Follow these instructions to convert your audio to 16 bit (sample size), 44.1 kHz (sample rate), 1411 kbps (bit rate) stereo WAV files in iTunes before you upload to TuneCore:
- Open the iTunes application on your computer.
-
Search for your song(s) in your iTunes Music Library and highlight it (do this by clicking once on the song).
-
Go to
Preferences
(On a Mac, this is under the
iTunes
drop down menu. On a PC, iTunes Version 10 or older, this is under the
Edit
drop down menu. On a PC, iTunes Version 11, this is under the square icon on the top left of your iTunes window).
-
Once you've clicked
Preferences
,make sure you are on the
General
tab. Go down to where it says
Import Settings
(if you have an older version of iTunes, you may have to click where it says
Advanced
and then click on
Import Settings
).
-
Change
Import Using
to
WAV Encoder
. Then click to change
Setting
to
Custom
and a new window will open.
-
In the
Custom
window, change the
Sample Rate
to
44.1 kHz
and
Sample Size
to
16 bit
. Make sure
Channels
says
Stereo
and
Stereo Mode
says
Normal
. Then continue clicking
OK
until you are back to your iTunes library.
-
With your song title(s) still highlighted right click and select
Create WAV
version. Your song(s) will immediately begin converting. If you have a newer version of iTunes you may need to go to
File
,
click
Convert
and "Create WAV Version"
- Once the song has finished converting, you will see that the highlighted song(s) is the old version. We recommend you drag the newly converted file(s) (not highlighted) to a folder on your desktop directly from the iTunes library so you will be able to find it later.
You can upload your new audio file(s) to TuneCore.
-----------------------
If you are exporting from a recording program or importing the audio from a CD (also called "ripping"), you can change the settings/preferences of your export to be 16 bit (sample size), 44.1 kHz (sample rate), 1411 kbps (bit rate) stereo WAV files.
NOTE: If you're using an audio converting website that is not professional software or iTunes, we strongly recommend that you convert your audio again in iTunes afterwards to the required format. Other programs can often embed hidden coding within your audio files, which will likely make the files unrecognizable by the digital stores and cause your release to be rejected.
View Related Blog Posts
How To Get Your Audio Files Ready for Distribution
How Not to Get Blocked by Stores For Formatting Error