Please check out Youtuber and digital music marketing expert Shawn Folk from the blog Payusnomind.info. I interviewed Shawn a while back for the mixtape marketing podcast episode 12 where we briefly discussed Digital Distribution Sites.
Since then Shawn has created this amazing videos where he has broken down each digital distribution site with their pros and cons. Below I broke down my video for this blog in the hope that it would prove useful to the readers of my blog. If you want to see Shawn’s Blog post on his video on music distribution companies check out this article here: Click Here
MUSIC DISTRIBUTION SITE CHANGES & DISCLAIMER
Please Note That These Music Distribution Sites will change their price and services over time. Always do your own research before you join one of these companies. If you have found a fault with this report please hit the contact button so that I can make the changes to the article.
Some of the links below are referral links , at no extra cost to you I will earn a small commission if you decide to purchase these products. Since I have used all of these products online for my own websites I have confidence in my recommendation based on my own experience with these companies. If you do go through my referral link thanks for your support.
CD Baby vs. Tunecore vs. Songcast vs. Onerpm vs. DistroKid vs Ditto Vs Symphonic Now, this is a comparison video with these digital distribution sites and music distribution companies.
Now what we are going to look at and comparing them on is price, the percentage sales they take, whether they give you an ISRC code.
Which is a code used within YouTube where when your album or song is in a video, it puts a link at the bottom of that video with the thumbnail of your album and the link to iTunes or Amazon where people can click that link and buy it. If you need additional help with music promotion online read this blog posts.
And A UPC barcode which tracks sales and sounds.
We are gonna look at how they pay you, how they get you your money. We gonna look at their reputation, how people feel about them and how they satisfy people with their service. We gonna look at what extras they give you and the price that they charge you.
Now the first thing that we gonna look at is the price. One rpm doesn't charge upfront distribution an album.
If you wanna distribute your album to these stores and you don't really care about all the other stores, you got to pay $10 to distribute your album to those stores, specifically. And they also have an option of distributing your music to the streaming platforms for free.
MUSIC DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES COMPARRISON TABLE
Music Distribution Sites | Music Stores / Music Streaming SItes | Other Services | Price | Royalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Apple Music
150+ smaller outlets
| YouTube Money ($4.95/yr + 20% of YouTube ad revenue from matches we detect) Pre Launch Preorder Hyper Follow Page Cover Song Distribution Merge Duplicate Spotify Profiles Stats / Analytics | Tier 1 - Musician Unlimited Song Distribution Unlimited Song Distribution Unlimited Song Distribution | 100% For Digital Distribution YouTube Money ($4.95/yr + 20% of YouTube ad revenue from matches we detect) |
 | iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, Tidal, SoundCloud, Shazam, Amazon Music , Emusic, Napster, 7digital & MediaNet.) Indie Artist Radio, ShoutCast Networks, TuneIn Radio and iTunes Radio. | Accounts can have an unlimited number of artists or tracks in your account! Earn Money on subscription or advertising revenue on SoundCloud Submit Cover Songs Indie Artist Radio, ShoutCast Networks, Tunein Radio and iTunes Radio Indie Artist Radio Only $7.99 per track per month of play Stats / Analytics | Monthly Fee: Plans Sart at 5.99 per month or $59.90 per year per account. $19.99 per album $9.99 per single one-time setup fee (waived for the first submission). | The musician keeps 100%. For a large volume of tracks contact Songcast for discounts For a large volume of tracks contact Songcast for discounts |
 10% discount code for you: THIEF10 | iTunes
| Instant Mastering $9.95 per track Stats / Analytics | MUSIC DISTRIBUTION Album £23.99 first year -------- MUSIC PUBLISHING ADMINISTRATION
Youtube Content ID Set Up Fee | Keep 100% of your Music Sales Revenue For volume inquiries of more than 75 releases, contact TuneCore You keep 80% of Youtube Content ID collected revenue! Keep 90% of MUSIC PUBLISHING royalties TuneCore Collects You keep 80% if Tunecore's gets you any Sync licenses for your Music in Film, Radio and TV |
 | iTunes™
. | CD Distribution Sell Vinyl The ability To Sell Music On The store.cdbaby.com
Sync licensing Of Your Music for TV, film, & Games
Cover Song Distribution Stats / Analytics | CD BABY STANDARD Per Single $9.95 CD BABY PRO | Digital distribution |
 | 7Digital Sounds (Sample Packs) Jukebox
| Music Video Distribution License Your Music Release Packages Mastering Starting from $45 SoundCloud Monitization {Unique Dashboard} Youtube Content ID Submit Cover Songs Branding & Design Offerings Radio Promotional Partners Stats / Analytics | Music Distrobution $25 Registration fee {One Time Fee} Music Video Distribution | The musician keeps 100%. Digital Music Distribution [Music Sales And Streams} Youtube Content ID Musician Keeps 70% Soundcloud Monetization Music Keeps 70% of all royalties --- Symphonic Music Publishing Administration {TV, FILM, SYNC, RADIO} |
 | iTunes
| Instant Mastering $9.95 per track Stats / Analytics | MUSIC DISTRIBUTION Album £23.99 first year -------- MUSIC PUBLISHING ADMINISTRATION
Youtube Content ID Set Up Fee | Keep 100% of your Music Sales Revenue For volume inquiries of more than 75 releases, contact TuneCore You keep 80% of Youtube Content ID collected revenue! Keep 90% of MUSIC PUBLISHING royalties TuneCore Collects You keep 80% if Tunecore's gets you any Sync licenses for your Music in Film, Radio and TV |
 | iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, Tidal, Amazon Music
Ami Slacker radio Sound exchange , Emusic, Napster, 7digital & MediaNet.) | Multiple Formats Select Pricing Royalty Sharing | No Upfront Registration Fees,Musicians Can Maintain 100% control. | ONErpm offers free delivery for you full audio tracks. A one-time fee applies for ringtones and videos. (70% for ringtones and YouTube; 50% for speciality video}
|
Bonus In-Depth Product Review
Distrokid Music Distribution Review
Quality
Very easy set up and gets your music in to all these stores very quickly.
Price
The Distrokid pricing makes it very attractive for both emerging artists at $19.99/yr and $79.99/Year for labels
Our Rating
This is my chosen music distribution company based on the ease of use and the much lower Youtube Content ID Royalties taken. From my research I noticed that a lot of the other companies where taking 30% or more for content plus royalties from Digital distribution. While Distrokid only takes 20% of Content ID royalties and gives the musician 100% of online music sales and streams.
Not only did I take Shawn Folks recommendation from Payusnomind.com for DistroKid their testimonials from the founders of DistroKid's two biggest competitors left their companies and gave their unsolicited endorsements to DistroKid.
"DistroKid is simply the best distributor in the market."
-Jeff Price, founder of TuneCore and Audiam (source)
"This is amazing. I'll be sending everyone I know to DistroKid now."
- Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby (source)
PROS
CONS
Ditto Music Distribution Review
***10% discount code for you: THIEF10 ***
Quality
I like Ditto for their simplicity. Their tagline says it all "INDEPENDENT. TRANSPARENT. SIMPLE."
The really focus on doing a great job at music distribution, while, offering good support, guidance, and complete transparency.
Price
Very Simple Pricing Structure, while they really only focus on music distribution they don't take any other fees 1 Artist £19.99 Per Year
2 Artists £29.99 Per Year
Tier 3 Professional Label 5 + Artists
+Priority Support From £69.99 Per Year Up Too $299 for 40+ Artists
Our Research
Similar to what I liked with what Distrokid offers. Affordability for the independent musician and 100% royalty payout for music sales and streams.
Ditto doesn't offer tons of services like that of CDBaby or Symphonic Distribution, but they do exactly what they are good at which is a simplistic approach to music distribution for the independent musician.
Like that of Distrokid, they offer unlimited music distribution for one of the lowest fees of £19. They have 4.5/5 stars on Trustpilot which to me is a game changer as you can't fake these reviews. Whereas other distributors may have cherry-picked their reviews from certain artists. If I didn't go with Distrokid first Ditto Music would of been my second choice.
PROS
CONS
***10% discount code for you: THIEF10 ***
Quality
Songcast seems to be very popular with first time music distribution for starting artists.
Their strengths are seen with their connections with online radio streaming services where they provide services for their members to grow.
Price
Price is pretty affordable only a little higher than Distrokid.
But they also give you 100% of your Digital distribution royalites Album $23.99 first year $9.99 each following year
SINGLE* $7.49 per year
Our Research
Songcast has a monthly fee of $5.99 per month. They also charge $19.99 per album upload with the first one being free. This monthly stays at $5.99 no matter how much content you upload. They pay out a 100% of your royalties and they also don't charge recurring album fees. Like some of the other music distribution companies do.
Songcast has some other options like your own Facebook Music Page Tab and Itunes sales reports. They also don't charge you to remove your music from these distribution sites. Songcast is one along with cd baby is one of the more popular music distribution companies for independent artists.
PROS
CONS
CDbaby Music Distribution Review
Quality
Cbbaby is a very reputable company with a huge user base.D Baby has 100 per cent approval rating.
Price
This is where Cdbaby is different from DistroKid. Their Worldwide Distribution Per Single $9.95 Per Album $35 which can rack up if you have volume, and taking 9% of Digital sales.
Our Research
CD Baby charges you $35 per album and $9.95 per single. They take 9 per cent of your royalties. CD Baby gives you ISRC free.
There's nothing bad to say about them. CD Baby does physical distribution. In exchange, they take $4 in every sale, no matter how much sales your album has. They also offer a direct to an option. They also have quality customer service. And also, they are also very accommodating
Now, when you look at how they give you your money, everybody on this list distributes payment through PayPal. But only CD Baby and Tunecore allow you to receive your money through direct deposit, which is great because when you receive your money through Paypal, you have to wait for the digital distributor to send your money to PayPal and you have to wait to get your money from PayPal to your bank account.
PROS
CONS
TuneCore Music Distribution Review
Quality
TuneCore is a pretty big company with a large user base. But some users have been vocal about their distaste with Tunecore.
My concerns come from the sacking of their form very influential leader Jeff Price, who has amazing video explaining the music industry to independent musicians.
Price
Price is pretty affordable only a little higher than Distrokid.
But they also give you 100% of your Digital distribution royalites Album $23.99 first year $9.99 each following year
SINGLE* $7.49 per year
Our Research
TuneCore allows you to keep 100 percent of your royalties. They don't take anything from you. TuneCore gives you the ISRC code and the UPC code for free as well. I put their reputation at 80 per cent there was a lot of complaints about them, not particularly about their service but their YouTube program and other issues. Tunecore doesn't really do much outside digital distribution compared to the other music distribution companies mentioned here in the blog, for the price that they charge you. They do other things, but it's a separate charge. But they have high-quality customer service too.
PROS
CONS
Symphonic Music Distribution Review
Quality
Following Symphonic Distribution online, they seem to have excelled in customer service and they have a strong focus in music distribution to EDM streaming stores. They have listened to the wants and needs of their customer base over the years and tailored their services accordingly.
Price
The pricing Symphonic Distribution is very different from the other companies. Which may put labels off if you are putting out volume. $25 Registration fee {One Time Fee}
1-5 - Releases - $10.99
1-10 - Releases - $19.99
1-15 - Releases - $29.99
1-20 - Releases - $39.99
24 + Releases - $50
Our Research
Symphonic Distribution is quickly becoming on of the major players in the music distribution industry. It's clear from their website that Symphonic has the musician in mind. Not only with monetary solutions but with support and guidance.
I am particularly fond of their blog which is an amazing way to use their expertise and the expertise of others to help up and coming musicians navigate in the crazy world of online music marketing. They have exclusivity to some big-name artists like that of Waka Flocka Flame, Sean Paul Marshmallow Head, and The Movement.
They have added a number of new features with the musician in mind. Like that of the Promo Mailer, Creative Marketing Services, Marketing Support (DSP and More), Sync licensing for TV, Film, & Games, YouTube and Soundcloud Monetization, Anti-Piracy Solutions (Topple Track), Monthly Reports & Payments, Publishing Deal and Youtube Content ID.
PROS
CONS
ONERPM Music Distribution Review
Quality
Fast and efficient, your music will be in stores worldwide within hours of approval.
No upfront fees, Maintain 100% control.
Price
Free To Upload Which is good for starting musician but ONErpm receives payment from stores and streaming services, the artist receives a standard payment of 85% of sales and streaming revenue. Artists receive a percentage of 70% from YouTube revenue.
It's this free upload and very clever wording makes me very un easy about Onerpm. The wording is very blurred and unclear and burried on their FAQ page.
Our Research
Onerpm is the only Music Distributor that enables artist to upload their music for free which out any up front costs.
One rpm allows you to take your money whether there’s a $10, it doesn’t matter.If you have money in your Onerpm account, you can take it out, no minimum balance that you have to reach. CD Baby requires that you have at least $10 in your account to withdraw your funds.
TuneCore allows you to withdraw your balance at any amount. Only CD Baby has a requirement before you can withdraw your funds.
Onerpm provides you with a marketing support where if you have a notable writeup or you’ve got a certain amount of sales, they’re with you to get a priority placement in digital music stores like iTunes and Amazon to get you a feature. They also have a multichannel network, which is like a YouTube label that you can sign and become a part of.
All these other digital distributors with the exception of the DistroKid have a YouTube licensing program.
Now in addition to having a multichannel network, Onerpm has a free video production studio that they allow artists in their multichannel network program to create high-quality videos using 4D cameras. You can make high-quality videos on your YouTube channel. They have quality customer service. If you need help with getting your music featured on rap blogs I covered it right here.
PROS
CONS
COMMON FAQ
Is Tunecore better than DistroKid?
Distrokid Music Distribution Review
distrokid
Quality
Very easy set up and gets your music in to all these stores very quickly.
Price
The Distrokid pricing makes it very attractive for both emerging artists at $19.99/yr and $79.99/Year for labels
Our Rating
This is my chosen music distribution company based on the ease of use and the much lower Youtube Content ID Royalties taken. From my research I noticed that a lot of the other companies where taking 30% or more for content plus royalties from Digital distribution. While Distrokid only takes 20% of Content ID royalties and gives the musician 100% of online music sales and streams.
Not only did I take Shawn Folks recommendation from Payusnomind.com for DistroKid their testimonials from the founders of DistroKid's two biggest competitors left their companies and gave their unsolicited endorsements to DistroKid.
"DistroKid is simply the best distributor in the market."
-Jeff Price, founder of TuneCore and Audiam (source)
"This is amazing. I'll be sending everyone I know to DistroKid now."
- Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby (source)
What are the best music distribution companies?
DistroKid
CDBaby
TuneCore
Ditto
Symphonic Distribution
Songcast
OneRPM
Landr
What do music distribution companies do?
Music distribution companies or digital music aggregators help distribute your music to all the major streaming and digital music retailers online. These include Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Dezzer, Pandora, Beatport, Beats1, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube.
Can I distribute my music on my own?
Yes! Using online music distribution companies or digital music aggregators like that of Distrokid you can upload you music to all the major online streaming websites like Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Dezzer, Pandora, Beatport, Beats1, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube.
Does DistroKid take a percentage?
Distrokid only takes 20% of Content ID royalties and gives the musician 100% of online music sales and streams.
Do I Need A Label To Distribute My Music?
No! Using online digital music distribution companies like CdBaby TuneCore, Songcast, and DistroKid you can distribute your own music to all the major online music retailers and streaming sites.
How do I get paid by DistroKid?
Distro Kid pays artists via Paypal. Online streaming sites and digital retailers have a 2-3 month delay.
