Digital streaming distribution advice

Bod

My band are close to releasing our first single and I'm looking into which distributor to use.  It's a minefield, and which one to use seems a bit of a gamble.

When I researched this a year or so ago, it looked like CD Baby with their one-off Pro payment (ensuring 100% royalties, for what that's worth) was a great option, but it seems that Pro has been retired and all that remains is their cheaper payment with a 15% cut of royalties.

I mean, it's all pretty academic, 15% of f**k all is still f**k all, but I'm very risk-averse and in the distant reaches of my imagination where we're the next big thing, committing to something now could be potentially costly.

Anybody that's already been through this have an wisdom to share?  My head hurts.

IMC1980

I use Distrokid, unlimited releases for a flat annual fee. They don't keep any of your earnings so you will get 100% of that fuck all. Unless your are on Spotify and have less a 1000 streams.... 

Bezzer

Pluses and minuses with both. We use Distrokid with Death Pigeon and while they don't take any of your earnings there are some hidden fees:
- perpetuity : if you want your music to STAY on the streamers if you end your relationship with then, it's a fee per release
- withdrawl fees : if you withdraw to paypal I think it's £1 per draw down, to a bank account I think it's a fiver. Might be the other way around. Which, you know, with spotify that negates income from 6,000 - 12,000 streams depending on your account.

CD Baby, you pay 15% of income but music is there forever. Slightly more beneficial for album releases than singles as it's the same fee regardless to upload. I think the reach is slightly less for the weirder streamers, but it still covers your main ones. They do help to guarantee/verify your artist youtube account if you don't have one already.

All horses for courses though, I think Distro is easier to set up and if you're splitting royalties it's straight forward as long as the other person ALSO has a Distro account (immediately multiplying the cost by x members ... we have a band account to circumvent this).

I'm by no means an expert, we are still weighing up the pluses and minuses ourselves for the next album release.

IMC1980

Bezzer said:

Pluses and minuses with both. We use Distrokid with Death Pigeon and while they don't take any of your earnings there are some hidden fees:
- perpetuity : if you want your music to STAY on the streamers if you end your relationship with then, it's a fee per release
- withdrawl fees : if you withdraw to paypal I think it's £1 per draw down, to a bank account I think it's a fiver. Might be the other way around. Which, you know, with spotify that negates income from 6,000 - 12,000 streams depending on your account.

Good advice, I didn't know either of those things. I don't think I have earned more than 3 quid from all of my songs so far!

Bod

From what I saw of CD Baby, it looks like they charge £10 to withdraw.  I've been warned off them for now, and Ditto seems to come highly recommended by friends.  Their Pro tier costs £59 a year, but you get 100% and your music stays up forever.  Still seems kinda pricey, so might just look at the standard £19 tier to begin with.  I'll cogitate further.

Bezzer

I think they charge $10 for a wired transfer, $3 for international bank transfer, $2 for Paypal. I'll have to double check when I can though.

rze99

Distrokid is easy and effective. I make a little bit but it's not my main income.