jmc1987
Offline
Washington, PA

Just curious of what folks here use for iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and all of the other MP3-selling/music streaming services out there.

I initially was just going to go through Bandcamp for my first release (http://portopak.bandcamp.com), until I started doing some research into services that could get it on to other platforms. I was assuming that I'd make little-to-no sales on these platforms, but it'd be fun to say "I'm on iTunes" when telling people about the EP. So, paying $50 or whatever TuneCore and CDBaby offered seemed kind of illogical.

Well, I discovered a site called 101 Distribution (www.101distribution.com) on a lark (found a Blu-ray on Amazon coming out that had them incorrectly listed as a distributor and went searching to find out what company it was) and found they had a several music deals at different prices. Most importantly, they had an iTunes, Amazon MP3 and Google Play option that was free, non-exclusive and offered 100% of the royalties. I don't know how they can remain in business doing this, but went ahead and signed up. It took about 3 days to appear on all three.

I can't speak to what their royalty payment will actually be, since I don't foresee myself getting to the $100 minimum for a long, long time - if ever - but if anyone wants to just be on multiple platforms for free, it can't be beat.

I went through RecordUnion (www.recordunion.com) for Spotify, which ended up costing $15 with a yearly renewal fee of $4 and some change. Take note, whatever prices they list on their "Spotify Only" package deal doesn't include the $8 they charge for a UPC code (but you can provide your own if you can find one cheaper). I'll feel great if I manage to actually make that back on the shit royalties Spotify plays, but again, this is more of a "make it as accessible as possible" experiment more than anything. They have a neat Spotify Trends page that is updated daily, but apparently doesn't necessarily represent what plays Spotify counts as ones they will pay out royalties for. As far as the price for everything else, it seems like the most reasonable I was able to find, but still, free from 101 is hard to pass up.

Anyone else had luck with these services?

Last edited by jmc1987 (Sep 1, 2013 1:57 am)

chunter
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA
jmc1987 wrote:

...I don't foresee myself getting to the $100 minimum for a long, long time - if ever...

I'm willing to bet that's the business model, the assumption that most posts won't need to be paid at all.

I sucked it up and paid CD Baby to put some things up for me, for the people who literally won't get music from anywhere but iTunes. It hasn't paid for itself, but that isn't my intention, at the time the strongest alternative was TuneCore and I didn't want to need to pay renewals.

jmc1987
Offline
Washington, PA

Well, I guess you CAN get paid under $100, but they charge a $2 fee. Again, I guess that shows how they can make some money off the free accounts.

Also, I guess Record Union doesn't force you to pay renewals, but your royalty rate drops if you don't.

jefftheworld
Offline
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Google Play doesn't require a middleman. They allow you to distribute for free or sell any amount of your music and you can opt-in for their new 'all access' service for which you get paid royalties per play.

jmc1987
Offline
Washington, PA

Oh shit, I didn't even realize that. I knew Amazon MP3 was free through CreateSpace, but not Google Play. I wonder if 101 set me up for the 'all access' streaming... if not, oh well, I can probably recover from the profit loss by cleaning under my couch cushions.