Digital Distribution

Why do I Need a Digital Distribution Service?  

Annoyingly, there isn't any way for you to upload to streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music directly. Instead, you have to go through an aggregator like CDBaby, Ditto, DistroKid, Venice, etc. 

While needing to go through a third-party to digitally release your music is annoying, it does have a couple of basic perks if you choose to look at the glass as “half-full”. 

• Your music will be published to 100’s of DSPs simultaneously, and should be added to any new services as they become available*.
  
  
• The distro service you choose will collect all of your streaming royalties from each DSP and pay you for all of them directly.
  
  
• These services will automatically assign you UPCs for your albums and IRSC’s for your tracks.
  * You will need these for properly entering your music into the following services to collect the rest of your royalties outside of digital streaming. 

There are pros & cons to each of these services, but keep in mind that underneath all the bells & whistles, your digital distributor's base function is only to distribute your song files to streaming platforms across the web/world & pay you for the royalties those songs generate across each platform.

While these platforms will all advertise why they specifically are all the best option for growing as an artist, the reality is the sheer act of using one distributor over another is essentially moot. Again, digital distribution is only sending your files to streaming platforms - how those songs perform once they are distributed comes down to your PR & marketing. 

The caveat is many digital distributors offer various tools to help you promote songs & market yourself and these tools are really what their “choose us” advertising is focused on and what you are really paying for.

For many of the digital distribution services available to independent artists for a low monthly or yearly fee, those tools are commonly things like Spotify “pre-save” campaigns, “link tree” style webpages, fan email collection, and in some cases some basic art generation tools, educational content, and the potential of some playlist pitching.

Distributors with higher fees (generally via commission on your royalties rather than an annual subscription) may also offer a much wider range of “Label Services” to help promote your songs & you as an artist; but how much individual attention you actually receive from any distributor will be directly linked to how much your streams are generating. 

It doesn't take much critical thinking to realize that these platforms cater to thousands of artists each day & expecting individualized attention & artist development as a new or smaller artist is unrealistic. 

Remembering that, it's likely best to approach your digital distribution expecting a bare minimum. Choose which platform you would like to work with based on their number of supported services & costs.
If you are offered individualized promotional assistance down the line, thats fucking awesome, good for you. But don't login expecting a red carpet.  

Ok, So Which Digital Distributor Should I Use?  

To keep this article unbiased, I will not specifically endorse any one digital distributor.
But, below I have compiled a table comparing all of the key points of the most popular distributors to help you in making your own decision.

Most of these distributors allow for unlimited releases for a yearly fee. So the key points to compare for each will be your out of pocket cost, how many streaming platforms are included, and additional commission on YouTube Content ID / Social media usage.

What about "Digital Distro" Through a label?

What if a label offers me a “digital distribution deal” as an independent artist maintaining ownership of my music. Is that better than using a distribution platform on my own?  

Maybe, and maybe not. That would be fully dependent on the label/deal in question and what they are offering in exchange for the commission they would be keeping from your streams. 

Ideally, the difference between this and receiving commissioned “Label Services” from a larger distributor would be you receiving more individually catered attention & promotion from within the labels smaller pool of artists and from a team focused on your mutual success.
However, if the label in question is not attentive or does not put adequate promotional effort behind the artist to justify the higher commission taken, then that can totally suck. 

Some of these distributors also offer Publishing? What does that mean?  

Wait, some of these distributors also offer Publishing services? If I use that, can I collect the rest of my royalties outside of streaming without doing more work??   

When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Or at least comes at a hefty price. 

Yes, some distributors also offer publishing admin services to collect your other royalties from various services. If you truly want to treat your royalties like a one-stop-shop & really don't care about getting every last cent of your music's earnings, this could be a good fit for you.

The catch is that these additional services do come at a commission for funds you could collect on your own for free (or after a one time signup fee).
The instructions for how to do so come in the following PRO, MLC, SoundExchange, & International Royalty articles ahead.
The other kicker for Publishing royalties specifically, is publishing admin services can generally only collect the “publishers share” of royalties from PRO’s. This means the “Songwriter” portion would remain unclaimed unless you enrolled with the PRO’s directly anyways.

If you are thinking on an international scale, yes, each country has their own PRO/CMO agencies you could potentially be collecting from, and enrolling in all of them would be a lot of footwork for sure.
But realistically, if you are an independent artist releasing full albums once a year or less it’s really not impractical to manually register your songs with a handful of countries relevant to your fanbase each time you put out an album.
Set it, forget it, get paid. 

So this comes down to choosing where your priorities lie. 

Would you rather do the least work possible & make a little less in the long run -or- do more work upfront for higher passive income in the future. 

The lesson here: Any time your digital distributor is offering extra services to collect your “Publishing”, “Performance”, or other royalties; that is something you can do on your own.

Ok, But How do I Actually Get Paid? 

If you google any distributor, you will almost inevitably find a few Reddit threads that X distributor did not pay them. The reality is the angry person writing that either does not have enough streams to actually be getting paid, hasn't waited long enough, or did not complete their account setup which includes things like Identity verification, banking info, and tax forms. 

Most digital distribution platforms have a small payment threshold & artists are paid once their streams have accrued over that threshold.

There is also a delay in how quickly each streaming service communicates their song usage back to the distributor to pay out royalties. So your monthly payouts are generally being calculated on streams from 45-60 days prior depending on the platform & this can cause a delay in payments beginning at first. 

And then the elephant in the room… You are only going to be paid if people are actually streaming your music. A lot.
If you have only accrued a couple thousand plays, you likely aren't going to earn over that payment threshold for a while.  

What if I join a Distributor and Hate it? 

You can just switch.
Almost all of the major distribution platforms provide step-by-step guides on how to switch providers without losing your streaming numbers.

The important part is to make sure you use the same IRSC’s from your original distributor rather than letting your new distributor generate new ones as if they were new songs; but make sure to refer to your new distributors documentation for complete instructions.   

There is the possibility with some services or deals that you may be required to stay for a contracted length of time before you can leave for another service.
This is more likely to be the case if you handled your digital distribution through a label, but it could still apply to an independent provider in some cases. Always check your service agreements to be sure.