Guide to Music Distribution in the Digital Era
Are you looking to share your music with the world and get it on popular streaming and social media apps? Platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon Music, TikTok, and Instagram are the most popular ways to get your music out to millions of listeners worldwide. This is your guide to music distribution in the digital era. Digital distribution is playing a crucial role in music today, allowing independent artists to make their music accessible to fans globally through online music platforms.
These days if you want people to be able to find your music, all you need to do is find a music distribution site that will take care of getting your music on the major platforms. These music distributors get your music on the streaming and social media platforms and take care of the royalties, while you get to maintain ownership of all your music. Some of the best music distributors that work directly with streaming platforms are:
The most used streaming app in the world, Spotify has taken over the music game.
DistroKid: DistroKid has made a name for itself due to its budget friendly pricing model. It has a simple annual fee, rather than charging per album or single. Starting at only $22.99 for the first year, DistroKid will allow you to release unlimited music, making it very popular with independent artists on a budget. DistroKid will allow for your music to reach just about every online music platform and you will keep all your royalties for yourself, but it does not have as many promotional tools as some of its competitors.
CD Baby: Around since 1998, CD Baby has been helping music artists longer than its competitors and can help artists with manufacturing CDs and Vinyl records. It has far reaching digital distribution services as well and will get you on all the preferred streaming and social media sites. CD Baby operates on a one time fee of $9.99 per single or album and offers lifetime distribution. It charges a 9% fee on your royalties, which they claim will incentivize them to continuously find opportunities for your music to reach listeners. CD Baby also offers a wide range of promotional tools to help you market your music, each for additional fees but will help you grow your audience.
TuneCore: TuneCore is a bit more expensive than many competitors but it offers an array of services and many different pricing models for artists to choose from. They have a beginning artists option that allows you to release your music for free on social media platforms, while you keep 80% of any royalties. All their pay for release options enable you to keep 100% of the royalties. You can choose from unlimited uploads ranging from $14.99-49.99 a year, or a per release model ranging from $9.99-$29.99 a year. These are set up to incentivize people to choose the unlimited options as they offer more in the long run. It’s important to note that lifetime distribution is not offered in these models. TuneCore, like CD Baby, also offers an array of tools to promote your music.
LANDR: LANDR started as an automated mastering service and has branched out to offer digital distribution services as well. The service is popular with music artists because it offers both distribution and mastering all in one and a community of artists that you can gain knowledge from. They offer monthly and yearly subscription pricing models, heavily incentivizing the yearly model which is paid up front for the year. The monthly prices range from $19.99-$39.99 a month, while the yearly prices are $143.88-$191.88 per year. LANDR will be your one stop shop for creating your music with its mastering services and its vast distribution services to over 150 platforms. The yearly models are advertised as coming with an additional $2,000 worth of bonus features that are all included in the yearly price and they have some of the best customer service offerings available out of all their competitors.
LANDR has music mastering services along with distribution, making it a one stop shop for music artists!
EmuBands: EmuBands is a low cost service that offers distribution and is a good option for artists that want to band together and pay for one service that will distribute all their music. Their pricing model is set up that you pay a one time fee to release tracks at $12.50 per single, or a bundle option of $25 for 2-20 tracks, and then you can choose optional support packages with additional features. Offering different models for the amount of artists the subscription can cover, they have a free option for a single artist and higher up models that can cover multiple artists with expanded features. Their Plus option can cover 2-5 artists for $25 a year, while their Pro option can cover 6 or more artists for just $60 a year, each with added features to help these artists grow their music.
With dozens of music distribution sites out there, it’s important to do your homework and figure out which is the best for you. Make sure to look into how their pricing models work and what kind of extra features for promotion and music making they offer. The most important thing to make sure of is that you have quality music to upload before you ever are ready to start making it available to an audience. There has never been a time that was easier to get your music out there, so once you’re really satisfied with the music you are making, go for it and start releasing it to the masses!
