Once upon a music industry time, an appearance on the Billboard music charts carried considerable status for a band or musician, denoting an album or song had sold enough copies to merit national attention.

A Billboard chart listing still has PR and business clout, but digital music has created a new status symbol: iTunes Store downloads. Bands that once crowed at making the Billboard Top 10 now tweet their success in making the iTunes Top 10 Downloads.

Apple, the company that invented the iPod and the online iTunes Music Store that sells music and video for the device, doesn’t divulge the amount of traffic the store enjoys, but it’s safe to say millions of music fans visit the site each day and have made it the dominant player in digital music sales.

What do I do?

So you’re not signed to a record label or a distribution company. How do you get your music to iTunes for online sales and distribution? The Texas Music Office, which links to an article on the Web site www.garagespin.com, suggests the following.

1. Get your music mastered. Pay attention to your recording’s dynamics, volume and EQ levels, or have a professional do it for you. Recordings that don’t sound good over the Internet or the radio won’t sell as well.

2. Get a UPC code for your album. You’ll need it to sell online.

3. Decide how you want to pay the services: a flat fee, commission on each download or other arrangement. Check the legal fine print to see who retains rights to your music, the length of service and rates charged.

4. Download a contract from iTunes (if you want to deal with iTunes directly) or secure an online service that will submit your music to iTunes and other online music sites. Some popular services are CDBaby, ReverbNation, Nimbit and Tunecore.

5. Follow the terms of the contractual agreement and upload your music to the service.

6. Steer fans to the online site where they can buy and download your songs.

ITunes’ global platform means a musician serious about getting his or her recorded music in front of listeners needs to think about putting it on iTunes.

Though Waco-based musicians have rarely made the Billboard charts, almost 20 have their music available on iTunes — even if they rarely make the Top 10 Downloads list.

“Absolutely, it’s worth it,” said Bill Hunter of veteran Waco rock band Common Ground. Having the band’s three CDs on iTunes has created fans not only across the United States, but also in the Netherlands and Great Britain. The band receives about 68 cents for each 99-cent single sold on iTunes, which translates into anywhere from $5 to $30 monthly, he said.

Shane Howard, who vigorously uses the Internet to promote his Shane Howard Band, calls the income he gets from his music downloads on iTunes and CD sales on other music sites “gravy money” — revenue from fans he never could have reached through live performances or radio airplay.

Both Hunter and Howard work through online music distributor CDBaby, which, for a $35-per-album fee and a 9 percent commission, takes a band’s CD, creates a bar code for sales and then distributes it to iTunes, LastFM, Rhapsody, iMusica and more. In return, bands and musicians are informed what’s selling and where and get a regular check back of the band’s share of the profits.

It’s not just Waco country, rock or rap musicians who are getting their music onto iTunes. Contemporary classical music composer and Baylor associate professor of music Scott McAllister has two songs, “Black Dog” and “X,” available on iTunes, though he says it’s thanks to the record label Summit Records. He encourages his students to promote their music online — it’s one way to find audiences for their work.

Rob Page, director of McLennan Community College’s Commercial Music program, says experienced online firms take some of the headache and risk out of selling one’s music online. “We usually tell our kids to go through CDBaby or do it through their own Web site,” he said.

In one class project, MCC commercial music students have to create, publish and license original music, then post it to MySpace and YouTube — a procedure that introduces them to the major steps in music creation and distribution.

Getting one’s songs on iTunes doesn’t guarantee success. Local bands don’t have the marketing muscle of major music companies or internationally known groups, as one can see in the performers who dominate the iTunes download lists on any given day.

And while reaching listeners around the world through iTunes can be thrilling, it also brings unexpected problems.

“I’m competing with a Shane Howard in Australia, who apparently is an older folk musician,” said Waco’s Shane Howard. “Whenever I get sales of my songs from iTunes Australia, I think they think I’m the Australian Shane Howard.”

choover@wacotrib.com

757-5749

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