Karyn

dwardzala
OK - I have replied to this post twice - is someone removing my reply?

The spam filter caught the link in your post.
 
I've restored it and given the filter a damn good thrashing.

Thanks!

i've started using DistroKid. it's great for the price but you have to realize it's a yearly fee. you get the global iTunes store and the global google store and global amazon store. then you get Spotify and Beats and a couple other retailers. I found that simply using bandcamp was not good for most people (even for my free tracks). your avg consumer will buy from the main digital retailers and they probably felt unsure of using bandcamp. this definitely goes for people overseas.
 
I use BC and SoundCloud to reach out to musicians, but for regular consumers it pays to go with the big retailers. I've only been selling for a few weeks, but I've had tweets and other messages via instagram that people have bought it. so if I can sell 10 albums a year, it pays for itself. and that's a pretty low bar to clear. I paid for the second tier since it generates industry retail codes and I can submit under two band names. I believe other services like CDBaby are just as good, but right now competition is really fierce and each service has their loyalists that trash the daylights out of rival services on social media. so just take the criticisms with a grain of salt.
 
good luck!
 
j
 
if you want, you can search for my tracks under PAPA NO ONGAKU
 
 

Edit: ignore, I mis-read the original post.

Most folk will tell you that it comes down to two aggregators: CDBaby and Tunecore. Both do digital submissions to all the usual suspects (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc.) and both also do physical CD releases. One is a low-entry but annual fee (Tunecore), and one is more upfront but no annual fee (CDBaby). Tunecore takes less of a cut but that annual fee will catch up to you if you do low volume.
 
You can google them both with a "vs" or "review" or "shootout" and you'll get several articles that break it down in detail. I think CDBaby is having a special right now that makes entry to their program a little cheaper, it's what I went with after evaluating them both this time around.
 

...wicked
Most folk will tell you that it comes down to two aggregators: CDBaby and Tunecore. Both do digital submissions to all the usual suspects (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc.) and both also do physical CD releases. One is a low-entry but annual fee (Tunecore), and one is more upfront but no annual fee (CDBaby). Tunecore takes less of a cut but that annual fee will catch up to you if you do low volume.

CDBaby does 89/album if you want industry codes generated? What happens if you stop paying the annual fee for Tunecore? do they remove your music from distribution (like Distrokid)? i think the reason i went with DistroKid was that it did unlimited releases per year and no cut of your music. and i had a lot of music backed up so i'll probably do 3 releases in the next 12 months. it all comes down to how much you intend to sell. i don't have reports in yet, but the more you sell, the better the subscription model becomes. but if you're not expecting to sell or promote, then the annual fee is really not worth it. and CDBaby does "get paid every week"...how do they determine that if the major retailers only report sales once every 30-60 days?

If you are attempting to get the music to fans... CD baby and other sites work fine.
 
If you are attempting to get the music to industry professionals who can place the music in film, TV, and games, then you need to search and find libraries and publishers that handle that specific type of music. There are "tip sheets" available to let you know when someone is looking for a specific style of music.  Find them and get signed up for their email listings reports. You never know what's coming out next week......
 
Taxi.com is one company that comes to mind that exists simply to put writers and industry producers together. They screen everything and unless it meets their opinion for quality and being on target to that listing, it doesn't get sent to the company requesting the music.
 
If you do a google search you will find dozens of companies who work in a very similar manner. Fees to submit are as varied as the companies requesting songs for listings. All depends on what you want to do and how you want to go about doing it.
 
I have used several of the listing companies through the years and have music signed into many libraries, some of which are the top libraries with excellent reputations.  Getting cuts..... well that's another story altogether. Getting music into games is not ( as far as I understand it) a very easy thing because the game companies tend to go back to the same person who composed the music for their earlier games unless they are taking a new game in a totally different direction.
 
Good luck.

gunboatdiplomacy

...wicked
Most folk will tell you that it comes down to two aggregators: CDBaby and Tunecore. Both do digital submissions to all the usual suspects (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc.) and both also do physical CD releases. One is a low-entry but annual fee (Tunecore), and one is more upfront but no annual fee (CDBaby). Tunecore takes less of a cut but that annual fee will catch up to you if you do low volume.

CDBaby does 89/album if you want industry codes generated? What happens if you stop paying the annual fee for Tunecore? do they remove your music from distribution (like Distrokid)? i think the reason i went with DistroKid was that it did unlimited releases per year and no cut of your music. and i had a lot of music backed up so i'll probably do 3 releases in the next 12 months. it all comes down to how much you intend to sell. i don't have reports in yet, but the more you sell, the better the subscription model becomes. but if you're not expecting to sell or promote, then the annual fee is really not worth it. and CDBaby does "get paid every week"...how do they determine that if the major retailers only report sales once every 30-60 days?

gunboatdiplomacy
What happens if you stop paying the annual fee for Tunecore? do they remove your music from distribution

 

 
Yes, for example: TuneCore most definitely does remove content.  Maybe they have changed this policy last time I  checked. 
 
That said, I strongly suggest to everyone, read all the fine details of the distribution deal before making a commitment. Got any more questions? Send an Email to the distributor. .
 
Hi Chris, 
 
You will find a wealth of information (listing/links) in the Song forum sticky-thread listed in the top section of that forum titled:  Artists-Music Producers! Recommended Resources (see post #1) 
 
Wish you great success!