Part Two: Downloading, Streaming and Pirating, Oh My! A Four Part Discussion Series on Music Distribution
By Aaron Binder and Vanessa Markov
Part Two: The Ongoing Evolution of Music Distribution
When Napster was king in the late 90’s and millionaire investors were throwing money at anything with a .com in their name, the old guard of film studios and record labels fought back with antiquated anti-piracy measures without truly understanding the speed of technology. Within 10 years the model of music distribution that had been in place for decades had been drastically altered. Harvey Danger had given away their album Little by Little for free and Radiohead would follow to much greater fanfare — digital distribution had entrenched itself in the essence of music culture.
To say that the digital era is still in a wild west state is valid, but to believe that digital music can or should be siloed is as outdated as believing the colonization of America was a fad. While distribution has consolidated to a degree, there are still numerous small and large scale entrants to the market each year that break the molds all over again.
Vanessa: The simple fact that monster organizations that are major labels could not stop downloading in its tracks should put to rest the argument against download (and now stream) culture. But I still hear so many artists of all backgrounds complaining all the time that they feel it’s wrong.
You know what I think is wrong? Having the distribution of your art depend solely on a record company whose decisions are based on commercial viability. That the man or woman deciding whether to invest in you is understandably biased toward ensuring they’ll still have a job and food on the table as a result of the records they back. Nonbelievers don’t seem to take into consideration this chokehold that yesteryear’s artists faced when seeking a career in music. Instead, it is easier to romanticize that your demos would undoubtedly be appreciated, financed and distributed across the country, or that the man in the white fedora would emerge from the shadows bearing a million dollar contract to be signed on the spot with a gold plated feather pen. I feel that this misguided notion is at the root of this pervasive reluctance to fully embrace the landscape of today’s digital landscape.
I can’t stress enough that artists of today’s generation have far more opportunities to generate an income than those of the pre-internet era, not despite digital but because of it! The catch is that now the onus is on the artist to market themselves, which is a blessing in disguise. Never before in history has an artist had more creative control over their art or their future.
Aaron: You can’t capitalize on something that nobody knows about though. Digital distribution has brought on an age of freedom where artists can define themselves without needing a 360 marketing campaign behind them. In 2016 Alex Trebek dissed the whole Nerdcore rap genre only to be met with a response from the kings and queens of that genre. That’s an example of how easy it is to make yourself known today — not by maintaining an outdated notion of artistic integrity. Supposed artistic integrity (otherwise known as sheer stubbornness) is what keeps the best musicians you’ll never hear in their basement recording studios as they slave away at a job they probably don’t like in order to finance their passion — that mindset needs to change. Artistic integrity is about not compromising your ability to support yourself in your passion.
Vanessa: When you look at distribution more from a marketing perspective than a sales perspective, limiting your options makes less and less sense. And like we discussed in Part One, digital listeners are divided into downloaders and streamers.
A Brief Interlude
Some Distribution Platforms and Their Target Consumers (Note from Vanessa: This is a commentary, not a research paper. Links, graphs, and cited stats are not included because that shit is exhausting.)
DOWNLOADING PLATFORMS
iTunes/Apple Music
Whether you like it or not, iTunes has been the biggest name in digital music since the early days of online distribution. This is generally considered the default platform for musicians to sell on as it offers artists a decent profit share and massive customer base.
With size like this there are many website and social media integrations that make it even easier for fans to purchase music than some other, lesser equipped platforms. And with the advent of Apple Music in 2015 that offers unlimited subscription based streaming to its loyal community, there really isn’t any downside big enough to warrant avoiding distribution through this platform.
Google Play
Google Play has been playing catch up with iTunes for years but they have caught some wind in their sails recently. Their artist hub has become fairly comprehensive since it launched but there are some limitations still in place that many (especially budding) artists won’t appreciate, namely the lower than average commission cut. But 70 cents on the dollar is, and always will be, better than zero.
That said, Android’s platform is absolutely massive and becoming more organized. Most important of all, Google Play’s advantage is in allowing users instant access to a music store that is pre-installed on all Android devices, playing directly into the culture of convenience that simply cannot be ignored.
Amazon
Amazon is a beast of its own that should not be ignored. It’s been the #1 retailer of digital music in the UK since 2014, beating out iTunes, and tripled streaming hours in 2015. Currently the only major platform to offer streaming, digital download, and physical purchase, there’s no reason why your music shouldn’t be on Amazon.
Bandcamp
Preceding all streaming services out there, Bandcamp is the Godfather of DIY music streaming and sales that allows artists to customize everything from price to format to how many songs you can stream and how many times you can stream a song before being prompted to purchase it. Here, you can sell digitally and physically, sell merch, distribute download codes, accept donations, and straight up give your music away for free, easily — no user accounts, subscriptions, or software downloads required. You can also make it all pretty looking.
The one thing to take note of is that, until very recently, Bandcamp only accepted Paypal, which would fleece artists of an additional percentage on top of the percentage that Bandcamp takes. But when you consider all the people out there who just want to easily purchase music once in awhile without any of the hassle that services like Amazon or iTunes brings, Bandcamp is the solution. (And now, they take credit card so ………….)
Main takeaway: WHY ISN’T EVERY BAND ON BANDCAMP?!?!
STREAMING PLATFORMS
Spotify
As the world’s leading music-only streaming service, Spotify has more than double the amount of paid subscribers as Apple Music (that’s a lot of millions x2). And with a free, ad-based subscription option, your music is made available to over 100 million active Spotify users, the majority of which access the service several times per week. Looking into the future, the listener data Spotify mines can be summed up to this: knowing exactly who is listening to your music and when, down to age, gender, and city = f*cking priceless.
Spotify also has the best playlist platform and a number of complementary services like Spotibot, Topsify and The Playlist Miner (translations: robots that read your mind) plus numerous blogger recommendations. Spotify’s community is part of what defines it as a top digital music delivery platform and it has massive penetration across numerous market segments.
YouTube
Although it’s a video-based platform, YouTube has been and still is the leading platform of music streaming, trumping Spotify and Apple in terms of users and growth year after year. Often overlooked by artists as a distribution platform, YouTube is a key discovery channel with sophisticated in house features and monetization options. When it comes to marketing, this is the platform that offers the most flexibility and opportunity to drive audience growth and sales, but at the very least, your music should be available in the form of videos (even if it’s just a static image/album cover) for the large majority of music lovers that are loyal to this giant platform.
Soundcloud
In addition to making your music available to loyal Soundcloud users, this platform is the fastest, most hassle-free way for listeners to stream your music. This platform is perfect for embedding a song or playlist on your website, and is the easiest way to send media/industry your music as it doesn’t require sign-in to stream or eat as much data as a Youtube stream.
Soundcloud is feature rich but the interface can be confusing and clunky — their playlist interface is comparable to catching a flight in NYC the week before Christmas. This is contrasted by the incredibly cool feature of registered users being able to leave feedback at individual points of songs meaning you can offer invite-only releases to see what your closest fans think of your new track before wide scale release.
Vanessa’s pro-tip for distro-noobs: There are literally at least a hundred more platforms worldwide that mimic the above key players, some of which are nation-specific, genre specific and so forth. Enter the heroic blanket distributors: Distrokid, Tunecore, and CDBaby. An entire article can be written on each of them so here are the Coles Notes:
Distrokid: Distribute unlimited EPs, singles, or albums, IRSC codes included for under $50/year. Takes less than 30 mins for a noob to submit an EP.
Tunecore: Leveling up, this platform takes care of collecting composition royalties. It’s also costs more, obvi.
CDBaby: A top tier holistic distro-solution, this pricey mofo will also manufacture and distribute physical CDs. One stop shop.
Key Takeaway: It’ll be a long ass time before any one digital platform takes over music distribution, if ever. So until then, you should be on all of them. It’s not hard.
Go Back To Part One: Why Isn’t Your Music Everywhere?
Go Forward To Part Three: Digital Did NOT Kill The Radio Star (Yet)
(Part Four Coming Soon)
About the Authors:
Aaron Binder and Vanessa Markov met in 2009 while writing music reviews for Lithium Magazine. In 2013 they launched TrashTalk AV, an uncensored Youtube show featuring candid music reviews and conversations. Since then they’ve both found individual success in various fields and industries — Aaron continues to grow Go Tours, one of Canada’s favourite tour companies, and has recently launched a VR based production company. Vanessa is currently handling digital operations for Mediazoic, a digital music solutions provider, while independently managing developing artists. The pair recently reunited to discuss music distribution.