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Music invoice for Product quality

If this is your first release, then you're going to need a music distributor. Are you not sure what a music distributor is or what they do? Then in this video I'll explain everything. Before music distributors, you would never be able to release music without being signed to a record label. A record label would get your CDs or tapes manufactured and get them into stores for people to be able to buy. That's why so many artists wanted to get signed to a record label, because it would get your music into stores for people available to buy. And then when it starts to get picked up, the record label would push it out to radio and to TV and get your music in the right places. But now you see so many independent artists around. Because of digital streaming, anyone can release music. And this is where distributors came in. Traditionally, an independent artist would be able to go to a distributor and they would get all of the CDs and tapes into stores and they would collect the sales for you, take a cut and then give you the proceeds. But now the idea of buying CDs is just gone. It's all digital streaming. So, what does a distributor actually do in 2019? Well, firstly, they get your music into online stores, or digital streaming platforms. So that's iTunes, Apple Music, Deezer, and Spotify. And then they will collect the royalties for you. Now, there is rumors that Spotify are going to make it so anyone can upload their music and get royalties directly to them, but for now you need to use a distributor and they will collect the royalties for you. And the price completely varies and I'll get onto that later. But the distributor will send you the royalties and that one's pretty easy, but another thing a distributor would do is they have a lot of technology which can detect where your music is being used or played. So, for example, if it's been played on the radio somewhere, a distributor will be able to pick that up and pay you the royalties. If it is used on a YouTube channel, then the distributor will collect the royalties from that as well. So you can imagine as an independent artist, it would be a nightmare without a distributor to try and figure out where your music is being used in the world. And distributors are doing some really cool stuff now. For example, some distributors will allow you to get your music uploaded to Instagram to be used in Instagram Stories. And Instagram Stories are a great way for music promotion. Allowing people to use your music or share your music on their story is amazing. People can click through to the Spotify link and go and stream your track from the Instagram Stories, or even if it's been used in a YouTube video. People can go even go from your Instagram Stories to your Spotify profile and listen to the full track there. So, distributors are still playing a key role in music in 2019. And earlier this year, Spotify announced their recommended distributors for independent artists. And that was CD Baby, DistroKid, and EmuBands. And that for me, if you want to get added to Spotify official playlists, you should use one of Spotify's recommended distributors. There's also The Orchard, which is a great distributor owned by Sony. But you need to apply to be able to get accepted by them. So if your dream is to get on Spotify official playlists, which I think it should be because that is where the majority of your streams will come from. And there's absolutely no point in using a cheaper distributor and get on no Spotify official playlists. But if you use one of the recommended distributors, then Spotify may favor your application to be added to Spotify official playlists. Now, you still need to push your distributor to activate your Spotify for Artists. But all the good distributors, specially those three that I mentioned, will get your Spotify for Artists set up so you can submit your track to the distributors to be able to be considered for these official playlists. And now finally onto the prices of distributors. The prices completely vary between distributors, and some of them are very good at making themselves look cheap. And they look cheap because you expect your track to blow up so you probably don't want a distributor taking a percentage of your royalties. So if you're expecting to get a million streams, you're going to calculate how much you'll have to give to your distributor. But always assume that your release is going to get the same number of streams as your last release. Because that is the best way to price it up and decide which distributor to use. So, for example, CD Baby would seem like the cheapest option if you're going to get a million streams, because that's around $10 per upload and they take 9% commission. Now, CD Baby is one of the most expensive at $10 per song at 9% commission. But if you're only releasing one song this year, then actually that's the cheapest one to go for. For us, the most cost-effective is DistroKid, which is $20 per year. You pay $20 and you can upload as many songs as you'd like for that entire year and they take 0% commission. So for us, if you're looking at price alone, DistroKid are the ones to use. The one reason you may want to use CD Baby over everyone else is they do have some really cool features. They own Show.co which allows you to do pre-save links where you can get your fans to pre-save the track and then it's automatically added to their playlist so they can listen straight away and it's already saved and it helps the algorithm and it gets you that initial momentum and it will get you out to Discover Weekly playlists and maybe even a Spotify official playlist sooner. But what I really like about DistroKid is a feature which allows you to split royalties. So, if you have four band members and it's equal 25% 25% 25% 25%, then you will equally get a share of the royalties as they come in. Or even if it's not an even split. So it means that you don't have to rely on one person to get the royalties and trust them to distribute them ingly. So it just takes out all of the fuss, all of the stress, which is another reason to use DistroKid. So, I hope this video has helped you decide which one is the best for you and what they actually do. We've got no affiliate links, we have no association with any of the distributors, so use any one that you'd like and I hope that you make the right decision for you. If you found this video useful, give it a like. If you wanna see more videos like this, subscribe. And we'll see you on the next one. ♪ Get out, get out ♪ ♪ We are invincible ♪ ♪ I'm alive, I'm alive ♪ ♪ And I know I'm invincible ♪ ♪ Take 'em all for a ride and I'm keeping my head down ♪ ♪ I don't feel it, I don't feel it ♪ ♪ Get out, get out ♪