Hey. I just wanted to know about your personal experiences of working with music distributors.
I'm choosing between Tunecore and Distrokid right now, but would love to hear about others too

 

I have used Distrokid for 3 years now, had absolutely no problems whatsoever. I went through this big time myself as had heard bad things, but I have about most of them, but obviously the costs are considerably lower than the competition. I have had no qualms, and whilst I appreciated others may have different experiences, I don’t think the issues are the same as they were. Always been paid promptly and they are adding new stuff that is in the prices.

https://distrokid.com/vip/seven/3286793

 

Great to know. Have you ever had to contact their support? How fast and helpful is it?

On paper Tunecore is cheaper now. And you get Youtube content ID, Shazam recognition, and ability to set the release date even in the cheapest plan. With Distrokid you have to pay for these bells and whistles more. But I do love custom label name + additional artist that Distrokid offers in the middle plan. Tunecore offers that only in the Pro plan.
I also heard that Distrokid pays slightly less because they work with the stores through the 3rd party company. I think it's called Merlin. While Tunecore is owned by "Believe" which deals with the stores directly, therefore theoretically has better rates

Tunecore has their own publishing offer for $75. With Distrokid I'll have to use something like Songtrust for $100 separately.
But I've seen weird videos where people claim their releases weren't posted for "internal reasons that they do not disclose" in Tunecore. That's disturbing. That's why I can't decide yet

 

Last edited: Aug 8, 2023

look,

 

furthermore,

 

canbi. The tweet is funny But that was five years ago. I think even two years ago tunecore was overpriced as hell. But now it is in fact cheaper

That table rocks. Seems a little bit dated too though, because there're like 150+ outlets for both Distrokid and Tunecore now. But I've found the current version of this comparison on their site. So many of them...

As I said, on paper I have the winners. But would love to hear real stories. Or even better: lack of stories (if everything was ok with those companies)

 

I cannot say I have had to contact about anything major, just a few queries, but they came back to me within 24 hours if I remember correctly.

I would say that what I produce is a bit more niche, I don’t probably push the platform and it’s features because that is not really what my music is, so as with most things, others opinions on stuff may vary. I think if I was producing more mainstream, then I may be looking more closely, but I also like the fact it doesn’t seem as slick (I know, it’s weird!), does seem a bit more alternative but still gives me exactly what I want and there are some features for promo I just think is quirky and cool.

I think the days of these distributors being a bit shady are gone, they can’t afford to be really, there is too much competition.

 

That's cool. Thanks!

Yeah, I really hope so. But I wonder what people manage to do to get rejected without any explanation (both on tunecore and distrokid). Maybe stores reject stuff and don't explain the reasons to distributors, so they have nothing to say. But that's also weird. They could just give them one line like "unacceptable lyrics" or "awful quality with peaks". I thought that was only Tunecore's flaw, but just found this video and seems like it's common for others too

It's also crazy how "Leave a Legacy" option only works if you die
And here's the similar for Tunecore

The more you learn, the more interesting it gets

 

When uploading there are checks done by Distrokid, but it’s automated, so I guess its based on technical criteria, as there is no point letting it be delivered and rejected, so you have a chance to get part at least correct. I don’t know if the services then have more detailed analysis techniques (given the volumes added each day, that is the only way), but they do automatically generate lyrics, so maybe that triggers rejection?? As I say, my stuff is more niche.

What I will say is though, that there is not really any excuse for not nailing the technical side in this day and age. And as for leave a Legacy, I think it’s if you stop paying the annual sub it kicks in, but hell, if they require proof of death, that’s a bit harsh!! Hahaha

 

even in the digital age lazy artists look for an entity to exploit & manipulate them.

You are not Run-DMC and your hiphop beats cannot sustain a distribution cut.
Nor Taylor Swift, there are no spare millions floating about im pretty sure.

i think artists by enlarge are lazy masochists who love that sweet pain, "crack the whip again plz master, in the end im too dumb to help myself"

"Uh.. You know you are a sentient being and can upload your music yourself?
"Waaa, im too busy ordering a soya latte, would you recommend i get raped by distrokid or cdbaby?"

At LEAST with distrokid, all their shitty music gets wiped from the system when they stop paying the exorbitant subscription fee, not IF, but WHEN they stop paying
I think thats a positive point for distrokid,

You know that old adage about the gold rush: Its not the masses herding to pan for gold who make any money, its the people selling the pans and sieves who get rich, the smart ones.

Open a distribution business, sucker in some wannabe artists, i think at this rate its 12 suckers born a minute now, it makes better sense than trying to make money out of your own music if what you want is to make money

Modern society means you can do anything, i mean you can find a way to wriggle out of doing anything

 

Last edited: Aug 8, 2023

I guess you can, but it takes much more time and effort. Do you actually upload your music yourself directly to the stores?
$15-30 is not that much comparing to the time you would spend dealing with even 10 stores manually (a lot of them won't even reply if you're not a company)
And I don't consider those platforms as a way to make money. Everyone knows that you get peanuts. It's just the way people can find you wherever they listen to music

 

I had bad experiences with both TuneWhore and Distropunk. The proprietor of the former personally insulted me, very publicly, on his blog. Then I learned that I could not permanently delete my TuneWhore account. Distropunk seemed cool at first, but there were problems with my files' being accepted by iTunes and other stores, and the customer service reps were usually not knowledgeable nor motivated to help me. The problem usually lay in the naming of the song/file title, but it took repeated attempts to discern via customer service. This occurred even when I'd upload the same file, with the same naming, a second time, whereas the first time it had gone through without a problem. The customer service reps were also difficult in other ways. For example, I had uploaded an album that is a compilation/sampler of my own material, with the word "compilation" in the parenthetical part of the title. I was told that a "compilation" was a collection by various artists, not by a single artist. I also received some passive-aggressive responses from both customer service and the proprietor of Distropunk itself.

These people are essentially the same snooty functionaries and self-important executives as in the "legacy" music industry, except this time, they're clueless tech bros. I have had nothing but problems with every distribution or sales platform I've tried. One sales platform removed all of my music – without having warned or notified me in advance – because I hadn't logged-in in a few months; the proprietor's response: "Since you hadn't logged-in in a while, I assumed that you wanted your account closed." (No, it was because I'd not had any new music to upload in a while, you jerk.) An online radio station host similarly deleted hours of my music – also without warning or notifying me beforehand – because it assumed that the music I had done under different pseudonyms was music by different (non-me) artists for which I had not cleared the rights to use. (I also had to repeatedly bug them to just delete my account, then.) One had used to be able to upload one's own music to Amazon Music, but it started requiring it to be uploaded by a distribution service. Google Play turned out to be a nightmare after it had seemed to be going well for a while. ITunes takes a 40% cut? Why? It has to pay people to push all those heavy digital files across a warehouse? Another startup was justifying its arrogant 20% cut by saying, "That's better than iTunes." One distributor (since come and gone) waited to show its faulty operations after I'd uploaded 30+ albums to it – and failed to be able to withdraw all of my music from its channels when I wanted to close my account, and refused to acknowledge, let alone apologize for, the reasons why I no longer wanted to deal with it. For example. And so on.

Really, I'd had repeated, PTSD-inducing experiences with these techies-with-attitude over a period of a few years, until I just said, "Fukit – I'll just stick with Bandcamp" – with which I have problems, but which at least doesn't cause me any. Musicians really dropped the ball, around the year 2000, by letting techies take over musical enterprise and culture. The distribution services are unnecessary, and only nickel-and-dime musicians for money that they're usually not earning and features that shouldn't cost extra or which musicians shouldn't be leaving to such reckless and exploitive third parties.

 

I think they should merge and rebrand exactly like that Their ratings would go through the roof

That sounds like a nightmare. Bandcamp is ok and you can also use something like Soundcloud just to have your songs online.
Of course the guys that have hundreds of thousands of noname customers paying some $20 a year don't care about our experience and problems. But there has to be a service with better support and attitude for bigger price somewhere...

 

Last edited: Aug 9, 2023