In order to distribute our music, we’ll need to consider which distribution service suits our situation for the fairest price.
Distrokid
Distrokid is the largest independent distribution service. Its simplicity and clear claims on what an artist can do and has access to, displayed alongside the price for this, means it’s easy to navigate. It looks as though the service doesn’t take any royalties and exclusively gains profit from subscription.
For the two of us, the Ultimate plan wouldn’t be an option as it’s not suitable for our goals. The other two plans are reasonably priced and are suited for what we plan to do.
The Musician plan would be good for this project, as we don’t want to release music under multiple names and it allows us to distribute our music with the ability to collect earnings. Uploading unlimited songs and lyrics is good, though not necessary as we’re not likely to release more music under the same name. Using the Musician plan means our song would roughly be released in a week’s time, but this isn’t guaranteed and the process could take longer.
The Musician Plus plan means we could release music on a specified date, which is ideal for us as we have to release it before term is up to allow us time to evaluate the project. The option to view statistics would be ideal for us, though me in particular, because I like the idea of knowing if it’s reaching people and if our advertising was effective. This would also be ideal to update our pages on how effective our advertising methods were. Having the ability to release music under two names isn’t necessary, although both me and Cody are in the same band outside of college that could benefit from having the option to distribute music within the next few months. Additionally, everything in the Musician plan is also a part of this plan.
Soundcloud
Soundcloud offers distribution for artists on all major streaming platforms. Their website displaying what they offer is unclear on certain details, this information is posted to support or Q&A sites which can be difficult to find unless searching for specific things via search engines. Because of this, I found it difficult to find all of the information we need to take into consideration in comparison to other distribution services.
It’s completely different to how Distrokid works, as there appears to be one universal choice for any distribution.
TuneCore
TuneCore’s website is easy to navigate and offers more information than both Soundcloud and Distrokid.
Music can be distributed to many major platforms and depending on which plan is chosen, artists keep 100% of the earnings made from the song. Free plans allow artists to keep 80% of their revenue.
I don’t think we’ll choose any pay per release plans, as the options annual payments present are much more detailed and allows for more freedom of choice in each different plan. Additionally, the free options would mean we can only release our music on social platforms rather than music streaming platforms. I don’t think the breakout artist or professional plan is necessary, as we don’t need so much choice or data for one song. Both the new artist and rising artist plans seem reasonable for our goal.
The new artist plan means we can release the song on all social platforms and have an official artist channel on Youtube, but the Spotify artist profile wouldn’t be verified and neither would the Apple music profile. We wouldn’t be able to choose the release date and the customer service response time might slow us down if we enquire about anything vital. However, this would be completely free.
The rising artist plan has a fair price and allows us to choose a release date, which is great for us as it means we can ensure we have enough time to evaluate our project and not worry about the release being later than anticipated. Although revenue isn’t something we’re thinking about achieving, we would be able to receive 100% of any profits we make from any platform. Customer service response time is more convenient than on the free plan, which again allows us to work faster if anything unexpected arises. All artist platforms would be verified and we would be able to view statistics on the song.
Overall, the rising artist plan would be cheaper than Distrokid’s Musician Plus plan and both plans offer similar things.