Distributing my music!

[musicainbasso]

Hello everyone, this is my first ever post on this site. I am in the process of composing tunes of my own. I would like to know, if possible, what are the best websites to turn to for music ditribution. Thank you very much!

[Sam Spoons]

Hi and welcome.

Are you looking to distribute the compositions for others to perform/record or finished recordings/demos of those compositions or something else?

[hz37]

I've had a good experience with https://www.tunecore.com/

Hens Zimmerman

[Tommy Dahlman]

I've had a good experience with https://www.tunecore.com/

Hens Zimmerman

Beware!
https://www.youtube.com/live/ri91dHSUMLY?feature=shared

There are some useful tips at the end of the video.

[musicainbasso]

Hi and welcome.

Are you looking to distribute the compositions for others to perform/record or finished recordings/demos of those compositions or something else?

I want to distribute my music. These are my own songs, composed by me!

[Drew Stephenson]

The question is, are you talking about recordings of those compositions, i.e. audio files, or the written music?

[musicainbasso]

Yes, I apologize, I did not explain myself well. These are audio files. Mastered tracks ready for listening.
Incidentally, I queried AI and it gave me, as results: DistroKid, TuneCore, CD Baby, DItto Music, Awal, Landr, Routenote, Symphonic Distribution, United Masters, Amuse. Have you tried any of them? (I saw that one of you already used TuneCore with satisfaction). Thank you!!!

[Drew Stephenson]

OK, we're all on the same page now.

Yes, you'll need to choose a distributer (also sometimes called aggregators) to use. They will then make sure your music appears in all the usual streaming platforms.
Some of them charge an ongoing annual fee, some charge per release. You'll need to decide which approach works for you. If you choose an annual fee, it's also worth checking what happens if you stop paying that fee.

Personally I use Ditto, they're not the quickest so you need to factor that into your release timeline, but otherwise I have no complaints.

[musicainbasso]

Okay, thank you for your comment. I will keep your words in mind!!!

[BigRedX]

The various bands I've been in use Catapult, CD Baby and Distrokid.

Distrokid has a yearly fee for unlimited releases and doesn't take a percentage of your download and streaming earnings. You do need to keep paying each year in order for your music to stay on the various download and streaming sites. So it's good if you intend to release lots of singles and albums or you think you'll be getting in excess of 10,000 payable streams every year ( that's assuming that each stream is worth at least 0.23¢ and allowing for the fact that Spotify doesn't pay out on songs that have less than 1000 streams a year). And you don't mind if your music becomes unavailable if you decided it's no longer worth paying the yearly fee.

Catapult and CD Baby charge a one-off fee for each release but also take a percentage of all your streaming and download earnings, so good if you only intend to put out the occasional album or single or you don't expect to have many downloads or streams. However once you have paid the initial release fee you music will be available on all the streaming and download services until you decide to take it down.

You'll need to look at the T&Cs of all the various Aggregators you have found and work out which you think will be best for you. If you want to make any money from any of these services you will need to do some serious promotion, otherwise no-one apart from your friends and family will ever hear it.

Over the last 15 years I've roughly broken even overall, but that only because the more popular songs cover the losses made by the others. My rough calculations say that my current band would probably be better off using the Distrokid model now that we have several songs that are each hitting between 5,000 and 15,000 streams a year. And therein lies a problem. If you take your music off one aggregator service to put it on another you have to do much of your promotion all over again, so unless your music is VERY popular it's simply not worth the bother.

Also you should put your music on Bandcamp (and maybe Soundcloud). These are completely separate services to the standard streaming and downloads, but if you want your music to be heard you need to be everywhere.

[musicainbasso]

The various bands I've been in use Catapult, CD Baby and Distrokid.

A thousand thanks for the very comprehensive answer. Since these are my first compositions and beyond the fact that I will certainly try to promote myself in some way, I think the most suitable solution for me, based on your experience, may be to turn to Catapult and CD Baby.
But speaking of promotion, staying on the Internet, what are the best channels for promotion? I was thinking of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, trying to create ad hoc profiles. Are there any other possibilities? Thanks again!

[BigRedX]

Promotion to a certain extent will very much depend on where you are in the world and what genre your music falls in to.

For the various musical venture I have been involved with over the past 15 years performing live is one of the best ways you can promote your music. Both directly and indirectly. Playing live boosts the number of people listening to our music on line, either because they want to hear what we are like before they come and see us play or because they have enjoyed the gig and want to hear more.

However a lot of it is just about being in the right place at the right time both IRL or on-line. Our most popular song is the result of having the right song available when the curator of a very popular post-punk/goth Spotify playlist was asking for songs of a particular genre and subject matter. As a result of this the song has now had well over 20,000 streams over half of which have been in the past 12 months since it was added to the playlist. Partly because of this our last two releases have attracted a significantly more interest than the 6 pervious ones.

[James Perrett]

But speaking of promotion, staying on the Internet, what are the best channels for promotion? I was thinking of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, trying to create ad hoc profiles. Are there any other possibilities? Thanks again!

Promoting is about building relationships. If you don't already have a fanbase then you need to talk to people who do and see if they can help. Maybe you have friends in reasonably successful bands or maybe you need to hire a publicist with good contacts to work for you. You can build all the profiles you like on all the different platforms but no-one will see them unless you make personal contact with people to start with.

[musicainbasso]

But speaking of promotion, staying on the Internet, what are the best channels for promotion? I was thinking of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, trying to create ad hoc profiles. Are there any other possibilities? Thanks again!

Promoting is about building relationships.

Yes indeed. In the meantime, I'll start with word of mouth. Then I will decide whether to invest in some professionals who can help me out. I'm starting one step at a time. But there is no doubt that if I want to make myself visible I will have to find the right person who can really promote me. Thanks for the advice!

[Digital Media Team]

Hi, I've used a few over the years and while fairly basic, I've found that Distrokid best suits my needs, especially as they have a very easy to use phone app too.

Mind you, if you're releasing any sort of dance music then you'll need to make sure that your distributor submits releases to Traxsource and Beatport. There's a list of preferred distributors for Traxsource here - https://traxsourcelabels.zendesk.com/hc ... Traxsource

Also it's worth checking out State51, they don't usually get a mention but have been going for a long time. Not the best upload method but they can also help with merch distribution and promotion - https://thestate51conspiracy.com/