How Long Does it Take to Sell Your Music on iTunes?

By
June 4, 2010{ 23 Comments }

images1 How Long Does it Take to Sell Your Music on iTunes?

CD Baby will deliver your music to iTunes within 48 hours

If you write iTunes directly to inquire about selling your music in their store, you’ll wait a long time to hear back. At that point, it is highly likely that the form email they’ll send you in response will thank you for your interest and then tell you to use a 3rd party distributor to deliver your music to iTunes.

Rather than going through all that, why not just start with CD Baby? We’ll deliver your music to iTunes within 2 business days. iTunes will post the music for sale through their store shortly after that. No long form emails from Apple. No long waits. It’s simple.

1. Sign up with CD Baby. For a one-time submission fee per-title, CD Baby will distribute your music not only to iTunes, but to Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, Spotify, and many more download retailers. Sign up, tell us your artist name, your song titles, and a little bit about your music and bio.

2. Upload your music. Whether you want to sell a single or a full-album, you can upload a .wav, .flac, or MP3 file and CD Baby will handle all the file-format conversions necessary for worldwide digital distribution.

3. Upload your artwork. Yep. Even if you aren’t selling a physical CD, tape, or vinyl record, you need artwork because all the most popular digital download stores display it next to your name and tracks. Upload a hi-res file and CD Baby will handle all the file-format conversions and resizing necessary for worldwide digital distribution.

4. We’ll do the rest. From the file-format conversion mentioned above, to digital delivery, accounting, payments, and sales reporting, we’ll do the boring stuff so you can get out there and promote your music!

Sell your music on iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, Rhapsody, Spotify, and many more!

Chris Robley's Author Bio

  • http://ricksmusic.webs.com Rick JEFFERS

    I have a question. it is from the time I send a single to cd baby. tell the time it is post is about how long. thank you

  • Jimmyjohnson4444

    Do you know, on average, how long it generally takes for iTunes to post your music after CD Baby has delivered it to them? thanks!

    • http://members.cdbaby.com CD Baby Admin

      Usually within a few business days.

      • Strongcloudmanagement

        How will I know if my music is available on other music sites

        • http://members.cdbaby.com/ CD Baby

          Through CD Baby, you mean? If so, check your CD Baby member account’s digital distribution section and you can view a complete list of all the download retailers and streaming companies that we’ve delivered your music to.

      • JBFactorFan

        I’ve been looking for a band that uploaded a month ago and they still aren’t there. They are in Google Play, but iTunes still doesn’t have them.

        • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

          Contact cdbaby@cdbaby.com and we’ll figure it out for you.

  • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

    We pay weekly, so it might be an issue of you having set your paypoint higher than the amount we owe you. You can log into your account at any time to change that. Just lower it to the minimum. Once the owed balance goes over that amount, we’ll send out the payment the following Monday.

  • Fonoula28

    hi, I just posted a song on CD baby and have NO clue when to tell people to buy it. There seems to be no indication at all. I’m trying to release my single along with its video on the same day, but can’t pin down an exact day :0(

    • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

      If you uploaded all the necessary audio and artwork, and completed all the accurate info on the backend, it should be up soon. For a more specific ETA, feel free to call us or write cdbaby@cdbaby.com. Our artist support team can look it up for ya!

  • Erik

    How long does it take to get paid from an iTunes sale specifically?

    • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

      iTunes generally reports sales 40 days after the close of the month in which the sale took place. So if you sold a song in early July, you’d find out about it in mid-September.

  • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

    Sure. Internet connection could’ve slowed or been interrupted. Not sure if maintenance on our end would cause that. Perhaps. If you’ve tried a couple times and it keeps freezing, write cdbaby@cdbaby.com or give us a call and we can figure out another way to get the audio. You could always mail us a CD, too.

  • Jae’are

    Now that my music is on iTunes and Spotify, why won’t it play or why can’t it be purchased?

    • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

      I don’t understand the question. Where is it not playing from?

  • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

    Have we delivered that single to some of our digital partners yet? They all have a different timeline for content “ingestion” and posting it on their site. But iTunes is very fast. If we’ve delivered your song, I’d say it should be live in at least a few days.

  • TheMetalSgt

    Does anyone know what the quality control is, or if there is any? I guess to make the question clearer, I am wondering if you can just send your own mix that you did yourself, or do you have to get it mastered by a pro or something?

    • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

      iTunes does not censor based on those kinds of recording considerations.

  • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

    Once you’ve finalized your info (all the publisher and composer info is completed, etc.), we’ll deliver you to iTunes within 48 hours. You’ll see a record of that delivery in your CD Baby members account. Then it can take iTunes a little while to post your music for sale, but usually not more than a few days. If you’ve waited any longer than that, please write to cdbaby@cdbaby.com and we can look into it for you.

    @ChrisRobley

  • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

    I’ll have someone on our artist support team look into it and get ahold of you.

    @ChrisRobley

  • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

    Actually, it looks like we sent your music to iTunes on the 16th. You’re available there currently: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/baller-blockn-single/id636884129

    @ChrisRobley

  • takaperry6

    I got my album on iTunes (as you can see https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/fight-or-flight!/id644890609), but the price is outrageous! 1.69 per track, 6 tracks, but the album is 17 dollars! What has happened? Is it because one of the tracks are over 10 minutes?

    • http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/author-chris-robley Christopher Robley

      Sounds like it. They usually make songs that are over 10 minutes long available as part of the full-album download, and they’re more expensive. If you’d like to see if anything can be done to lower the price, send an email to cdbaby@cdbaby.com.

      @ChrisRobley