I work for a book publishing company, and we would like to sell one of
our audio books through Apple's iTunes Music Store.  We are looking
for specific guidance, or services out there that will help us set up
an account with iTunes and get our product uploaded onto the iTunes
store?  I've heard you have to have a record label account to sell
through iTunes, but we are a book publishing company? Please help.

Hello steve68-ga,

Oddly enough, I?ve heard of this situation before. I know a local
writer here in the town that I?m in who wanted to get his play on
iTunes as an audio book for the Christmas season last year. I remember
him telling me about his procedure and while I never did hear a final
result, I can walk you through the steps he had to take.

First of all, you do have to become a iTunes signed label. 
https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZLabel.woa/wo/0.0.5.1.11 (online application)

Go there and fill out the form, as the publishing company, you would
check the box on part 1 of the application that says Music
Distributor. (He for example, as the author of the book he alone
published and printed was an Independent Artist or Group.) A
consideration here is do you have the rights to market the book like
this from the author. I assume as their publishing company, this would
be something that both you and the author would have discussed and
agreed upon (May be important later).

When you get to primary genres on the second page of the application,
click audio book as your choice. In estimated number of albums, how
many CD?s does this audio book fill? Number of tracks ? same deal?how
many different tracks are there on those CD?s? Is it tracked by
chapter or 1 continuous track? As far as format goes, once and if you
become a signed iTunes label you can use iTunes Producer to covert the
audio book to Apple?s AAC format.

?iTunes Producer is a free software application that allows you to
prepare your music for submission to iTunes. Use it to encode your
music into AAC format; enter album, song, and artwork information; and
send all your prepared files directly to Apple for consideration.?

Where it asks for primary artists and labels, I would list yourself as
the publishing company and the author. This is why I mentioned having
all your ducks in a row for distribution of this as an audio book from
the author, etc.

You can then submit the form.

You only need to submit the form once. Apple will contact you if and
when they decide to include your audio book.

?How do I check on the status of my application?
Apple will review each application individually and will contact you
when we are prepared to add your music catalog in the iTunes Music
Store. We will also keep your application on file for future
reference, so there is no need to submit it more than once.?
http://www.apple.com/itunes/musicmarketing/faq.html 

The online application ??may not be relied upon to determine intent or
to create any agreement between the parties, including but not limited
to the inclusion of certain songs on the iTunes Music Store. Any
agreement between the parties must be in a signed writing.? (Page 2 of
the application)

There really is no one who can help you with this process once you
apply. It?s an internal Apple decision about what gets sole. All you
can really do is apply and hope for the best.

Some other information I found for you that may be of interest:

You may want to look into a distributor who deals primarily with
online music stores to help you with the application and marketing of
the audio book.

?How to attract and work with distributors? article
http://www.outersound.com/osu/distribution/distribs.html 

Please check into IODA - which is the INDEPENDENT ONLINE DISTRIBUTION ALLIANCE.

?IODA is the industry-leading digital distribution company for the
global independent music community. Run by an experienced team of
digital music experts with a passion for independent music, IODA
distributes thousands of releases from independent labels to digital
music outlets around the world.

IODA provides a full range of services to independent record labels,
physical distributors, and artists, including:

?	first-class media and metadata management and delivery systems
?	collective licensing negotiation with digital music retailers
?	aggregated royalty collection and payment administration
?	detailed reporting tools for tracking digital sales
?	digital retail marketing and promotion

Independents comprise over 20% of the multi-billion dollar global
music industry, while the multinational major labels control the rest.
The ?iota? of the music world represented by indies has long been the
breeding ground for the trailblazing artists that consistently drive
the music world's innovations and trends. IODA enables the independent
community to take advantage of the opportunities in digital music
today, ensuring their place in the digital music future.?

Search terms:
I went to Apple.com, clicked on iTunes, and went from there.

Online music distributors
://www.google.com/search?q=online+music+distributors&hl=en&lr=&start=10&sa=N 

I wish you the best of luck in getting your audio book included in
their music store, if it is accepted, post a comment back here and let
us know! I love follow-ups!

If this answer requires further explanation, please request
clarification before rating it, and I'll be happy to look into this
further.

Nenna-GA
Google Answers Researcher

Thanks. Your answer was very thorough!

You should work with a digital distributor. Digital distributors have
agreements with retailers like iTunes and will get your works onto
these services and collect royalties for you. Making deals with each
of the leading retailers and managing the collection of royalties is
near-impossible for smaller entities.

I, of course, recommend my company, IDEA (www.ideadistributors.com).
We do all the music-preparation work in-house and can get you started
very quickly.

We do not work with any audio-book publishers, but would be happy to
explore the possibility with you. The process would be the same with
music. We just need the retailers to accept audio-books. If we build
it, perhaps they will come...

Alfredo,
Im interested in knowing more about your company's fee structure. I
work for a religious publishing company headquartered in Nashville,
TN. We are interested in selling pieces of, and the entire Bible
through iTunes and other leading retailers.  We already sell an
audio-on-CD product for $99, so we've got the digital audio, but need
it reformatted to the various preferred formats.  You can find and
sample the audio Bible at http://www.holmancsb.org.  Frankly we can
reformat and tag it ourselves, but if your fee structure is reasonable
we would be fine outsourcing it.  Our biggest need is to partner with
someone who can distribute it quickly to the various retailers.

Steve-ga,

Thanks for kind rating. I'm glad I could be of help.

Nenna-GA