Starting a career in music is often a daunting task. And as the fame keeps coming, often more than not, the money does not move along at the same pace. So to ensure you do not end spend career entertaining others while sleeping with an empty stomach, you can rely on independent music distribution services to rake in cash. So what are the best options available and what are the benefits?
DistroKid was established ten years ago by American entrepreneur Philip J. Kaplan. The platform offers musicians and other rights holders the opportunity to distribute and sell their music through online retailers. They offer musicians to distribute with retailers such as Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Tidal, Amazon Music, Deezer, Google Music, Shazam, and YouTube.
Distrokid is celebrated for its speed in service delivery. They deliver your music to stores within 10-20 minutes. Aside from that, Distrokid also offers a deduction-free royalty when you subscribe to their annual plans.
What you won’t like about Distrokid is that they charge you a yearly fee for YouTube monetization but still take some commissions. You also must keep paying the yearly fee to have your songs in their stores. And if you want proper analytics and reports, you sure have to pay for the most expensive plans they offer.
TuneCore is a New York-based independent music distribution, licensing and publishing service started over a decade ago. They distribute music to over 150 digital stores and streaming services and also offer publishing administration services to help musicians collect royalties. They collect royalties/sales money directly from stores with no intermediaries, payout 100% of royalties/payments collected, provide comprehensive sales data and analytics and YouTube monetization is included in all plans. Also, they have Social media tools to help you with music promotion, offeraArtist rewards such as VIP Sessions, marketing opportunities, and priority support as well as the ability to pre-schedule release dates
What you may not like about TuneCore is they charge a fee for adding new streaming/distribution outlets like iTunes, Spotify and Tidal if you didn’t add them to your original order. You either pay $2 per outlet or an additional $10 per release to automatically add all new outlets.
Also, they do not have marketing support or playlist plugging for new artists. There are no mechanisms in place to help new artists. They don’t also provide updated notifications as you work with their platform to upload music, they only send a notification when everything is fully uploaded.
CD Baby
CD Baby is an independent music distribution and promotion platform that offers a range of services to independent artists and labels, including music distribution, CD and vinyl pressing, publishing administration, and music promotion. It was described as “anti-label” due to its line of business which makes it easier for independent artists to sell their music.
Apart from offering distribution services with some of the popular service providers such as Apple, YouTube, Spotify and Amazon, it has over 150 stores in its catalogue. CD Baby has a feature called Pro Publishing, a service that provides for the registration of your songs globally with collection agencies. They then collect the royalties for you but retain 15% of it. They also offer YouTube and social video monetization. On top of it all, they have an incredible customer support service.
On the downside, CD Baby is one of the most expensive distribution services available. They collect as much as 30% for YouTube and social video monetization and 40% from sync licensing revenue.
Ditto Music
Ditto Music is a UK-based music distribution service that offers distribution to over 200 stores and streaming services worldwide. They also offer additional services such as music promotion, artist development, and sync licensing. They payout all your royalties without taking a commission. They offer support such as promotional campaigns, playlisting, chart registrations, building pre-save links, and offering advice for all new music releases.
However, Ditto has a very slow music-releasing process meaning your songs take some time to get out into the stores. Their customer service is also not desirable as compared to their peers.
Amuse
Amuse is a free music distribution service that offers distribution to major stores and streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. They also offer additional services such as artist development and marketing tools.
Working with Amuse means you enjoy completely free services. You keep 100% of your streaming royalties and also have a chance to get discovered and signed to a 50/50 label deal. Getting a Label deal with Amuse offers benefits such as getting advances and free marketing.
Despite Amuse being acclaimed for its free services, it is notorious for being super slow as it takes between 3-4 weeks to release a song on the free version while the pro takes up to two weeks. Distribution to social media platforms is only available for the pro plan. The pro plan is really expensive too. You are charged a fee if you want to split royalties on the free plan. Also, you can only upload 1 release at a time on the free plan and can’t set a release date on the free plan.
Folks, the list is not exhaustive and though we have offered our opinion of what would work best for upcoming musicians, the ultimate choice is yours. There are other providers such as Symphonic Distribution, AWAL, RouteNote, The Orchard, EmuBands, and OneRPM. Others include LANDR, Repost Network, Horus Music, ReverbNation and Believe which you can use. Do let us know what your thoughts are on this list.
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