Regarding Digital Nations
Digital Nations uses various digital distribution aggregates around the world to distribute our music in the multitude of available stores. These digital aggregates distribute the music and collect the fees then take a distribution fee of 10%. Your royalties are based on 70% of the 10% we receive from these aggregates. Stores such as iTunes (worldwide), Amazon(world wide), Spotify, Myspace, MediaNet, eMusic, Zune, Rhapsody, Nokia, Napster & Thumbplay are not subject to the 10% aggregate fee and your royalties on those stores is based on 70% of the wholesale value. This list of stores will continue to change and as it does, your music will be made available in those stores using our best efforts. Due to the continuing evolution of the internet and it’s digital music outlets, this document is subject to changes now and then.
What does Digital Nations do for me and my music?
There are many digital distribution options available to artists these days, but Digital Nations has a set of unique qualities that sets it apart from the others. Not only do we have supreme world wide digital coverage, but when you are a DN artist you are gaining the prestige of being a part a label in the music industry. Press opportunities, radio interviews, & endorsements are just some of the many opportunities that DN artists can be eligible for. As a DN artist, you will be working with a DN manager to help create your own personal DN page with all the essentials that an artist needs to help them sell and promote their work. Your own personal DN page includes, music snippets, a bio, press clippings, available press photos, links to any youtube clips you may have, links to your website and personal media, plus more.
How long does it take for an album to go live ?
From the time it’s uploaded, on average it takes about 5-7 weeks to go live on all stores. Some stores review faster than others with Amazon taking under a week, Napster and Emusic about a week or two, Rhapsody about 2-3 weeks. Digital Nations (DN) does not have control when your album goes live but these are averages based on long-term distribution relationships with each DSP (digital service provider).
Is there a way to expedite my release?
Unfortunately no, not at this time.
How do I make changes to an album once It’s delivered?
Unfortunately there is no easy way to make changes to an album once It’s delivered and sent out the digital stores. We distribute your album immediately to the stores and therefore cannot make changes to the delivered album. If you have made a spelling error, sent us incorrect files for either music or artwork, the best way to make a change is to request us to takedown the current version and upload a completely new one.
What format must my music be delivered in?
We have found .wav files to be the most reliable and therefore recommend them first and foremost. Remember that they must be set at a 44.1 khz sample rate, 16 bit sample size and the channel set to stereo.
What format must my artwork be in, If we choose to have art work submitted?
Artwork must be submitted in JPG. The image must be a perfect square and at least 600x600 pixels in size (1600x1600 is suggested). All artwork must be in best-quality RGB Color mode (including black and white images) and must have a resolution of at least 72 dpi. You may not include: email addresses, URLs, any other contact information or any pricing information. You must include both the artist name and album title on the artwork and remove any stickers or other items from your artwork in case you are scanning it in from a physical CD.
How do sales and payments work?
There are three ways your music can earn you money in the stores and services :
PERMANENT DOWNLOADS
A Permanent Download means someone bought your music from a store and downloaded it to their computer, cell phone or some other media device. Each time your music is bought, you get paid. There are currently two ways that you get paid by Permanent download:
We receive a Fixed Pay Rate every time someone purchases your music for download, where we receive an unchanging, predetermined amount of money each time your music is bought. The Fixed Pay Rate remains the same no matter what the store sells it for. Even if the store sells your music for a hundred dollars or a penny, we still get the Fixed Pay Rate.
We get a Subscription Pay Rate every time someone purchases your music for download, where we receive a variable amount of money each time your music is bought. The Subscription Pay Rate is different every pay period, and is typically based on four things:
-How many songs were downloaded in a set period of time (monthly or every three months),
-How much money was made by the store in the same time frame,
-What "expenses" are deducted by the store, and
-What percentage of the remainder is contractually owed to you.
The following stores all offer a Fixed Permanent Download model
iTunes (all stores)
Napster (also offers Streams, see below)
Rhapsody (also offers Streams, see below)
MusicNet (all stores; also offers Streams, see below)
Amazon MP3
STREAMS
A Stream is when someone listens to your song but does not own it and has not downloaded it. People usually listen to streams as part of a subscription model similar to the Subscription Permanent Downloads (see above), paying a monthly subscription fee for the access. In many ways, it's like your fans joined a service that lets them rent your music. As soon as they stop paying their monthly rental fee, they will not have access to listen to your music. Each time more than thirty seconds of your music is listened to, you get paid a fee called a Streaming Pay Rate
There are typically two ways to listen to a music as a stream: "Tethered" and "Non-Tethered" streams:
A Tethered Stream means the media player (usually a computer) must be connected (or "tethered") to the Internet at all times in order to listen to the music.
A Non-Tethered Stream means the media player (either a computer or, more often, a portable iPod or iPod-like device, like a Creative Zen Vision, Toshiba Gigabeat, and so on) only needs to be connected to the Internet once a month for the service to confirm that the user has paid their monthly subscription fee. After one month, if the person either stops paying their fee OR if the person does not connect their device to the Internet to verify that they have paid, the songs will stop playing on their computer or portable player.
Each time your music streams, you get paid the Streaming Pay Rate for that store. EXCEPTION: Some stores let potential customers stream for promotion or as a "free trial." In those cases, even though your music may stream, you will not get paid.
The following stores/services offer Streaming Pay Rate:
Napster
Rhapsody
MusicNet (all stores)
iTunes
How does iTunes sell my music?
There are currently seven iTunes stores:
iTunes United States, selling music and only in the U.S.
iTunes Canada, selling music and only in Canada
iTunes U.K., selling music and only in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
iTunes Europe, selling music and only in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland (Republic), Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland
iTunes Japan, selling music and only in Japan
iTunes Australia, selling music and only in Australia
iTunes New Zealand, selling music and only in New Zealand
All iTunes stores sell music only as permanent digital downloads (no streaming is offered) that the customer owns and uses in the Fixed Pay Rate Permanent Download Model Customers can purchase songs, or customers can buy albums whole getting every song on that album for one set price. However, this isn't always the case. See below for EXCEPTIONS.
Most often, iTunes sells individual songs at $0.99 each. Most often, albums are sold for either the sum of all the songs on the album (for albums with ten or less songs), or for a single set price of $9.99 for albums over ten songs. See below for EXCEPTIONS.
EXCEPTIONS: iTunes (and all other digital retailers, for that matter) reserves the right to sell music and/or music videos any way they want and at any price they want. When your songs or albums sell, you will always receive the required amount but iTunes can sell your music for a penny, a million dollars or anything in between. For music, iTunes reserves the right to make a song "purchasable only with the album." That is, no button would be placed next to the song itself, no option to download it on its own would be available to the iTunes customer. iTunes does this solely at their own discretion. Sometimes they do it to long songs (presumably because a 73-minute song would be too much of a bargain for just $0.99, since that's a whole album's worth of music on a single song). Sometimes they do it to very short songs (presumably because $0.99 is too much for a 10-second song). Sometimes they simply adjust the price.
Remember, only albums, EPs and singles can be set to sell in stores/services, not individual songs. All songs are grouped into albums (technically, an EP and a single is an album of few or one song), and however the album is set to sell, so will all the songs on that album.
HOW MUCH IS THE PAY RATE FOR MUSIC?
DN pays out to you as outlined in the distribution deal. For the iTunes U.S. store, we receive $0.70 per song sold individually and $7.00 per album with 11 or more songs sold in its entirety. You, the artist, receive 70% of the $0.70 per single or $7.00 per album download.
Your percentage is paid on the pay rate in the local currency of the country where the sale occurred. For example, if an album or song sells from the iTunes Japan store, iTunes Japan pays in Japanese yen (¥). The money is converted into U.S. dollars by the bank . DN then pays your percentage from the sale of your music in US dollars, but be aware that bank conversion rates are out of our control and can change from day to day--the bank will convert the currency into U.S. dollars based on what the exchange rate is at the time the bank receives the money.
For songs sold individually off an EP or album through the iTunes stores, we receive the following:
|
iTunes Stores Worldwide: |
You receive |
|
iTunes U.S. Store |
US$0.70 (no exchange required) |
|
iTunes Australia Store |
Australian Dollars AU$0.99 (EXCEPTION BELOW!) |
|
iTunes New Zealand Store |
New Zealand Dollars NZ$1.17 (EXCEPTION BELOW!) |
|
iTunes Canada Store |
Canadian Dollars CAD$0.78 |
|
iTunes Japan Store |
Japanese Yen ¥100 (EXCEPTION BELOW!) |
|
iTunes U.K. Store |
British Pounds £0.49 |
|
iTunes Europe Store |
Euros €0.71 (after September, 2007) |
Albums and EPs are sold in their entirety in two possible ways:
Albums under 11 songs and EPs are priced by the song. To calculate how much you would receive from the sale of an album with less than 11 songs or an EP, multiply the number of songs by the pay rate of that iTunes store.
Albums with 11 songs or more sold in their entirety have a set pay rate listed below.
For albums with 11 or more songs sold in their entirety, we receive the following:
|
iTunes Stores Worldwide |
You receive |
|
iTunes U.S. Store |
US$7.00 (no exchange required) |
|
iTunes Australia Store |
Australian Dollars AU$9.99 (EXCEPTION BELOW!) |
|
iTunes New Zealand Store |
New Zealand Dollars NZ$11.75 (EXCEPTION BELOW!) |
|
iTunes Canada Store |
Canadian Dollars CAD$7.80 |
|
iTunes Japan Store |
Japanese Yen ¥1000 (EXCEPTION BELOW!) |
|
iTunes UK Store |
British Pounds £4.90 |
|
iTunes Europe Store |
Euros €7.10 (after September, 2007) |
IMPORTANT: All of the amounts for music sales outside of the United States are subject to the terms, conditions, taxes and laws of those countries, including:
International treaties
Fluctuating exchange rates
Local city, state or federal taxes
Tariffs and local restrictions
Current trade status any countries enjoy with the United States
Some countries have special rules, so that even before taxes, tariffs, exchange rates or treaties kick in, some money is deducted by the store to pay fees and royalties dictated by local copyright laws. So from the amount you receive for sales of your music in that country, some amount will be deducted to pay the copyright holders under the local copyright laws. Even if the copyright holder is you, some laws require certain royalties to be paid out in that country. However, no matter what, you will get paid the pay rate, after taxes, exchange rate adjustments, etc.
Remember, because of currency exchange, these pay rates can vary from country to country and from day to day.
EXCEPTION: Japan has some special rules, so that even before taxes, tariffs, exchange rates or treaties kick in, some money is deducted by the iTunes Japan store to pay fees and royalties dictated by local Japanese copyright laws. So from the sales of your music in Japan, some portion will be deducted to pay the copyright holders under the copyright laws of Japan. Even if the copyright holder is you, Japanese laws require certain royalties to be paid out in Japan.
EXCEPTION: Both Australia's and New Zealand's governments withhold 5% as a tax on all sales. This amount is already deducted when you receive your accounting.
Rhapsody
How does Rhapsody sell my music?
Real Networks has a digital music service called Rhapsody which lets customers buy permanent digital downloads as well as stream digital music directly from their site to a computer and, if customers choose to use Rhapsody's "To Go" program, on selected portable devices.
Rhapsody has several ways of allowing its customers to buy or listen to music:
RealPlayer Music Store (http://musicstore.real.com) sells music only as permanent digital downloads that the customer owns and uses.
Rhapsody streaming subscription service lets Rhapsody Subscribers listen to music as much as they want as streams (not downloads) for a single flat subscription fee. However, if that subscription lapses, the music becomes inaccessible to the customer.
There are several kinds of Rhapsody customers each with their own options for buying your music, each of which generates money for you in a different way:
Rhapsody Subscribers can listen to an unlimited number of full-length songs while they are connected to the Internet and download an unlimited number of high quality music files to their PC. They can listen to these downloaded songs online or offline and keep the music they download so long as their subscription is current. These songs and albums aren't "purchased" or "permanent" downloads, there's no way for a customer to burn or save the music, and as soon as the customer's subscription lapses, they lose access to these "tethered downloads."
Rhapsody Subscribers can also buy permanent downloads (at a lower price than non-subscribers pay, currently a 10% discount per track).
Rhapsody Non-Subscribing Customers (any person who goes to the website) can stream 25 songs each month before they are asked to put down a credit card to continue either as a Trial Subscriber or a Subscriber.
Rhapsody Non-Subscribing Customers can also buy permanent downloads, but they pay more than subscribers.
Rhapsody Trial Subscribers are trying out the Rhapsody subscription streaming service. Trial Subscriptions last 14 days. Trial subscribers have put down a credit card and typically get access for free for 14 days before being charged for the first month of subscription (see below for important details).
Rhapsody Trial Subscribers can also buy permanent downloads at the market rate of $0.99 per track. You, the artist, receive 70% of the $0.99.
What do I get paid when my music sells or stream from Rhapsody?
Your royalty is based on each time a Rhapsody Non-Subscribing Customer permanently downloads your music, you get a payment. When a Rhapsody Subscriber or Rhapsody Trial Subscriber permanently downloads, you also get a payment, but a fraction less. When a Rhapsody Subscriber streams or "tethered downloads" your songs, you get a payment, but when a Rhapsody Trial Subscriber streams, you don't get a payment (see below). Non-Subscribers can stream only up to 25 whole songs per month before they put down a credit card and opt in either to become Trail Subscribers or Subscribers, but if they stream one of your songs during this "Rhapsody 25," you will receive payment.
Albums under 11 songs and EPs are priced by the song. To calculate how much you would receive from the sale of an album with less than 11 songs, multiply the number of songs by the pay rate for that kind of Rhapsody customer, then multiply that by your royalty percentage.
Albums with 11 songs or more sold in their entirety have a set pay rate.
Napster
How does Napster sell my music?
Napster lets customers listen to an unlimited number of full-length songs while they are connected to the Internet and download an unlimited number of high quality music files to their PC. They can listen to these downloaded songs online or offline and keep the music they download for as long as they want to be a "Member."
Napster subscribers can access music in two ways: as "Members" and "To Go Members." Although Napster sometimes differentiates between the Napster store and the Napster Light store, these contain the same music, and your albums will be in both.
Napster Permanent Download Store sells music only as permanent digital downloads that the customer owns and uses. These files are 256 kbps .MP3 files, and are the customer's to keep forever, even if they are not (or cease to be) a Napster "member.”
Napster Streaming Service lets Napster Subscribers listen to music as much as they want as streams (not downloads) for a single flat subscription fee. However, when that subscription lapses, the music becomes inaccessible to the customer.
Napster Subscribers ("Members" and "To Go Members") have a variety of services available to them. For details, please click here
Napster Subscribers ("Members" and "To Go Members") can also buy permanent downloads, by using the Napster Light store, if they wish.
Napster Trial Subscribers ("Trial Members") are trying out the Napster subscription streaming service, and can also buy permanent downloads through the Napster Light store, if they wish.
Each time a Napster Subscriber ("Member" or "To Go Member") streams more than 30 seconds of your song, you get paid. When anyone, even a Napster Subscriber ("Member" or "To Go Member") permanently downloads one of your songs or albums, you also get paid. Here is a chart that tells you what we receive when a song streams or downloads from the countries Napster sells in:
For Permanent Downloads PER SONG through the Napster Light Store:
|
Napster Light Worldwide: |
You receive per song |
|
Napster U.S. Store |
US$0.65 |
|
Napster Canada Store |
Canadian Dollars CAD$0.65 |
|
Napster U.K. Store |
British Pounds £0.48 |
|
Napster Europe Store |
Euros €0.65 |
NOTICE: DN pays out to you as outlined in the distribution deal. You, the artist, receive 70% of the received amount above.
Albums and EPs are sold in two possible ways:
Albums under 11 songs and EPs are priced by the song. To calculate how much we would receive from the sale of an album with less than 11 songs, multiply the number of songs by the pay rate of that country. For example, from the sale in the U.S. Napster Light Store of a 5-song album, you would receive $3.25 for the whole album. You, the artist receive 70% of $3.25.
Albums with 11 songs or more sold in their entirety have a set pay rate listed below.
For Permanent Downloads PER ALBUM (11 songs or more) through the Napster Light Store:
|
Napster Light Worldwide: |
we receive per album |
|
Napster U.S. Store |
US$6.50 |
|
Napster Canada Store |
Canadian Dollars CAD$6.50 |
|
Napster U.K. Store |
British Pounds £4.80 |
|
Napster Europe Store |
Euros €6.50 |
NOTICE: DN pays out to you as outlined in the distribution deal. You, the artist, receive 70% of the received amount above.
For each of your songs streamed by a Napster Subscriber ("Member" or "To Go Member"), we receive a proportionate share of the membership fees, based on the number of streams of your music in that pay period, minus any applicable expenses.
IMPORTANT: Napster currently distributes in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Napster may add more countries at any time. For the moment, you MUST have worldwide rights to your music before you select to have it available in Napster.
eMusic
How does eMusic sell my music?
eMusic is a service that lets people download music (no streaming is offered) on a pre-buy model. eMusic's customers sign up at one of three different pre-buy rates which sets how many songs they can download each month. eMusic currently offers:
eMusic Free Trial Period: 25 free downloads
eMusic Basic: 30 songs per month for $9.99, which comes to $0.33 a song
eMusic Plus: 50 songs per month for $14.99, which comes to $0.30 a song
eMusic Premium: 75 songs per month for $19.99, which comes to $0.27 a song
NOTICE: DN pays out to you as outlined in the distribution deal. You, the artist, receive 70% of the received amount above.
IMPORTANT: Anyone can sign up for eMusic and get 25 free downloads. If a customer downloads your music as one or more of these 25 free downloads, we will not get any payment for them--it's considered promotional. This is an eMusic policy.
Once an eMusic customer signs up and passes the free trial period, they have one month to download any 30, 50 or 75 songs they want. At the end of the month, any songs not downloaded expire. For Example, if, by the last day of their month, an eMusic Basic customer downloaded only 23 of their 30 pre-bought songs, the eight "leftovers" expire and the customer has to buy another 30 (or more) songs in order to download more music.
IMPORTANT: eMusic now distributes in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, but may add more countries at any time. For the moment, you MUST have worldwide rights to your music before you select to have it available in eMusic.
eMusic works on a Subscription Pay Rate Permanent Download model, so the Pay Rate varies depending on how much money eMusic made in pre-sales each pay period. eMusic calculates how many songs were downloaded and how much money was made in the same three month period. This rate changes from month to month based on how many songs are downloaded and if customers that pre-paid for their songs downloaded everything they pre-bought.
To get the per-song Pay Rate, eMusic divides the amount of money made by the number of songs downloaded. This sets the Pay Rate for each song downloaded. From this Pay Rate, eMusic then deducts out Allowed Expenses (these are not negotiable and are the same Allowed Expenses deducted from all other labels and artists working with eMusic). Of what remains, we get 60.
For Example: Say, in the months of January, February, March there were a total of 1,000,000 songs downloaded from eMusic by all customers downloading all songs. Imagine in those same months eMusic took in $750,000 in digital download pre-pay revenue. That makes each individual download worth $0.75.
From this $0.75, eMusic then deducts expenses (credit card processing fees, bandwidth, other expenses). For this example, let's say the expenses come to $0.10 per song. This is subtracted from the $0.75 per song, leaving $0.65.
From this remaining $0.65, 60% goes to DN. DN then pays 70% of the remainder to you.
Amazon MP3
How does Amazon MP3 sell my music?
DN delivers your music to the Amazon MP3 music store, which sells music only as permanent digital downloads through the Web (no streaming is offered other than 30-second sample streams for each song). IMPORTANT: There is no physical distribution available through Amazon MP3. Your fans will be able to purchase songs individually or entire albums digitally as downloads to their computers and/or portable devices.
Amazon MP3 sells individual songs and albums at:
Front Line: The highest retail price in the store (good for new releases)
NOTICE: DN pays out to you as outlined in the distribution deal. You, the artist receive 70% of the received amount.
At this time, digital songs and albums are only sold in the Amazon MP3 US store, they will not be for sale in Amazon stores outside the US; be sure you have the rights to sell the music within the United States.
IMPORTANT: Amazon MP3 does not use Digital Rights Management (DRM) on music they sell. Music will be sold unprotected as MP3s. If you are concerned about the lack of DRM, please do not choose to sell your music through Amazon MP3.
IMPORTANT: Currently, Amazon does not offer regular or scheduled opportunities to change an album's pricing level.
IMPORTANT: Amazon MP3 reserves the right to sell music any way they want and at any price they want. The exact dollar amount at a particular level is set by Amazon and can change at any time. But remember: when your songs or albums sell, you will be paid at the Front Line Rate.
What do I get paid when my songs or albums sell from Amazon MP3?
When an individual song or album sells from Amazon MP3, we get a fixed "pay rate" Your payment is based on your contracted royalty from what we receive. NOTICE: DN pays out to you as outlined in the distribution deal. You, the artist, receive 70% of the received amount.
I have cover songs on my album/EP/single. How do publishing rights work, and how do I find the publisher to pay them?
Cover songs involve "publishing." Publishing issues can be complex. Here is a quick background on how it works in the United States. Laws vary from country to country. IMPORTANT: The information in this section is not intended as legal advice.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Just like your computer or your car is your property; a song is property. It's a particular kind of property: "intellectual property." Just as you have a right to determine who uses your property, the owner of a song also has rights. So, you must get the right to use the song from the owner.
The particular right you need is the right to make copies of the song: the "copyright." Only the owner of the song has the right to make copies or to grant the right to others to make copies. So you need to get permission to copy the song. You get that permission by getting a license, just as a driver's license gives you permission to drive. In some cases, song writers and owners of songs do not take care of their own songs. They turn to someone else to deal with giving permission and doing all of the administrative stuff. This person or company is called a music publisher.
MECHANICAL LICENSES
In either case, you must contact the publisher of the song in order to get the license. The license is called a "mechanical license." The mechanical license gives you permission to mechanically reproduce (copy) the song. Of course, in this case the song is being reproduced digitally, but it's the same principle: every time someone downloads the song, a copy is being made. And for every copy that is made, the owner or publisher must be paid. Remember, the publisher is simply someone taking care of the song for the owner. The amount of payment is established by the United States government under copyright law. The amount being paid is called the "statutory rate." Statutory is a fancy word meaning required by law. The current statutory rate the song owner or publisher must be paid is 9.1 cents per copy. So every time the song sells, you owe the owner or publisher 9.1 cents. This rate, you will discover, will be written in the mechanical license.
COMPULSORY LICENCE
In addition, instead of getting a mechanical license from the publisher or song owner, you could make use of a provision in the copyright law called a "Compulsory License." However, there are so many requirements for both notifying the copyright owner and accounting to the copyright owner or publisher for sales of his song, it is not recommended that you try this method. The best and easiest way to get a mechanical license is from the owner or the publisher directly.
EXAMPLE
For example, let's take Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton wrote a song called "I Will Always Love You." Whitney Houston sang it and Sony Records released it. The song went on to sell 14 million copies on a CD single. For each copy made by Sony, Sony had to pay the owner of the song the statutory mechanical royalty dictated by the US Government. Multiply 14,000,000 times the mechanical royalty rate and you can see Dolly Parton was a very happy lady.
ADMINISTRATORS
Some people in the U.S. talk a lot about a company called the Harry Fox Agency. What is the Harry Fox Agency? The Harry Fox Agency is just a company that gets hired by the people that own the rights to the song. The Harry Fox Agency now gets to deal with the administration. Harry Fox gets the license signed and sent back to them (which means a ton of paper work) and then they run around trying to find anyone that has used their clients' song and collect the money owed to their clients. In return, the Harry Fox agency takes a percentage of the money owed to their clients. This is called an "Administration Deal" as the Harry Fox Agency administers the licenses and collects the money on behalf of its clients.
The Harry Fox Agency does represent tens of thousands of people, but not everyone.
YOU HAVE TO FIND THE SONG OWNER
You need to discover who owns the song. Setting this up takes a little one time work, but after that, you're good to go.
How are you supposed to figure out who to pay? That's a very good question. Places like BMI - BMI's site, or ASCAP - ASCAP's site, can you help you discover who wrote the song and who to contact to pay on their behalf.
DN is also happy to report the Harry Fox Agency has recently launched a new site called "SONGFILE," for full download mechanical licensing for covers. It is a tool for artists and labels who need limited quantity physical and/or full download (also called DPD) licenses. It can be found at www.songfile.com. This service is unconnected to DN, but may prove a valuable resource for our clients.
Harry Fox has also posted a new Digital Licensing FAQ which you may find useful.
Note: ASCAP and BMI are public performance societies, not publishing companies--but that is another ball of wax.
Will a Digital Nations UPC work with SoundScan? What should I know about SoundScan?
Yes! Your DN UPC can be registered with SoundScan. However, YOU must register the UPC with them directly (see below). Ask DN for your UPC so you can register it with SoundScan.
SoundScan is a service run by the Nielsen Corporation--the same ones who rate television shows. SoundScan is an important part of the record industry, because it tracks the sales, physical and digital and more, of albums and songs and even music videos.
DN recommends SoundScan, but they are a separate company, and to use their service you'll need to go through their site and register your albums. To learn more about SoundScan, click http://www.soundscan.com and explore what they have to offer.
To register your album(s)/EP(s)/single(s), click http://www.soundscan.com/register.html and download the form and submit it to SoundScan as per their directions.
Things You Should Know About SoundScan
Registering your album or music video with SoundScan is free, but in order to get any information regarding the sales or your songs or albums/EPs/singles or music videos, you must register and pay Soundscan.
The UPC we give you free of charge with your album WILL WORK on SoundScan.
Your relationship with SoundScan is your own, DN does not offer support for them or their service.
Does Digital Nations have or take ownership of any of my master recordings, copyrights, merchandise rights, live performance income, public performance royalties or any other income streams or rights
No. Furthermore, DN gets no rights to make CDs, vinyl records, DVDs or anything else. All of these rights remain with you.
REMEMBER: DN does not own your songs, your masters, your copyrights, or the rights to any art work or band photo or music videos you submit. You maintain all ownership and control of all your rights.
Please let us know if we missed something.