Hello,
I would like to publish my songs to spotify, since you need a music distributor in order to upload your own music to spotify, i am interested into getting one. Any ideas what service gets the job done and doesn’t cost that much?
DistroKid and CDBaby are two I know of that will get your music on Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, etc. I’m using DistroKid but thinking of changing, so I’m interested in what others suggest.
I think it’s important to figure out how often you expect to be releasing, and what you get from any service. CDBaby has no annual fee. There are different flat fees for releasing things. DistroKid has that but also offers an annual fee which might be cheaper if you release a lot.
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I also use DistroKid, since 2019. I am pleased with the service and what I get for the cost (I use the mid-tier annual plan). I haven’t tried any of the others, besides amuse (which is free and a good option if you use mobile devices a lot; the workflow didn’t really jive with me, personally), but did look into a lot of them and DistroKid made the most sense for me.
@James_Britt I am curious why you are thinking of switching services from DistroKid, if you don’t mind elaborating.
I use CDBaby as I don’t expect to earn and release enough songs to warrant engaging in paying an annual subscription for Distrokid, and with CDBaby your songs stays online whereas if you stop paying for Distrokid they’ll take your songs down unless you pay an extra fee to “leave a legacy”.
I despise the subscription model for everything and would only go for Distrokid or Tunecore where you keep 100% of your earnings if you are earning quite a bit, with CDBaby you keep just 91% of the revenue I believe.
Sometimes CDBaby run 50% off sales, buy a lot of releases at these times.
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I haven’t been releasing music as I had once planned. As time passes I feel like I would have been better off paying a larger upfront flat fee per album instead of the annual fee (needed to keep my albums on the streaming services).
DistroKid’s dalliance into NFTs left a sour taste in my mouth as well. So, while both CDBaby and DK offer the one-time fee for albums, CDBaby might be the more well-grounded business. But, honestly, it’s something that’s just fallen off my radar (until the annual credit card charge comes around again). I’m interested in hearing what others say.
The irony of all this though is that I despise Spotify and rarely ever promote the links to my music on the streaming services because I much prefer people go get it off Bandcamp. But I want to at least have my name there on those services.
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Going a little more indie, Bandcamp can be pretty great if you really work those tags, promotions and other tools that they offer thanks to the NYP model and getting to keep a giant chunk of what you’re paid. I’m sure this isn’t seen as a ‘distributor’ by a lot of people, but there are a lot of people still using it.
(I know there are plenty of ways to game the Spotify system as well, get your music posted to giant playlists and things like that, but I’ve never quite figured out the hustle on there)
I’ve personally used DK, CDBaby and BC and the latter is the only one that continues to deliver. It’s a little scary that they’ve been acquired by Epic, but they’re still keeping things normal for now at least. Would still recommend.
Soundcloud Next Pro
i only use Tunecore(either .com or .co.uk depending on where you live)
It’s always been great for us.
Tunecore
i heard people have problems with this specific service, like they ban their accounts for trying to upload a album and getting denied and banned from uploading new songs. Thinking about it tho, since it’s 15$
Soundcloud Next Pro
was thinking about the cheaper plan, i guess it is pretty ok, but never heard people using it
DistroKid
Well, that kinda sucks that you need to pay additional 26$ to keep your song on the platforms after you stop paying for the service 
still sounds prob the best
CDBaby
i guess that sounds like the best deal for me, i don’t know how much music i want to make per year so 10$ per album/song is a reasonable price.
Any other recommendations?
never heard anything like that. they’ve been great for us and I’ve used them for over 10 years now.
It’s news to me that paid for Soundcloud distribute to Spotify etc…
There are many other music distributors out there, they all differ, have a look here:
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I am using Symphonic. I value them as I don’t have to pay for staying on platforms or every time I am releasing something. They are taking 30% chunk however I need to reach $300 threshold to get paid. As I don’t make music for money I don’t mind it. Some day (in few years) will be my payday 
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Before you pay money just to get your songs on Spotify, keep in mind that you’re getting used by only earning 0,003 $ per stream, which means you get less than 1 Cent for 3 streams. And furthermore every 4th song on any streaming platform has 0 plays, that’s not less than 25% of all existing songs on those platforms. Yes, ZERO plays! There are literally MILLIONS of songs with zero plays on Spotify. Check this:
In the end you’ll most likely pay more money for distribution than you’ll earn through streaming, and possibly no one will listen to your songs. Just saying… Anyway, good luck.
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It’s not about earning money, my friends really like the song i have made recently and they want it into spotify and other similar platforms. I simply just like the idea of publishing the music into the streaming services. I don’t care about the profits i make as of now, just wanna potentially gain a listener and keep doing my hobby which is making music.
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Decided to buy DistroKid, thanks for the suggestions!