One of the options that musicians have is to either submit the content themselves or work through an aggregator. An aggregator is a company that functions as a third party between the musician and iTunes. An aggregator can help the musician meet any technical requirements, deliver and manage all musical content and also assist with promotion and marketing. Many aggregators will broker deals with several online music providers at once for their clients. iTunes has a list of about a dozen companies that they will work with on behalf of a musician or band. However, the contract made is directly between iTunes and the aggregating company.
An option for a musician who has content in the form of music videos or concert films is to use the services of an encoding house. The encoding house formats and delivers the content directly to the musicians' iTunes account. The encoding house is not considered a third party and iTunes pays the musicians directly.
Musicians, or content providers, who decide to sign contracts directly with iTunes need to have an Apple ID and a current credit card on file with the company. A provider must also have a valid U.S. tax ID number. A provider must also have a Universal Product Code (UPC)and an International Standard Recording Code (ISRC ). A UPC is used to identify each album, and an ISRC identifies individual songs.
iTunes requires that a provider use a Mac running OS X 10.5.8 or later with at least 512 MB RAM. A provider must also have QuickTime 7.0.3 or a later version. They also recommend a minimum of 20 GB available hard drive space and a broadband Internet connection speed of 1 MB/sec or faster. A minimum catalog of 20 albums is also required.