How An Independent Musician Might Get A Profile On Ping
Jimmy Z – ztribe.com
Bottom line – Apple is being very careful about allowing the creation of indie artist profiles on Ping, just as they do with evaluating apps, but I think I am on a pathway to success.
–Update– we have received some clarification via a comment from Jeff Price, one of the founders of TuneCore (see below)
I assist the legendary independent blues and rock musician Jimmy Z with his website and social media. His music has digital distribution via his membership on CD Baby.
As soon as I upgraded iTunes earlier this week, it became my mission to get his profile on Ping and was very, very frustrated to begin with – like everyone else. No clues on the Apple website.
My first call was to CD Baby and they told me they did not have any solutions as yet.
I started writing Apple iTunes Support early Thursday morning, essentially asking how an independent artist who had his music on iTunes could get a profile created. I got a reply quickly. This person was an ‘iTunes Store Adviser’ who termed me an ‘iTunes Store Content Partner’ and he suggested I contact my label representative.
When I replied that I had no label representative and CD Baby was the entity that arranged the digital distribution, we went back and forth for a few rounds of emails before my request was escalated.
I finally got a reply Saturday morning from someone who understood the situation and what CD Baby was. They are treating CD Baby, TuneCore, Reverbnation, et al, just as they do major labels – which does make sense – sort of – since faux-profiles have already appeared and going through the label ensures authenticity.
He asked for some basic information from me and about Jimmy Z and assured me that “this will be in our first CD baby batch” without giving a time-line.
I also mentioned that I had many friends who were independent musicians and asked what they should do.
The reply was that they should “contact their person at CD Baby to get going…” Well, there is no specific contact at CD Baby. We don’t have an assigned rep and I told him that.
He then replied that…
For now, you can give them the address:
itunesping@apple.com
We’re manning that one for inquiries now.I await more replies and, of course, my ability to create a Ping profile for Jimmy Z.
–Update– on Monday morning, September 13, I sent an email asking Apple for a time-frame for when we might approved. I got an email back an hour later, “Congratulations, you’ve been approved to create your artist profile on Ping.” So it only took 12 days & a about dozen emails. I hope other people have a smoother experience going forward.
I have now completed the profile and detailed the step-by-step process.
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Written by Frank Colin
September 4th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Posted in advertising & marketing,music,tech (new)
Tagged with Apple, CD Baby, Digital Distribution, Independent Musician, iTunes, Jimmy Z, Jimmy Z and the ZTribe, Ping, Reverbnation, TuneCore
8 Responses to ‘How An Independent Musician Might Get A Profile On Ping’
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Ya brilliant fuck…with such perseverance…you fuck!
…and thank you.
jz
Hi Frank
One of the first phone calls Apple made after Steve Jobs presentation was to TuneCore.
The first batch of TuneCore Artist Ping pages were being set up on Thursday of last week.
More and more will be coming over the following weeks.
here’s how it works – Apple will email out a unique url link specific to the artist, this link is then clicked on, when its clicked on your iTunes software will open in your browser and say Ping Aritst Account – it will ask you to log in with your iTunes user name/password or you can create a new iTunes account just for your Ping Artist account
TuneCore and/or Apple will be emailing you this URL when we get it
Whatever account you use to log in will be part of your Ping Artist Account. One of the the things the Ping Artist and People account will do is display what you bought via that account on your Ping page
So, if you are Motorhead and you buy the Strawberry shortcake “Rockaberry Roll” album ( and yes, that is the name of a real album, I just looked it up) – this will appear on your Ping Artist Page
Once in your Ping account you will be able to upload assets etc. There may be a slight delay before they appear as Apple will check to assure the movies/images are not pornographic etc
There are literally millions of bands on iTunes. Apple has to come up with a way to authenticate that the entity that lays claim to the Radiohead etc Ping Artist page is actually authorized to do so.
To control this, there has to be a manual process (at least at inception) where Apple literally reaches out to an artist via the entity the provided iTunes the music so they can assure the control for that Artist’s Ping page is actually the person/entity that has the right to do so.
This would be consistent with the high quality experience that Apple provides. It’s an Apple process that many others do not do
Its this verification process that increases the value of the Ping page as the fan or follower knows that this is actually the artist’s page.
I am certain over time this will get faster and faster as we work through the rhythm.
Jeff
TuneCoreThanks, Jeff. I wish Apple had made this info public…
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