What should you look for in a music distribution company? There are so many sites that will send your music to Spotify, Apple, and elsewhere, and the number is continuing to grow.
So how do you choose?
Well, the music distribution company you choose should make the process as easy as possible. They should be on your side, wanting you to get your music out there. If they are at all difficult to work with, get rid of them.
So, to you, that might mean you want them to take less of a commission. Or it might mean you want free distribution. Or you may want a one-stop-shop for distribution, admin publishing, and other services.
Whatever you’re looking for, I think there’s a distributor on this list for you.
I’d like to start with four music distribution sites that I’ve used to send my music to Spotify et al.
Overview: The longest-running distributor on the market, CD Baby offers several services on top of distribution, like publishing royalties collection and custom merchandise creation.
Best for: indie musicians with small to moderate budgets who don’t want to deal with multiple companies when it comes to royalty collection.
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Overview: Tunecore has been on the market for almost as long as CD Baby and has served many big-name artists.
Best for: musicians who plan to get a lot of streaming royalties, at least enough to offset the yearly fees.
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Overview: formerly Loudr, a mechanical licensing company that helped you get the proper licenses to cover a song.
Best for: musicians with little to no budget who want an easy way to distribute their original songs, or artists who want to easily release cover songs.
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Overview: technically a record label with a distribution service for all artists, even those not on the label. A very new company based in Sweden.
Best for: musicians with little to no budget who would be interested in a 50/50 record label deal.
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Here are two distributors who I have not used personally but have heard positive things about.
Even though you keep 100% of the streaming royalties, you do have to pay an annual fee, although the fee covers unlimited releases. Plus, DistroKid stores all your songs on the cloud, so you’re sort of getting a storage backup service for your music on top of distribution services.
LANDR’s main service is automated mastering (which is honestly pretty good), but they also offer distribution services. If you have a subscription to LANDR (monthly or annually), you get free distribution and you keep 100% of the streaming payouts.
Here are two distribution services that are newer and may disrupt the game for the better.
United Masters is similar to Amuse in that it’s a record label first that also offers distribution services to artists who are not on their label. It’s free to distribute and they take 10% commission. But currently, it’s by invite only, so you can enter your email address on their site to request an invite.
Record Union is another newer company with a growing roster of artists who’ve released music through them. They have yearly plans starting at $7 (1-2 tracks, one streaming platform) up to $25 (6-12 tracks, all streaming platforms), and they take 15% commission.
Finally, here are two distributors who I’ve never used but have heard very negative things about. I’m not saying you definitely shouldn’t use these platforms, just be wary and do deep research on them before signing up.
Singer/songwriter and music business blogger Ari Herstand did an in-depth review of a plethora of music distributors (which you should read for A LOT more info on this topic). One of the distributors he put in the no-no column was Ditto. He listed negatives like hidden fees, horrible customer service, and (most compellingly) tons of complaints from customers. Also, they threatened to sue him.
“...This is the only company that I am confidently putting into the ‘do not work with them’ category,” Herstand says.
Fresh Tunes is another distributor who doesn’t seem to be one of the better options. Again, I’m not saying you definitely shouldn’t use them, but there are plenty of other more reputable companies to work with. Even though they offer free distribution and take no commission, Herstand mentions issues with delayed payments and a lot of customer complaints.