Not everyone's lucky enough to be a signed music artist. Fortunately even if you're not signed to a label there's still ways to get your music on streaming services. Distribution services offer that and a lot more, including physical releases, statistics and marketing tools. Some services even offer marketing help for artists who start to 'catch' after a few releases - like adding tracks to Spotify playlists. Here's a comparison of what the best distributors have to offer.
Free, low-cost and unlimited music distribution. Get your music out on Spotify, iTunes, Tidal, Google Play, Amazon Music & more. Keep 100% of your rights. We have NO upfront or annual fee for distributing original music, and you can license covers (FOREVER) for a one-time fee of $9.99 per song. You always keep 85% of your net digital revenue and are free to.
Distrokid
Distrokid allows you to upload as many tracks as you want for a yearly membership fee. What’s good about them as well is that they take no commission from your music - you get all the money you earn from your music. Unfortunately they don’t offer marketing help or playlist plugging possibilities.
+ No commission (you get all the money you earn)
+ You can upload as many songs as you wish for one yearly price
+ They're about to introduce SMS message marketing tools for artists
– No additional marketing help for artists who gain traction
Pricing: $20 per year membership fee
Tunecore
Tunecore is the service for you if you’re interested in proper revenue and analytics reports. They’re very easy to use, detailed and helpful. Although they take no commission the price is a bit higher compared to Distrokid.
+ No commission
+ Very good revenue and analytics reports
Pricing: $30 first year, $50 next years
Marketing your own music? Here's a 4-step music producer’s guide to social media.
AWAL (Artists Without A Label)
AWAL might be for you if you’re trying to get your music on Spotify playlists. They don’t take any fees for putting up your music on streaming services, but charge a 15% commission (15% of everything you earn goes to AWAL). Also, they offer one of the best analytics report tools of all.
+ Possibilities to get your music on playlists
+ No additional fees
– Must be accepted to get in
Pricing: 15% commission
Btw, if you're mastering your own tracks for streaming services, make sure you know how to set the right loudness for your track.
Ditto
Ditto is a bit like Distrokid - you pay one price a year and you’re able to upload as many songs as you wish with no commission. The difference is that they seem to have better revenue and analytics reports + are a buck cheaper than Distrokid.
+ No commission
+ You can upload as many songs as you wish for one yearly price
+ Very good revenue and analytics reports
– No additional marketing help for artists who gain traction
Pricing: 19$ per year
LANDR
LANDR is a company which offers an automated mastering service. If you’re already their subscriber you can distribute your music to all streaming services for free. They also offer you possibilities to get your music on Spotify playlists which is very nice.
+ No commission
+ Possibilities to get your music on playlists
+ Free for LANDR Mastering subscribers
– Does not provide mechanisms for you to release a cover song
Pricing: $1/month ($12/year) minimum. $3/month ($36/year) gives you access to all streaming sercvices
Stem
Stem is one of the newer services here and seems to be a cheap service (5% commission) which gives you access to a direct representative to support you. You have to apply and get in though.
+You have a dedicated representative who you can communicate with
+ Possibilities to get your music on playlists
+No fees or up front costs for anything
– Invite-only
Pricing: 5% commission
Symphonic
Symphonic doesn’t charge you any commission but makes you pay $25 for signing up and their release prices start at $11. It’s a very simple service.
+ No commission
Pricing: $25 'Sign-up fee' + Release fees staring from $11 for a 5 track album
CD Baby
Spotify Free Music Online
CD Baby was one of the first ever services to let DIY musicians release their music in a physical format like CD or Vinyl and get it to record shops around the world. Nowadays they also let you release music on streaming services and you can do it all in one place.
+ It's a 'one stop shop' to get your music on streaming services as well as physically in stores (CD, Vinyl)
Spotify app amazon fire tablet. Use voice commands to control music and podcasts with Amazon Alexa!
– No marketing help for artists who gain traction
Pricing: $5 per single, $20 per album + 9% commission
Reverbnation
Reverbnation is a service meant mostly for bands, but electronic producers can use it too. They offer you very nice packages - for 20 bucks a month you get access to their distrubition, mailing list tools and awesome opportunities. They also have very good revenue and analytics reports.
+ In a package you get distribution of 2 releases per year, a mailing list service and the ability to submit to opportunities such as TV placements, label submissions and festival slots
+ Very good data analytics, especially useful for demographics & venue finding
+ No commission
– Everything you release with them is branded with ReverbNation
– No professional help for bigger artists
Pricing: $9.95/month to get your music on streming services, $19.95/month for a full package
Freshtunes
Freshtunes is one of the newer services here. They claim to offer you everything for free (yes, no fees and no commission) with an option to get objective feedback from an expert for $25 a track. However you’re never too sure about how long is this kind of company going to last, so we would recommend going for one of the more “trusted” ones. If this service loses its investor it’s going to probably be closed. Another service like that is Amuse which claims to give you possibilities of signing you to a label with a 50/50 deal (if you “catch” after a few releases). Again, I would think twice before joining one of these investor funded services.
+No fees
+ No commission, except from China
+ Distribution to Chinese streaming services
+ Their experts will review your music for $25/song. It could be useful to get objective feedback
– No marketing help for artists who gain traction
The easiest method to get Hulu free is also the most obvious one, especially if you have never signed up for Hulu before now. You get Hulu, Disney Plus, and ESPN Plus for only $12.99 a month with this package deal. To learn more about the bundle, or to learn more about Disney Plus, check out our. Has free hulul with spotify expired. Just sign up for one of the Hulu free trial offers.
Pricing: Free, $25 fee for feedback from an expert
Want to find a label instead of going DIY? Check out this article on finding a label in 16 steps.
About the Author: K-Pizza
I’m a music maker who likes to share his experiences with other producers. I regularly show up with tutorials, articles & project files at PML.
Skype lessons with me: http://bit.ly/pml_s_one2one
Once you have created the track, done mixing and mastering, it’s time to publish it to stores such as Spotify, Itunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Youtube Music or Beatport. Some of the best free music aggregators that we will cover in this post:
- Routeenote
- Soundrop
- Amuse
- Awal
- Indiefy
- Fresh tunes
- Bandcamp
There are several free solutions to distribute your fixed income tracks. For example, a distributor receives 15%, and you save 85% of sales. Basically, this arrangement of income makes sense for independent musicians. Some of the best music aggregators for 2018/2019 are Soundrop, Awal, Routenote, Bandcamp, Amuse, Fresh Tunes, Level Music, Distrokid. All these platforms do not have annual and registration fees, some of them are completely free digital music aggregators, while others charge a commission.
The 7 best free music aggregators in 2019
1. ROUTENOTE
![Music Music](/uploads/1/3/3/9/133907678/632894080.jpg)
Routenote is a digital music distribution platform founded in 2007. They are based in the UK and offer two tariff plans to choose from: free and premium. In a free package, the company takes 15% of the commission on your income, the premium plan, in turn, pays 100% of the income, but you will have to pay for the publication of materials. You can switch between tariffs at any time, which is good news. According to the service, the materials will be published in 200 music stores and streaming services (including Asian and Chinese). You can withdraw income as soon as the balance of your account reaches the minimum threshold amount of $ 50.
Main venues: Apple Music, Itunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play, Deezer, Youtube, Shazam, Pandora, Melon, Soundcloud, Juke mymusic, Groove Music, Claro Musica, Tidal / WiMp, eMusic, Napster, Omnifone, Anghami, Gracenote , Kanjian, + 30 Chinese stores.
2. SOUNDROP
Soundrop Music Distribution is a replacement for Loudr.fm, whose service was closed in 2016. They offer free distribution on Youtube Music, Apple Music and Spotify, but take 15% of the revenue. Soundrop also includes RevSplitter, an effective way to share earnings between members so that every producer, artist and composer gets a set percentage of sales.
Available stores: YoutubeMusic, AppleMusic, iTunes, Spotify, AmazonMusic, GooglePlay, Deezer, Pandora, Netease, Xiami, Yandex, Tencet, Uma. Spotify mobile app quality. The minimum payable amount from the account is $ 20.
3. AMUSE
Amuse platform was founded in 2016 and offers 100% free music distribution. Download files and publish them in just a few days. You can also download them in wav format via iOS or Android application. A prerequisite will be an account in Google Drive, Dropbox or Icloud. Only with one of these cloud services can you send your songs directly to Amuse. Once the artist has earned $ 10 or more, you can withdraw them to your PayPal account.
Additionally: the company finds artists and offers them record deals, including marketing, financing, promotion and placement in playlists. In this case, the profit is divided in half (50 to 50%).
4. AWAL
AWAL was founded in 2003 and is owned by Kobalt Music. Currently represents more than 4000 artists and labels. The service is created only for invited artists. You can send your music, but Awal will consider the quality of the material, the coverage of social networks, press releases and other information from open sources.
The platform distributes music to 200 sites and takes 15% of the earnings. The site provides data analytics, marketing solutions, playlists and statistics from radio stations, as well as a separate application for receiving traffic information.
5. INDIEFY
Using the Indiefy Aggregator Service, you can publish your music to streaming portals at no charge. This provider is relatively new and has been offering its services only since 2018. It takes the standard 15% of earnings and offers placement of tracks in more than 35 of the largest online music stores.
To withdraw money from your account, you must reach a minimum threshold of $ 100. Only after that transfer to PayPal account will be available.
6. FRESH TUNES
Freshtunes is another free music aggregator. They will not take a penny for the work and you will receive 100% of your royalties. Just upload your music, and after 24 hours the album or EP will be immediately available in Spotify, Itunes, Deezer and other stores (14 sites in total). Another plus is the pre-order feature for the upcoming release. The minimum withdrawal from your account is $ 25 and you can get them directly to your bank card, Payoneer or WebMoney account.
7. BANDCAMP
Bandcamp Distribution Service is ideal for distribution in all available ways. You can offer to download your songs for free, request users email address and set the price of an EP or album yourself. Another nice feature is the integrated store for distribution of goods, vinyl discs, CDs and cassettes. Detailed statistics are also available to build further marketing decisions. Bandcamp is not an exclusive distributor, so you can continue to distribute your music to other resources, such as Spotify.
Bandcamp will take the already familiar 15% of revenue and offer regular payments to your PayPal account immediately 24-48 hours after the sale. One of the few streaming services that allows you to work with the formats FLAC, Wav and Apple Lossless.
How to upload STEMS files to Beatport?
The STEMS format includes 4 musical elements and can be used by remixers and DJs in NI Hardware or Traktor. To release on Beatport, Juno Download, Traxsource, Whatpeopleplay, Wasabeat or Bleep, you can use one of these resources:
- Digdis!
- Fuga
- Finetunes
- Labelworx
- Symphonic
- Move Music Distribution
- Jamvana
Asian music distributors
There are several distributors specializing in the Asian market. You can sell your music in India through stores such as Saavn, Gaana or Wink. Major streaming companies in China are QQ Music from Tencent, QianqianMusic (BaiduMusic), Kugou Music, and Kuwo Music. Visit their sites for more information.
- digitunes.in (India)
- musicinfo.io (China)
- musicdiffusion.com (China, Thailand, Japan and others)
- routenote.com (China, India)
- Horus Music (Asia)
- OkListen (India)
How much can you earn?
Streaming services don’t make a lot of money, but as a musician, you should still be featured on Youtube, Spotify or AppleMusic. Artists receive most of their income from concerts, but, like many others, gathered their fan base around the world and distribution was an integral part of the promotion.
Suppose you generated exactly 1 million plays on one of the following sites. Estimated income will be:
- Napster – $ 19,000
- Tidal – $ 12.500
- AppleMusic – $ 7,350
- GooglePlay – $ 6,760
- Deezer – $ 6,400
- Spotify – $ 4,370
- Amazon – $ 4020
- Pandora – $ 1,330
- Youtube Music – $ 690
Free Digital Music Distribution Service
Smart links
Once the music has been released on Spotify and iTunes, it will be useful to announce it to your subscribers. This will help smart link services for music marketing. On each of them, one can note links to all the main streaming services:
Free Music Distributor
- Soundplate