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 1. What is Digital Distribution? 2. What Music Stores can you get my music into? 3. How much does it cost for your service? 4. How often will I be paid? 5. How will I be paid? 6. Will I be able to see how many songs have been downloaded? 7. How long does it take for my album to be made available online? 8. Do I lose ownership of my music? 9. What if my album contains cover songs? Can I still use your digital distribution service? 10. I don't have a CD of my music, can I still have my songs digitally distributed? 12. Do I have to have a UPC or Barcode to have my album digitally distributed? 13. Can you explain the payout level percentage and how it is determined? 14. Can I ship you my album for encoding instead of uploading my audio files and cover art? 15. Can I submit a single? 16. Do you offer any additional services? 17. Is there a phone number I can call to talk with someone at Catapult? 18. What are the Cover Art requirements for an Album? 19. Can I provide my own ISRC codes for my album's tracks? 20. What types of audio files can I upload for my album? 21. Can I set the street date / release date for an album or single? 22. What will my albums or tracks be priced at in the major music stores? 23. What do the major music stores pay for my albums and tracks? 24. Do you have an affiliate program? 25. Can you explain Catapult's Affiliate Program? 26. Is there anything else I should know about Catapult's Affiliate Program? 27. Who can become an affiliate for Catapult? 28. What are iTunes Trend Reports and Metrics? 29. What is iTunes Ping? 30. What is an iTunes Artist Ping Account? 31. How do I get my own iTunes Artist Ping Account? 32. Can I Get a Media Player For Pasting On My Website(s)? 33. Can I Submit A Ringtone? 34. Can I Submit An Audio Book? 35. Can I Submit An Album Under The "Classical" Genre? 1. What is Digital Distribution? Digital distribution is the method by which your music is distributed to various digital music stores which then sell downloads of your music for iPods, iPhones, Zunes, Sansas, or any other number of portable music devices. Where a traditional distributor would ship out your physical album to stores, we will distribute digital copies of your music to stores such as iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, AmazonMP3, eMusic, Zune, Best Buy Digital Music Store, etc. Major digital music stores such as iTunes require artists and labels to use a digital distributor such as Catapult to make their music and content available in their stores. 2. What Music Stores can you get my music into? Currently, we offer digital distribution to over 60 major digital music stores including: iTunes (All World Stores) Rhapsody Napster eMusic AmazonMP3 Zune Puretracks Best Buy Digital Music Store Spotify and many more... While iTunes continues to have the predominate share of the music download market, Catapult is always in negotiations to provide even more distribution to other major online music stores to maximize our artist and label's sales. The following link will display the current stores that your album will automatically be delivered to: Click To View The Stores We Distribute Into 3. How much does it cost for your service? We charge a one time setup fee of $25 for each album submitted for digital distribution ($9 for singles) to cover the cost of the time spent encoding/transcoding, scanning of the artwork, and metadata delivery to each music store. After that, we pay you 91-95% of the profits received from the respective retailers. There are no hidden fees or charges.
For example: If iTunes sells one of your songs for .99 cents and they pay us .70 cents, we would then pay you 91-95% of the .70 cents. The percentage rate that we pay is based off of an artist's All Time Track Downloads for each album. 4. How often will I be paid? We disperse payments to our Artists and Labels once a month. Each music store is different and they all have their own payment intervals (monthly, quarterly, etc), however, once we have received payment from a music store, we will then pay you at the end of the next month for the previous month's sales. 5. How will I be paid? We pay all of our artists by way of PayPal, the global leader in online payments. It is free to sign up for and regardless of which account type you create (personal, premium, or business) it will cost you nothing to receive money from us as we cover all transaction fees. Once the money is transfered to your PayPal account, you then have the option of depositing it into your bank account electronically for free, or for a small fee PayPal will mail you a check. To learn more about setting up a PayPal account, please visit www.paypal.com. 6. Will I be able to see how many songs have been downloaded? Yes. You can log into your control panel and view detailed reports of your sales figures for the previous months. 7. How long does it take for my album to be made available online? Once you have uploaded or shipped us your album(s), it normally takes 3-4 business days for us to encode the audio, scan the artwork, and digitally distribute all of the album's metadata to iTunes and the other music stores. From there, each music store's time frame is different.
Currently, we are seeing albums appear in the iTunes music store within only 24-48 hours of delivery. The other music stores can take up to around 3-6 weeks. This delay is due to each music store's own unique ingestion queues and processes.
8. Do I lose ownership of my music? No Way! By utilizing our distribution service, you allow us to become your exclusive digital distributor of your music until you terminate the agreement. We do not take ownership of the music, but only help facilitate the process of spreading your music digitally. 9. What if my album contains cover songs? Can I still use your digital distribution service? In order for us to distribute a cover song (ie: A song you didn't write) you must purchase a license from the owner of the song. Since this is often times difficult to accomplish, we have partnered with Limelight to make this process as easy as possible for you. Click here to visit Limelight and clear any cover song that you need. 10. I don't have a CD of my music, can I still have my songs digitally distributed? Yes. You may digitally distribute any of your music even if you have never had a CD printed. You will simply submit an album via your Control Panel at Catapult and then upload the audio files and cover art. 12. Do I have to have a UPC or Barcode to have my album digitally distributed? Yes. UPCs (or Barcode numbers) are required by every major music store. It is the universal method by which various companies and organizations are able to uniquely identify a product. If you do not currently have a UPC for your album, we can provide you with one for only $20 during the album submission process. (Learn more) 13. Can you explain the payout level percentage and how it is determined? We offer several payout levels for our client's albums. This can range anywhere between 91% to 95%. The percentage level is determined individually for each album, and is based solely on All Time Track Downloads of each album. So, for example, if you have more than one album submitted for digital distribution, it is possible for each one to have a different payout level. It should be understood that All Time Track Downloads do not consider "streams" as downloads. A "stream" is used by many online stores who utilize subscription based plans to allow customers to listen to an entire track while browsing their site, however the customer cannot download it to their computer or burn it to a CD (think of it as listening to a song on the radio). Once an album's All Time Track Downloads meet a new payout level, you will receive the new payout level for that album at your next payment disbursement.
*per album 14. Can I ship you my album for encoding instead of uploading my audio files and cover art? Yes, once you have submitted your album for digital distribution, you will be provided the option to ship us your album for encoding (Though we recommend uploading your audio files and cover art since it speeds up the distribution process). The address for shipping your album will be provided once you submit your album. Please do not ship us your album(s) until you have first submitted them. 15. Can I submit a single? Yes, you can submit a single (ie: An album containing only one track).
Please note that since "singles" are still albums, they still require their own UPC (Which we can provide during the album submission process) as well as unique industry standard cover art.
16. Do you offer any additional services? We offer the following additional services that can be purchased during the album submission process: UPC Generation (Learn more) Barcode Graphic Creation (Learn more) Nielsen SoundScan Registration (Learn more) iTunes Digital Booklet (Learn more) iTunes Trend Reports and Metrics (Learn more) 17. Is there a phone number I can call to talk with someone at Catapult? We regret that the nature of our business as well as our incredibly discounted payment rates do not allow for us to field a call center for questions pertaining to our digital distribution service. All questions must be submitted via the "Contact" links located on our homepage or from within the Artist or Label control panel. Once an inquiry is received via the "Contact" a link, a representative from Catapult will e-mail you back. Please allow 24-48 hours for us to research and respond back to your query. 18. What are the Cover Art requirements for an Album? Cover Art Requirements: Dimensions should be at least 600 x 600 pixels at 72 dpi (1500 x 1500 pixels recommended). Image must be square (i.e. 600x600 not 672x600) 
Cover Art should not be pixelated when viewed at its normal resolution or it will be rejected. Do not convert from a lower resolution file to meet the requirements or it will be rejected by the music stores. File format must be .jpg (JPEG) Cover Art CANNOT contain information normally found in the liner notes such as: -track listing -biographical information -contact information -copyrights -Website links -Production notes/credits Cover Art CANNOT contain any time or date related information (ie: Release Dates, etc) If you do not have digital artwork, but you do have physical cover art for your album, you can ship it to us following your album submission and we can scan it for you. Please note that the same rules above apply to physical cover art as well. 19. Can I provide my own ISRC codes for my album's tracks? Yes. During the album submission process, you will have an opportunity to submit your ISRC codes for each of your album's tracks. If you do not have ISRC codes for your tracks, our system will automatically generate them for free during processing. 20. What types of audio files can I upload for my album? You can upload .wav or .mp3 files (.wav files are recommended for posterity since they are not compressed and offer the highest quality possible to encode into the various formats for each music store). Audio files must conform to the following industry standards: - 2 Channel Stereo - 16 bit - 44.1 kHz sample rate 21. Can I set the street date / release date for an album or single? Yes. During the album submission process, you will have an opportunity to set the street date for your album or single. Please note however, that while iTunes and AmazonMP3 are very quick in ingesting albums (Normally only a few days), many of the other music stores can take several weeks, so even though you may choose a street date, it's entirely possible that the album will not appear in some of the stores until they complete their own processing and ingestion. If you are choosing a street date in the future (Rather than just having the album or single go live as soon as possible), we suggest setting the street date at least 7 days out to give time for iTunes and AmazonMP3 to ingest the album. 22. What will my albums or tracks be priced at in the major music stores? The music stores have sole discretion on setting the price of albums and tracks in their stores. Click here to learn about what the stores pay will most likely sell your albums and tracks for in their stores. 23. What do the major music stores pay for my albums and tracks? Click here to learn about what the stores pay for your album and track sales in their stores. 24. Do you have an affiliate program? Yes. We have partnered with Zferral to offer an affiliate program to allow anyone to become an affiliate of Catapult and begin earning money for any sales that are generated. Learn more here. 25. Can you explain Catapult's Affiliate Program? When you sign up as a Catapult Affiliate, you have access to your own Control Panel that will allow you access to various Banner Ads and Text Links that you can then paste into your own websites, e-mails, Twitter and Facebook feeds. When a customer clicks on any of these links, creates an account at Catapult, and ultimately submits an album or single for distribution, you are then paid a monetary amount for referring that artist or label to Catapult. Our current Affiliate campaign allows you to earn $5 for every album or single submitted into our service that is referred to us by your links. If that client continues to submit albums or singles, you would continue to earn $5 for every album or single.* *Up to 365 days from the time the client first visited Catapult via your affiliate link. Learn more here. 26. Is there anything else I should know about Catapult's Affiliate Program? Affiliates that do not earn any sales leads for Catapult in a 90 day period may be removed from our Affiliate Program. Learn more here. 27. Who can become an affiliate for Catapult? Anyone can become an Affiliate of Catapult. This can include either a current Artist or Label at Catapult, or even just someone who has their own website (ie: Music themed forums, message boards, sites, etc.) Learn more here. 28. What are iTunes Trend Reports and Metrics? When you subscribe to our iTunes Trend Reports and Metrics Service, you'll have the ability to see reports of your sales faster than ever from the iTunes Music Store. iTunes delays their normal sales reports by around 2 months (These are the reports that you always receive free of charge once a month for previous months sales). However with iTunes Trend Reports you don't have to wait months to view reports of your sales, you can view sales of your albums from as recent as the day before! To learn more about our iTunes Trend Reports and Metrics Service, click here. 29. What is iTunes Ping? iTunes Ping is a social network for music. Similar to Twitter or other social networks, iTunes Ping allows you to follow your favorite artists and friends to discover the music they're talking about, listening to, and downloading. To learn more about iTunes Ping, you can visit Apple at the following link: http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping/ 30. What is an iTunes Artist Ping Account? Anybody that uses iTunes can have their own Ping accounts. However, only artists can have their specialized iTunes Artist Ping accounts. Once an artist has an iTunes Artist Ping account, they can create and maintain social pages. This allows artists to interact with customers by posting updates, photos, videos, and responding to customers' comments. 31. How do I get my own iTunes Artist Ping Account? An artist or label can request their own iTunes Artist Ping Account from within their Control Panel at Catapult. 32. Can I Get a Media Player For Pasting On My Website(s)? Yes. Once your album has been distributed, you'll have access to HTML codes for pasting two different media players into your own website(s). There are currently 2 different media players you can choose from. The first one has the ability to not only stream the audio files, but also contains Facebook and Twitter links for your fans to quickly post to their respective social network about your album (With a link back to the album in the iTunes Music Store). Catapult Media Player Example: The second one has a style similar to the iTunes Music Store and will easily link to your album in iTunes. iTunes Media Player Example:  33. Can I Submit A Ringtone? Yes, you can submit a Ringtone. Please note that Ringtones also require their own UPC (Which we can provide during the ringtone submission process) as well as unique industry standard cover art. Only one ringtone can be submitted at a time. If you have multiple ringtones that you wish to have distributed, you must submit each one invidually and each requires its own UPC. Unlike Albums and Singles, Ringtones are only distributed into the iTunes Music Store (As most all other music stores do not offer Ringtones to their customers). The cost to submit a Ringtone is $9. 34. Can I Submit An Audio Book? Unfortunately, no. If you wish to have an Audio Book distributed, you should contact Audible.com as they are the sole distributor of Audio Books for iTunes and other music stores. 35. Can I Submit An Album Under The "Classical" Genre? The music stores have placed extreme restrictions on the Classical Genre (ie: Pre-20th Century Composer based music) and therefore we DO NOT support the distribution of this genre. |
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