D.I.Y.

Apple Says Go To Distributor To Get iTunes Ping Artist Profile & TuneCore’s Response

image from www.hypebot.com Ever since Ping launched, there has been a bit of confusion and discontent about how indie artists can get their own Artist Profiles on iTunes 10's new social network. Today came the answer. "Those interested in creating Artist Profiles on Ping should contact their label or aggregator," an Apple spokesperson told Hypebot. "iTunes is working directly with labels and aggregators to create Artist Profiles." In other words, whoever put your music on iTunes has to help you get your Ping Artist Profile.

How TuneCore Is Handling Ping:

One client who uses TuneCore to distribute their music asked the indie digital aggregator how to get a Ping profile and got this reply:

“Thanks for writing! Not only will Ping have ‘People’ accounts, but it will also have ‘Artist’ accounts that allow musicians to upload and create their own pages featuring their pictures, videos, tour dates, music recommendations and a lot more. We were fortunate enough to speak with Apple today to begin working on getting the first TuneCore Artists Ping accounts set up. We will be able to get more and more TuneCore Artists set up over the next weeks as Apple works to authenticate and set up Ping Artist accounts for the millions of artists within iTunes.”

According to Mashable, Apple called TuneCore right after Ping launched, asking for a list of artists. Tunecore sent over a list and Apple came back with questions: "1) Artist name? 2) E-mail address of who will be the account holder? 3). Does the artist have a label, a manager etc.? 4). Will they be managing the account or will the artist?". Then Apple sends a URL which allows the user to log in with their Apple ID and set up a Ping Artist Profile.

 

Bruce Houghton on 09/09/2010 in D.I.Y. | Permalink | Comments (14)
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14 Comments

  1. Quick question, If you use an aggregator to distribute your music, how is that DIY? I’ve always understood that to mean Do It Yourself. Using an outside company to make the contacts for you, and do the selling for you isn’t really doing it yourself, now is it?

  2. The Y is plural…its DO it “Yourselves”
    It takes a team. Goodluck trying to negotiate direct deals w/ Apple, Amazon, Rhapsody, spotify etc.
    I’m not saying it cant be done, but why reinvent the wheel?

  4. DIY also stands for “Decide it Yourself”. There are a limited numbers of hours in each day, and being an indie artist means that you’re going to have to delegate some tasks.
    If you notice, Apple is not even asking artists individually. They’re connecting with the company handling distribution for your music across multiple online retailers.
    If any artist wanted to handle digital distribution on his own, that job alone could easily equal a 40+ hour full-time job.
    The first job of a musician is to create good music. After that, he or she has to decide the next best use of their time – and handling their own digital distribution is not it. Like Bruce says, an aggregator is just a tool to get the job done.
    Just because we can do many things ourselves, doesn’t mean that we should. Tools and resources are here to help us to market our music without having to do everything manually.
    DIY means steering your music career in the direction of your choosing, not simply doing every task simply because you can.

  9. The anti-Apple sentiment amuses me. Does anyone actually think that Apple has the staff to talk to every single band that currently has something on itunes or wants to get on itunes let alone Ping? As much as I read people bitching here on hypebot about fans not spending money on music, does anyone out there think that it is a great thing that Apple is setting up a social platform where bands can connect to fans that may be buying music already? Apple has opened itunes up to virtually anyone with the use of aggregators that actually makes the process quicker for indies to get music on itunes. I should give you the disclaimer because I am lucky enough at this point to already have an artist page on Ping.

  10. @Jeff Scheel
    You sir, are a putz. Connect to their fans? God forbid they go out and play a show and shake some hands. Let’s contribute to the further sterilization of the music industry through more inane actions. Employ tactics to dilute your fan-base factions.

  11. I am not employing any tactics to dilute a fan base but merely trying to embrace what is out there. You obviously know nothing about me or the real and hyper connection I have to many of my fans. My band only plays sparingly but at the last show we did in June, I took a group of fans on a tour of my keyboard player’s new studio and went to dinner with them before the show. These fans also came to sound check. So far on Ping I have bounced messages with people I would have never connected to anywhere else. The fan base has already been diluted and fractured by the various places that people go to find, listen and consume music on the internet. Should I not be everywhere I can on the internet? I agree I am a Putz but don’t read anything in to what I wrote previously here. I agree that the personal connection you make with fans at shows (or other band’s shows)is the best possible connection you can make. I don’t remember typing the contrary. The ONLY reason my band is on Ping in the first place is because of a personal relationship with a fan of the band. Funny how that works.
    Best Wishes,
    Jeff Scheel
    aka The Putz

  12. da problem here is itunes making it difficult for artists to create a ping artist page. why cant we just create a page on our own? why do we HAVE TO go thru our aggregator? alot of artists dont have one as well… does dat mean they dont deserve a ping page? i understand theyre doin it this way to keep things in order (unlike myspace music), but at da same time if its difficult for an artist to make a ping page, then its just da same as it being difficult to get signed to a major label or to be on any major promotion/retail platform. maybe they should rethink da authentication process or da aggregator needs to come up with a simple way for their artists to create their ping page.
    i found this page because i couldnt find how to create my own ping page. ended up googling it and here i am. now it looks like i have to contact cdbaby to see if theres a way i can create my page and put my 3 albums on it dat are for sale on itunes thru cdbaby.

  13. What I think is good is that if you take the time to actually plan a career, you can do it easier now than ever and that involves, as always, delegation. And sincere efforts to get yourself known can show up in this area. A little bit of professionalism will help us stand out from the crowd. Do you think that iTunes should be opened up too? To every Garageband using Dad making a bit of music to go with his holiday snaps? If so, well, like Jeff, I’m a Putz too. Whatever one of those is.

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