I’ve actually been promising an update to my two earlier posts on digital music distribution for waaay too long now, so apologies to all for the horrible delay (April 2009? What the..). Anyway. In case you missed them…

Part 1: ‘Exploring The Digital Music Distribution Jungle’ April 2009
Part 2: ”Digital Music Distribution Round-up Part 2′ April 2009

There were seventeen companies mentioned in Pt.1 and thirteen in Pt.2. Out of them, the only change to report from part one is that Australian based Musicadium has been rolled into Valleyarm.

In part two, WaTunes dropped their bespoke distribution service and changed tack to become a ‘social music store’ and now choose to go thru ReverbNation for distribution services.

The rest, as you were.

Rather than go over the same points here you’ll be much better off catching up with the first two parts. To make things a little more convenient I’m welding the three pieces together as one PDF so you can print and study at leisure.

Some points you may want to take into consideration when choosing a distributor.

Location. Is your distributor of choice in your own country? Possibly a key issue because of currency differences and support concerns. Do they have phone support? A physical address?

Read the websites about page to find out names, history and credentials. If they have none, move on. Use Google. A lot.

Always amazes me when some site pops up claiming combined “20+ years industry experience” but giving no actual NAMES. Then you get a PO BOX for a mailing address. Run. In the opposite direction.

The reason I have a lot of time for companies like Tunecore is simply that they do what they say they will and do it well. They’re financially stable with industry chops and you’ll see SVP Peter Wells all over the web answering Tunecore queries on forums and blogs and Twitter. Accountability.

Going back to most of my bad experiences with vinyl distributors in London, years back, was that once you’d handed over your records, trying to get hold of anyone after the release, get sales figures or even talk to anyone that mattered was like trying to hunt down Bin Laden. I piss you not. Getting your hands on any money was even harder!

Digital distribution has changed all that. Thank God!

There are probably close to 50 digital distributors vying for your attention these days, compare and take your time. And remember this, between them, iTunes and Amazon control close to 80% of the US. market. Everyone will usually be offering their services as standard alongside eMusic, Rhapsody, Zune and Napster.

Some will be offering MySpace, Spotify and the like. The more the better.

How Much $$ From iTunes? Tell Me, How Much !!

These figures should be close give or take a cent or two making allowances for currency fluctuations. For convenience sake I’m using the mighty $$ simply because I live in the USA. The US. figures are based on a 99c download with the foreign equivalent. Take into account that download prices differ from country to country, its not a 99c worldwide set price.

Japan 89-92c , Australia/New Zealand 88c, USA 66c, Canada 67c

UK 66-73c, Europe (28 countries) 90c.

Don’t forget also as a writer there’s a 9.1c (I think that’s right) mechanical royalty for publishing (in the USA) that you’d get separately either via your publisher, or, if like me you don’t have one, your local PRO.

I worked out that with my old 17 point deal with Tripoli Trax, from a 12 inch single retailing at $5, I would see approx. 85c. From a 99c download as an independent I’ll see around 70c. Weird huh. Five times the cost but only 15c more. The good old days.

Newer Trends

Other than the five or six DSPs that have the lions share of the market there’s competition now between distributors to offer more stores to differentiate. There’s also more niche distributors springing up especially in the dance music field.

I’m always slavering on about Tunecore but their one ‘fault’ is their narrow choice of DSPs. Add Beatport and TrackItDown and we’d be spot on. Anyhow..

The other trend we’re seeing now is ultra fast delivery to services like iTunes, especially from distributors like Ditto and Tunecore (amongst others, I’m sure).

Where you could once be chewing your nails for 6-8 weeks  it is now taking as little as an HOUR for delivery to Apple’s market leader iTunes after your finished product has been approved by your distributor.

So lets look at more digital distributors, in no particular order (maybe soon!).

Zimbalam (Paris, France) Paris based Zimbalam are an offshoot of Believe Digital and have a decent list of 25 stores including the usual big guns. They also supply Spotify, several of the larger mobile operators in Europe, including Orange, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile and Virgin. They also include four of the larger dance stores (but not Beatport from what I can see). Album price is $29.99. There’s an annual ‘subscription’ fee of $20 (taken from your royalties) and your cut from sales is 100%. There’s a 5 store distribution deal, the ‘Electro Pack’ which is aimed at electronic stores and is only $4.95 (but omits Beatport). Payment is by Direct Debit. Bonus. Twitter Twitter UK Blog

Digital Music Distribution (UK) Worryingly Spartan amount of info on DMD on their website except to modestly proclaim themselves, “the UK’s number one online music distribution”. Mmm. To get any real info on number of stores and terms you have to download a PDF which scrolls on for about 13 pages, all in upper case (and Paypal only has one L guys). Its really not worth the effort, especially when you get to the album pricing of 100 quid (an eye popping $155!) for six months. Everything on the website is VAGUE. We supply to 12 stores + many more?. Royalty is around 40-50% of retail etc. Big major FAIL and in light of much better competition everywhere else wont be around very long. Next.

Label Worx (Beverley, UK) Back with the professionals with North Yorkshire based set up, Label Worx who have a great looking site and specialize in distribution for indie dance labels. There’s some quality control so not everyone will get in but they supply all the major dance stores plus iTunes, eMusic, HMV, Spotify and Zune. There’s a neat added service called Promo Manager for DJ mailouts and there’s a sliding scale fee on sales which starts at 20% and dips down to 10%. No sign up fee, Direct Debit or Paypal payment. Aimed more at labels than individuals. Blog. Twitter

Indie Pool (Canada) Canada’s largest distributor (digital and physical) and exclusive supplier of independent music to Canadian Puretracks retailer chain and HMV. List 40 download platforms they supply too but there is a lack of detailed info on the website(compared to others)  just a contact page. If you’re a Canadian indie then probably for you.

Dig Dis! (Germany) Dig Dis! Is the digital distribution arm of Music Mail who have been around for 20 years and are known as a distributor of 12 inch vinyl more than anything. Now specializing in digital distribution (since 2004) for dance music labels. Cover just about all the worldwide dance stores as well as the majors. One for labels vs individual artists and as such no online sign up/upload set-up just an email contact. Facebook

MJM Distribution (New York, USA & Munich, Germany) One of the most complete lists of digital download stores I’ve seen yet and then some. So if you’d like your music on sale in legal stores in Macedonia, Malaysia, South Korea, most of the Arab States and Eastern Europe, these are your guys. You get a 70% royalty payout, with no sign up and free UPC and ISRC codes. Payment is quarterly and there’s 24/7 sales access. Another one aimed at labels not individuals, with a query sign up page.

Link Music Services (Massachusetts,USA)  These guys have a limited number of stores they supply to (but promise more), covering  just  35  iTunes stores worldwide and Amazon MP3. On the upside everything on the site looks straightforward and if its straight vanilla mainstream exposure you’re aiming at then great. ISRC and UPCs are supplied and its a $9.99 sign-up and $5.99 annual renewal, 100% royalty to you, paid monthly. Sounds great.  Facebook

Syntax Distribution (California,USA) Christian digital music distributor which should mean they’ll get you into that niche area. The website is woefully out of date, the About page is blank and there is a severe LACK of info and if it wasn’t for the active Facebook and Twitter pages I would have thought the whole enterprise was kaput. So, if  the Christian market (and it IS a sizable one!) is where your at, you can use their contact page or social networks to find out more.    Facebook Twitter

Valleyarm (Australia) Valleyarm swallowed up Musicadium so have taken over as one of the main Aussie digital distributors recently . They supply just the mainstream leaders right now, so iTunes, eMusic etc. You supply UPCs and ISRCs and keep 100% of the take. Signup is a steep (compared to most) 169Aus$ (or $151US). Though that is the one flat fee with no annual renewals. Twitter Facebook

Kisumusik (Crawley,UK) ‘Interesting’ looking UK newcomer (to me at least). The Who Are We? page actually says nothing of the sort, so.. Standard stores offered and its close to $46 for an album with 100% royalty which includes UPC and ISRC codes. Upload is via FTP after payment. Quarterly payment. Doesn’t look that great.  Twitter

EPM Music (Maastricht, Netherlands & London, UK) Electronic dance music distributor with offices in London and the Netherlands. Another service that is aimed at indie labels vs. individual artists too. Its an application process and they’ll get you into a huge amount of dance outlets and majors worldwide. Twitter Facebook

EmuBands (Glasgow, Scotland) Scottish based distributor that look OK to me if a bit pricier than most. There’s a sliding scale of upfronts, $79 for an album (6+ tracks), $55 an EP (3-5 tracks) and $39 for a single. I rounded up the pricing as best I could from sterling. Price includes UPCs and ISRCs and you get 100% royalty. Outlets include all the majors worldwide including Spotify, Nokia and iLike. Only thing I didn’t like the look of was that music submission is via good old fashioned CD thru the post or WAVs via YouSendIt. But if you can get used to that, looks OK and they have a couple of extra services like video distribution to iTunes and SMS purchasing. Now SMS purchasing is something I hadn’t really thought about but would be good for a pre-order promo. Just had an idea…  Facebook Twitter

iMusician Digital (Zurich, Switzerland) And here come the Swiss. Massive list of store’s supplied (over 200 claimed but I wasn’t counting).  Including all those stores and countries you’ve never heard of (your chance to become big in Lithuania perhaps?) and all the ones you have. Prices range from $19 for a single to $29 for an album submission. Codes are $12 extra.  You keep 85% of the sales. It looks good until you see that they don’t actually deal direct with the stores and use a third party distributor (more than likely someone like IODA). This is a point worth asking ANY distributor because it means there’s an extra slice disappearing from your pocket and in this case here it means you’d likely see 57c per download vs more like 68c dealing direct.

Record Union (Stockholm, Sweden) Impressive looking set-up from the Swedes here including a LOT of social media activity which is always kinda reassuring these days as it makes companies more visible and ultimately more accountable. So anyway. All the usual major outlets supplied here including the ubiquitous Spotify and also 7Digital, 24/7, Nokia, Vidzone and a bunch of dance outlets including Beatport. Nice. Basically they got you covered. Navigation is a bit confusing on the site with its ultra busy look but I dug out the FAQs. Sign up is free but you have to pay $10 for a UPC , ISRCs are free. They take 15 percent from revenue, although they also take an extra $5 a year from each release from sales. Looks good.    Blog Twitter Facebook YouTube

The Genepool (Plymouth, UK) You have to email to get a full stores list but included on the site are the ones you’d expect (which now includes Spotify I guess), T-Mobile, 7 Digital, Zune etc.  There’s a one off $16 set up fee for each release and you get 90 percent royalty from iTunes stores, 80 percent from all the others. Another setup where you have to mail in a CD (or use FTP) and email in artwork which seems a bit clumsy these days, what gives? Anyway, that aside they can also press vinyl and go through Universal in the UK for physical distribution. N-Dubz and Hard-Fi started here apparently.

Related Reading

iTunes Distribution In a Day: Yes, Someone Is Taking It There.. (DigitalMusicNews.com July 2010)
Ditto cause debate on iTunes upload times for unsigned bands (CMU July 2010)
Online Music Stores (Pro-Music.org)
Interview: Jeff Price, TuneCore’s Outspoken CEO (Hypebot July 2010)
Which Music Distribution Service Rocks the Most? (MusiciansGuide.co.uk March 2010)
A Conversation With Peter Wells Tunecore Co-Founder (One Movement World)Feb 2010
Digital Distribution for your Music 2 (MusicianCoaching.com Feb 2010)
Will Google Kill iTunes? (Fool.com June 2010)
DOJ questioning Apple’s hold on digital music (ZDNet May 2010)
Digital Music Distributors Compared (again) Routenote Nov 2009)
Music Retail:The Rise of Digital (Mint.com Nov 2009)
How To Get Your Music Into Digital Music Services (Future of Music Coalition-PDF) Oct 2009
Solving the Digital Music Distribution Dilemma (Music Think Tank) Sept 2009
MusicNomad’s Guide to Distribute Your Music Online (MusicNomad.com) Sept 2009
Signs of Change, Ingenuity in Music Distribution (CreateDigitalMusic) July 2009
Less People Are Going To Be Making Money Out of Music as Middlemen (FatDrop) July 2009
How to Use iTunes to Drive Up Your iTunes Revenue (MusicThinkTank) April 2009
The Right Way To Get Your Music On To iTunes/Amazon/etc.(MusFormation.com) April 2009
Universal/TuneCore deal opens major doors for indie artists (ARS Technica July 2009)
Digital Music Distributors Compared (RouteNote.com) Feb 2009
Despite Declining CD Sales, CD Baby Experiences Growth in 2008 (Techdirt) Feb 2009
How To Effectively Promote and Sell Your Music on iTunes (MusicianWages.com)
Digital Music Distribution: Weird Al and Kid Rock Take Different Paths (ReadWriteWeb) Oct 2008
Why I’m Choosing TuneCore over CDBaby (TheMusicSnob.com) July 2008
Digital Music Distribution-The Ten Things You Need To Know (Knol) July 2008
Gone baby gone: Crunch time for vinyl distributors (Resident Advisor Feb 2008)
David Byrne On Digital Age Music Distribution (LaShawnBarber.com) Dec 2007

Tags: digital music distributors, iTunes distribution, mp3 distribution, Music Distribution