Hi all.

After nearly 15 years of plugging away, it's time to release a full album of me stuff. Yay!

I am not concerned with physical copies, but am asking about everyone's feelings regarding how to digitally distribute : CDbaby (off-loads to all the digi-streaming platforms) and/or Bandcamp

If I go the bandcamp route, I believe (still figuring it out) I will need to apply for a mechanical license for the one and only cover I'll be selling. If I go the Spotify/iTunes/Amazon (via CD Baby) route, I think the original artist gets whatever wee royalty the streaming services provide (am assuming AI like 'Shazam' is used to ID and collect on the original song?)

Looking forward to anyone's thoughts on the matter. (Yes, I've dug into the site, but I am looking to hear updated info re this topic - esp. with respect to licensing a cover, as detailed above).

Thanks folks!
M

 

Hello, for my part I have no experience with digital distribution services, after that I heard a lot of good things about Distrokid etc, but overall not good at all about the monetary remuneration made by the various streaming services, a unless you reach the top of the playlist and be a streamer with more than a hundred thousand listens per month the remuneration is very unrepresentative, I sincerely think that streaming services gorge themselves on the backs of thousands of artists, in short that only my point of view.

Then Bandcamp it's difficult to say, it took me more than 4 years since 2017 before starting to have real statistical feedback, after that I always put my digital projects as free donations on bandcamp, I had hundreds of downloads compared to 0 money and some very nice surprises from people having spent 10 euros for each album or compilation of albums distribute the interest for me with bandcamp is the proximity and the fact of being able to collect the email addresses of many people even those who do not spend, this then opens up a fairly wide scope of publication and communication when promoting future creations .

I also used the Bandcamp service to sell my vinyl through them and the service is quite efficient, but be careful to correctly enter your shipping costs for certain countries, which was not my surprise when I due to pay customs fees etc to send 1 single vinyl to the United States...

Bandcamp recovers 20% commission on digital and Paypal also recovers a commission on each digital sale, overall 30% is taken by the services before arriving in your wallet.

I can't say for global streaming services, I've never set foot there, I imagine it's equivalent or maybe much more depending on the service, I know Spotify are horrible power-hungry creatures, and soundcloud the same with their "new distribution" and their permanent forcing to obtain for their premium subscription. I used SoundCloud Premium and their monetizations on music for 1 or 2 years. I never got back more than $3 per month even though I had around 1000 to 3000 listens per month. Who knows how he calculates that? That being said, I have stopped trusting these services which promise so much for so little.

Bandcamp took a really long time to get started for me, especially with the niche music that I and my label produce, there are discoveries made through of this platform and the connections that I would never have been able to make with the large streaming services which are more dominated by algorithms of statistics and reputation per click.

This is my personal experience, I have always told myself that it is stupid to close doors and that one day I will try to share and distribute an album or an EP through its services (cdbaby, tunecore, distrokid etc. ) but I've never gotten around to it yet.

 

Hey there! Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! Lots to consider of course. Figure I'll cover my bases and do both a bandcamp and CDbaby release and the rest will be shameless self-promotion here and there. But thank you so much for your time and efforts to respond. God bless!
M

 

Bandcamp is not a distribution platform. Its aim is for selling music directly to costumers. CD Baby releases your music to all major digital streaming services and collect royalties for you, from people listening to your music. So you can do both.