A LIST OF MUSIC DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES
The world of digital distribution (in regards to music) can seem like a long walk through very murky waters for any independent musician. So, we’ve collected a pretty comprehensive list of music distribution companies and the stores they distribute to. If you were to ask: “What is the best music distribution company that will show me how to put music on itunes store?”, then our answer would be ADED.US Music Distribution at http://www.aded.us
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Companies that offer placement services / Companies that can put your music onto the various digital music stores
ADED.US Music Distribution | ADEDistribution | aded.us
(only $5 a month + a $3 submission fee) <<< CHEAPEST OPTION!
CDBaby | CD Baby | cdbaby.com
TuneCore | Tune Core | tunecore.com
DittoMusic | Ditto Music | dittomusic.com
VenzoDigital (f/k/a WaTunes) | Venzo Digital | venzodigital.com
delivers to iTunes only
they keep 20% of your royalties
ran by Kevin Rivers from Michigan, U.S.A.
MondoTunes | Mondo Tunes | mondotunes.com
ran by Javan Mershad from Huntington Beach, California, U.S.A.
This is one of those fly-by-night companies that uses big numbers to sucker you in. They boast about being able to distribute your music to 750 stores. This may be technically accurate but not what YOU’RE thinking. Those are 750 stores… not BRANDS… iTunes accounts for at least 111+ of those “750 stores” because iTunes is available in at least 111 countries and each country is considered a different store. So, in reality, MondoTunes is a small outfit that doesn’t distribute to as many brands as they claim. Enticing would-be applicants to your service through misleading text is a bad way to start off.
BandCamp | Band Camp | BandCamp.com
ran by Ethan Diamond from San Francisco, California, U.S.A.
DIY and they keep 10%
The way BandCamp collects their 10% is tricky. They don’t take 10% out of every sale. They give you 100% of 9 out of 10 sales you make, then they take 100% of your 10th sale.
songs purchased on BandCamp are not available to download directly to an Apple smart device
controlled by venture capitalist Tony Conrad of True Ventures
RecordUnion | Record Union | recordunion.com
ran by Daniel Nilsson from Stockholm, Sweden
prices vary depending on the number of stores you want to distribute to
they keep 7.5 – 15% of your royalties
Beatport | Beat Port | beatport.com
They offer their own distribution but it’s really expensive. Especially compared to ADED.US Music Distribution. Plus, the songs are usually higher priced than iTunes. The website is centered around the EDM/IDM community
BeatPort is an active community of EDM Producers, DJs, and music buyers. Their site operates much like ReverbNation and BandCamp in the sense that you can buy and sell music all in the same community space, but they are lacking the artist apps of ADED.US Music Distribution
founded by John Acquaviva, it was bought out by Robert F. X. Sillerman’s company SFX Entertainment, for a reported price of slightly over $50 million.
CreateSpace | Create Space | createspace.com
DIY, distributes to Amazon only
Artists using CreateSpace only collect a maximum of $0.65 per song sold regardless of what price Amazon sells it for. This pales in comparison to iTunes, which offers at least 70% of the sale price.
Artists may feel limited in their options to upload their music, as CreateSpace only accepts AIFF and MP3 (320kbps CBR) quality files (in a zip file)
FUGA | F.U.G.A. | fuga.me
extremely expensive and complicated compared to other services
ran by Martin Tjho from Amsterdam, Netherlands
Accenture
Amie Street
AmazingTunes.com
Anywhere FM
Art Empire Industries
AWAL a/k/a Artists Without A Label
Arvato Digital Services
AStream
Audiojelly
Audiolife
Band Metrics
Bandstocks
BeatsDigital
Bitpass
Black Market (Soho)
Bleep
Blubster
Blueprint Media
Brilliant Digital
Broad Street Digital
Broadchart
BurnLounge
Cadiz Digital
CD Fuse
CD Unsigned
Consolidated Independent a/k/a CI or C.I. | consolidatedindependent | ci-support.com
extremely high priced and complicated
Dancetracks
Datz.com
Digital Music Group Inc.
Digstation.com
DJDownload
DoubleTwist
Dropcards
DX3
The Echo Nest | EchoNest | echonest.com
software development company only
Key Example: There is a Spotify app called Swarm.fm that pulls info about artists and their music from The Echo Nest and Last.fm
they basically help music apps recognize artists and their music
ran by several people
The Echo Nest was founded by MIT PhDs Brian Whitman and Tristan Jehan
The company is headquartered in Somerville, MA with offices in San Francisco, New York and London.
Emu Bands
EPM
Finetunes Solutions
Free Music Archive (FMA) | FreeMusicArchive | freemusicarchive.org
a site that showcases music offered in public domain, with or without creative commons licenses attached, sort of like a public library for downloading free music
The Fresh Page
The GenePool Distribution| Gene Pool | thegenepool.co.uk
They keep 80-90%
Based out of Plymouth, U.K.
Gracenote | Grace Note | gracenote.com
a site/service that catalogs music information, which many music apps pull their data from. Associated with CDDB ( compact disc data base)
Hard To Find
HDtracks
HMV (defunct)|
IMD Fastrax
iMesh
INgrooves | Interoute | Into Music
IODA | Iris Distribution | ISA – Music
I Think Music | Javien | Juno
Kerascene | K-Tel Digital Distribution | Kudos Digital
Lime Wire | LimeWire Store (US) | Lost Tunes
Mashboxx | Masterbeat | Mbop
Mixmag Download | MJM | MOS Download
MTraks | Mubito | Musana (Beta)
Music Giants | Music Glue | Music Makes Friends
MusicNet | Musicslu | MusicStation Next Generation
Musiwave | Muziic
MyMusicSite | My Music Site | mymusicsite.com
$7.99 single / $19.99 album
very basic layout, not very informative, not many stores
MyMusicStream | My Music Stream | mymusicstream.com
$5 – $10 a month
DIY, build and sell music from your page
I don’t see how this differs from bandcamp, besides the fact that it’s more complicated and costs more. Artists wanting an official artist page/app would be better off just going through ADED.US Music Distribution or BandCamp as it is cheaper and less complicated.
ran by Andrew Drake from Sydney, Australia. Servers possibly located in London, U.K.
My Song Store | NDN | NetMusicPromotions
Neurotic Media | NeuroticMedia | neuroticmedia.com
Their website is very convoluted. They like to use big words but are very vague on the exact pricing details. They don’t outline (in a list) what stores they distribute to. They ‘appear’ to be more of an artist representation service than an actual distribution company
They seem to be more of a marketing company
ran by Shachar Oren from Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.
Nimbit | nimbit.com
DIY, pricing starts at $9.95 a month
NoiseTrade
Nova
The Orchard
Passalong Networks
Passionato
PayPlay.FM
People’s Music Store
Piccadilly Records
Play.com
Prefueled
Puretracks
QTrax (Amdocs)
RecordStore
Realnetworks
ReverbNation | Reverb Nation | reverbnation.com
ran by Mike Doernberg from Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A.
controlled by venture capitalists (not music business people)
charges $19.95 a month – $41.67 a month for distribution (extremely high priced compared to others)
only allows 2 projects to be released per year at those prices.
over the course of a year, you will pay at least $239.40 to distribute 2 albums
Ripfactory
TheSixtyOne
Slicethepie
SNOCAP (think MySpace… dead)
Songbird
SongCast (a/k/a SongCastMusic) | Song Cast Music | songcastmusic.com
$6 a month for membership + $20 for each project you want to distribute
ran by Michael “Mike” Wright from Akron, Ohio, U.S.A.
Sony DADC | sonydadc.com
they mainly create discs (CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays) and distribute them
doesn’t seem to be for independent artists
prices are quoted not public
Soulbrother
Soul Jazz Records | Stompy | StreamUK
Tesco | Tema Digital Media | Topspin Media
Trackitdown | Trackseller | Traxsource
Trendrr (acquired by Twitter) | trendrr.tv
analyzes the demographics of a product or brand
Tune Tuzer (defunct)
it was a site that cataloged info about the bitrates and pricing variations of different music stores
Wild Palms Music (defunct) | wildpalmsmusic.fr
possibly defunct, now it’s just a blog
based out of France (French)
Xpress Beats
A-La-Carte Music Stores / Pay-Per-Download
iTunes – 4/5 stars
BandCamp | Band Camp | bandcamp.com
musicians set the price
Rhapsody (US Only), a division of Yahoo and MTV
Shockhound | Shock Hound | shockhound.com
7Digital
available in several countries whereas each country has their own store (like iTunes)
24-7 Entertainment | TuneTribe | eMusic
Vidzone Digital Media
Zune (now XBox Music), a division of Microsoft – 3/5 stars
XBox Music (f/k/a Zune), a division of Microsoft – 3/5 stars
Streaming Music Stores/Apps
GrooveShark | Groove Shark | grooveshark.com – 2/5 stars
they’ve had issues with lawsuits being filed against them for copyright infringement
Pandora | Pandora Radio – 2/5 stars
controlled by venture capitalists
they’ve had problems in the past not paying out artists’ royalties
a lot of distributors will not distribute their catalog to Pandora due to their complicated ingestion process and the problems they’ve had paying out royalties
Rdio | rdio.com – 3/5 stars
they do not offer nearly as much freedom over the music you’re listening to as Spotify does
Slacker Radio | Slacker Music Service | slacker.com – 4/5 stars
Spotify | spotify.com – 4/5 stars
controlled by venture capitalists and major record labels
offers the most freedom over what you listen to
iTunes Radio – 3/5 stars
Google Play Music All Access
We7 (defunct) | now known as Blink Box Music | blinkboxmusic.com
