iTunes is an application that allows users to purchase, download and listen to music and video via computers or other iTunes compatible devices.
Go Live Time
Though the time it takes for music to go live on iTunes/Apple Music can vary, releases typically go live within 5 business days.
Please note, TuneCore has no control over the internal review processes conducted by stores and cannot expedite your release. If you have a required release date we strongly recommend that you distribute your music more than 3 weeks prior to that date.
iTunes Worldwide Territories
When you select iTunes Worldwide your music will be sent to the territories below (for Albums, Singles and Ringtones). NOTE: As iTunes adds new territories your music will be automatically sent to those stores (unless you use the territory restriction tool.)
You can upgrade your live releases to iTunes Worldwide for no additional charges.
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina-Faso*, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India*, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal*, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan*, Venezuela, Vietnam
*Explicit content is not sold in these iTunes territories.
How iTunes Sells your Music & Store Pricing
iTunes sells your music via:
| DOWNLOADS | STREAMS |
|---|---|
| Yes | No* |
*It is possible for you to receive streaming revenue in your account through the iTunes Match and iTunes Radio services.
Singles
- In TuneCore’s system a single is one (1) track.
- A single in the iTunes Store can be one (1) release with one to three (1-3) tracks.
- The tracks must be under 30 minutes total and all individual tracks must be less than 10 minutes.
- Any releases that meet the above requirements will automatically have “- Single” inserted in the release title within the iTunes Store.
- As a default, tracks will be sold for $0.99 in iTunes (if they are less than 10 minutes.)
- If a single track is 10 minutes or longer, iTunes will automatically sell the release at an album price.
Albums
- An album in TuneCore’s system is any release with two (2) or more tracks.
- There may be cases where you release an album through TuneCore and the release is labeled as a “Single” or “EP” in the iTunes Store.
- If a song on an album is 10 minutes or longer, iTunes will automatically label the track as "album only," the album price will default to $9.99, and iTunes customers will only be able to buy this track by purchasing the whole album.
EPs
In order for a release to be considered an EP, it must meet one of the following two requirements:
- The release has a total of 1-3 tracks, one or more of the tracks is/are 10 minutes or longer and entire release at less than 30 minutes.
- The release has a total of 4-6 tracks and entire release at less than 30 minutes. If your release meets the above requirements and you do not have "- EP" in the title of your album, iTunes will automatically insert "- EP" in the title when delivering your album to the store.
Purchasing and Pricing
- Customers can buy whole albums as well as individual tracks off of an album (the only exception being if a track is 10 minutes or longer it is only available with the purchase of the whole album).
- By default, albums are automatically priced in iTunes using this equation: # of songs X $0.99 USD = price of album.
- EXCEPT if the album has more than 10 songs, in which case the price will automatically default to $9.99 USD.
- Songs are automatically priced at $0.99 USD unless the song is 10 minutes or longer, in which case it will be priced as an album (if it’s a single) or available only with purchase of the full album (if it’s on an album).
- The price for other territories will automatically be converted to that country's currency.
- You can select any Album Price from USD $1.99 - $15.99 USD in dollar increments but it must meet the following requirements:
- If you want to sell your album for $1.99 USD, the number of tracks cannot exceed 4
- If you want to sell your album for $2.99 USD, the number of tracks cannot exceed 7
- If you want to sell your album for $3.99 USD, the number of tracks cannot exceed 10
- For a Single (less than 10 minutes): You can select a price of $0.69, $0.99 or $1.29.
For track prices on an album (this will alter all tracks): You can select a price of $0.69, $0.99 or $1.29.
EXCEPTIONS: iTunes (and all other digital retailers) reserves the right to sell music and/or music videos any way it wants and at any price it wants. When your songs, albums or music videos sell, you will always receive the wholesale price (the money you receive from a sale; please refer to the payout rate chart provided below), but iTunes can sell your music or video for a penny, a million dollars, or anything in between, which is the retail price.
For music, iTunes reserves the right to make a song “album only,” meaning an iTunes customer is unable to download and purchase the song individually without buying the entire album. iTunes does this solely at its own discretion—iTunes decides and TuneCore (and our customers) have no say in the matter.
- Important: iTunes does not accept soundalike cover songs. A Soundalike cover is a song that sounds very similar to the original. Many stores consider this kind of content to be deceptive and misleading, and do not want their customers to purchase this material by mistake. If you distribute soundalike covers to iTunes, the content will be irreversibly hidden and TuneCore will not be able to issue a refund.
Pay Rate (How Much iTunes Pays You)
Generally, for songs sold individually off of an album or single in iTunes, your wholesale payout rate is as follows:
| iTunes Stores Territory | You Receive Per Song |
|---|---|
| iTunes Australia | AUD $0.99 |
| iTunes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam | USD $0.43 |
| iTunes Canada | CAD $0.70 |
| iTunes Europe | EUR €0.71 |
| iTunes Hong Kong | HK $3.72 |
| iTunes Japan | JPY ¥89 |
| iTunes Latin America | USD $0.70 |
| iTunes Mexico | MXN $8.40 |
| iTunes New Zealand | NZD $1.17 |
| iTunes Singapore | SGD $0.79 |
| iTunes Taiwan | TWD $12 |
| iTunes United Kingdom | GBP £0.57 |
| iTunes United States | USD $0.70 (No exchange required) |
Albums are sold in their entirety in two possible ways:
- Albums under 10 songs are priced by the song. To calculate how much you would receive from the sale of an EP or an album with fewer than 10 songs, multiply the number of songs by the pay rate of that iTunes store.
- Generally, for albums with 10 or more songs sold in iTunes, your wholesale payout is as follows:
| iTunes Stores Worldwide | You Receive Per Album |
|---|---|
| iTunes Australia | AUD $9.99 |
| iTunes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam | USD $6.00 |
| iTunes Canada | CAD $7.00 |
| iTunes Europe | EUR €4.90 |
| iTunes Hong Kong | HK $34.80 |
| iTunes Japan | JPY ¥865 |
| iTunes Latin America* | USD $7.00 |
| iTunes Mexico | MXN $84.00 |
| iTunes New Zealand | NZD $11.75 |
| iTunes Singapore | SGD $7.20 |
| iTunes Taiwan | TWD $120 |
| iTunes United Kingdom | GBP £4.30 |
| iTunes United States | USD $7.00 (No exchange required) |
Important: Payment earned outside of the U.S. is lower for various reasons. First, payment on international sales is made in the local currency and therefore subject to exchange rate fluctuations when converted to U.S. dollars. Second, local laws may require that before remitting the money to TuneCore, iTunes must deduct sums for applicable local taxes or other tariffs depending on the territory where you distribute your music. Third, the current wholesale price paid to you for international sales of your music may reflect a deduction for publishing royalties, as iTunes pays those royalties to local copyright societies and publishers (the “Copyright Deduction”), and then the copyright societies pay out those royalties to the rights holders (even if you are the rights holder and/or control the underlying rights to the composition). The Copyright Deduction may vary per country depending on local laws and customs at the time of payment, and are subject to change.
TuneCore always pays you 100% of the proceeds that you earn on your sales through iTunes Worldwide after these deductions are applied.
Pay Rate for "Complete My Album" (How Much iTunes Pays You)
iTunes lets customers who purchased one or some of the tracks from an album complete the album purchase without having to pay the full album price ("Complete My Album" or “CMA”). The iTunes customer pays an adjusted price to obtain the additional tracks in the album. For accounting purposes, the CMA album will be accounted for as a sale of a full album, and the previously purchased track is considered a return (this will show in your monthly sales report as a negative sale). If the purchaser buys a song (i.e. as a single before the album is available), the purchaser can only buy the album, when available, as a CMA purchase if 1.) the song on the album has the same exact track title, artist name and track length as the single; 2.) the same ISRC is used on the song; 3.)the album price is equal to the sum of tracks.
When a CMA purchase is made, this will cause a 1-week sales reporting delay for your monthly sales report. Example: If you had an album in iTunes U.S. with 15 songs and one of your fans purchased one song for $0.99 from the album(say, track #8) you'd get the track Pay Rate of $0.70. If the same customer came back and later purchased the album in its entirety as a CMA, you would earn the Pay Rate for a whole album sale for albums over 10 songs/tracks: $7.00. A refund for the original track #8 purchase would be generated. It would "cancel out" the next sale you had of that particular track. That is, if in the same month, someone (anyone) purchased track #8, that sale would be "cancelled out" by the CMA refund and would not appear on your sales report.
The refund remains until cancelled out by a sale, and can persist over many months until another track #8 is purchased. If the same version of a song (meaning same exact recording with the same exact ISRC) is available for purchase as a single and it also appears on a full length album, a "complete my album" option may show on the full length album for iTunes customers who already purchased the single. The "complete my album" option will not appear if the same version of a song is available for purchase as a single and on an EP (6 songs or fewer).