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Apple Launches iTunes Affiliate Program
An anonymous user writes, "Apple has launched an affiliate program for their iTunes music store that earns participants 5% commission. Affiliates can link directly to songs, albums, and artists, as well as apply to the Apple Store affiliate program to sell hardware. It costs nothing to join and people that sign up prior to September 15 can win one of five free iPod minis. Apple has also assembled a handy FAQ."
I thought I had just finished with everyone under the sun trying to ram gmail tokens down my throat, and now I have to start over with the damn iTunes thing? Argh!
People are going to be suckers for recursive marketing until the market gets saturated.
May we never see th
I too was confused with the FAQ, but for a different reason: there are no banner measurements given. I don't want to have to sign an agreement that gives me certain responsibilities without knowing all my tools at my disposal beforehand. Does "creative" mean text-based ads similar to Google's? Does "banner" mean 88x31 pixels, or 500x150 pixels? If I'm going to have to follow all sorts of rules just to see what I can promote on my website, forget it. I don't want to take the risk of Apple emailing me about my lack of participation. Maybe I'm being too paranoid?
Affiliate programs seem to bring out the slimiest in people, whether it's email spam or spammy slashdot comments. Won't it be wonderful to search for some obscure song on google and get a vast wasteland of affiliate link-spam pages all pointing to Apple?
I thought Apple had more class.
(Please, Apple fanboys, don't mod this down out of reflexive groupthink. Because that's lame.)
There seem to be a lot of complaints about this so far, but I for one am really looking forward to it. I've been linking to the itms extensively for about a year now (just cause it's very useful for my users). It's going to be great to start getting some revenue!
Personally, I think the iTunes Music Store is a great platform for finding new music. Anyone can make links to it and they've got tons of sample streams. Hopefully this move indicates that Apple wants third parties to provide the navigation innovation while they continue to act as a platform and catalog.
From the FAQ I couldn't figure out how this works. If a visitor clicks the banner on your site, does that open their copy of iTunes and take them to the store? After all there is no iTunes store site to be directed to...
If that's the case, this sounds more like a way to get PC users to install iTunes than to actually sell songs. A bit on the sleazy side, isn't it Apple?
I do see a benefit for independant artists, assuming they can get their music in the iTunes music store in the first place (how does that work, anyway? Is anyone rejected?) Previously the best they could hope for is to direct you to Amazon, or, worse, tell you how to mail-order their music.
I guess it wouldn't be too hard for OS projects to use this as a source of revenue. By your music through Mozilla and support your favourite browser while you are at it!
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
I don't know, I only got up to the bit that said "..a legal resident of the United States.."
Yes, why not!.... It could be possible to dynamically update your website using phptunes, so (in theory) your online music site will not need any maintenance!
This will be great for bloggers, I'm already scoring a few bucks a month from Amazon for this sort of thing, but a live list of what I'm listening to could be absolutely devine for affiliate commissions.
Here's what I'd really like to see out of iTunes. How about an internet radio client. It would be a small program you install... you could tune in to several different stations (maybe some indie stuff too, to give individuals who let itunes sell their music some play). On the face of this program would be a 'buy this song now' button. Ever hear something you like but don't know who's singing it or forget later? Not a problem now. You can purchase it instantly.
Think about it, you could finally have individuals getting play and selling their music without the big record lables. iTunes is the one system that is already big enough to pull this off I think.
What this really makes me think of is LiveJournal and other blogs. Lots of people seem to like sticking in their mood and whatever music they're listening to at the top of every blog entry. Now imagine them making their "Current Song:" line in every entry an iTMS link to the song. Any money they make off it is theirs to keep on a free blog site, since they don't have to pay for hosting, and people can earn money just by keeping a journal of the inane details of their everyday life, as long as someone actually reads it. People could even make money off each other, buying songs through each other's referrals and getting the money kicked back to their friend.