How to Sell Music On iTunes

Written By Ashley Jeanette

About the Author:

"I live and breathe music. When I’m not digging to find the latest bands, you’ll probably find me testing out every coffee shop in town, watching “Bob’s Burgers,” or snuggling up with my cat while reading a book."

Pretty much anyone and everyone has access to iTunes. Whether that be with an iPhone, iPod, iPad, or Mac, iTunes has basically been ruling over the music world since its launch in 2001. The process of selling music on iTunes might seem a little overwhelming, but it's actually not hard at all. With these tips, you'll be climbing to the top charts in no time.

Things to know and have when selling to iTunes

There are a few last-minute things that you want to make sure you have checked off before you upload your music to iTunes. The first is album artwork. This is a reflection of your music, so it might be a good idea for you to hire a graphic designer to create a design that goes along with your music style. You want your image to be no less than 1400 x 1400 pixels. Album artwork should be minimal, to say the least. The fewer words the better. Stick to artist and album name and also list contributors.

Sticking to the same lines of album artwork, make sure you title all of your songs. Some people listen to songs based on the title alone, so you want to make sure that you have a catchy title that mimics the style of your music. Don't just write down a word and choose it, take time and think. The same goes for the title of the album.

The next tip might be obvious, but make sure that you own the music. There have been so many artists get in trouble for doing covers of songs that they did not have the right to do. Similar problems also arise with rappers that use beats they found or bought online without knowing the terms and rights for that beat. Be sure you have permission!

Last but not least, listen to your entire album before releasing it to the world. Make sure that you have your own sound. You don't want to be skipping around with genres. You want people to be able to listen to any song at any point and know that it's you. Be original, but also allow people to identify with you.

Now that you have all of that sorted out, you're ready to release your music. The last thing you have to think about is setting the price. You don't want to go too low because you'll make no money, but setting the price too high sets you up for failure. So what's the magic number? The general price for selling music in the US is $0.99 per song and $9.99 per album. The smartest thing to do is stick to this standard when pricing. Buyers are used to this number and you'll find a pretty good turnaround rate with this.

 Like I said above, selling music on iTunes is a fairly easy process. They work with so many creators and are used to people who are just starting off. Once you find a distributor that works for you, you're set!

Digital distributors to submit to iTunes: 

Apple won't let just anyone upload music to their store. They make artists go through aggregators. No, not alligators, even though it sounds close. This is just another word for a digital distributor. Aggregators take music and format it to the needs of Apple. That way, you don't have to mess with the technical side of things. All you have to worry about is making great music.

Choosing a distribution company can be a task in itself. To make things easier, Apple has a list of approved ones. Just to name a few, some of the top digital distribution companies include AWAL, Believe, and TuneCore.