music distribution

[nik5]

Any opinions on DistroKid vs TuneCore vs CD Baby?

[Dingo]

I found this when looking into same question for friends - possibly outdated now but worth it for the overview.

As a consumer I enjoy Bandcamp, it's not as mainstream but that's also what I want to listen to.

Artists being ripped off is nothing new, just in the digital domain it is so much easier.... I keep hearing horror stories about artists loosing control on platforms like Spotify.

[arthie]

I use DistroKid for my releases and it is quite easy to use and pricing is okay. You have for every release the choice to just use your yearly paying or make it an all-time stay-release for some extra money. As far as I know CDBaby only offers that one-time payment thing (last time I used it, that was the case). I went to DistroKid, because it is much less money if you do some single-releases over the year and pay yearly anyway.

[Scardanelli]

I use CD Baby for all my releases. I would have no hesitation in recommending them. Simple to use. Release dates are always met, music appears online Spotify etc in record time if you don't set a release date. 

Payments a breeze - straight into my French bank account. And I consider the price for an album or a single very reasonable. Especially as they often do 50% off sales and you can buy a few submission credits and use them when you need to.

I'm always surprised when I hear people using a service that needs a yearly fee to keep your music online. Crazy! Pay once and it's there forever. Besides, who wants to keep a diary of release renewals? I've been releasing on CDBaby since 2005 and would struggle to keep up with re-paying releases.

I use Bandcamp too - and whilst I do sell a bit there, that tends to be just to serious fans, whereas (despite the ridiculously low insulting streaming royalties of Spotify and all other streamers) I know with the "BigStreamers" my music is available to people who've never heard of me - not that it does a lot, but it's nice to know that someone in Peru really likes song X for example...

[dsteinschneider]

I'm working with a songwriter. A friend from Atlantic Records recommended TuneCore. He is self published through his own label so we subscribed for both artist and label services. He is releasing a song at a time from his back catalog. Tunecore has been helpful, and the releases are going smoothly.