Ableton Forum

iTunes definitely pay out at least 70% of the sale price.

TuneCore (http://www.tunecore.com/) allows you to sell your music on iTunes.

They charge you a fixed fee based on the number of tracks, albums, stores its listed on and so on then they give you all the money they get from sales - $0.70USD per track in the iTunes US store.

How can BeatPort justify taking a 60% cut, when the world leader takes only 30%?

jonny72 wrote:iTunes definitely pay out at least 70% of the sale price.

TuneCore (http://www.tunecore.com/) allows you to sell your music on iTunes.

They charge you a fixed fee based on the number of tracks, albums, stores its listed on and so on then they give you all the money they get from sales - $0.70USD per track in the iTunes US store.

How can BeatPort justify taking a 60% cut, when the world leader takes only 30%?

Apple only ever got into selling music through itunes to ligitmise selling the ipod hardware... Apple has no interest in selling music, its a ruse for selling the player, and its turned it's self around doing so.

I also read somewhere that over 90% (!) of dance music sold online is through beatport - so really they can do whatever they like!

I definatly see a future where every artist sells there stuff through there own site to cut out the folks in the way - distributers/labels etc etc... i guess people will talk about the end of beatport like they do the end of amato or vinyl

It's early and I'm nippin' at my first cup o' coffee but these are my thoughts.

1) While have zero interest in "defending" Beatport I do believe it is important that if we are to move forward discussions such as this remain objective and favour a business state of mind over an emotional one. Agreed?

1) To the best of my knowledge (i.e. I've researched this quite a bit for my store) the typical negotiated split is 40% Beatport / 60% label. The key word here is negotiated. Not to offend, but there seems to be quite a few here speaking with "authority", yet no (stated) credentials to back up them. Might some/all of these "haters" work for other online sites? Think people, think!

2) Agreements are between Beatport and labels. Beatport does not pay the artists, the labels do. It would be wise to stop blaming Beatport for a label's (and/or an artist's) poor negotiating skills.

3) Also keep in mind that these splits are typically from net revenue. Credit cards fees, etc some off the top first to cover costs and then the negotiated split is applied.

4) Whether B&M or web based any biz has overhead, bills to pay, etc. Terabytes of storage - while historically very cheap - do not come free. Nor do heavy handed designer, flash coders, management drug habits, pool parties, etc. LOL It is not realistic to expect a biz to not make money, because by definition profit is why a biz exists. If one can't not make money in the artist biz (because their material, label, promotion, etc sucks?) then one should either find a new biz or at least a new biz model. This is the nature of the free market. Like it or not, the music biz is not a welfare state.

5) On word... Radiohead. If you REALLY love an artist's music, any artist's music, I'm sure sending them a little "bonus" - as based on what the music means to you - would be greatly appreciate. That said, giving away an artist's tunes to friends isn't exactly putting your money where your mouth is. If you wouldn't want it done with your music, then don't do it with someone else's. Simple golden rule here kidz Haters? How do you plea? LOL

6) Finally, and most importantly... A successful biz meets a need in the market. Period. If vinyl (and the profits and biz model that comes with it) is no longer acceptable to the music buying public then so be it. BUT... Y'all (i.e., the public) can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't expect to pay fxck-all for your music and then expect the vendors / labels / artists to get paid. You want Wal-mart, you got it! And that's fine. But now please stop complaining about the wages of the workers. You wanted cheap shxt, you got it! And to the best of my knowledge NONE of the download sites has ever held a gun to anyone's head and forced them to go digital.

Rant over. From Planet X with love

Best cut for you: www.ithinkmusic.com .

They have an interesting model of stores. You can set up your own store with your own stuff, getting a cut of 95%.

It's quite new, but has already been recommended by Brian Eno and David Byrne in one of the last "Wired".

You can make money from digital sales. I know people who work on house labels and the top quality releases are notching up 3,000 downloads per track spread across 4 different download sites. It not all doom and gloom but your product has to be top class and your label needs to be putting stuff out weekly.

Strange i still know people who sell 8000 vinyls easy
But you must have a name.

Tarekith wrote:You're trying to apply logic to the situation, the music business does not work logically.

+2

I think it is more likely beatport take 40% which is reasonable as they also pay mcps fees and cc fees

I managed to sell over a hundred tunes on trackitdown.co.uk and made £50 woo hoo

p.s. cant see anyone shifting 8000 vinyl copies these days, unless they are shifting them as frisbees

mrvinyl wrote:

Tarekith wrote:You're trying to apply logic to the situation, the music business does not work logically.

+2



p.s. cant see anyone shifting 8000 vinyl copies these days, unless they are shifting them as frisbees

You don't have to believe, not trying to convince anyone.
It all depends what style you are in.
All that stuff with vinyl is dead or allmost dead is just crap
A friend of mine sold 2000 vinyls (just one release) with ease( and that in a non mainstream genre), he had to repress

jonny72 wrote:iTunes definitely pay out at least 70% of the sale price.

TuneCore (http://www.tunecore.com/) allows you to sell your music on iTunes.

They charge you a fixed fee based on the number of tracks, albums, stores its listed on and so on then they give you all the money they get from sales - $0.70USD per track in the iTunes US store.

How can BeatPort justify taking a 60% cut, when the world leader takes only 30%?

nonsense, itunes dont pay out 70% they take 50% then the aggregator takes their cut. if you are with an aggregator of course.

im with IODA who take a further 20% after itunes ahev taken 50%

Getting on to beatport is nearly impossible but then there are plenty of good alternatives. Trackitdown, Juno Download, Dance tracks digital.

for DIY you might want to look at ithinkmusic.com

90's child wrote:You can make money from digital sales. I know people who work on house labels and the top quality releases are notching up 3,000 downloads per track spread across 4 different download sites. It not all doom and gloom but your product has to be top class and your label needs to be putting stuff out weekly.

You need to have contacts. without them in the magzines, the DJs and the reviewers then ya fooked.

Beatport pays 60% of net revenue TO THE LABEL, not the other way around. They only keep 40%. That's a fact as I've read it off of my contract.

you also have to remember Beatport only deals with distributors not individuals so....

beatport may take 60% right, than your distributor has to get their cut befor eyou see your cut <-- and even then, unless you sell 500 to 1000's tracks you're not going to see a dime


sell your own music and play gigs

Don't forget the $1 WAV charge...that's just crazy nonsense. They use to offer shipping for WAV, 40 tracks on 5 CD's standard ground Fedex cost $16. Beatport ass rapes the customer.