Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I get FREE distribution?
A: NO. However, It is possible to get the cost of your submission fee knocked off or reduced with a promo code. You must be a member of ADED.US to submit any material to the various stores and to apply the promo code though. We have several options to help you save money along the way.
Q: After I sign up and submit my material, how long will it take to appear on the various digital retail stores?
A: Check the Wait Time Table. Assuming you've completed all the necessary steps in order and properly, you can see it in certain stores like iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play within 24 hours. The longest amount of time it takes for a store to process incoming submissions is about 2 weeks.
Q: How do I get paid?
A: You must have a valid and working PayPal account and provide us with your PayPal ID (the e-mail address associated with your PayPal account). It's FREE and you can even connect/extract it to your bank account and/or debit/credit card! Click here to sign up for PayPal.
Note: Depending on the type of account you have with PayPal, PayPal may withhold a small percentage of the money you receive. This is something Paypal does (not us).
Q: What percentage of Royalties do I collect? Does ADED.US take a cut of my royalties?
A: The amount of royalties you receive from each individual sale or stream varies from store to store. ADED.US does not take a cut of these incoming royalties. However, per contractual obligations, certain stores will withhold a retail (wholesale) fee and a partner fee. If your song sells on iTunes for 99¢ then iTunes will keep 29¢ out of that transaction as their retail/wholesale rate and pay 70¢ to ADED.US which we then pay out to you through PayPal to the paypal ID (e-mail address) you used to sign up (with us) through PayPal. Keep in mind that in most cases you will need to earn at least $100 before these stores will issue a payment to you. This is to cut costs of banking fees and accounting manpower. See aded.us/payment-schedule for more rates. With Spotify and the streaming services, each stream is only worth a fraction of a penny.
Q: How much money will I receive per single/album sold?
A: Generally, you make $7 (on itunes/google play) per album sold that is selling for $9.99 and $0.70 per single sold that is selling for $0.99. Please take into consideration that there are many factors that could affect this amount such as forex rates, promo codes, coupons, sales, etc. Amazon usually pays anywhere from $0.60-$0.65 per single and $6-$6.50 per album.
Hopefully, you understand how the retail business works and that the store itself keeps a cut. In reference to itunes, when a customer goes to a store and pays $0.99 for a song, this is called the retail/customer price. The store keeps $0.29 (30%) of this transaction and gives you $0.70 (70%). The $0.70 you recieve is referred to as the wholesale/royalty rate. You recieve 100% of that (the $0.70) and we (as your distributor) don't surcharge you a distribution fee or percentage like most of the other distributors out there.
Q: When do I get paid?
A: Different stores pay at different times. Usually, the one people are most concerned with is iTunes. iTunes Payments are made according to the music business Quarterly Payment Schedule. Also, most stores require you to make at least $100 in royalties before they issue a payment to us (for you).
Regarding Spotify sales, you must cross a $500 cash out threshold in order for Spotify to issue you a payment and payments will be issued up to 3 months AFTER the month in which product sold. It's safe to NOT expect a payment from Spotify because the cash out threshold is HIGH and you only get a FRACTION of a CENT for each unique premium stream.
Q: How and when can I see what I've earned?
A: Thanks to our 'mass payment' system, we no longer have to push out individual spreadsheets. You can see the details of your sales within the message section of your PayPal payment, whether it's on PayPal or on your e-mailed receipt from PayPal. In certain you instances, you may request a spreadsheet by e-mailing [email protected]. But, please make sure you've ALREADY checked your Paypal account and the Paypal message itself before requesting a spreadsheet.
Q: Can you get my/our album a featured spot in the store?
A: Possibly. E-mail us if you're interested in doing this. The ITunes Store usually wants someone to sell at least 10,000 units before they will feature them.
Q: How do I remove an album from the various stores?
A: Send an e-mail to [email protected] and request a take down. Make sure you mention the artist name and album title.
Q: I bought my own album (or had someone I know buy it) to test the system and have not received a payment. What's up with that?
A: First off, you should never buy your own album. You could only lose money doing that because the retail/customer price and the wholesale/royalty price are different. As stated above, if you or someone you know bought your album for $9.99, you would only get back $7. Also, if iTunes suspects you are buying your own album they may suspect you are committing fraud and take down your album. If your album is taken down for fraudulent activity you will no longer be eligible for a payment. Plus, although you payed on a certain day, you STILL have to wait for that money to go through the system and be dispersed by ADED.US.
Q: What is a promo code? When/Where will I get one?
A: Promo codes are given out by the ADED.US staff and/or A&Rs. You simply apply the promo code on the submission form when you submit a new single/album/EP.
Q: Will you promote my music?
A: We offer a certain level of free promotion when we publish your music to our channels. However, we do have a network of over 45,000 music industry people that we can push an e-mail to. We call this the e-blast service and it uses an e-mail and posts on our FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ groups and pages. Click here for that promo package.
Q: How do I get my own label page (category) on the ADED.US Music Store?
A: Submit at least 3 releases. A category will be created for your artist name or record label name, whichever you use.
Q: I see my music in the ADED.US Music Store for sale and download, but how can people preview the songs?
A: You can use a service like SoundCloud, HearThis.at, or YouTube to upload a sample of your song. Sometimes we will do this for you and link to the sample from your product's listing page on the ADED.US Music Store.
A: NO. However, It is possible to get the cost of your submission fee knocked off or reduced with a promo code. You must be a member of ADED.US to submit any material to the various stores and to apply the promo code though. We have several options to help you save money along the way.
Q: After I sign up and submit my material, how long will it take to appear on the various digital retail stores?
A: Check the Wait Time Table. Assuming you've completed all the necessary steps in order and properly, you can see it in certain stores like iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play within 24 hours. The longest amount of time it takes for a store to process incoming submissions is about 2 weeks.
Q: How do I get paid?
A: You must have a valid and working PayPal account and provide us with your PayPal ID (the e-mail address associated with your PayPal account). It's FREE and you can even connect/extract it to your bank account and/or debit/credit card! Click here to sign up for PayPal.
Note: Depending on the type of account you have with PayPal, PayPal may withhold a small percentage of the money you receive. This is something Paypal does (not us).
Q: What percentage of Royalties do I collect? Does ADED.US take a cut of my royalties?
A: The amount of royalties you receive from each individual sale or stream varies from store to store. ADED.US does not take a cut of these incoming royalties. However, per contractual obligations, certain stores will withhold a retail (wholesale) fee and a partner fee. If your song sells on iTunes for 99¢ then iTunes will keep 29¢ out of that transaction as their retail/wholesale rate and pay 70¢ to ADED.US which we then pay out to you through PayPal to the paypal ID (e-mail address) you used to sign up (with us) through PayPal. Keep in mind that in most cases you will need to earn at least $100 before these stores will issue a payment to you. This is to cut costs of banking fees and accounting manpower. See aded.us/payment-schedule for more rates. With Spotify and the streaming services, each stream is only worth a fraction of a penny.
Q: How much money will I receive per single/album sold?
A: Generally, you make $7 (on itunes/google play) per album sold that is selling for $9.99 and $0.70 per single sold that is selling for $0.99. Please take into consideration that there are many factors that could affect this amount such as forex rates, promo codes, coupons, sales, etc. Amazon usually pays anywhere from $0.60-$0.65 per single and $6-$6.50 per album.
Hopefully, you understand how the retail business works and that the store itself keeps a cut. In reference to itunes, when a customer goes to a store and pays $0.99 for a song, this is called the retail/customer price. The store keeps $0.29 (30%) of this transaction and gives you $0.70 (70%). The $0.70 you recieve is referred to as the wholesale/royalty rate. You recieve 100% of that (the $0.70) and we (as your distributor) don't surcharge you a distribution fee or percentage like most of the other distributors out there.
Q: When do I get paid?
A: Different stores pay at different times. Usually, the one people are most concerned with is iTunes. iTunes Payments are made according to the music business Quarterly Payment Schedule. Also, most stores require you to make at least $100 in royalties before they issue a payment to us (for you).
Regarding Spotify sales, you must cross a $500 cash out threshold in order for Spotify to issue you a payment and payments will be issued up to 3 months AFTER the month in which product sold. It's safe to NOT expect a payment from Spotify because the cash out threshold is HIGH and you only get a FRACTION of a CENT for each unique premium stream.
Q: How and when can I see what I've earned?
A: Thanks to our 'mass payment' system, we no longer have to push out individual spreadsheets. You can see the details of your sales within the message section of your PayPal payment, whether it's on PayPal or on your e-mailed receipt from PayPal. In certain you instances, you may request a spreadsheet by e-mailing [email protected]. But, please make sure you've ALREADY checked your Paypal account and the Paypal message itself before requesting a spreadsheet.
Q: Can you get my/our album a featured spot in the store?
A: Possibly. E-mail us if you're interested in doing this. The ITunes Store usually wants someone to sell at least 10,000 units before they will feature them.
Q: How do I remove an album from the various stores?
A: Send an e-mail to [email protected] and request a take down. Make sure you mention the artist name and album title.
Q: I bought my own album (or had someone I know buy it) to test the system and have not received a payment. What's up with that?
A: First off, you should never buy your own album. You could only lose money doing that because the retail/customer price and the wholesale/royalty price are different. As stated above, if you or someone you know bought your album for $9.99, you would only get back $7. Also, if iTunes suspects you are buying your own album they may suspect you are committing fraud and take down your album. If your album is taken down for fraudulent activity you will no longer be eligible for a payment. Plus, although you payed on a certain day, you STILL have to wait for that money to go through the system and be dispersed by ADED.US.
Q: What is a promo code? When/Where will I get one?
A: Promo codes are given out by the ADED.US staff and/or A&Rs. You simply apply the promo code on the submission form when you submit a new single/album/EP.
Q: Will you promote my music?
A: We offer a certain level of free promotion when we publish your music to our channels. However, we do have a network of over 45,000 music industry people that we can push an e-mail to. We call this the e-blast service and it uses an e-mail and posts on our FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ groups and pages. Click here for that promo package.
Q: How do I get my own label page (category) on the ADED.US Music Store?
A: Submit at least 3 releases. A category will be created for your artist name or record label name, whichever you use.
Q: I see my music in the ADED.US Music Store for sale and download, but how can people preview the songs?
A: You can use a service like SoundCloud, HearThis.at, or YouTube to upload a sample of your song. Sometimes we will do this for you and link to the sample from your product's listing page on the ADED.US Music Store.