It cuts zero commission from your revenue (with the top plan). Don R. Really a great platform! Removals taking months. I’ve been threatened with lawsuits (twice), companies have ‘pivoted’ and gotten out of the distribution business. CD Baby was founded by musician, best-selling author, guru, author of the introduction to. Worth noting, UnitedMasters (UM) is one of the ONLY distributors with a black CEO. Many distributors won’t touch Beatport (their reputation for payments is iffy), but Symphonic is all-in. RouteNote has been around since 2008 and has held steady even though it hasn’t made the giant waves of the CD Babys, TuneCores and DistroKids of the space. Who is the best digital distributor for your music? that can help you with the capital. They more than make up for their lack of high end features by being flexible in switching between plans. Like how ONErpm has cornered the Latin American market, UK based Horus is starting to corner the Asian market. I sat down with the CEO and founder, Jorge Brea and their new Chief Client Officer, Nick Gordon, to get a better understanding of their new focus. Upstream means that, because UMG can see all the Spinnup data they can jump on an artist that starts to catch and sign them. You always keep 85% of your net digital revenue and are free to release as much music as you want without worrying about the rising or repeating costs of keeping your catalog available online. CD Baby was founded by musician, best-selling author, guru, author of the introduction to my book (!!) Even though some of them offer “label services” they don’t own anything. Emmanuel recently stepped me through his backend CMS on how the label-side workflow functions. Music Business Worldwide wrote that Nick was “pivotal to the company’s client and technology growth that led to its acquisition by Sony Music.” He maintains an independent ethos and has a deep understanding of the services indie artists need to compete in a big way. They said it just wasn’t possible. Soundrop is technically located in the CD Baby building, but the services are completely separate and Pony mentioned that he doesn’t really talk to the CD Baby people very much. Every artist has access to an analytics dashboard which tracks your real-time data. Well, 18 now. CD Baby could not handle the volume and their customer support got WAY backed up. Spotify Removed Your Music, Now What? Also, AWAL, Bandzoogle (CD Baby powered distribution),  CD Baby, DistroKid, Songtradr,and Symphonic have advertised, currently advertise or have agreed to advertise in the future with Ari’s Take. ONErpm operates as a DIY artist distributor and full on record label concurrently. They have struck sync deals with Hulu, Bose, JBL, NFL as well. ONErpm is very advanced with their YouTube monetization and have their own “Multi-channel Network” (MCN). But with offices all over the world and nearly 300 employees, they seem to be doing alright. They entered the distribution game in June of 2017. That’s why I added it to the comparison chart. There is a commission tacked on when an advance is offered. “Artists don’t typically know that they are being pushed,” Steve told me. Our songs got included on exactly zero official Spotify playlists. Like AWAL, Symphonic and Amuse, UM will “throw gasoline on the fire” if something starts to bubble up. Digital music … Here’s what you’ll need to properly distribute your music worldwide: 1. They have been reliable, I have had zero technical … These are not label deals. That was (and still is) the role of the distributors: getting the music … CD Baby also gives you access to key demographic and geographic data when you distribute your music using their service. In the more than 20 years AMW Group has been on the music … Single releases start at $9.99 USD. And if you start to catch, the A&R team at ONErpm may offer you a record deal – with an advance, marketing budget and the weight of the company behind you. I was also excited about the potential to work with them on sync licensing opportunities as they claim their sync department is strong, however they decided that their sync team would not have success with our project so they didn’t take it on. This is why you should work with split sheets from the get go! Capiche? Distrokid is a music distribution service that gets your tracks onto all the major music stores and streaming platforms. Our music is not pop. Well, the co-CEO Lee Parsons did, for, asking a question about royalty collection, No commission. Promote your music with Promolinks. With unlimited releases starting from around $25 USD per year, Ditto distributes your music to over 200 stores, including all the major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and more. We’re so stoked you’ve found us, thanks for stopping by . ReverbNation. DistroKid has since become one of the top 10 distributors worldwide for total units sold/streamed. Do you want to sign to UMG? They believe that having a curated artist roster lets them support their artists with a higher quality of service. He sold the company in 2008 to Disc Makers, but many of the original employees still remain. These distribution companies do this for you. And Believe, a French company, owns TuneCore. As a company built on a tech-first (digital) philosophy, Kobalt boasts that it pays twice as fast (and finds more money – sometimes 30% more) than the major publishing companies. DistroKid was the first distributor to offer unlimited distribution for one annual fee and DK has been continuing to push innovation and challenge the industry ever since. They were super excited about the project (throwback 70s funk/soul). Ready to get started? I’m keeping this review updated and any time a company lets me know their changes or I hear from you that something has changed at one of these companies, I update the report. Written by Leni - 8 January, 2019. I have since distributed 3 songs with AWAL to test them out and see under the hood. ONErpm launched in 2010 by Emmanuel Zunz without any investor money. Best Music Distributors for a Successful Single Release in 2019. Distrokid Music Distribution Review distrokid Quality Very easy set up and gets your music in to all these stores very quickly. AN ARTIST NAME This is the name you release music under. It’s completely unprofessional and I f*cking love it for that. Routenote is a digital music distribution platform founded in 2007. We’re so stoked you’ve found us, thanks for stopping by . And there was a clear No. If your music is earning you revenue and you need a fat upfront check (like an advance) there are royalty advance services out there like. Symphonic is actively courting buzzing indie artists, big time managers and indie labels. Record Union is a distribution platform that lets you register a free account and then charges you for every release. But their (non-app) browser analytics are not that much better than TuneCore, Stem or CD Baby’s backend analytics. And I explain how to do that, This review is just taking a look at companies that will get your music into digital stores and streaming services, like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, etc and NOT about stand alone, digital download, self-managed stores, like. In this video you'll find out the differences between the most popular digital music distribution services, and get the information that you need to determine which one is right for you. CD Baby has been around the longest. If your company is led by good, honest, people, then your employees (and customers) will feel that. Soundrop isn’t meant to compete with the other services (like their sister CD Baby). Now, their backend analytics are ok. And their app is actually beautiful, intuitive and a very nice overview of Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube real-time stats. Partner with LANDR and sell your music on Spotify, Apple Music and every streaming platform, today. But giving up 15% to AWAL when the only guaranteed benefits over the other distributors is their backend analytics is a hard sell. I owe my producer 20%, but ONLY after I recoup the $20K.). Oh, and will.i.am is a co-founder. Well, that’s an entirely different article. In early 2019… Stem is invite-only (submission based) which allows the team to give personal attention to their clients. DistroKid also refused to re-distribute a song that was distributed (incorrectly) by an artist who accidentally listed the artists incorrectly (put their collaborator as “feat.” without listing them as a fellow artist – which would link to their profile on Spotify and would show up on both artists’ profiles). , who has been at the company 17 years, sat down with me to explain. As soon as the music stores pay out your royalties, you can also withdraw your money with one simple tap. Must Read. Music marketing simplified. They have also since launched a samples library and a marketplace to hire recording professionals called Network. CD Baby’s customer support and marketing director had been cagey about what was going on and no one could get a straight answer. Awesome, we’d love to chat! that their streaming numbers looked a bit peculiar for the past year. Also, the next decade will be heavily focused around Asia. CD Baby offers digital music distribution to more than 100 storefronts and streaming platforms, which is more than enough for most artists. HOWEVER, I made super clear to these companies that their advertising does not influence my review AND I only allow companies I trust and support to advertise on Ari’s Take. And to support artists during the nightmare that is 2020, they are offering free distribution with 0% commission through the end of 2020. They booted a significant number of artists who did not meet their earnings threshold and upped their commission from 5% to 10%. You can see why there are around 800 different rates per stream. That’s why I added it to the comparison chart. TuneCore’s analytics and sales reports are some of the best in the biz. Meaning, like the other ‘open to all’ distributors, any artist can distribute their music with ONErpm, but they also have a full-fledged record label. The best part? In just 48 hours, songs are on all streaming and buying platforms. For instance, if you want to distribute a remix titled a certain way with the remix artist as a collaborator (sharing Artist credit), DistroKid will block it because it doesn’t meet their style format. It’s also great that they give you the ability to download your songs. Of course nothing is guaranteed, but I made a list of 20 official Spotify playlists that our songs would fit well on like All Funked Up, Bedroom Jams, Disco Forever, Easy on Sunday, Feel Good Dinner – smaller niche playlists of under 1M followers – and sent it over. They offered guidance on how to get it going and even listened to the record before we released it. are PAYING for music (via streaming services). No admin publishing to collect… They boast that they cover “95% of the world’s music market” and are “constantly partnering with extra stores.” Steve predicted that in “5-10 years (the Asian market) is going to be crazy.” They have gotten in on the front end of it all. 3. You retain 100% of your rights no matter who you use. Well, it’s great if your listeners are in India because you’re getting paid much more from CD Baby than what Spotify has indicated to CD Baby those streams are worth. Now, I know this is not typical. So that’s definitely something impressive worth noting. +How To Get a Record Advance Without a Record Deal. How do you get your music on Apple Music? He sold the company in 2008 to Disc Makers, but many of the original employees still remain. This can be a blessing and a curse. Well, the co-CEO Lee Parsons did, for asking a question about royalty collection. Stem is investment backed – meaning that their business model hasn’t been profitable until recently. At the top of the charts, so to speak, is CD Baby, besting competition with its one-two combination of a massive network of over 150 ... 2. By the sheer number of releases they distribute it is virtually impossible. (throwback 70s funk/soul). Being a musician, I asked them questions I deemed most important for independent musicians. ... It’s helpful to me for knowing each every point about best digital music distribution company. Brick and mortar music distributors used to be the only way for record labels and independent artists to get their records in the hands of listeners. It lost its human touch and now TuneCore feels cold and detached. Philip (known as @pud by the Silicon Valley community) was once on the cover of Inc. and Fast Company magazines for his early 2000s blog F*cked Company. I know what it’s like to be mindless and just make a decision without any consideration for the impact it may have on your career. They have in house sync agents and a robust music library searching system. Even if they take a commission, it’s just from your revenue. Simple and effective, team at the top. Music distribution is as old as the music industry itself. They said it just wasn’t possible. For clarity, you need a distributor to get your music into Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, TikTok, Instagram Stories, Deezer, Tidal, etc. It’s only $9.99 to distribute a cover (cheapest of anyone out there). I spoke to reps at every company for this review, to get a full in-depth look at each company and for the reps to explain to me their company’s best features (that I may have missed scanning their FAQ). One of the founders used to study data analytics at Universal Music Group (Sweden), another came from Warner Music Group (Sweden), and their head of design used to work at Spotify. The Orchard is owned by Sony and INgrooves is owned by Universal. I owe my producer 20%, but ONLY after I recoup the $20K.). You can’t ask Symphonic and DistroKid to distribute the same song to all the stores, then that same song would be listed in Spotify, Apple Music and everywhere else TWICE. You want to put gasoline on the fire, we can do that for you.” – Lonny Olinick, AWAL CEO. TuneCore was acquired by Believe Digital a couple years ago and has become extremely corporate because of it. If Spotify Won’t Pay More, They Should Give Us More Data, Session Musicians’ Money Stolen by the Union Meant to Protect Them. However, with the added features of mastering, it’s a really good choice for musicians. Everything from playlist pitching, marketing, PR, YouTube MCN, and so forth. Just one page to distribute your song or album. For the first time in history, people in. And is focused around getting everyone paid their appropriate percentage (so you don’t have to deal with handling paying your collaborators). Complaints that the customer service is great ONLY UNTIL you pay them money, then customer service is non-existent. In 2019, CD Baby (well, their parent company, In the most recent update of this article (10/15/2020), I revealed that. With its remaining clients, Stem has a good reputation. Oh, hey! Symphonic has created a niche in the Latin music market and are actively positioning themselves as the distributor for urban, electronic and Latin artists (Nick used to specialize in hip hop and electronic music when he worked at Caroline Distribution). umbrella. It’s hilarious. They offer advances to some artists (with different revenue sharing models), brand partnerships, and a more hands-on approach (if you’re a priority artist). +How This Artist Grew to 500,000 Monthly Spotify Listeners With No Playlists. 11 November 2020; MusicDiffusion NUMBER 1 music distribution in Google Search! Very, very simple. Worth noting that through our own efforts our music has nearly 1 million streams. Many of their clients make beats and Beatport is a major partner for Symphonic. UnitedMasters was founded by industry big wig Steve Stoute. Once your release is live, you can keep track of your streams, downloads and audience daily from the app. We are moving into an era of transparency. Was this good or bad? This review is just taking a look at companies that will get your music into digital stores and streaming services, like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, etc and NOT about stand alone, digital download, self-managed stores, like Bandcamp. And a hybrid of the two. And there is no one way to look at music distribution. All the companies have extra services and I included some of their services in their review if I thought they were great and left out some of their services if I didn’t care about them. So for the past few months we at Ari’s Take have been learning everything we could about these 19 companies. To summarize, RouteNote is arguably the best music distribution company. It’s becoming one big conglomerate – Disc Makers is still thrown in the mix there somewhere, but I don’t understand their corporate structure. See, Spotify has about 800 different rates per stream. You keep 100% of your royalties, Revenue reports are clear and intelligible, No songwriter / producer credits distribution, Like how ONErpm has cornered the Latin American market, UK based, I reviewed their mastering service a bit in, RouteNote is one of the first distributors to reach. 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