Officially Evil

It's official. I have transgressed to the dark side. I am now (and have been for a couple of weeks) an Apple affiliate. That's for iTunes and their store. But hell, I won't try to plus-sell you or get you to buy "anti-virus" software that is, itself, a virus (like Norton; don't be a fool and buy things you can get for free that work better than consumer fodder).

But back to the item at hand. My original intentions for researching this avenue of revenue were entirely altruistic. I was asked by a colleague, a musician, about getting his work onto the iTunes catalog. But, as with many things Apple, it turned into an anal probe. I just wanted to get some uploader and some development software and they wanted my 1st-born.

Then I realized that most artists don't have the time, inclination or fortitude to go through this kind of beauracracy. I almost don't. I thought that if I could spare some poor bastard the process that they could get their work onto the world-stage where it gets the attention it deserves (rather than giving up after navigating 100 pages in Klingon business-ese). Of course, I'm incredibly broke, so getting 5% of sales on things found through my sites (out of the pocket of Apple, not the artist) was very tantalizing to me. I'm already doing 20 non-profit projects and my time has become rare.

So, I acquiesce to the title Sell-out but offer my new found channels to anyone, local or global, that would like to get their media on iTunes. I add that there are tons of free services and nice places out there (like GarageBand) and wish anyone that goes that way luck in their entrepreneurial journey. There's so much beauty in giving your art to the world for free. It's just some of us gotta eat, too.