How iTunes Chooses Feature Artists

With the announcement that iTunes has added an Indie Spotlight landing page for independent music, Hypebot readers wanted to know how Apple chose which artists to feature. To got the inside scoop, I talked to the former digital chief of an established indie who describes a process refreshingly different from the "pay for placement" that dominates brick and mortar retail.

"The process is nearly entirely editorial and curated by country by true music lovers," said the former indie executive who prefers to remain anonymous.

"As a 'major indie' I was given an indie-specific contacts for the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia and Oceana. I then promoted my releases to them, often times highlighting special content and exclusives. Generally this “tit” produced a “tat” where my releases were considered for genre page, SOTW, or spotlight treatment. Sometimes their picks of my content were my priorities, sometimes they were just good music," he continued.

"Timing was crucial, content / metadata delivery was crucial, relationship was crucial, easy collateral access was crucial, and the music was prime. The editors would then take their favorites to a weekly meeting and the table would select the final batch.

"With our highest profile releases, we had explicit conversations about what exactly would be delivered by supplying exclusives. But this didn’t occur often.Only once in four years did I have a release that Cupertino dictated the promotion level to the other stores. I assume the Majors have that type of conversation with the Major-editors every week."