We probably have already heard all kind of information concerning the amount of money earned by artists when selling their music on the iTunes Store. My label just added my second album to the iTunes Store couple of weeks ago (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=271184650&s=143442), and we just received the first report. Hereafter are the true figures:we will soon publish another report from a reader who has carried out all steps required to add his music to the iTS, and he is rather satisfied by the corresponding revenue too.
Adding the album to the online store is carried out via a company entitled CDBaby (taking already its margin):
At the end what do we get?
- 0.947USD for a song sold on the French iTS at 0.99€/track
- 0.637USD for a song sold on the US iTS at 0.99USD/track
- 8.94USD for the album sold on the French iTS at 9.90€/album
I could not get the true sale figures for a complete album sold on the US iTS as not a single US customers purchased the entire album, but in summary, the label earns about two third of the revenues. CDBaby is only paying in USD, with a change rate much better than the one used by Apple on the Apple Store. The album is available on all iTS worldwide.
At the end the label is collecting a nice percentage on sales, considering that it does not have to spend any money on producing the CDs. For your information, in the standard distribution channel, Indies sell their CDs to distributors around 6€/CD, but they have to support costs associated with the production of such physical media. Distributors are then selling CDs to shops, both of them taking their margins. (Note: In France, the standard price for a music CD is around 12-15€.)
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