Questions To Ask When Choosing A Music Distributor

The easiest way to submit your music to a digital distribution service like iTunes or Spotify is to use what’s known as an aggregator. An aggregation service submits your songs or album to multiple services all over the world, and also collects the royalty for downloads or streams. 

There are more than 40 digital aggregators doing business around the world, but they all fall into two basic categories; they take a percentage of sales or you pay a fee. Examples of services that take a percentage are CD Baby, Louder, Mondotunes and Bandcamp. Services that charge on a per album or song basis include Tunecore and Reverbnation. Some services, like Distrokid, just require a yearly fee for unlimited submissions.

Some questions to ask when comparing services include:

• Do they report to Neilsen Soundscan?
• Do you maintain your rights over your music and publishing?
• How often they provide a sales report?
• How often do they pay?
• What other services do they offer?
• Is there a setup fee for each release?
• Do they supply ISRC codes or barcodes?
• Will you continue to receive royalties if you stop paying the monthly or yearly fee?
• How many outlets do they distribute to?
• Is there a take down fee to remove your songs or album for the service?
• Can they arrange iTunes pre-order sales?
• Are there any additional charges that aren't obvious?

There are a lot of options between aggregators and there is no clear choice between them all. For more information, there are plenty of comparison sites online, but be sure that the service that you choose best suites you needs without any unforeseen surprises.

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Fandalism: A Social Network For Musicians

Fandalism is an interesting network designed especially for musicians. It's not like ReverbNation or BandCamp in that it's not designed around the business of being an artist; instead it's more like a cross between YouTube, where artists can upload videos of their performances, and Matchmaker, where compatible musicians can find each other.

To register, you answer basic questions like where you're located, what instrument you play, your influences and musical history. You can then share your work through photos, videos, lyrics or Soundcloud audio. After you've set everything up, you can follow other musicians, give them "props" (likes), and send them private messages.

One of the cool new features on Fandalism is the ability to distribute your songs to iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. It's cheaper than either Tunecore or CD Baby in that you get unlimited uploads for only $19.95 per year, as compared to Tunecore's $29.95 per album per year or CD Baby's $49 per album per year (plus a percentage of the sale). Fandalism also gives you the first upload to iTunes for free.

There's been a lot of attempts to create a musician's network and none of them have caught on. Fandalsim already has over 550,000 members and has the feeling of something that is simple and non-intimidating enough to finally break through in a big way. Here's a video overview.

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AC/DC The Latest To LIft Their iTunes Ban

While the vast majority of recording artists were receiving a new income stream from iTunes, acts like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Kid Rock and AC/DC refused to budge when it came to releasing their albums digitally. The hope of these rock legends was to preserve the integrity of the physical album, and with that, the cashflow that came from it.

One by one these bands started to realize that no matter how much they wanted that to happen, at least some of the world had moved on from CDs. If they wanted more income, the only way was to go digital and join the iTunes club.

AC/DC finally came to that conclusion and announced the news on their website this morning that their entire catalog was now available on iTunes. Although they gave no reason for the departure from their former hard-core stance, the band does have a new live album due out soon. Their last album Black Ice was distributed exclusively by Wal Mart, so there was a big payday there, but with no similar alternative this time around, going digital must have finally made sense financially.

There are not that many hold-outs from iTunes these days, with Garth Brooks and Tool being the most notable left.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.