Being an independent artist has gotten a lot easier over the last decade, since music distribution services came around. These services grew more and more popular over the years, hence hundreds of them are available for you to choose from. But which one is the best for you? In this blog you'll find out!
Table of Contents:
Breaking down the 5 best music distribution services for music producers:
There are lots of music distribution services out there, so it's hard to choose one. Make sure you find out what your needs are first. Would you rather pay money upfront or keep less of your royalties? Do you need help with marketing or publishing? Do you need a YouTube Content ID? Do you care about a good looking & easy to use UI? When are your royalties paid & is there a minimum amount for that? Take these things into account when you're choosing a platform. Some of these things are hidden in the Terms & Conditions of the website.
1 - Distrokid
DistroKid is probably one of the best-known music distribution services. The reason for that is that they offer you 100% of your royalties. They even include an option for royalty splitting, if you worked with more than one artist. Since they are officially partnered with some music streaming services like Spotify, they are usually a bit faster in getting your music to all the stores in comparison with some other distributors. Another great thing they offer is an official YouTube artist channel. The channels with that small music note symbol next to the channel name. But the best thing is the pricing. You get all of this for just around 20$ a year!
2 - Amuse
Another well-known distribution service is Amuse. Most known for their free version, which is great if you're starting out and you're just about to discover the world of music distribution. If something is free, people usually think there is a downside to it or a hidden cost. To be honest, there is no real downside, because again, you keep 100% of your royalties. But of course, there also is a paid version. For 25$ a year you get pro features like getting paid in advance, money splitting with different artists, and even multiple artists releasing options. For 60$ a year, which is basically their label option, you have unlimited artist release options. Another great thing they have is a YouTube Content ID option. This is also included in the 60$ version. The last thing we want to mention about amuse is their super awesome and clean user experience. We love their website, how simple everything is, and especially their app that works as good as the website!
3 - LANDR
You might have heard about LANDR before. They are most known for their cloud-based audio mastering service. They also give you a distribution service which costs 9$ for every single release and 29$ for an album release. You will keep 85% of your royalties. There are also two subscription models, which cost 20$ and 80$ each year. The first one lets you keep 91% of your royalties and the second one 100%.
4 - CD Baby
CD Baby is a distribution service that does not come with a subscription model. Different from the others, CD Baby takes at least 15% of your royalties. The upsides of using their service are their marketing tools for artists. They are great for growing and learning about the industry.
5 - DittoMusic
DittoMusic is still a hidden gem that is a bit less known than DistroKid or Amuse for example. They offer you 100% royalties, a SmartLink, a great UI, insights, royalty split, and release on all the stores you need! You can try their service for free for 30 days. After that, you can choose between Artist (19$/year), Professional (29$/year), and label (69$/year). Another great feature for an additional 39$/year is their publishing service. They basically add all publishing income that you would get through YouTube Content ID for example. In addition, they pitch your tracks for sync placements across TV, Film, Ads, games, and more. This is a feature that is in our opinion super important and we haven't seen it anywhere else! If you succeed with your music, you might get a signing deal, which gives you comprehensive marketing services and way more support from their side to grow as an artist!
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