Pricing

Business Model

The A Cappella Records business model is unique because we are not simply distributor, but a licensor as well.  One of the biggest advantage of using our service is the elimination of prepaid royalties.

Eliminating Prepaid Royalties

By subtracting mechanical royalties from sales, rather than prepaying mechanical royalties in bulk, we can ensure that our artists are not overpaying royalties and losing money on songs they haven’t sold.  Any mechanical royalty is only paid out if an artist sells a song, with no guesswork involved.

Our Pricing Model

A one time setup fee:

Per Album - $100
Per EP - $75

Per Single - $25

Percentage of sales cut: 50% (after marketplace costs)

Our one time setup fee covers research and the acquisition of mechanical licenses as well as national and international distribution to over 400 different stores.  The percentage cut of sales covers monthly, quarterly and annual reporting to publishers and artists for as long as you are distributing through A Cappella Records.

A Cappella Records provides artists with:

• Mechanical licensing for all tracks

• Worldwide distribution on every major digital retail store (including iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, and eMusic)

• Registration of all original compositions with the copyright office via ASCAP or BMI

• Promotional pages and articles on the ACR website, blog and social media

• Free ISRC codes for every distributed track

• Free UPC codes for every distributed album, EP or single

• Digital Booklets (iTunes only)

• Management of Pre-orders (iTunes only)

• Advanced pricing, including temporary sales & different track prices (iTunes only)

• Complete control over the territory rights (iTunes only)

• Ringtones (iTunes only)

• iTunes in the Cloud & iTunes Match integration (iTunes only…duh)

What are Marketplace Costs?

A Cappella Records is not a music store itself, and certain store and royalty costs are necessary to legally sell your music. 

These costs include:

Digital Music Store Cut (typically 30% of a sale)

Mechanical Royalty paid to copyright owners (typically 9.1¢ per sale)

What is a Mechanical Royalty?

Mechanical royalties are payments made to the copyright owner of a musical composition exchange for permission to distribute a cover of the song. The following are the current royalty rates set forth by the Copyright Royalty Board:

Physical Product (CDs, vinyl, tapes) and Digital Downloads (i.e. MP3s):

For recordings under 5 minutes in length: $0.091 per song

For recordings 5 minutes in length or longer: $0.0175 per minute, rounded up to the nearest minute per song

Ringtones: $0.24 per unit, regardless of song duration

Physical Album Licensing

A Cappella Records also offers a complete licensing service for physical albums. For a one-time set up fee based on the type of release (Album, EP, or Single), we will license the physical distribution of any number of songs at any number of units desired (please note that all royalties for physical albums must be paid at the time albums are created, rather than the time at which they are sold).

The set-up fees are exactly as would be paid for digital licensing and distribution, with an additional cost for physical royalties. For example, with a 12-track album at 500 physical units, the cost would be $100 for the set-up and approx. $546 for royalty costs, for a total of $646. The royalty cost may be higher or lower depending on the number of tracks, how many original compositions appear on the album, mash-ups or medleys, and other factors.

A Cappella Records will provide a detailed quote for the complete cost of all physical album licensing, including any royalty fees, before licensing or distributing an album, at no cost to the artist.

Last modified February 1, 2012