Top 5 Music Distribution Service to distribute your music in digital stores (iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify etc.).
- Soundrop
Soundrop is a free music distribution company. Their parent company is CD Baby. If you’re just started creating music for the first time and you want people to hear it from the whole world, this distribution company is perfect for you. Also, most importantly, if you upload your cover song, you’ve to pay only 10 USD (Approx.) per song one time for the mechanical license fee. And your cover song will be remain in stores forever. Isn’t that great? Their customer service is amazing. Also they provide Facebook and Instagram distribution. Not only that, they automatically split royalities between the collaborators. There’s only one problem which is they take 15% of your royalities.
Check out their website: Soundrop
2. CD Baby
CD Baby is one of the oldest distribution company. They have two type of pricing tier. Standard plan and Pro plan. 9.95 USD for Single release and 29 USD for Album release for Standard plan and 29.95 USD for Single release and 69 USD for Album release for Pro plan. You also have to pay UPC fees 5 USD for Single and 20 USD for album. With pro plan they’ll collect your publishing royalities on your behalf and you can register with global royality collection societies. They distribute a lot of worldwide stores and their customer service is very good. They provide YouTube Content ID feature and also Facebook and Instagram distribution. They also provide TikTok distribution. Not only that, they can claim your Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music artist account instantly. They also provide Official YouTube Artist Channel verification. Isn’t that great? But they take 9% of your royalities. But your song will be remain in stores forever. They also provide CD and Vinyl distribution in Amazon etc. You need a mechanical license to distribute cover songs.
Check out their website: CD Baby
3. Amuse.io
Amuse is a newbie music distribution service. They’re completely free and gives you 100% of the royalities. They also have a Pro plan which is 7.99 USD per month and 59.99 USD per year. If you pay for Pro plan you will get first lane support, Facebook and Instagram distribution, YouTube Content ID, TikTok distribution, multiple artists, Anghami distribution etc. They also have a mobile app which is available on Play Store and App Store. You need a mechanical license to distribute your cover songs in India, Pakistan, USA, Canada and Mexico. If you don’t have mechanical license you can’t distribute on those mentioned territories or you can distribute your music worldwide except iTunes and Google Play Music.
Check out their website: Amuse.io
4. Routenote
Routenote is also an old music distribution company. They have two type of pricing plan. One is Free and another is Premium. If you use Free plan they’ll take 15% of your royalities and if you use Pro plan they’ll cost 10 USD per Single, 20 USD per EP, 30 USD per Album and 45 USD per Extended Album and also you’ve to pay 9.99 USD annually. But artist will keep 100% of the royalities in the Pro plan. They also provide YouTube Content ID and TikTok distribution for both Free and Pro plan. The most interesting feature of routenote is SoundCloud Monetisation. You can also earn money from SoundCloud streams. They distribute music in lots of stores mostly in Asian stores. They also provide RN Direct where you can set up your own store. You need a mechanical license do distribute cover songs.
Check out their website: Routenote
5. Distrokid
Distrokid is a new music distribution service. They have 3 types of pricing plan. Musician plan, Musician plus plan and Label plan. Musician plan is 19.99 USD per year, musician plan is 35.99 USD per year and label plan is 79.99 USD per year. If you use Musician plan, you can distribute only 1 artist’s songs and you can distribute unlimited songs but you can’t set custom release rate and custom label name. If you use Musician Plus plan you can distribute 2 artist’s songs, unlimited uploads and you can set your custom release date and custom label name. If you use Label plan you can distribute 5 artist’s songs in 79.99 USD per year, 10 artist’s songs in 139.99 USD per year, 20 artist’s songs in 239.99 USD per year, 50 artist’s songs in 599.99 USD per year and 100 artist’s song in 1199.99 USD per year and other features are same as previous 2 plans. They also have some add-ons feature such as Shazam & iPhone Siri is 0.99 USD per song per year, Store Maximizer is 7.95 USD per album per year, YouTube Content ID is $4.95 per single/year, $14.95 per album/year, + 20% of YouTube ad revenue and Leave a Legacy is $29.00 per single, $49.00 per album of 2+ tracks (nonrecurring fee). They’ll give 100% of the royalities of all of the plans. They can also claim your Spotify and Apple Music artist profile instantly. They also provide instant YouTube Official Artist Channel verification. You’ve to pay 1 USD per month for cover song distribution.
Note: If you don’t choose Leave a Legacy while uploading the song and if you stop paying membership fee for a year, then your song will be taken down from stores.
Check out their website: Distrokid
There are also other great music distributors you can choose to distribute your music if you want. Like Tunecore, OneRPM, Horus Music, Ditto Music, Reverbnation, AWAL, LANDR, Spinnup, Record Union etc.
Thank you for reading my article, have a nice day.