It's time to go over the business side of things. We're going to be looking at how your these distribution companies pays and gets you all that cash, so let me show ya some numbers first!
We will look at these companies and their reputation, how people feel about them and what they do to satisfy customers.From the amount of extra features to how much they charge, we will take a look at what you're getting for your money.
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 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.
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.
MUSIC DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES COMPARISON TABLE
Distro Kid Music Distribution Review
DistroKid Streaming Sites
Pandora
Deezer
Tidal
Napster (beta)
iHeartRadio (beta)
Synacor
Freeform
NicheStreem
Tesco
Yahoo
MusicPlaylist.com
Clearwire
Apple Music
Spotify
iTunes
Google Play & YouTube Music
Amazon
Songzae
Bay
MOGE
MIMTV
Univision
JoMediai
Mesh
Catch Media
ClaroMúsica
Saavn
Anghami (beta)
MediaNet and 150+ smaller outlets
Beats
Music CUR
Pulselocker
SoundTracker
La Curacao
StubHub
hmv
Inmotion
DistroKid Services Offered
- YouTube Money ($4.95/yr + 20% of YouTube ad revenue from matches we detect)
- Store Maximizer ($7.95/yr)
- Leave a Legacy ($29.00 one-time fee, non-recurring)
- Shazam & iPhone Siri ($0.99/yr)
- Pre Launch Preorder Hyper Follow Page
- Cover Song Distribution
- Merge Duplicate Spotify Profiles
- Stats / Analytics
DistroKid Pricing
Tier 1 - Musician
$19.99/yr
1 artist or band name
Unlimited Song Distribution
Tier 2 - Musician Plus
$35.99/yr
2 artist or band names
Unlimited Song Distribution
Tier 3 - Label
$79.99/Year
5 To 100 Band / Artists Names
Unlimited Song Distribution
DistroKid Royalties
Keep 100% For Digital Distribution
DistroKid YouTube Money ($4.95/yr + 20% of YouTube ad revenue from matches they detect)
Quality
Very easy set up and gets your music in to all these stores very quickly.
DistroKid Price
The Distrokid pricing makes it very attractive for both emerging artists at $19.99/yr and $79.99/Year for labels
Our DistroKid 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 ***
Ditto Streaming Sites
Pandora
iTunes
Spotify
Amazon Music
Google Play
YouTube
Art Tracks
KKBOX
Neurotic Media
Yandex
Target Music
ClaroMusica
Zvooq
Saavn
Apple Music
Spotify
Deezer
Napster
iHeartRadio
Simfy Africa
MediaNet
VerveLife
Tidal
iTunes
Google Play & YouTube Music
Amazon
8tracks
ClaroMúsica
Gracenote
Shazam
7Digital
Juke
Slacker
KKBox
Akazoo
Anghami
Spinlet
Saavn
Anghami (beta)
Q.Sic
Musicload
Kuack Media Group
Ditto Services Offered
- Instant Mastering $9.95 per track
- TuneCore Fan Reviews $9.99 per report
- Radio Airplay 100 Free Spins
- Custom Engineering $75 Per Track
- Vinyl & CD Replication $N/A
- TuneCore Social Pro {Social Scheduling Tool $7.99/month or
$85.99/year (10% savings) - Feature.fm
Get guaranteed plays on specific streaming websites $49.99 - Stats / Analytics
Ditto Pricing
Very Simple Pricing Structure, while they really only focus on music distribution they don't take any other fees.
Tier 1: 1 Artist £19.99 Per Year
Youtube Content ID Set Up Fee £7.99
Tier 2 : 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
DITTO Royalties
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 On Ditto Music Distribution Company
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 rap 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 ***
SongCast Music Distribution Review
Songcast Streaming Sites
iTunes,
Apple Music,
Spotify,
Google Play,
Tidal,
SoundCloud,
Shazam,
Apple Music
Indie Artist Radio, ShoutCast
Networks,
TuneIn Radio
and iTunes Radio.
Rhapsody & AmazonMP3
Amazon Music
Tidal,
TikTok,
Amazon Music,
Napster and
MediaNet!
Songcast Services Offered
- Accounts can have an unlimited number of artists
- Accounts Can Have An Unlimited Number tracks in your account!
- Earn Money on subscription
- Earn Money from advertising revenue on SoundCloud
Songcast Pricing
First Option 1: Songcast Monthly Fee: Plans starting at $1.99 for the 1st month (per account, not album).
They charge this instead of taking a cut of your royalties. You keep 100%. You can have an unlimited number of artists or tracks in your account!
Second Option 2 Album/Single Fees: $19.99 per Music album or $9.99 per single one time setup fee (waived for the first submission).
Indie Artist Radio Pricing (Includes iTunes Radio, Shoutcast, Tunein & SongCast Radio) Price: $2.99 per track per month of play.
Songcast Royalties
The musician keeps 100%. For a large volume of tracks contact Songcast for discounts For a large volume of music tracks contact Songcast for discounts
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 very affordable. Monthly Fee: Plans starting at $1.99 for the 1st month (per account, not album).
$19.99 Per Album Or $9.99 Per Single
Our Research Of SongCast
SongCast They also charge $19.99 per album upload with the first one being free. This monthly stays at $1.99 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.
Here is what SongCast Say On There Website
SongCast vs. The Competition
Some of our competitors charge annual album renewal fees. If you don't pay it, they may remove your material from the music services.
Other competitors take a cut of your royalties. At SongCast, we don't charge you annual renewal fees per album, and you keep 100% of your royalties... always! Want to know how to get your song on iTunes and all other major music distribution sources? Join SongCast today!
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
CdBaby Music Distribution Sites
iTunes™
Apple Music
Spotify
Amazon
Google Play
Pandora
YouTube Music
Deezer
Shazam
TIDAL
KKBox
LINE MUSIC
Napster
8tracks
Saavn
AWA
7digital
Yandex
Claro música
Kuack
Anghami
iHeartRadio
Medianet
Akazoo
Slacker
24-7
7digital
CdBaby Services Offered
- CD Distribution
- Sell Vinyl
- The ability To Sell Music On The store.cdbaby.com
- YouTube Content ID
- Sync licensing Of Your Music for TV, film, & Games
- Performing Rights Organization affiliation or admin
- Song Registration With Song Collection Agencies
- Collection Of Your Publishing Royalty
- Cover Song Distribution
- Stats / Analytics
CdBaby Pricing
Tier 1: CD BABY STANDARD
Worldwide Distribution
Per Single $9.95
Per Album $35
Tier 2 : CD BABY PRO
Worldwide Distribution
+ Publishing Royalty Collection
Per Single $34.95
Per Album$69
Tier 3 Professional N/A
CdBaby Royalties
Quality
CDbaby is a very reputable company with a huge user base.D Baby has 100 per cent approval rating.
Price
This is where Cdbaby Vs DistroKid Differ. 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 On CDbaby
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
TuneCore Music Distribution Sites
iTunes
Spotify
Amazon Music
Google Play
YouTube
Art Tracks
KKBOX
Neurotic Media
Yandex
Target Music
ClaroMusica
Zvooq
Deezer
Napster
iHeartRadio
Simfy Africa
MediaNet
VerveLife
Tidal
Saavn
8tracks
Q.Sic
Musicload
Kuack Media Group
ClaroMúsica
Gracenote
Shazam
7Digital
Juke
Slacker
KKBox
Akazoo
Anghami
Spinlet
TickTok
TuneCore Pricing
Option 1: MUSIC DISTRIBUTION
Album £23.99 first year £39.99 each following year
Option 2 : SINGLE*
£7.49 per year
RINGTONE*
£15.99 per year
Option 3 MUSIC PUBLISHING ADMINISTRATION
£55.99
one-time fee and register unlimited songs at no extra cost.
Youtube Content ID Set Up Fee
£7.99
TuneCore Services Offered
- Instant Mastering $9.95 per track
- TuneCore Fan Reviews $9.99 per report
- Radio Airplay 100 Free Spins
- Custom Engineering $75 Per Track
- Vinyl & CD Replication $N/A
- TuneCore Social Pro {Social Scheduling Tool $7.99/month or
$85.99/year (10% savings) - Feature.fm
Get guaranteed plays on specific streaming websites $49.99 - Stats / Analytics
TuneCore Royalties Taken
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 On TuneCore
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
Symphonic Music Distribution Sites
7Digital
8Tracks
Addictech
Apple Music
Amazon Music
Anghami
Audible Magic
Beatport
Sounds (Sample Packs)
Apple Music
Spotify
Boom (UMA)
Claro Music
CUR Music (Medianet)
Deezer
Digital Tunes
Dubset Media (Medianet)
Electric
Jukebox
Express In Music
Gracenote
Google Play
iHeartRadio
Juno Download
KK Box
Mail.ru (UMA)
Medianet
Mix Upload
musical.ly
Napster
Symphonic Music Distribution Services Offered
- Music Video Distribution $95 per video.
- License Your Music
- Release Packages Starting at $125
- Video Marketing
Starting at $35 - Logo
$300 - Electronic Press Kit (EPK)
$75 - Release Covers
Starting at $75 - Mastering Starting from $45
- SoundCloud Monitization
{Unique Dashboard} - Youtube Content ID
- Submit Cover Songs
- Branding & Design Offerings
Digital Music Distribution, Publishing, Licensing, Mastering, Graphic Design - Video Marketing
- Release Campaign
- Radio Promotional Partners
Feature.fm
Play mpe
Radio Airplay - Stats / Analytics
Symphonic Pricing
Option 1: Music Distribution
$25 Registration fee {One Time Fee}
1-5 - Releases - $10.99
1-10 - Releases - $19.99
Option 2 : 1-15 - Releases - $29.99
1-20 - Releases - $39.99
24 + Releases - $50
Option 3 Music Video Distribution
$95 per video.
Symphonic Royalties Taken
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 Of Symphonic Distribution
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
ONERPM Music Distribution Sites
iTunes,
Apple Music,
Spotify,
Google Play,
Tidal,
Facebook
Amazon Music
Claro Music
CUR Music (Medianet)
Deezer
Digital Tunes
Dubset Media (Medianet)
Electric
Ami
Slacker radio
ClaroMúsica
Gracenote
Sound exchange
Emusic,
Napster,
7digital &
MediaNet.)
ONERPM Services Offered
- Multiple Formats ONErpm supports WAV and FLAC uploads,
- as well as high-res MP3s
- Video Distribution
- Select Pricing
- Ringtone Distribution
- iTunes pre-order
- iTunes Instant Gratification
- Disable previews on pre-orders
- Windowing
For a 2 week period of time, make your music available only to Spotify premium users - Multimedia Albums
Deliver a combination of audio and video tracks in an album. - Bulk Uploads of your catalogue
- Royalty Sharing
- Daily Trends Analytics
- Content ID Tracking
ONERPM Pricing
Tier 1: No Upfront Registration Fees,Musicians Can Maintain 100% control.
Tier 2 : N/A
Tier 3 N/A
ONERPM Royalties Taken
Quality
Fast and efficient, your music will be in stores worldwide within hours of approval.
No upfront fees, Maintain 100% control.
It's this free music upload and very clever wording makes me very un easy about Onerpm. The wording is very blurred and unclear and buried on their FAQ page.
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.
Our Research Of OneRpm
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 Music Distribution FAQ's
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?
{Music Distribution Companies List 2022}
DistroKid
CDBaby
TuneCore
Ditto
Symphonic Distribution
Songcast
OneRPM
Landr
FreshTunes
SongTradr
Routenote
AWAL
Sounddrop
Amuse
Bandcamp
Level Music
iMusician
Reverbnation
Soundcloud
Spinup
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 or Producer 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.
