So, what choices do you have, when it comes to distributing your music?
Today, music distribution is really all about digital music distribution, rather than pushing records and CDs. According to Exploding Topics, about 4 out of 5 people stream music vs using physical media. I truly believe, this has a lot to do with how much we use our smart phones for everything we do, including music consumption. So as an independent singer songwriter, what options do you have? There are two major players (pun intended), CD baby and Distrokid. Let’s talk about the differences.
CD Baby provides access to over 150 digital music streaming sites including Spotify, Apple Music, Tik Tok, Amazon Music and more. They offer a DIYMusiciam Blog, DIYMusician Podcast, a Release Generator planning tool, Showco marketing tool with paid and free tools and Hear Now paid promo page creation tool. Pricing is $9.99 for a single or album release, with no subscription and lifetime distribution. The have a great website and offer all sorts of free video content, to help you be successful.
DistroKid promotes itself, as the easiest way to get your music on Spotify, which is the largest digital music streaming service. It also pushes to a lot of the same streaming services as CD Baby. You receive 100 percent of your royalties and get paid monthly. There is a $22.99 annual fee to upload unlimited albums and songs. You can keep all your earnings from track streams or route a percentage of earnings to other contributors. It also offers Spotify pre-saves, a video generator tool and the ability to get an official YouTube Artist channel. The website is easy to use and has a very simple interface. Credits and lyrics can be uploaded to video stores and they offer HyperFollow, the easiest way to make a page for all your music, videos and social links for free.
There are pros and cons to each service. If you create a lot of music, Distrokid would be my recommendation, based on cost and simplicity. CD Baby offers a lot of user friendly features and a ton of content to make you successful. At the end of the day, it’s really a personal choice on who you are most comfortable with. Keep writing and keep spreading the joy. Have an awesome day today. Cheers!