks sell individually, you will receive $0.70 (frontline). Each time your album sells as a whole, you will receive $7.00 (frontline). As always, this is all the money owed to you for that stream or download, NOTHING was taken by TuneCore.

For questions about Lala.com's business model and support for Lala.com, please click here: http://www.lala.com/frontend/action/help

ShockHound

ShockHound is a digital download service scheduled to launch in beta on June 15, 2008, with full launch scheduled on July 15, 2008. ShockHound is operated by Hot Topic, the U.S.-based retail chain, and integrates Hot Topic's merchandising, as well as its own. If you select to have your music delivered to Shockhound, your fans will be able to purchase individual tracks and whole albums in the United States (at the moment).

ShockHound sells your music as non-DRM MP3s encoded at 192kpbs.

ShockHound sells individual songs for $0.99 and albums for $9.99. In all cases, the Pay Rate is 70% of the sale price. All of that money goes to you!

Shockhound is a monthly accounting store, so you will see sales and activity from ShockHound 45 days after the end of the month. For example, sales activity in June, 2008, will appear on your TuneCore account My Account page on August 15, 2008.

As ShockHound gets closer to launch, check back for more information.

Amie Street

Amie Street is a new store on the wholesale, quarterly accounting model. It sells music as unencrypted .MP3 files at 256 kbps. Amie Street is unusual in that it's the first place where people collectively determine the price of every song; on Amie Street, all songs start at a low price and rise in price up to $0.98 (U.S.), based on their popularity.

Amie Street claims that when songs are free or inexpensive, customers are more likely to experiment, as opposed to buying from the artists they already know. When songs reach the higher price points, they become even more attractive to customers because the Amie Street community has effectively "voted" them to those prices through their purchases. Amie Street customers find this to be a great way to discover new music and artists find it's a way that maximizes digital revenue.

When you choose to have your music delivered to Amie Street through TuneCore, you will get to pick the price you would like your entire album to sell for. If the cost of buying each song individually is LESS than the price you picked, the album will sell at the lower price. If the cost of buying each song individually is MORE than the price you picked, the album will sell at the album price you selected.

For example, if you have ten songs on your album and each is priced at $0.39, the album would cost $3.90 regardless of what price cap you have selected. Another example: if you have twenty songs on your album and all are priced at $0.95, the album would cost $19.00, but if you selected the "Front Line" price cap, the album will sell for $8.98 instead.

Price Caps

If you choose the Front Line Cap, your album price will be the sum of the individual song prices, but it will never exceed $8.98 total.

If you choose the Mid Line Cap, your album price will be the sum of the individual song prices, but it will never exceed $7.00 total.

If you choose the Catalog Cap, your album price will be the sum of the individual song prices, but it will never exceed $5.00 total.

Single Song Pricing

At Amie Street, songs sell at different prices depending on how often they have been bought. Once a new song from a TuneCore customer gets added to Amie Street, it's available for purchase at $0.15. Every time the song gets purchased the price goes up a cent or two, to a maximum price of $0.98. You therefore have to sell 82 copies of your song before it reaches the highest sale price.

U.S. ONLY

Please note that, for the moment, Amie Street makes songs available for sale in the U.S. only. Your songs will become available in other countries automatically once Amie Street enters agreements with music publishers in those territories. TuneCore will be sure to keep you informed.

HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE?

When you choose to have your album delivered to Amie Street for digital distribution, you will be provided tables that reflect the Pay Rate for each price level and for single songs. On occasion, Amie Street will enter into promotions to help drive sales and raise profile of the music in their store (i.e., download codes bundled with a non-music product). For these promotions, the Pay Rate will automatically decrease. Please consider carefully when you decide how you want your album priced or if you are comfortable with Amie Street's promotional policies at all. If not, please do not choose to have your album distributed through Amie Street.

Amie Street reports sales 45 days after the end of the sale period (quarterly).

TuneCore Video

TuneCore is proud to deliver your music videos and full-length videos to iTunes. Here's all you need to know about TuneCore Video.

IMPORTANT: TuneCore Video's Film, Live Concert and Documentary delivery service goes live on November 18, 2008. On that day, a full FAQ entry will be available. Until then, enjoy this preliminary information:

Have your full length film, documentary and/or live concert distributed to iTunes for no back-end distribution fee.

This new service includes both the distribution and the digital conversion of films and live concerts while allowing you to keep all of your rights and profits.

The TuneCore up-front delivery fee is based on the running time.

In its current beta phase, TuneCore is delivering two films written by Obie Award winner Israel Horovitz: 3 Weeks After Paradise as well as Security. In addition, Horovitz will be starting his own film distribution company utilizing TuneCore; he will identify films that he deems are of artistic excellence.

Other films include the multi-platinum selling The Pimp Chronicles Part 1 and American Hustle by comedian Katt Williiams (First Sunday, My Wife and Kids), the inspiring documentary Ballou, about the unlikely success of an inner-city marching band, and the moving drama Little Chenier: A Cajun Story.

Will iTunes take ANY film?

The movies placed in the iTunes store are editorially approved by the iTunes staff. We will submit your movie along with your supplied materials for consideration. The process for approval is usually within 10 days.

How can I submit a movie to iTunes?

First, email us at movies@tunecore.com with:

the name of your film
the running time of your film
a “sell sheet” or basic info on your film
any additional information you would like us to know
a link to view a preview on-line

IMPORTANT: Please note, at this time all films must be in English and we may need a screening copy mailed to us.

Once your movie is approved, we’ll send you all of the documents you’ll need as well as the information about the submission process. In addition, we will email you the TuneCore Terms and Conditions for film distribution that provide how much you get paid when your films are sold or rented as well as a number of other specific details. Once you approve the Terms and Conditions by sending us back a signed copy (email, fax or mail is fine) we will email you an invoice for the encoding and delivery of your film. The price of delivering a film is determined by runtime of the movie and the amount of labor involved in getting your video encoded.

Once approved by iTunes, what do I need to submit?

A complete package of the materials listed below must be supplied for us to deliver you film(s) to iTunes. Each of these items must be provided and up to spec before we can encode and deliver your movie.

1) Your film on video to be digitized for delivery (although iTunes prefers HD, we're able to process SD and HD material).

2) Metadata to be supplied by TuneCore to you post approval. The Metadata (text information) describing how to put your movie together. We’ll enter all of this data into an .XML form to be delivered with your film. This will include cast, crew, credits and other standard information about your feature film.

3) Other files necessary for displaying your movie. This includes your poster image and preview trailer.

How do movie sales work?

Through the iTunes store customers can buy and rent your film. The amount you are paid for each sale or rental is determined by the iTunes pricing tier system located in the TuneCore Terms