Digital sales outlets' revenue policy? xx % of sales by vendor ...

2017-09-05 15:33:10

So what does the artist make per dollar when I buy a digital album?

* Apple still takes 30 percent of whatever you buy through iTunes, right? But then they cover transaction costs?
What do the other biggies do? Amazon, Google?

The ones I use:
* Bandcamp charges 15 percent reducing to 10 at higher volumes - plus transaction costs. Make that 20 percent for a typical album?
* CDBaby charges 15 percent as well on a free account, but only 9 percent for a paying account. Dunno about transaction costs.

What about Boomkat? Others?

Re: Digital sales outlets' revenue policy? xx % of sales by vendor ...

Reply #1 – 2017-09-06 11:05:24

IndieTorrent charges 15 percent, transaction costs included.

Re: Digital sales outlets' revenue policy? xx % of sales by vendor ...

Reply #2 – 2017-09-06 11:51:19

Found a couple of sources:
https://play.google.com/artists/
and (reliable or not)
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/09/how-much-does-a-band-earn-from-each-music-platform-uniform-notion-shares-the-numbers.html and https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-revenue-breakdown-for-an-album-sold-on-iTunes-or-Amazon-mp3

So it seems the three big ones have all landed on 30 percent, but according to the above sources, it costs $35 a year to have an album available on iTunes or Amazon.  Google Play has a somewhat more artist-friendly price tag: a one-time $25 for your "brand", that is, your band.
I don't know if it is (still) correct that you cannot sign up with iTunes directly?

No surprise that "the others" offer the artists more, of course.