In this post, I will share my hands-on experience with three digital distributors, CD Baby, EmuBands and DistroKid, so anyone interested can know more about the experiences that are not possible to know solely from browsing their websites.
In the second half of this article, I will also list a few other distributors that I don't have experience with but hopefully some others may find useful. Among the distributors listed on this post, Landr and Soundrop offer cover song licensing for a one-off fee. If you do cover songs, please refer to the section for details.
I will go straight into these distributors. For more background about digital distribution, please read my another post: How to Release Your Music on Spotify and Apple Music?
CD Baby
The largest and oldest distributor on the market. They charge one-off fees for each release. No more fees after that, except they take 9% of the royalties, artists take 91%.
Releasing a single costs $9.95 and an album costs $29.95. Every release requires a unique UPC. The UPC costs $5 from them for a single and $20 for an album. So altogether the cost for each release is $14.95 for a single and $49.95 for an album. [What is UPC/ISRC?]
However, the cost of the UPC can be reduced by buying off one's own UPC online then use these UPC for releases. That will make the cost of a UPC as cheap as less than $1.
For example, buying off 5 UPC from BarCodesTalk costs only $10 and 25 UPC for only $25.
In this way, each release may cost just $11 for a single or $31 for an album.
Just need to keep in mind that there are a lot of UPC sellers on the internet, some of them may not work as others so do your research before buying them. BarCodesTalk seems to be legit among the rest and I haven't encountered any issue with them.
The "Pro" releases offered by CD Baby cover everything in Standard (mentioned above) plus publishing, cost $29.95 for a single and $69 for an album.
For streaming, going with Standard would be just fine. Also it may be more flexible to register with PRO (Performance Right Organisation) yourself instead of leaving that with CD Baby. These include BMI, SOUNDEXCHANGE, SongTrust and ASCAP.
During the pandemic, almost
... keep reading on reddit ➡Recently I rediscovered my love for music making. After SoundCloud left me a bit disappointed (I also upload videos to YouTube but they don't serve well for listening to songs repeatedly), and after having been approached if my songs are on Spotify, I figured I'd try a distributor to get my music on Spotify.
After picking EmuBand as my distributor, I waited (not so) patiently for the release, checking their website every hour to see if it had been processed yet. Then a couple days ago, I first got a message from paypal that my payment had been refunded. I sent an email asking what the reason was, and got this mail the next day:
https://preview.redd.it/0fdx0hasxgx51.png?width=982&format=png&auto=webp&s=a87f1a2e949c35a85f4d0abba3b85fb79c98ee57
Though this was not a response to my email, but rather a late mail connected to the refund. My personal account manager responded to my enquiry like so:
https://preview.redd.it/qxmyq9mbygx51.png?width=1167&format=png&auto=webp&s=6090dafdcf050db08e41207e6a490dad733048bf
So I still do not know why exactly they think I commited any streaming fraud, and instead they told me to try another distributor (which might just decline my release for the same reason).
For reference, my videos on YouTube get roughly 25 views each. On Twitter I have a measly ~5 followers and only really get retweets from friends. SoundCloud... gets me no plays unless I highlight it exclusively in a tweet. The only potentionally 'outstanding' thing are my about 200 subs on YouTube, since I am using my old account that I have had for over ten years, though I set my old videos to private years ago because they were not very good.
I'm still waiting for their response to this explanation and hope that they might enlighten me with more information so I can at least fix it (like creating a new channel, though it would be annoying considering I already uploaded videos there etc.).
I have tried to find something about this online but all I found were people in similar situations that were just screwed as this type of transparency seems to be common amongst all distributors? I hope there is a way to fix my situation somehow, especially since EmuBand was exactly the model I am looking for.
I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
The nurse asked the rabbit, “what is your blood type?”
“I am probably a type O” said the rabbit.
The doctor says it terminal.
Alot of great jokes get posted here! However just because you have a joke, doesn't mean it's a dad joke.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT NSFW, THIS IS ABOUT LONG JOKES, BLONDE JOKES, SEXUAL JOKES, KNOCK KNOCK JOKES, POLITICAL JOKES, ETC BEING POSTED IN A DAD JOKE SUB
Try telling these sexual jokes that get posted here, to your kid and see how your spouse likes it.. if that goes well, Try telling one of your friends kid about your sex life being like Coca cola, first it was normal, than light and now zero , and see if the parents are OK with you telling their kid the "dad joke"
I'm not even referencing the NSFW, I'm saying Dad jokes are corny, and sometimes painful, not sexual
So check out r/jokes for all types of jokes
r/unclejokes for dirty jokes
r/3amjokes for real weird and alot of OC
r/cleandadjokes If your really sick of seeing not dad jokes in r/dadjokes
Punchline !
Edit: this is not a post about NSFW , This is about jokes, knock knock jokes, blonde jokes, political jokes etc being posted in a dad joke sub
Edit 2: don't touch the thermostat
Do your worst!
How the hell am I suppose to know when it’s raining in Sweden?
We told her she can lean on us for support. Although, we are going to have to change her driver's license, her height is going down by a foot. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here but it better not be a hack job.
Ants don’t even have the concept fathers, let alone a good dad joke. Keep r/ants out of my r/dadjokes.
But no, seriously. I understand rule 7 is great to have intelligent discussion, but sometimes it feels like 1 in 10 posts here is someone getting upset about the jokes on this sub. Let the mods deal with it, they regulate the sub.
They were cooked in Greece.
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
He lost May
Now that I listen to albums, I hardly ever leave the house.
Two muffins are in an oven, one muffin looks at the other and says "is it just me, or is it hot in here?"
Then the other muffin says "AHH, TALKING MUFFIN!!!"
Don't you know a good pun is its own reword?
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
It really does, I swear!
Im currently looking to get my music on Spotify, but im afraid of choosing the wrong aggregator. What experience do you have?
And now I’m cannelloni
Because she wanted to see the task manager.
But that’s comparing apples to oranges
And boy are my arms legs.
Put it on my bill
Heard they've been doing some shady business.
Amy
but then I remembered it was ground this morning.
Edit: Thank you guys for the awards, they're much nicer than the cardboard sleeve I've been using and reassures me that my jokes aren't stale
Edit 2: I have already been made aware that Men In Black 3 has told a version of this joke before. If the joke is not new to you, please enjoy any of the single origin puns in the comments
They’re on standbi
A play on words.
Said if she ever hosts a gender reveal party, when it comes time to pop the balloon she'll spray everyone with water.
Gender is fluid.
Calcium, nickel, neon
