Get music on streaming services

[MichaelDean]

I was wondering if anyone had any preferred way of getting music onto streaming services? I'm just mixing our EP at the moment and the first track is ready.  I know they're all paid for services to get stuff out there, but are any easier/cheaper than others?

 

 

 

P.S. I did have a search, but there were three pages of stuff from off topic and I gave up looking!

[Tony macker]

Distro kid.  Only £20. For the year.  Am on every single streaming service.  Not made much like. Only £3. But it's a good way  to copyright your songs and ave them out their 👍

[Newfoundfreedom]

Yup. 

 

I did a lot of research a couple of years ago when we released our first single and came to the conclusion that Distro Kid was the best way to go. It's really easy to use, takes care of pretty much everything automatically. Doesn't take any commission, and it's really inexpensive. 

 

Do a Google search for Distro Kid code and you'll be able to find a discount to get it even cheaper for your first year. 

[Nothingman]

I found Ditto OK for our stuff. 
 

What’s the benefit of Distro Kid? I may swap for our Christmas song. 

[Newfoundfreedom]

22 minutes ago, Nothingman said:

I found Ditto OK for our stuff. 
 

What’s the benefit of Distro Kid? I may swap for our Christmas song. 

 

You'd have to do the research. They all do pretty much do the same thing, but I found Distro Kid to be the best all rounder. 

 

However. If you already have music with another distributor that you're happy with I don't think I'd bother changing just for the sake of it. 

[BigRedX]

There are basically two types of Aggregator service.

 

One charges and annual fee for their services but then passes on most if not all of the payments you receive from each download or stream. Good if you expect LOTS of people to be downloading or streaming you songs. However you need to keep paying the annual fee otherwise your music gets taken down.

 

The other has a one-off fee (last time I did this myself it was around $50 for an "album" but has probably gone up since) for each release and takes a cut (about 10%) of all your download or streaming payments. Better in the long term if you don't expect to get a lot of streams and downloads or if your release is basically a vanity project, as once you've paid your initial fee for the release you don't have to do anything else and your music will be available until you specifically ask the Aggregator to take it down.

 

Bear in mind that unless you do lots of promotion and you music turns out to be very popular you are unlikely to make your money back from either method. I've got music from 4 different bands (2 current, 2 previous) available via both these methods and not one release has turned a profit purely from streaming or downloads. Luckily I'm also a main songwriter on most of the songs so I have made an overall profit on some releases when the PRS royalties from on-line activities are also taken into account.

 

However the overall amount of money I've received from on-line activities is minuscule compared with I've made from selling CDs/Vinyl/Cassettes after the bands have played at gigs and PRS royalties from gigs and radio play.

Edited November 13, 2023 by BigRedX

[neepheid]

We've used Emubands in the past.

[MichaelDean]

Thanks all, I reckon we'll try Emubands 👍

 

Just need to get the last two mixed...

[BigRedX]

Not come across Emubands before. There's a couple of interesting "release-level" features only available in the subscription Plus and Pro packages.

 

Has anyone signed up for one of these and then tried to revert to the Basic package after the first year? Was that possible? Or were you "encouraged" to keep the subscription package going?

[MichaelDean]

Just to follow up, we ended up using CD Baby, which was easy and quick. $9.99 to release the EP everywhere. It was all processed quickly as well. It was released last Friday on all of your favourite streaming platforms.