Mar 26 2013

iTunes and AmazonMP3 Daily Trend Reports via SMS text messages


Last month we rolled out a new feature that offers our artists and labels who are subscribed to our Daily iTunes / AmazonMP3 Trend Reports and Metrics Service the ability to receive their daily trend reports via SMS text messages to their phones.

We are the only digital distributor in the world to currently offer this feature.

If you are already subscribed to the service there is no additional charge to add the SMS feature. Currently, we can text to phone numbers in the United States and Canada only though we hope to add additional countries in the future so that many of our foreign clients can take advantage of it.

Here is an example of how an SMS text message might appear on your phone:
sms_iphone_example

We’re proud to offer this new time saving feature as we know many of our artists and labels are constantly on the go.

If you are currently subscribed to our Trend Reports and Metrics Service, give it a try and let us know what you think!

Mar 21 2012

New Music Store: Rdio



We just inked distribution agreements with the very popular music platform, Rdio. Rdio is an ad-free music subscription service that is comparable to Spotify. Their store is available in the United States, Canada, Germany, Brazil, Australia, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand. It exists as a website and also has clients for the iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone mobile devices, which can play streaming music or cache songs for offline playback. There are also clients for the Roku and Sonos systems.

Catapult is one of the few independent distributors to service Rdio and so we’re pleased to be able to offer this to all of our artists and labels.

As we write this, our system is currently running around the clock delivering terabytes of content to their store and so in the next few weeks our artist’s and label’s albums should begin going live in their store.

Mar 8 2012

iTunes Store Popularity


So we had a little fun today to see how popular each iTunes store is depending on the country. We always knew iTunes USA was the largest store in Apple’s arsenal and this pie chart clearly shows that.

The data represented in this chart represents the percentage of track sales per iTunes’ specific country (51 World Stores) within the past 30 days. Because there are so many stores, you’ll need to click on the image to get the full resolution pie chart that shows the country details. The top 5 are The United States (83.65%), Great Britain (4.93%), Canada (4.67%), Australia (2.48%) and Germany (0.58%) for reference.

Feel free to retweet this bad boy and let your friends know that your sales figures are some where in that giant pie chart…and probably in the blue section.

iTunes Store Popularity by Country

Feb 28 2012

Be smart.


Day in and day out we see some pretty great music come through our distribution service. And sometimes we get a little sad for people who may not fully understand digital music and the implications of the decisions they make starting out.

For example, we were recently contacted by an artist who was upset that his album couldn’t be found in iTunes. Understandably, he felt like we hadn’t provided the service that we promised.

His album was indeed live in iTunes. We could see it. We sent him the link so he could see it. But he couldn’t find it when using iTunes’ search engine. What gives?

So here’s the rub. This specific artist, (Let’s say his name is “C-Rocks” for this little example), decided it would be a good idea to use a “$” in place of the letter “s”. So his album was submitted to the music stores with the artist name “C-Rock$”. While at Catapult we are all about artists being creative, but by simply not understanding that when a customer visits a music store and types in “C-Rocks” (with the actual letter “s” rather than a “$”), the music store’s search engine isn’t smart and won’t be able to the find the artist name because it was actually submitted into their store as “C-Rock$”. The average consumer doesn’t necessarily know this…they just heard their friend say “Man..you need to go download the new C-Rocks album!”. And so they tried…and failed. And C-Rock$ lost a sale. All because of a simple “$”.

So be smart. When starting out as an artist, pick a name that makes sense. And one that will make sense to both artists and search engines alike. This goes not only for artist names, but all metadata like track titles as well.

If you’re smart…you won’t have to worry about “$”. Well…at least not making “$”. ;)

Feb 28 2012

We’ve been busy…


We recently completed a redesign of our website and updated both the Artist/Label Dashboard as well as the front end. We hope you enjoy the new “cleaner” look as well as the addition of the ability to select your stores during the album submission process.

The New Design

Dec 15 2011

iTunes Music Store goes live in 16 new countries


We’re happy to announce that the iTunes Music Store has gone live in the following 16 countries:

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Nicaragua
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Venezuela

If you are an artist or label with content distributed with Catapult, your content is now live in those countries.

Oct 6 2011

Steve Jobs, you will be missed.


The success of Catapult has been directly related to Steve Jobs and his leadership at Apple. He was a true innovator who changed the way that people ultimately connect with each other that far exceeds just music. We couldn’t be more thankful to God for his life and talent. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Laurene, and his 4 children.

Sep 28 2011

iTunes Music Store goes live in 12 New European Countries


We just heard word that the iTunes Music Store has gone live in 12 New European Countries including:

Bulgaria
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Hungary
Latvia
Lithuania
Malta
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia

If you are an artist or label at Catapult, your content should begin appearing in those stores as we write this. Combined, the new countries have populations of over 100 million people.

We’re excited about Apple expanding the iTunes Music Store throughout Europe and hope to hear about them opening around the rest of the World (Can you say “China”?).

Aug 4 2011

How to distribute a Ringtone into iTunes via Catapult


Our artists and labels now have the ability to distribute their own Ringtones into the iTunes Music Store.

The cost for this service is a one-time setup fee of only $9 for each Ringtone submitted. All you need to do to have your Ringtone distributed into iTunes is:

1) Create your own 5-30 second audio file. This can simply be a snippet of a song off of one of your albums or singles, or simply a brand new audio file.

2) Login to your Control Panel at Catapult and click on “Submit: Ringtone” in the top menu.

3) Fill out the simple Ringtone submission form on the following pages and complete payment for the Ringtone setup fee.

Ringtone Submission Form

Ringtone Submission Form at Catapult

4) And finally click on the Upload button where you will then upload your Ringtone as well as the Cover Art for your Ringtone.

There are a few things to remember when submitting your Ringtone:

●The Ringtone you upload must be at least 5 seconds in length, and no greater than 30 seconds in length.

●A UPC is required for each Ringtone you submit. If you don’t have a UPC for your Ringtone, we can provide one for you during the submission process.

●Even though it is a Ringtone, iTunes still requires that it have unique industry standard Cover Art.

●If you attempt to upload a Ringtone that doesn’t meet that specification, it will be rejected and you’ll need to upload the corrected length Ringtone again. Also, unlike Albums and Singles, Ringtones are ONLY distributed into the iTunes Music Store at this time.

●Your Ringtone will only be available for purchase by customers from with the iTunes App on an iPhone. With the latest iTunes version, Apple no longer allows Ringtones to be purchased from within the iTunes Desktop Application.

iTunes Ringtone

Purchasing a Ringtone from an iPhone

Jul 26 2011

Requesting an iTunes Artist Ping Account at Catapult


In late 2010, iTunes introduced their own Social Network called Ping specifically designed for music fans. Like Twitter and other social networks like it, it allows you to follow your friends, share status updates, etc. But Ping is slightly different in that it integrates with iTunes and allows you to share what you’re listening to, become a fan of specific artists (along with your friends), along with the usual status updates, pictures, video, etc. It’s a great way to find new music recommendations from your friends, as well as the artists that you follow. And all of this takes place within the iTunes application on a user’s computer. (And it can also integrate with Twitter).

Ping logo

Ping - A Social Network for Music Fans.

There are two different types of Ping accounts: 1) Normal Ping accounts that a regular person can have or 2) a “specialized” Artist Ping account. So what’s an Artist Ping account? Well, not everyone can have an Artist Ping Account…obviously, as a fan, you want to be sure that you are actually following “Coldplay” or “Jay-Z” instead of someone who simply grabbed their Ping name. So iTunes requires that in order to have your own Artist Ping Account, you must do so through your distributor. And that’s where Catapult comes in…

If you are an Artist or Label with Catapult, you can easily request your own iTunes Artist Ping Account via your Control Panel at Catapult. Simply login into your account at Catapult and click on “Help” and then click on “Request An iTunes Artist Ping Account”. You’ll then fill out a short form about your Artist Ping Account and we will then submit that information to iTunes. Once iTunes receives this information and processes the request (it can take a few days), they will then e-mail you with further instructions on completing your iTunes Artist Ping Account. It’s that simple.

Ping - Screen

Example of Ping within iTunes

We hope you enjoy how easy it is to get your own iTunes Artist Ping Account. Now go get some music fans to follow you!