FAQ: Digital Distribution - General
- What services do you distribute to?
- Am I guaranteed placement on these services?
- How long does it take between when I send in my CD and when my songs are available for sale?
- What's the deal with the contract?
- Does the contract have a time frame?
- Does the contract say that ICON now owns the rights to my music?
- Can I sell to other "digital distributors" while under contract with ICON?
- Can I distribute songs from CDs that I pressed elsewhere?
- What if there are samples in my music? Is that okay?
- Where do I send my stuff?
- Is digital distribution available to everyone?
- What do I need to send ICON Next to get rolling?
What services do you distribute to?
We distribute to all the major online digital retailers... and we are adding more outlets all the time. Currently, we distribute to the big three: iTunes, Rhapsody, and eMusic, as well as others like Napster, MP3.com, Downloadpunk.com, Snowcap, LastFM, Insound, and amazon.com.
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Am I guaranteed placement on these services?
While placement can't be guaranteed, most sites are eager to carry as much music as possible, and ICON's relationship with these outlets insures that most of our stuff is up for sale on the major sites.
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How long does it take between when I send in my CD and when my songs are available for sale?
It takes approximately 9 weeks for releases to appear in many services. Here is a timeline for your reference.
9 weeks out: Label mails releases to ICON.
8 weeks out: Releases are received at ICON, and entered into the system.
7 weeks out: Resolve any image or data problems.
6 weeks out: Label approves the release and ICON begins feed process.
5 weeks out: Feeds complete and ICON hard drives ship out.
4 weeks out: ICON hard drives are in the door at the service.
Your best shot at making streetdates is to give services 4 weeks to ingest. While many it times it takes less time, it's always best to err on the side of caution.
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What's the deal with the contract?
We did our best to make the contract as straightforward and readable as possible. To summarize the deal:
- You are granting exclusive digital distribution rights to ICON for a length of 1 year.
- We provide the service of encoding your masters and delivery to our digital distribution partners
- For the work we do, we take 5% of the gross receipts earned by your content. As is standard, this is after the specific site and aggregator take their cuts.
- We will cut your checks no later than every two months, as long as the total is over $30.
- You must elect 1 member of your band to be the representative for all communication.
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Does the contract have a time frame?
The contract is for 1 year, and renews automatically for 1 year increments.
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Does the contract say that ICON now owns the rights to my music?
Nope.
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Can I sell to other "digital distributors" while under contract with ICON?
You can not sell to other digital distributors while under contract with ICON.
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Can I distribute songs from CDs that I pressed elsewhere?
Yes, of course! But in the future we recommend using us for your CD manufacturing, cuz we're really good at it.
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What if there are samples in my music? Is that okay?
Just as with CD replication, any samples that you do not own the rights to need to be cleared. So, no, it is not okay to have un-cleared samples in your distributed content.
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Where do I send my stuff?
Send it to ICON at:
ICON Omnimedia, Corp.
c/o ICON NEXT DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION
220 Knickerbocker Ave.
Bohemia, NY, 11716
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Is digital distribution available to everyone?
Currently, we are only offering digital distribution to current customers who have at least 3 releases ready for digital distribution.
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What do I need to send ICON Next to get rolling?
Audio:
- 2 x retail ready CD (CD-R acceptable, but retail ready is preferred)
- Track listing
- Album cover as: 1400x1400 pixel, 300 DPI, RGB color mode, high quality JPG of cover art
- Single Billing Contact
- Signed contract
- 72 dpi label logo
