SO WHY DIGITAL ... ?
THE DEAL: summary at a glance.
WHO should sell music digitally?
GENRE: do the sales outlets accept all music styles?
SHOPS: which shops does g r media deal with?
SCHEDULE: how long does it take for my music to appear in the shops?
GUARANTEE: will my music appear in all shops?
META-DATA: what other data next to my song tracks are required?
codes once more: EAN, UPC, ISRC, ISWC & Cie.?
CONTRACT: why do i need to sign four pages of licensing agreement?
TERM: why 2 years?
CHARGES: do i have to pay anything, any extra charges?
EARNINGS: how much is in there for me?
PROMOTION: can i expect any support regarding online promotion?
PREVIEWS: the first impression is what counts.
PInk DoGG: what are you guys doing?
why g r media?

There are many convincing arguments why you should sell you music in download and mobile music shops, for example:
» this is undoubtedly the ongoing technology trend
» artists and producers get access to a world-wide audience
» in comparison to cd distribution, costs are next to nothing
» digital distribution does not require a record deal
» perform online promotion at a low to zero budget.

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What WE do
» delivering your music to almost 300 download und mobile music shops around the globe
» verifying your meta-data, observing publication of the release/s, promotion support
» free ISRC-codes, retail bar code available at small fee
» reporting, statistic, payment every quarter; royalty payments where required (u.s.a.)
» your earnings: 85% of net-income, exceeding Fr. 60.- per annum eff. 2nd year

What YOU do
Make sure that you own all rights in your music productions, that they are professionally recorded and got a commercial approach, and that you have compensated all involved parties (band members, studio musicians, producers etc.) ...
» sign a non-exclusive license agreement for a period of 2 years with g r media
» deliver the tracks, all meta-data and booklet cover
» pay the transaction fee of Fr. 60.-

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Independent bands, artists, producers, composers, labels, publishers and any other rightsholders of professionally recorded music productions with a commercial or scarcity value or virtu or out of print or whatever. On CD, EP, vinyl or digital only. We reserve the right to test your music for sales chances and textual content.

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Almost any. iTunes and similar shops, for example, offer music of all genres and beyond. There are also many specialised shops for classical music, dance, latin etc.

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End of 2009 we counted almost 400 sales outlets world-wide: typical download shops (eg. iTunes), mobile music shops selling ring tones and full tracks (eg. Jamba), sites for streaming music (z.B. Rhapsody) or others offering monthly subscription models (z.b. eMusic).
Find a list of our partner sales outlets » here.

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Info » how it works.
Hint: the download business is booming and the sales outlets and distributors are facing increasing volumes. status end of 2009, it is best to allow 2-4 weeks until your music appears in the sales lists of the shops, especially when placed by intermediate content distributors (eg. 247 Entertainment, Nokia/OD2/Loudeye, Musicnet). short-term solutions are available, see CHARGES.

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Just like CD distribution, retailers always reserve the right to decline releases. In addition, there are specialised, genre-related shops, and particularly mobile music shops are rather selective. However, most download shops, such as iTunes, eMusic, Sony Connect, Napster, Rhapsody uvw. accept all releases.

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Basically, all data you would print or have printed in your CD booklet. Minimum requirements are:
» CD-booklet front image as JPG 1400x1400, 300 dpi (exactly these formats!)
» name of album or compilation
» genre/subgenre (primary/secondary style)
» band or artist name/s
» release date (in case of previous cd release)
» EAN (or UPC, the retail bar code)
» and for each track: song-titel, artist/s, composers/s, original publisher, ISRC, length, possibly featured artists - > details as per Schedule A of the licensing agreement. to increase the chances for a feature, the shops' marketing teams, PROMONET, SongSpots etc should have more details at hand, for example a band photo, biography, album description, line-up, url of band web site, onesheet and so on.

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EAN (European Article Number): the product bar code retailers administer their goods - as well as digital tracks and albums.
UPC (Universal Product Code): the product bar code used in the united states.
» g r media can order a UPC for our clients at a small fee. However, a UPC can not be used for the sales of physical CDs. For both digital as well as physical sales of the same album, you'll need an EAN that their members may get at »SMMV. Or at g r media at a small fee.
ISRC (International Standard Recording Code, ISO 3901): the international identification system for sound recordings and music videorecordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording which can be permanently encoded into a product as its digital fingerprint. Encoded ISRC provide the means to automatically identify recordings for royalty payments. Multiple mixes of the same song = multiple ISRC's!
ISWC (International Standard Musical Work Code): identifies the underlying composition of a song. This code will most likely play an administrative role in digital distribution administration, too.

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To properly cover your rights and requirements! It is important that you own all rights in your productions - the recordings you made in a studio that is - and that all musicians and producers involved were compensated. As rightholder of your recordings, you will grant g r media the non-exclusive* right to license your music to (sub-) distributors and shops.
*You can license your music to any other sales outlet, except aggregators and sub-distributors (these are companies that deliver your music to hundreds of download and mobile music shops at one licensing contract with you.) Why? Administration conflicts in the shops. Multiple deliveries will simply be kicked out until the situation is clarified.

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Even though new media enables immediate product placement and consumption, by the end of the day it's the consumers' taste and pace that rules over your music's success. Our experiences throughout the past couple of years: to be able to realistically judge about your success from digital sales, it takes up to one year until enough sales figures are compiled that allow a representative conclusion. Because it takes time until your music reaches even the last shop on the list; then music fans got to discover, recommend and buy your music, while some shops report monthly, others only bi-annually. g r media strives to promote your music, which requires an ongoing market penetration, and therefore we have set the term of the licensing agreement to 2 years. However, should a "major" come along with an attractive record deal that requires a pre-mature termination of our licensing agreement, our distribution partner will delete your release off the virtual racks in the shops by requesting an appropriate buy-out.

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For the preparations -for our time that is-the compilation of all data etc, we ask for a handling fee of Fr. 60.- per sound carrier. For every year to follow an administration fee of Fr. 60.- applies, 100% deductable from the net income of the previous year. From the exceeding net income we pay out 85%, if earned below Fr. 60.-, we will send a bill covering the difference.