Nowadays when it comes to digital music distribution provider, you are spoilt for choice so let’s see what we can do to help

Having a digital music distribution provider is an essential part of succeeding in the modern music industry. They have made it easier and quicker for you to get your music to the major online retailers where your fans can buy your music. What are the differences between the services though? Let’s see if we can break down a few key factors between some of the top names in the field.

Here are a few of the main things that you should be considering and how each digital music distribution provider stands  up;

What’s the Cost?

How you will have to spend to get your music will be an important thing to consider. The key thing we would recommend to keep in mind is, do you want to be paying an annual fee or not?

Personally, I don’t see the need for an annual fee but if you’re confident that your royalties will cover it and you think the service is worth it, then go for it. From what we can tell though, you can get just as good a service from a distributor with no annual fee.

The table below shows the prices based on a basic album distribution. Most of the digital music distribution provider will have other pricing options for singles and for more enhanced services.

CD Baby	$49.00	No Annual Fee
Tune Core	$29.99	Annual Fee
Ditto	£25.00	No Annual Fee
Emu Bands	£49.95	No Annual Fee
Spinn Up	£29.99	Annual Fee
Distro Kid	$19.99	Annual Fee
Mondo Tunes	$39.99	Annual Fee
Catapult	$25.00	No Annual Fee
Song Cast	$19.99	No Annual Fee
Indigo Boom	$59.00	Annual Fee

How Much do you Make?

Another important, if not the most important thing to consider is how much you will make. In general, you will find that most companies nowadays will pay you a 100% royalty rate. Obviously, for the companies charging you an annual fee, you will see less of that. The table below shows the rate each of them gives.

CD Baby	91%
Tune Core	100%
Ditto	100%
Emu Bands	100%
Spinn Up	100%
Distro Kid	100%
Mondo Tunes	100%
Catapult	91%
Song Cast	100%
Indigo Boom	70%

How often does the music distribution provider pays?

Yes, you’re making sales on the retailers but when will that money reach your account your digital music distribution provider and furthermore, when will you be able to withdraw/receive that money.

You might think that getting paid more often might be better but sometimes getting paid quarterly can motivate some people to work harder though. Obviously, if you’re not one of these people then don’t go for that frequency.

CD Baby	Weekly
Tune Core	Immediately (Once available)
Ditto	Immediately (Once available)
Emu Bands	Immediately (Once available)
Spinn Up	Immediately (Once available)
Distro Kid	Immediately (Once available)
Mondo Tunes	Monthly
Catapult	Monthly
Song Cast	Monthly
Indigo Boom	Quarterly

Customer Service

Speed of Delivery

How many Retailers do they serve?

Outside of the big names like Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Tidal, etc, you might think that there’s no point getting your music to any other stores. My philosophy is, it can’t hurt to have your music in as many places as possible.

Yes, the major retailers have a strong customer base, but you might find that one of the lesser known retailers actually taps into your niche audience nicely. This could be a huge break for you if you’re getting exposure to high-quality listeners.

Take a look below at the number of retailers each distributor claims to reach out to.

CD Baby	95+
Tune Core	150+
Ditto	30+
Emu Bands	30+
Spinn Up	7+
Distro Kid	150+
Mondo Tunes	100+
Catapult	29+
Song Cast	7+
Indigo Boom	20+

Additional Services

This may be a very important factor in determining which provider to go with. Additional marketing services, for example, could be very useful to you depending on how confident you are in marketing your own product. Having a digital music distribution provider that helps you with this can be a huge boost to your exposure.

Some of them offer chart registration and song mastering as optional extras as well.

Company	Marketing Services	Chart Registration	Mastering services
CD Baby	YES	NO	YES
Tune Core	YES	NO	YES
Ditto	YES	YES	NO
Emu Bands	NO	YES	YES
Spinn Up	YES	NO	NO
Distro Kid	NO	NO	NO
Mondo Tunes	YES	NO	YES
Catapult	NO	YES	YES
Song Cast	NO	NO	NO
Indigo Boom	NO	NO	NO

What Else?

Some other factors that you may want to consider when choosing a company to partner with are;

• Customer service – how fast do they respond to your queries.
• The speed of delivery of music – They’re all fairly efficient these days.
• Reputation – Who else is using them as a distributor.

We hope that this helps you find the right distribution partner for your music. If you have had experience with any of them, then we would love if you can share your reviews with our community.