NEWS

iTunes Contract Details

Written by Phillip Winn
Published June 06, 2003

There are still a few missing details, but CDBaby posted the notes of a private meeting with Apple on web, so now we know most of what there is to know about Apple's deals with the labels for the iTunes Music Store. Of course, Apple ordered the notes off of the web, but alternative sources exist.

So we know a few things:


  1. More than 75% of the available songs have sold at least once.
  2. 90% of sales come from 1-click downloads. (These people obviously don't have kids!)
  3. Songs over seven minutes long are not available for individual download.(This doesn't seem right, I'll investigate)
  4. There is no upfront fee or advance.
  5. All sales are reported to SoundScan on a per-track basis.
  6. There is no direct pay-for-play, ever. Not even banner ads.
  7. Top seller lists are only for last 24 hours.
  8. Labels may not sell album-only tracks.
  9. There are no outbound links.
  10. Contracts are for three years.
  11. Apple pays monthly.
  12. Searches return up to 250 songs per artist.
  13. Labels do the work of encoding. (But Apple picks the 30 second samples.)

It's a reseller arrangement, so Apple keeps their amount and cuts a check for the rest to the label. Rumors have Apple's take at $.35 per track, so each track sold is $.65 to the label to split up however their own contracts with the artists work.

Great stuff.

Phillip Winn is the Technical Director for BC Magazine, which leaves him far too little time to write, which makes every article he writes that much more precious.
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
iTunes Contract Details
Published: June 06, 2003
Type: News
Section: Music
Writer: Phillip Winn
Phillip Winn's BC Writer page
Phillip Winn's personal site
Spread the Word
Like this article?
Email this
Submit to del.icio.us Save to del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
All RSS Feeds (240+)
Comments on this article
BC articles by Phillip Winn
All Music Articles
Phillip Winn's personal weblog
All News articles
All BC articles
All BC Comments

Comments

Want comments emailed to you? No spam, promise! Address:

Add your comment, speak your mind

(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/5977)

Personal attacks are not allowed. Please read our comment policy.





Remember Name/URL?

Please preview your comment!

Fresh
Articles
Fresh
Comments